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2. Al-Qaeda’s “Navy”
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Al-Qaeda’s “Navy” 13 A terrorist alert in October 2003 triggered yet another search in the worldwide hunt for one of the ships and some of the crew that have been widely reported to be part of Al-Qaeda’s undercover shipping line. Following an intelligence tip-off — said to be from the US — that some of the crew were linked to Al-Qaeda, New Zealand authorities raided a Greek-owned cargo ship, the Athena, in Lyttelton, the port of Christchurch in New Zealand. The freighter regularly carries logs, fertilizer and cement between New Zealand and Asia. It had arrived in Lyttelton on 2 October and was due to leave for South Korea two days later when customs officials gave it an unusually thorough inspection, including checks on the identities of all crew and a full search of the vessel. Nothing of concern was found, according to a customs spokeswoman.1 When the 17,000-ton Athena and its cargo of logs reached the port of Kunsan on the southwest coast of South Korea on 30 October, it was checked again by Korean authorities. They searched for weapons and forged passports but found nothing unusual on board. Some 37,000 US troops are based in South Korea and there are many American military facilities in Kunsan, including an airbase.2 Many Searches There have been many such searches for Al-Qaeda-connected ships and crew since the terrorist attacks on the US in September 2001 made the US and many other countries aware of just how vulnerable the largely unregulated and secretive global maritime industry is to abuse by terrorists. These concerns were underscored on 21 December 2001, just a few weeks after the attacks on New York and Washington, when British anti-terrorist officers and naval commandos intercepted and boarded the Nisha, an Indian-owned bulk carrier, in the English 2 Al-Qaeda’s “Navy” 14 Chapter 2 Channel. The vessel was carrying raw sugar to a refinery on the Thames, near London’s Canary Wharf financial and residential district. British authorities said they were acting on an intelligence tip-off that the ship was carrying “terrorist material”. But three days of searching found nothing suspicious and the Nisha was allowed to dock and unload at the Thames terminal in early January.3 A year later it was reported that US intelligence officials had identified approximately 15 cargo ships around the world that they believed were controlled by Al-Qaeda or could be used by the terrorist network to ferry operatives, bombs, money or commodities over the high seas. American spy agencies were said to be monitoring some of the suspicious ships by satellites, surveillance planes, and with the help of allied navies or informants among overseas port managers, shipping agents, crew manning supervisors and seafarers unions. But US authorities sometimes lost track of the vessels, which were continually given new fictitious names, repainted or reregistered using invented corporate owners. Tracking suspected terrorist vessels is difficult. Intelligence agents have to watch the world’s 120,000 merchant ships in national as well as international trade, many of which hide their ownership under layers of corporate subterfuge. Intelligence officers also must collate the names and mariner’s licence numbers of tens of thousands of seamen from around the world, a sizable percentage of whom carry fake documents and use false names.4 Bombs and Drugs US officials and security analysts fear that Al-Qaeda could use any ships it owns, leases or controls not just to make money from carrying commercial cargo, but for group logistics or in terrorist operations to ferry bombs, operatives, money and materials.5 The first reports of Al-Qaeda-linked ships emerged in late 2001. Several shipping companies were thought to be owned or managed by people with ties to the Al-Qaeda network. America’s CIA and the Norwegian security service, with the help of international shipping registries, had combined to try to identify the suspect ships. While some were large ocean-going vessels, others were small nondescript freighters, dhows (Arab sailing boats), and yachts that were used to carry supplies, weapons and people around the waters of Southwest Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.6 One Al-Qaeda vessel delivered the explosives that its operatives used to bomb two US embassies in East Africa in August 1998, [18.188.228.223] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 19:22 GMT) Al-Qaeda’s “Navy” 15 killing 224 people, nearly all Africans (12...