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Al-Qaeda plans to disrupt maritime trade
Intelligence shows al Qaeda has plans to blow up shipping in a bid to disrupt world trade, Britain's top Naval officer has said in an interview. The Royal Navy's First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sir Alan West, said that Western governments had intelligence that terrorists view shipping as an attractive target and have plans to destroy ships. "We have got an underlying level of intelligence which shows there is a threat," West told Lloyd's List maritime newspaper.West warned that terrorism could potentially cripple global trade and have grave knock-on effects on developed economies. "What we've noticed is that al Qaeda and other organizations have an awareness about maritime trade," he said. "They've realized how important it is for world trade in general and they understand that significance." Lloyd's list commented that the terrorist threat to merchant shipping is nothing new for the maritime industry --illustrated in 2002 by the attack on the French tanker Limburg off the coast of Yemen. But such a stark warning from such a senior figure in the British military establishment was likely to add further impetus to global efforts to increase security awareness at sea, Lloyds List said. "We've seen other plans from intelligence of attacks on merchant shipping," West said. "I can't give you detail on any of that, clearly, but we are aware that they have plans and they've looked at this." Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-08-05 |
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