Officials Worry About Sea-Based Terror

[mouse7]

Officials Worry About Sea-Based Terror
Thu Jan 1, 1:51 AM ET

By LESLIE MILLER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Terror strikes from the sea could be even more catastrophic than those from the air, intelligence officials say. They fear a hijacked oil tanker could be rigged with explosives or a radioactive dirty bomb could be smuggled ashore in a shipping container

But almost 5,000 ships and about four out of every five of the nation's ports, ferry terminals and fuel-chemical tank farms failed to meet a Wednesday deadline for submitting security plans showing how they will deal with those potential threats.

Security measures to prevent attacks at seaports and inland waterways have fallen far behind efforts to protect airports and airplanes since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Congress last year ordered the maritime shipping industry to tighten security amid fears that an attack on a port could kill thousands, cause tremendous property damage and cost tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue to the U.S. economy.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040101/ap_on_re_us/port_security&cid=519&ncid=716

Look at that "publish" time. This article went up the minute people knew for sure nothing would happen in NY.

Who sat around and spent their New Years Eve writing a story about maritime terror threats? Who spent their New Years sitting around waiting to put this story on the wire?

I think it's time to do a little checking.

[mouse7]

1. Did a little checking

This story was origially poster at 12/31/03 4:40pm and updated at 1:51am 1/1/04. I have no idea what the changes might have been in the update. The managing editor on duty in the AP's NY office at the time of the update was the one who decided it should be a "top story."

I tried to get through to the people at Yahoo who might have had a hand in making the story one of those front page news stories, but I came up empty. Nobody is answering the phone at Yahoo's corporate offices in Sunnyvale.

[TreasonousBastard]

11. Nothing happened on NYE...

so this is the top story.

It's not new, of course. They've been yacking about the seaports for years, but no one has any clear idea what to do.

Every ship coming into US ports has teams of customs, INS, Agriculture and who knows what else inspecting it. They're looking for rotten food, TV's that don't meet radiation standards, stowaways, improper paperwork, ginseng, heroin, mislabelled condoms, and tons of other things. A large monthly list of rejected items used to be published, and might still be.

And they catch only a very tiny percentage of what they've been looking for for years. Even with customs agents going over the ships with blueprints looking for secret compartments.

For well over a year they've been talking about how to find the "dirty bomb" that MIGHT be in a container. While I applaud their increased ability to find the far more dangerous rotten Indian shrimp that comes in, it is an enormous job to check every carton in every container that passes through the ports.

It's just not gonna happen.

[bowens43]

2. We're going to hear crap like this

day in and day out until the election.

[Bridget Burke]

3. The Port of Houston

Handles mountains of containers. They are brought up the Ship Channel (a widened bayou) past a truly impressive array of petrochemical plants. Then they're piled up not far from downtown, awaiting distribution.

Anybody with half a brain would wonder why more than a small percentage of the containers aren't inspected. Forget "suitcase nukes"--you could fit a really big sucker into a container. We're being driven into deficit murdering Iraqi's in the "War On Terror" but a very real vulnerability is being neglected because closer inspection would cost too much.

[Turbineguy]

5. If they blow up the Goat Ranch

it'll be domestic fundie radicals!

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. Possible source for this latest terror scare

is those wacky extremests fundies who have been the source of all this crap lately. This one started to make the rounds at least two weeks ago.


Armada Of Terror Heading Towards British Ports And Oil Rigs

12.17.03 06:51 AM

Britain’s North Sea oil rigs and costal refineries are prime targets for Al Qaeda’s fleet of twenty-eight ships.

The vessels are feared to contain suicide bombers and cargoes of explosives and poisons, including anthrax.

Code-named “Operation Noble Eagle”, the ships are being hunted in the biggest sea search since the Royal Navy tracked and sank the Nazi raider, Bismark, and the pocket battleship, Graf Spee, in World War Two.

[BiggJawn]

6. The big diference is that there actually WAS a "Bismark"

"Operation Noble Eagle" What a LAUGH! it's always "Noble" this or "Eagle" THAT.

Call it "Operaion Flying Dutchman" because they're chasing ghost ships.

[aquart]

14. LOL!

[NYC]

17. Excellent, BiggJawn.

re Operation Flying Dutchman. :hi:

[aquart]

12. Al qaeda has a fleet?

And we have satellites taking pictures from above and we can't find this "fleet"?

And, unable to obtain all these deadly items for land attacks, they have managed to secure them for sea duty?

Come again?

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. Hey, I didn't make this crap up

but I can tell who did.

How much do you want to bet this al Qaeda fleet is registered in Liberia?

[BiggJawn]

7. Osama Bin Forgotten is salvaging the boats of "Operation Deadlight".

He's raising and re-fitting WWII-era German U-Boats! Halliburton is building him (through the intermediary of the House of Saud) hundreds of improved Typ G7a torpedos!

Soon the oceans will be the playground of hundreds of A-Q wolf-packs!

Run Away! Run Away!
<sarcasm>

[teryang]

8. I worried about sea based terror

...the last time I flew into Houston and saw the purple, red, green, yellow, brown irridescent slick on the gulf of mexico on its front doorstep. Maybe JebFRAUD could bring that to over to beautify Florida beaches. Terror!

At first I thought this was a story about the Exxon Valdez.

[Tracer]

9. I Just Finished Reading ...

... "Sleeping with the Devil", by Robert Baer. (He's the ex-CIA guy you've probably seen testifying before various Congressional committees).

The book is about the complex and corrupt oil/economic dealings between Saudi Arabia and Washington.

It's Baer's opinion that a terrorist attack against any of the Saudi oil complexes (he mentions in particular the complex at Abqaiq on the Persian Gulf) would result in a devastating economic blow to the U.S.

I tend to agree with him that those places are a more probable site to hit, rather than any place within the U.S. or its ports.

This is a must-read book.

[aquart]

15. Which is why you have to wonder why they AIN'T been hit.

I know I do.

[54anickel]

10. First I saw of the threat was Sunday. Posted it here. This article seems

to point out, once again, the lack of being prepared for this. So is this a CYA, a hint saying "hit us here, we're not covered"?

I mean, WTF let's tell the world what might be the easiest to attack.
:eyes:

Previous post:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=288526#288631

[54anickel]

18. Hey, finally got a news hit on HAARP.

Seems like more of a book review than anything else though.
Interesting subject anyway, especially with the earthquakes timed with the Aegis testing back on Dec 11.

http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/123103/ins_123103ins004001.shtml

[IndianaGreen]

13. This is a rehash of the 1950s fearmongering of an atomic attack

One of the propaganda films of the 1950s showed a ship entering New York harbor carrying an atomic bomb which would be detonated under water. This would be followed by stock footage of one of the Bikini atoll nuclear tests in which a fine radioactive mist covered the fleet anchored on the test site.

Duck and cover!