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Maritime terrorist act imminent, experts warn
ASia Pacific Port Focus ^ | Feb. 20, 2004 | Australia News

Posted on 02/19/2004 10:41:20 PM PST by FairOpinion

A British Intelligence group has joined, visiting UN and Australian experts warning that world ports and shipping are vulnerable to a major terrorist attack

AL-QAEDA and its associates could be planning a "maritime spectacular," Dominick Donald of Aegis Research and Intelligence told a London security conference this week.

"If a boat that didn't cost $1,000 managed to devastate an oil tanker of that magnitude, imagine the extent of the danger that threatens the West's commercial lifeline, which is petroleum," he said.

Donald was referring to concerns raised since the attack on the oil tanker VLCC Limburg.

Addressing delegates at the Intermodal Petroleum Transportation event, Donald warned that the maritime sector was an obvious and easy target.

"Maritime attacks can deliver results, as 90 per cent of world trade moves by sea and maritime traffic has a number of vulnerable choke points [such as the pirate infested] Malacca Straits, Bab-el-Mandab and the Suez and Panama Canals".

Both the tanker and the cruise sectors are "iconic and economic", Donald said.

Meanwhile former Australian transport minister Peter Morris, who nows heads the International Commission on Shipping (ICONS), has also raised the alarm that shipping could be used as a weapon of mass destruction on Australian cities.

"Any one of the thousands of foreign ships which dock each year in Australian ports, particularly Sydney, has the potential to become a weapon of mass destruction," said Mr Morris.

"The ships themselves may be the weapon," he said. "They can carry enough innocent-looking cargo - fertiliser and diesel fuel - to become the biggest bomb ever detonated in an Australian capital city or major port in war or peace."

Mr Morris said the United States, the world's largest trading nation and a prime target for terrorists, has already acknowledged the danger.

"But Australia is making itself more vulnerable than most countries by suppressing Australian shipping in favour of foreign shipping and relying almost totally on offshore-registered ships where the real owners or operators of freighters, tankers, and bulk carriers are easily concealed."

Most ships calling in Australian ports are registered in countries like Liberia and Panama, which fail to even make a pretence of knowing the real ownership of those ships.

A recent bipartisan review of Australian shipping conducted by Mr Morris and the former Minister for Transport in the Howard government, John Sharp, warned that there was conflict between the Federal Government's two aims of cheap shipping and the simultaneous strengthening of our border protection.

Mr Morris insists the Howard Government maritime security legislation last year failed to establish procedures to protect Australian ports.

Maritime security concerns have been also raised by visiting United Nations IMO official Efthimios Mitropoulos.

The secretary general of the International Maritime Organisation told a Melbourne conference yesterday that the prospect of terrorists hijacking a large ship and exploding it in a major Australian port was a "real and present" danger.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Front Page News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alqaedaships; maritime; threats
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To: Library Lady
"Summer and Dirk are his children by Summer Moran, but that would have to have been an emaculate conception because in Pacific Vortex, there was no hanky-panky."

You are right!When I read that I reread Pacific Vortex to make sure.The closest they got to doing anything was toward the end Dirk saw Summer nake laying in her bed.

41 posted on 02/20/2004 7:53:05 AM PST by painter
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To: painter
Related thread?

A Floating Condo Seemed a Good Idea 'Til Tourists Boarded-

42 posted on 02/20/2004 7:54:58 AM PST by null and void (Never use a preposition to end a sentence with)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
That'd make a nice Halibut/Salmon rig.
43 posted on 02/20/2004 7:59:11 AM PST by Dead Dog
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To: Dead Dog
Yeah, I'd like to have one of those. The bipod with the M-60 machine gun would be a nice bonus, too. The cops probably wouldn't like it, though.
44 posted on 02/20/2004 8:06:00 AM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity (If universities didn't teach worthless subjects, who would?)
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To: FairOpinion
this explains why we just got 12 new pairs of eyeballs scoping things out in Rochester, were about to get a massive new fast ferry
45 posted on 02/20/2004 8:16:44 AM PST by Revelation 911
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To: Chris Talk
I'm with you. I think the proper response to 9/11 would have been to seal the borders and expel all foreign Muslims.

Naw, lets bring them all in here, along with the rest of the third world, it's good for our economy. They buy pampers, and cheap chinese toasters from Wall Mart, and American's get to work at Wal Mart. It's a win win.

46 posted on 02/20/2004 8:31:36 AM PST by Joe Hadenuf (I failed anger management class, they decided to give me a passing grade anyway)
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To: My Dog Likes Me
Another attack is inevitable because we just ain't gonner do anything about it until we suffer additional major disasters. Then, and only then, will we be able to dump the 'PC mob', democreeps in general and the "Oh-God-what-about-my-rights" crowd.
47 posted on 02/20/2004 9:10:07 AM PST by Eighth Square (All the people, all of the time!)
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To: SAMWolf
Imagine if a few hundred pounds of radioactive material were dispersed in the blast. That could contaminate a massive area.
48 posted on 02/20/2004 9:19:53 AM PST by 7.62 x 51mm (Dogs have masters; Cats have staff...)
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To: CyberAnt
and living in a port city like San Diego doesn't make it any easier to think about.

I hear that. I'm surrounded by tank farms, petroleum terminals and container ship docks.

Check out this story: Ships' crews pass alcohol tests in Kill van Kull collision

At least they didn't spill anything, the blasting and dredging are enough disturbance for the bass. ;-)

49 posted on 02/20/2004 9:38:10 AM PST by StriperSniper (Manuel Miranda - Whistleblower)
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To: SAMWolf
There was a Jake 3.0 (methinks) episode about a terrorist attempt to crash a hijacked jetliner into an LPG ship in Baltimore.
50 posted on 02/20/2004 9:40:22 AM PST by Rebelbase (The gravy train makes unscheduled stops.)
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To: Chris Talk
And to that I say Amen..
51 posted on 02/20/2004 10:01:04 AM PST by sheik yerbouty
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To: 7.62 x 51mm
That, IMHO, is what they are planning to do.
52 posted on 02/20/2004 11:17:36 AM PST by jerseygirl
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To: SAMWolf
I have forgotten how many years ago the incident occured, maybe 20 years, but there was a US Coast Guard official (forgot also if he was a warrant or petty officer) that sold merchant seamans documents to Yemenies and other gulf state aliens. Port of Seattle, now home of representative Osama Mamma in tennis shoes.

These folks have been imbedding a long time.

I would like to see all American owned ships under our flag.
Remember the "tanker wars" when the US owned tankers flying the Kuwaiti flag quickly switched to the US flag when they found out the US Navy couldn't legally protect them.

This war is tough enough without helping the other side along.
53 posted on 02/20/2004 12:09:39 PM PST by Cold Heart (I have to drive my SUV a full year to feed 5 acres of rain forest)
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To: SAMWolf
I have forgotten how many years ago the incident occured, maybe 20 years, but there was a US Coast Guard official (forgot also if he was a warrant or petty officer) that sold merchant seamans documents to Yemenies and other gulf state aliens. Port of Seattle, now home of representative Osama Mamma in tennis shoes.

These folks have been imbedding a long time.

I would like to see all American owned ships under our flag.
Remember the "tanker wars" when the US owned tankers flying the Kuwaiti flag quickly switched to the US flag when they found out the US Navy couldn't legally protect them.

This war is tough enough without helping the other side along.
54 posted on 02/20/2004 12:10:54 PM PST by Cold Heart (I have to drive my SUV a full year to feed 5 acres of rain forest)
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To: Cold Heart
So that's how you get a double post.
55 posted on 02/20/2004 12:14:47 PM PST by Cold Heart (I have to drive my SUV a full year to feed 5 acres of rain forest)
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To: Bobby777
"all this protection and panic because of one group ..."


===

That's why the best defense is to eradicate them to the last terrorist.
56 posted on 02/20/2004 1:47:31 PM PST by FairOpinion (If you are not voting for Bush, you are voting for the terrorists.)
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To: FairOpinion
FYI: Hallifax, Nova Scotia was leveled during WWI by a French munitions ship which exploded after a collision in the harbor. Over 3,000 citizens died in the explosion, when they walked down to the shore to view the burning ship.
57 posted on 02/20/2004 1:56:41 PM PST by Imagine
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To: wita
I think a good many Freepers without any clearence can think of relatively simple scenarios that keep us up at night.
58 posted on 02/20/2004 4:27:00 PM PST by rmlew (Peaceniks and isolationists are objectively pro-Terrorist)
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To: null and void
A Floating Condo Seemed a Good Idea 'Til Tourists Boarded-

Reminds me of Cussler's last book Trojan Odssey.

59 posted on 02/20/2004 7:56:19 PM PST by painter
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To: Joe Hadenuf
Thursday, December 6, 1917, dawned bright and clear in Halifax. World War I raged in Europe, and the port city was busy with the movement of war ships carrying troops, relief supplies and munitions.
Around eight that morning, the Belgian relief ship Imo left its mooring in Bedford Basin and headed for open sea. At about the same time, the French ship Mont Blanc was heading up the harbour to moor, awaiting a convoy to accompany her across the Atlantic. A convoy was essential; this small, barely seaworthy vessel was carrying a full cargo of explosives. Stored in the holds, or simply stacked on deck, were 35 tons of benzol, 300 rounds of ammunition, 10 tons of gun cotton, 2,300 tons of picric acid (used in explosives), and 400,000 pounds of TNT.

The Imo, a much larger and faster ship than the Mont Blanc, passed into the Narrows. She was travelling fast, and too close to Dartmouth when the Mont Blanc first spotted her. The Mont Blanc, not flying the regulation red flag to indicate she was carrying explosives, signalled that she was in her correct channel; the Imo, however, signalled that she was intending to bear even further to port, closer to Dartmouth and further into the Mont Blanc's channel. The Mont Blanc signalled again that she was still intending to pass to starboard; she was by this time very close to the Dartmouth shore and travelling "dead slow."

The Imo, however, did not swing towards Halifax, as the Mont Blanc expected; she signalled instead that she was maintaining her course. The Mont Blanc, perhaps wrongly, saw only one course open -- to swing to port, towards Halifax, across the bows of the Imo, and thus pass starboard to starboard.

Perhaps the ships might have passed without incident, but the Imo signalled "full speed astern." So did the Mont Blanc, but it was too late. Reversing her engines caused the Imo's bow to swing right, and it struck the Mont Blanc -- missing the TNT, but striking the picric acid stored directly beneath the drums of benzol on deck. The impact cut a wedge in the Mont Blanc's side, and struck deadly sparks.

The crew of the Mont Blanc, aware of their cargo, immediately took to the lifeboats, screaming warnings that no one heeded. They rowed for Dartmouth, leaving the now furiously burning ship to drift towards Halifax, propelled in that direction by the Imo's impact.

The Mont Blanc drifted by a Halifax pier, brushing it and setting it ablaze. Members of the Halifax Fire Department responded quickly, and were positioning their engine up to the nearest hydrant when the Mont Blanc disintegrated in a blinding white flash, creating the biggest man-made explosion before the nuclear age. It was 9:05am.

Over 1,900 people were killed immediately; within a year the figure had climbed well over 2,000. Around 9,000 more were injured, many permanently; 325 acres, almost all of north-end Halifax, were destroyed.

Much of what was not immediately levelled burned to the ground, aided by winter stockpiles of coal in cellars. As for the Mont Blanc, all 3,000 tons of her were shattered into little pieces that were blasted far and wide. The barrel of one of her cannons landed three and a half miles away; part of her anchor shank, weighing over half a ton, flew two miles in the opposite direction. Windows shattered 50 miles away, and the shock wave was even felt in Sydney, Cape Breton, 270 miles to the north-east.

60 posted on 02/20/2004 8:38:37 PM PST by He Rides A White Horse
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