Posted on 12/31/2002 6:57:00 PM PST by blam
Warships hunt for bin Laden's shadowy fleet
By David Rennie
(Filed: 01/01/2003)
American intelligence agencies have identified 15 cargo ships used by al-Qa'eda to transport explosives and fighters around the world, it was reported yesterday. The discovery has triggered a global hunt for the ships, which constantly change their names and even hull colours.
Intelligence agencies, backed by dozens of American and allied warships, are on non-stop patrol in the Arabian Sea seeking Osama bin Laden's shadowy navy, officials told The Washington Post.
The search is now one of the largest naval hunts since the Second World War. America is also using spy satellites, surveillance aircraft and informants among port managers, shipping agents and seamen's unions to follow bin Laden's fleet.
Occasionally agents have lost track of the suspect vessels, which include large freighters up to 400ft in length, thought to have been owned by bin Laden and his associates for some years as part of a complex network of trading companies across the Middle East.
Taking advantage of the secrecy, corruption and lax regulation endemic in merchant shipping, the al-Qa'eda vessels continually change their names and are repainted and re-registered by fictitious front companies.
A particular headache is the widespread use of flags of convenience, under which small and even landlocked nations register ships while asking for only the minimum of information from owners.
American naval officials said al-Qa'eda had used a shipping fleet registered in the South Pacific kingdom of Tonga to transport operatives around the Mediterranean.
Fifteen men from one of the ships were arrested in Italy in August and charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts. The men claimed to be sailors but knew nothing about seafaring. They were carrying tens of thousands of dollars, false papers and maps of Italian cities.
Anxious American officials described the almost impossible task of tracking sailors and ships, which in their worst-case scenarios could be used to carry dangerous chemicals into a friendly harbour, or to ram cruise liners.
There are some 120,000 merchant ships worldwide and many sailors use false names. Since September 11, the US Coast Guard has demanded detailed information from freighters visiting American ports.
With so many ships to follow, US intelligence has concentrated on tracking oddities and inconsistencies, such as ships claiming to have visited ports that are unlikely, given the cargoes they are carrying, or fishing vessels declaring the wrong species of fish for the waters they are plying.
moslems have been at christians' and jews' throats for hundreds of years.
Why can't submarines maneuver under surface vessels and release reverse depth charges that float up and explode underneath ships?
Hmmm... Someone pounding on the door...
I don't recognize that car in the driveway...
That's odd... US Navy tags...
Offer a $1 million bounty for sinking a sand ship.
Hopefully by 2600, we will be settled on other planets, Earth's government will be defeated or destroyed, and the next Dark Age will be over.
Might be enough time. Maybe.
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