Tuesday December 31, 2:10 PM
U.S. said to track ships believed linked to al Qaeda
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence agencies have identified about 15 cargo freighters around the world that are believed to be controlled by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
U.S. spy agencies keep tabs on some of the ships by satellites or surveillance planes and with help from allies. However, they sometimes lose track of the vessels which could be used to transport al Qaeda operatives, bombs or money, government officials told the newspaper.
The report said U.S. officials do not know exactly how each of these "ships of concern" is being used, except that some are generating profits for al Qaeda. Officials fear any of the ships could be used in an attack anywhere in the world, the report added.
A CIA spokesman had no immediate comment on the report.
U.S. Navy officials were cited as saying that al Qaeda has used one shipping fleet flagged in the Pacific island of Tonga to transport operatives around the Mediterranean Sea.
Bin Laden and his aides have owned ships for years, some of which transported commodities such as cement and sesame seeds. But U.S. officials said one vessel delivered the explosives that al Qaeda operatives used to bomb two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998, the Post reported.
The Post said U.S. officials started paying more attention than ever to cargo ships entering U.S. waters and ports because of concern about the vulnerabilities of American shipping since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Bin Laden's al Qaeda network is suspected of carrying out the hijacked airliner attacks that killed about 3,000 people.
Since September 2001, the U.S. list of al Qaeda ships has varied from about a dozen to 50, according to the Post, which said the vessels are frequently renamed, repainted or re-registered to fictitious corporate owners.
The Post said U.S. efforts to track al Qaeda's activities at sea received a boost last month with the capture of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, an alleged mastermind of al Qaeda's nautical strategy. Officials told the paper that he was cooperating with U.S. interrogators.
From:
http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:OII4F1vT3g8C:asia.news.yahoo.com/021231/reuters/asia-138901.html+ships+nuclear+Al+Qaeda&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
I'm not doubting that they are out there. I just doubt blowing them to kingdom come would even turn a head.
I think when the war starts, a few blips on the radar screen won't be missed.