Posted on 03/29/2004 4:16:39 PM PST by Piefloater
Al-Qaeda may have developed a terrorist naval force of 15-30 vessels, a terrorism expert says.
Alexey Muraviev, co-ordinator of graduate studies in strategy and defence at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, told a maritime security conference in Sydney yesterday that there were signs a big terrorist strike might be planned.
Evidence included the attacks on the USS Cole in Aden in 2000 and the French tanker Limburg off Yemen in 2002, reconnaissance activities and attempts to obtain maritime strike capabilities.
"These indicators raise serious concerns that what we may be observing is the pre-operational phase of a future maritime 9/11."
Attacks could include bombing naval or merchant shipping, sea-based attacks on land and the use of private aircraft loaded with explosives. Containers could be used to transport chemical, biological or nuclear devices.
Intelligence experts believed ships were far more vulnerable to an al-Qaeda attack than commercial airlines, Mr Muraviev said.
Targets could include cruise ships, oil supertankers, LNG-carriers and chemical tankers.
"For security experts, it is no longer a question of if but rather when and where."
Mr Muraviev warned that 95 per cent of the value of Australia's overseas trade was carried by foreign vessels.
The al-Qaeda fleet was believed to include small fishing trawlers and large freighters, he said.
Mr Muraviev quoted a US intelligence official as saying that, like German raider ships in World War II, Osama bin Laden's vessels constantly changed their names, flags and appearances. Of particular concern was an attack by suicide scuba divers.
In May 2002 the FBI sent out an alert about terrorists developing an "offensive scuba diver capability". Last August the US Coastguard Marine Safety Office issued a special bulletin about suspicious individuals asking marine shops and schools about equipment and training.
When the US caught al-Qaeda's alleged chief of naval operations, Abdulrahim Mohammed Abda Al-Nasheri, they said they had found a 180-page dossier that was apparently al-Qaeda's plans. It listed so-called targets of opportunity, including Western merchant shipping and cruise liners.
Bruce Smith, director of border compliance and the enforcement division at the Australian Customs Service, told the conference it now had X-ray equipment capable of detecting conventional weapons smuggled in with cargo, as well as nuclear and radioactive weapons.
Ports around the world are scrambling to meet a July 1 deadline to introduce a new international security system that will include ship security officers and details of a ship's last 10 ports of call.
I'm trying to visualize a Jihad version of Cap'n Crunch.
http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/metropolitan/txcity/
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