GLOBAL JIHAD Al-Qaida targeting cruise ships, aircraft carriers

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | December 28, 2003 | WorldNetDaily.com

[Jacob Kell]

U.S. intelligence officials say al-Qaida has turned its terror sights to a sea jihad, targeting Western luxury liners and aircraft carriers.

The Brisbane Courier-Mail reports owners of the world's largest cruise ship – the recently launched $1.3 billion Queen Mary 2 – confirmed terror threats hang over its maiden voyage slated for early next year.

The paper reports U.S. intelligence officials also found evidence Osama bin Laden's terror network planned to attack the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal as it passed through the Gibraltar Straits en route to the Iraq theater of war earlier this year.

WorldNetDaily exclusively reported Sept. 29, based on intelligence obtained by Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, that al-Qaida has purchased at least 15 ships in the last two years, creating a veritable terror armada.

G2 Bulletin's sources said potential targets of the al-Qaida armada include civilian ports, oil rigs and cruise liners.

Lloyds of London reportedly helped Britain's MI6 and the U.S. CIA trace the sales of the "terror ships" made through a Greek shipping agent suspected of having direct contacts with bin Laden.

The ships fly the flags of Yemen and Somalia – where they are registered – and are capable of carrying cargoes of lethal chemicals, a "dirty bomb" or even a nuclear weapon, according to G2B sources.

The freighters left their home ports in the Horn of Africa in early September, some were believed destined for ports in Asia.

WorldNetDaily reported Oct. 13 on growing warnings around the world that the next dramatic terror attack is more likely to come at sea than in the air.

Earlier this year, a chemical tanker, the Dewi Madrim, was hijacked by machinegun-bearing pirates in speedboats off the coast of Sumatra. But these weren't ordinary pirates looking for booty. These were terrorists learning how to drive a ship. They also kidnapped officers in an effort to acquire expertise on conducting a maritime attack.

There is also evidence terrorists are learning about diving, with a view to attacking ships from below. The Abu Sayyaf group in the Philippines kidnapped a maintenance engineer in a Sabah holiday resort in 2000. On his release in June this year, the engineer said his kidnappers knew he was a diving instructor – they wanted instruction. The owner of a diving school near Kuala Lumpur has recently reported a number of ethnic Malays wanting to learn about diving, but being strangely uninterested in learning about decompression.

This resembles reports that Sept. 11 hijackers who attended U.S. flight schools were only interested in learning how to fly planes, not land.

The Courier-Mail reports U.S. intelligence services believe scores of acoustic sea-mines, found to have disappeared from a naval base in North Korea by a U2 spy plane, could be aboard bin Laden's "terror ships," the number of which it puts at 28.

According to the paper, the capture of al-Qaida's chief of naval operations, Ahmad Belai al-Neshari, helped reveal the blueprint of the group's maritime plots.

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

If a maritime terror attack comes, it won't be the first. In October 2000, the USS Cole, a heavily armed ship protected with the latest radar defenses, was hit by an al-Qaida suicide crew. Seventeen American soldiers died. Two years later, following the attacks on the Twin Towers, a similar attack was carried out against a French supertanker off the coast of Yemen.

[rs79bm]

Terror ships should be rather easy to track via the various detection equipment that air craft carriers have on board.

[somemoreequalthanothers]

I doubt they'll be hitting a carrier anytime soon. I don't know about the Brits, but our carriers travel with one hell of an entourage of ships, and with the air cover, I don't think they could sniff it. The ragheads will have to stick to targets they can handle, i.e. defenseless civilians.

[LibWhacker]

That's rich. I'd love to see those ignorant throwbacks try to attack an American carrier.

[stylin19a]

They got to the USS Cole.

So far, we have skyscraper alerts, subway alerts, fly-over country alerts, airplane alerts, cruise ship alerts, aircraft carrier alerts, border alerts, nuke reactor alerts etc... given enough alerts, everything, everywhere will be alerted all the time....

[_Jim]

GLOBAL JIHAD Al-Qaida targeting cruise ships, aircraft carriers

In their dreams, they wish, or "What I (a jihadist) would do if I had a billion dollars" ...

Their chance for success approches zero from the *negative* side of the number line ...

[_Jim]

via the various detection equipment that air craft carriers have on board

Including or excluding such visual means as binoculars used in conjunction with human eyeballs?

[e_engineer]

The Suez Canal, Mar. 4, 2002 — The Los Angeles-class attack submarine, USS Boise (SSN 764) leads the fast combat support ship USS Seattle (AOE 3) and the guided missile cruiser USS Hue City (CG 66) as the ships of USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) Battle Group transit the Suez Canal. The Kennedy battle group will rendezvous with USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) to relieve "TR" in supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 1st Class Jim Hampshire.

Confined spaces are very dangerous to our fleet. Any attacks from the sheetheads will take place in port, or during a canal passage IMHO. The open sea is too big and Al Queda has no way to locate our ships there.

[sheik yerbouty]

Find the jihadists and terminate them with "extreme prejudice". Nothing else will do!

[Nanasay]

Jacob.. They don't like to be called ragheads.. They wear sheets on their heads.. Therefore you need to call them sheetheads..

[BattleFlag]

They got to the USS Cole.

In port, where a ship is most vulnerable.

Plus, that was about 100 years ago metaphorically speaking, we are at an entirely different level of readiness now.

Unless I am missing something this is actually good news. At sea they are isolated and easy to spot.

And once spotted.....Boo Yaaah!!! Al Q-da sleeps with the fishes.

Click on my nic to see some of what they'll get, (my era, the hardware is much better now)

[jbstrick]

Confined spaces bite...

That 688 sub is a sitting duck.

[Howie66]

The only GOOD member of Al-Queda is a DEAD member of Al-Queda.

It is incumbent on US to make certain that every member of Al-Queda is a GOOD member of Al-Queda.

[Publius6961]

based on intelligence obtained by Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, that al-Qaida has purchased at least 15 ships in the last two years, creating a veritable terror armada.

And it would be indeed a shame and unfortunate if all known al-qaeda ships simply vanished one day.
I wonder what part of "preemptive" these mangy dogs don't understand?

[hedgetrimmer]

They got the USS Cole because of the beknighted politics of General Anthony Zinni, Madeleine Albright, William Cohen and of course Bill Clinton.

They forbade protection and self defense measures normally taken in enemy ports. They used our sailors as guinea pigs in there social engineering calling our sailors and marines "soldier diplomats". None of the sailors on the quarterdeck were allowed weapons while they were in port. They could not even fire a warning shot.

[RicocheT]

GLOBAL JIHAD Al-Qaida targeting cruise ships, aircraft carriers

MARS LANDERS

[gg188]

Hilarious!

[gg188]

They forbade protection and self defense measures normally taken in enemy ports. They used our sailors as guinea pigs in there social engineering calling our sailors and marines "soldier diplomats". None of the sailors on the quarterdeck were allowed weapons while they were in port. They could not even fire a warning shot.

Do you know if this has changed and is different now? I expect so, and certainly hope so. I'd like to see women in combat and other Clinton military social experiments ended. The fact they went after Colonel West, for example, makes me wonder...

[stylin19a]

Good point ! we wont make that mistake again.

[Kozak]

Yeah. Aircraft carriers. All they have to do is get through the AWACS bubble, the escort group, the fighter cap, past the Aegis cruisers and AA destroyers, past the Standard missle batteries,past the Helo screen, past the hand held stingers and finally the Phalanx close in defences and the 50 calibers. Piece o cake for a 7th century Jihadi.
A little tougher then blowing up pizzarias and transit buses, you cowardly scum.