[FairOpinion]

Actually I am surprised they haven't been targeting oceanliner before -- they look like pretty soft targets.

This article has more detail, but there was an earlier article mentioning this possibility and some others:

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Al-qaeda blueprint exposed

From the other article ( link above):

"US intelligence officials also found evidence Al-Qaeda was planning to attack the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal as it passed through the Gibraltar Straits en route to the Gulf War earlier this year.

Plans for the attack emerged after a US spy plane discovered scores of acoustic sea-mines had disappeared from a naval base in North Korea.

US intelligence services believe the mines could be aboard 28 "terror ships" Osama bin Laden has assembled in the past year. The capture of Al-Qaeda's chief of naval operations, Ahmad Belai al-Neshari, has helped to reveal the extent of the organisation's maritime ambitions.

Al-Neshari was found carrying a 180-page dossier that listed "targets of opportunity". These included large cruise liners sailing from Western ports. "

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And yet another piece of info, not worth posting by itself, but fits in here, the time frame: Jan- Feb 2004.

Al Qaeda may strike in Jan/Feb 2004: Report

[FairOpinion]

Update and more detail on the article you posted earlier, re AQ attack on QE2.

[CindyDawg]

Well they better not mess with the freeper cruise:')

[the invisib1e hand]

Actually I am surprised they haven't been targeting oceanliner before -- they look like pretty soft targets.

I recall that, after 9/11, that monstrous floating condo sort of disappeared; recently I was surprised to find it back in biz.

The cost of military escorts and/or on board anti-aircraft fire ought to push the fares up a bit.

[Bon mots]

I suggested this was what the Al-Qaida navy was for long ago, and got flamed like crazy. That convinced me that there must have been some validity to my worry.

[ex-snook]

Assuming they have any strategy at all, I doubt ships. The 9/11 attack was against symbolic targets e.g. WTC, Pentagon. If they are still on the symbolic America tack, maybe Wall Street, Banks or the Service Academies, so these should be watched.

Another tack could be attacks on our economy e.g. Shopping Malls, communications, or energy, these are pretty vulnerable.

More remote, I would put people attacks, either against population centers or political assassinations.

In short, unless we can end the breeding of terrorists we need people capable of target triage analysis, big time.

[Prodigal Son]

Bump

[international american]

Gonna be a long war....these freaks will find a way until we exterminate most of em.

[Viking2002]

One of the primary concerns I've had since 9/11 was Al Queda hitting an ocean liner. There would be no qiucker way to produce several thousand deaths quicly than to break the back of a cruise ship in deep, open water. As far as I know, they're completely defenseless.

[liberallyconservative]

It may be simplistic, but I have a suspicion they've already explored the vulnerabilty of cruise ships. I've always felt there was more to the stories of the unexplained illnesses that have plagued large numbers of passengers in the last several years. Was there ever a plausible explanation given?

[cpst12]

Just a thought, but if the intention was not to destroy the oceanliners, but instead to use them as a weapon (much like they used the planes on 9/11), what kind of things could they ram into at full-speed to cause a catastrophe? A big LNG tanker at a busy port?

[JustPiper]

The Al Qaeda may be planning a series of strikes on the United States and other countries sometime in January/February 2004.

In the ongoing thread there is one pic of a stadium I'm sure your familiar with. My 15 yr old's first words where-Olympics