Maritime Terrorist Threat and Piracy

[Petronas]

Ports still vulnerable, finds report
Posted: February 20, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern

WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security has not focused efforts on protecting the nation's most vulnerable ports, an inspector general's report says. The department distributed $517 million in grants for port security between June 2002 and December 2003, but less than a quarter of the money had been spent as of September 2004, the inspector general found in an audit, according to a report in today's New York Times. The audit says "the program has not yet achieved its intended results in the form of actual improvement in port security."

The audit reports suggests priorities are not being properly set, citing the fact that Wyoming has received four times as much antiterrorism money per capita than New York. While 95 percent of all international commerce enters the U.S. through the nation's approximately 360 public and private ports, nearly 80 percent of that trade moves through only 10 ports. By far the biggest loads pass through Los Angeles, Long Beach, New York and Oakland. Security experts say those ports would be most appealing to terrorists as targets.

Ports are seen as terrorist targets in two ways – through direct attacks meant to kill, maim and disrupt commerce and as entry points for sophisticated and larger armaments, possibly even weapons of mass destruction. Busy ports make the best targets in both cases. Nevertheless, the audit shows many grants were made to smaller parts unlikely to be targeted by terrorists. After examining port grants, the inspector general concluded the department appeared to be intentionally distributing money as widely as possible, instead of focusing it on the biggest ports or other locations that intelligence reports suggested were most likely to be future targets.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42947

[Petronas]

Originally posted by al-canine:

Commentary from the New York Times

The Next 9/11 Could Happen at Sea
By JOHN S. BURNETT
London

AN unsuspected bit of good news related to the Indian Ocean tsunami was revealed this month when the International Maritime Bureau released its annual report on pirate attacks against international shipping. The new figures showed a 27 percent decline in 2004, to 325 incidents from 445 in 2003, and noted that there had not been single attack in the pirate-infested waters off Sumatra since the earthquake. Now, while these figures show an improvement, the positive trend should not distract us from the huge threat that piracy, and its connection to terrorism, pose to the global economy.

Piracy did not disappear with the killing of Blackbeard. I found this out the hard way in 1992 when pirates boarded my sloop as I was crossing the South China Sea. After suffering a beating, I was able to escape. But many others have not been so lucky. Last year, according to the maritime bureau, some 400 crew members and passengers were killed, injured, held hostage or remain missing as a result of attacks. Every year the pirates are better organized, ambushing ships with military precision and firepower.

Merchant vessels are the lowest-hanging fruit of global commerce, slow and vulnerable to attack. Hauling 90 percent of world trade, these lumbering beasts file through the world's choke points - the Suez and Panama Canals, the Bab el Mandeb (the entrance to the Red Sea), the Straits of Gibraltar and the Malacca Strait between Indonesia and Malaysia.

It is the Strait of Malacca, the shortest sea route connecting the Indian and Pacific Oceans, that has maritime and intelligence authorities most worried. The passage, 600 miles long but just over a mile wide at one point, is the conduit for 50,000 ships a year, carrying a third of the world's commerce and half of its crude oil.

Despite the global decline in the number of reported attacks (many experts feel that there are hundreds more each year that go unreported), the number of attacks in the Malacca Strait increased last year to 37 from 28 in 2003. And, while many raids are likely carried out by crime syndicates, there is evidence that many have been the work of the Free Aceh Movement of northern Sumatra, an Islamist separatist organization that has been fighting to gain independence from Indonesia since 1976. While the United States does not officially call the group a terrorist organization, the Indonesian government does. And many terrorism experts cite its links to Jemaah Islamiyah, the Islamist group suspected in the Bali nightclub bombings of 2003, and to Al Qaeda.

In 2002, the Free Aceh Movement announced that vessels moving through the strait were to seek its "permission for safe passage," a classic protection scam. It has also admitted to attacking Exxon-Mobil natural-gas plants in Aceh. In March 2003, the chemical tanker Dewi Madrim was attacked by heavily armed pirates in speedboats in the Malacca Strait. According to the crew, the pirates, speaking Indonesian, seemed less interested in robbery than in taking turns steering the ship down the congested waterway. They took two officers hostage and a satchel full of technical documents. Singapore's defense minister, Tony Tan, said that he was concerned that this incident and others like it were practice runs for a terrorist attack.

Just as terrorists learned to be pilots for 9/11, terrorists may now be learning to be pirates. Purposely grounding a crude carrier hauling two million barrels of oil at a place like Batu Berhanti, where the strait is little more than a mile wide, would close the waterway indefinitely. The delay in oil supplies to China, Japan and South Korea could devastate their economies, setting off a global economic crisis.

Such concerns are why Potengal Mukundan, the director of the International Maritime Bureau, said he was encouraged that there have been no attacks since the tsunami. The coastal fishing villages, or kampongs, from which the attacks are launched have probably been severely damaged. Indeed, I cannot imagine how the kampong I visited in the late 1990's, a backwater village on stilts among the mangroves, could have survived a tidal surge as high as 10 feet. "Many of the pirates may have died," Captain Mukundan said.

It is also possible that the large American military presence as part of the tsunami relief efforts in Aceh has given the pirates pause. In fact, American officials have been calling for a show of force in the Malacca Strait for some time. Adm. Thomas Fargo, head of the Pacific Command, told the House Armed Services Committee last year that the United States should team up with the Malaysian and Indonesian Navies to deploy special forces on high-speed boats to counter pirates. Unfortunately, the defense ministers of those countries rejected the plan, saying that the American military patrolling the strait would violate their sovereignty. (Another concern was that aligning their nations with American policy could add to the tensions both are experiencing with Islamic fundamentalists.)

Now, one hopes, these countries will take note of what an increased military presence can accomplish, because the pause in piracy will not last forever, nor will the cease-fire the Free Aceh Movement made with the Indonesian government in the aftermath of the tsunami. Unless Indonesia and Malaysia accept American help in fighting them, the pirates will be back. And we'll be lucky if plundering loot is all they have in mind.

John S. Burnett is author of "Dangerous Waters: Modern Piracy and Terror on the High Seas.

Copyright 2005*The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/22/o...22burnett.html?

[al-Canine]

COMMENTARY
from the Los Angeles Times

Port Insecurity

The Department of Homeland Security is supposed to protect the nation's ports against terrorist attacks. So far, it has excelled instead at securing pork.

An audit released last week by the department's inspector general uncovered hundreds of small grants awarded to projects deemed without merit by the grant program's own staff. An unnamed port that receives fewer than 20 ships a year won a grant to install security lights. Another received a grant to buy encrypted radios that were not compatible with federal and state radio systems already in place — the very problem that led to a disastrous breakdown in communication when the World Trade Center towers collapsed.

The nation's largest and busiest ports — Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland and New York — rightly received grants too. But so did St. Croix, in the Virgin Islands, and Martha's Vineyard, Mass., whose ports do not exactly make up the trade backbone of the American economy. And so did six locations in Arkansas, which last we checked was a landlocked state.

Asa Hutchinson, the department's undersecretary for transportation security and (coincidentally?) a former Arkansas congressman, defended the pork, er, port grants with this convoluted logic: "If only the strategic ports would have been funded," he told a Times reporter, "then there would have been an inspector general's study saying, 'You left a gap, and the other ports have not had their security addressed sufficiently.' " We can just picture the uproar over St. Croix going undefended. Thankfully, Hutchinson will leave office next week, which is not soon enough.

More than 95% of imports from outside North America arrive on ships. Eighty percent of that goes through just 10 ports, with half of all imports passing through the Los Angeles-Long Beach complex, the nation's largest. A dirty bomb tucked inside a cargo container would be devastating, and not just to the population and economy of the ill-fated port city that received it. Between 50% and 60% of the $200 billion in cargo that moves each year through the Los Angeles and Long Beach complex is delivered to destinations outside Southern California. That's furniture, clothing, toys and electronics — and jobs — for much of the nation.

The private sector will have to bear some of the financial burden of protecting ports from terrorist attacks. But the government must play a role as well. And with 90% of federal transportation security funds going to airports, it can't afford to squander the miserly amount it has earmarked for ports by buying biohazard suits for Fargo, N.D., while Los Angeles and New York go begging.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) have introduced legislation that would require Homeland Security to allocate grants based on a port's vulnerability, the potential consequences of an attack and the actual threat as assessed by intelligence officials.

It's beyond belief that such common-sense rules require legislation. But it is now beyond doubt that they do.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-port26feb26,1,2837887.story

[Casey]

Maritime Terrorist Threat Archive
http://www.afghanistanwar.com/showthread.php?t=24076

[al-Canine]

U.S. Invests in Radiation Detectors for Ports

By Alan Elsner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is stepping up investment in radiation detection devices at its ports to thwart attempts to smuggle a nuclear device or dirty bomb into the country, a Senate committee heard on Wednesday.

Robert Bonner, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told a Senate subcommittee on homeland security that since the first such devices were installed in May 2000, they had picked up over 10,000 radiation hits in vehicles or cargo shipments entering the country. All proved harmless.

The Bush administration is requesting $125 million for fiscal year 2006 to continue the acquisition, deployment and enhancement of such technology. It has 400 units deployed.

"We are deploying nuclear and radiological detection equipment to include personal radiation detectors, radiation portal monitors and radiation isotope identifier devices," Bonner told the subcommittee.

As an example of how the system was working, Bonner said on Jan. 26, 2005, a machines got a hit from a South Korean vessel at the Los Angeles seaport. The radiation turned out to be emanating from the ship's fire extinguishing system and was no threat to safety.

Bonner and two other senior homeland security officials all said the nation was much safer than it had been on Sept. 11, 2001, when hijackers commandeered four planes and attacked New York and Washington, killing some 2,700 people.

"We're much better off. We're far beyond where we were a couple of years ago," said Eduardo Aguirre, director of citizenship and immigration services.

In last year's presidential election campaign, Democrat John Kerry attacked what he said was the Bush administration's failure to protect ports and monitor materials imported into the country.

Bonner said searching all the cargo and people entering the country was impossible. The aim was to scrutinize all of the cargo and people identified as high risk.

With almost 25,000 seagoing containers off-loaded at U.S. ports each day, containerized shipping was "uniquely vulnerable to terrorist attack," he said.

The government was enlisting foreign governments to identify and inspect as much material bound for the United States as possible before it was shipped. So far, 35 major foreign seaports were participating in the program.

Democrats on the committee criticized the administration for failing to hire enough border patrol agents. Congress authorized the addition of 2,000 agents last year but the administration is proposing to hire only 210.

"Despite this testimony, there is virtually no funding in the budget to increase our border security," said West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd.

© Reuters 2005

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7787983

[al-Canine]

Coast Guard Auxiliary's Role Expands In Post-9/11 World

“This is the premier volunteer service organization in the country, and the only volunteer service organization in homeland defense.”

Charles Sferra, district commodoreBy ROBERT A. HAMILTON
Day Staff Writer, Navy/Defense/Electric Boat

Groton — Capt. Peter Boynton, commander of Coast Guard Group Long Island Sound, grew up near Lexington, Mass., and was raised on stories about how the Minutemen, a group of volunteer soldiers, helped win America's freedom.

These days, he has 245 active duty personnel to cover a pretty vast body of water, a task he knows would be impossible without the nearly 1,000 volunteer sailors of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary.

“When I see members of the auxiliary, it's like I'm standing in the middle of the 21st century Minutemen,” Boynton said Saturday at the auxiliary's First Southern Region annual conference at the Mystic Marriott. “When we need them, they are ready at a moment's notice.”

As the Coast Guard has assumed a greater role in homeland defense since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the auxiliary has found itself filling new niches where their active-duty counterparts can't keep up with the work.

Auxiliarists are no longer limited to vessel safety examinations, but are standing watch in station communications centers, mapping critical infrastructure that might be terrorist targets and fanning out along the waterfront to collect “actionable intelligence” on any suspicious activity.

“It's a changed world, and one that will never go back to what it was before 9/11,” said auxiliary Capt. Steve Ackerman, the district officer for operations and marine safety.

A few years ago the conference might have brought in 400 or 500 auxiliarists, but this weekend about 1,000 are registered, said Burton E. Hurvich, an auxiliary district staff officer, and many of the sessions on topics such as Introduction to Emergency Response Planning, Maritime Domain Awareness and Communications Services were filled to capacity.

District Commodore Charles Sferra said the conference is a chance to bring auxiliarists up to speed on new policies and procedures before the boating season begins, and to recognize the top performers with awards that were distributed at lunch on Saturday.

Some of the awards were given to people who have logged nearly 10,000 volunteer hours, the equivalent of working full time for about five years.

“These people do a lot of work,” Sferra said. “This is the premier volunteer service organization in the country, and the only volunteer service organization in homeland defense.”

Capt. Scott Graham, deputy commander of Activities New York, said the auxiliary brings a great deal of diversity to the Coast Guard — its members might be doctors, lawyers, artists, police officers or blue collar workers in civilian life — as well as a responsiveness that equals the active duty force.

“And you can't forget that they're a great bargain, too,” Graham noted. Auxiliarists not only donate their time, but they patrol in their own boats, with the Coast Guard providing only the fuel, providing a significant augmentation of the Coast Guard fleet.

Boynton said he benefited from more than 38,000 volunteer hours from the 999 auxiliarists on the rolls for Group Long Island Sound — he jokingly chided auxiliary Rear Commodore John J. Ilberg that he has to do something about signing up at least one more to get into four figures.

He added that when the Coast Guard needed the auxiliary to do more cold weather patrols, and promised the group all-weather dry suits if they would go through the training, Ilberg sprang into action so quickly the first patrols were done without the suits. But he remedied that on Saturday, presenting the rear commodore with the first two.

Boynton said the auxiliary keeps stepping up to new challenges to augment the active duty force. In New York, for instance, auxiliarists have been updating the a key security database that tracks activity at boat landings, marinas, and other areas where a boat can be launched.

“That's going to be our next big thing in Long Island Sound,” Boynton promised.

Sferra said there are 3,500 members in the district, which comprises Connecticut, Long Island, and parts of New Jersey, New York and Vermont, and as the duties continue to mount for the Coast Guard, the auxiliary stands ready to help.

“Whatever has to be done will be done,” Sferra said.*
*
© The Day Publishing Co., 2005

http://www.theday.com/eng/web/news/re.aspx?re=40303857-889B-4D28-8999-52B283C67332

[al-Canine]

Coast Guard Counterterrorism team the first of its kind in U.S.

By JOHN HOPKINS, The Virginian-Pilot

CHESAPEAKE — A counter terrorism team, equipped with two armed helicopters and a six-person nuclear and radiological detachment, is in the “development stage” in Chesapeake.

The team, called an Enhanced Maritime Safety and Security Team or E-MSST, is the first of its kind in the country, according to the Coast Guard. It was formed last year and already has been used to protect potential terrorist targets.

Last summer, the team was called upon to help guard world leaders during the G8 Summit in Sea Island, Ga. The team also was deployed to Boston for the Democratic National Convention and to New York for the Republican National Convention.

“This is the first one, and it’s up and running,” said Lt. Buddy Dye, a spokesman for the Coast Guard’s Atlantic area command in Portsmouth. The Coast Guard did not release the exact location of the Chesapeake team, which is not a fully operating unit yet.

“This Enhanced Maritime Safety and Security Team was developed in response to an operational need for counter terrorism capabilities in the maritime environment during a post 9 /11 presidential election year,” said Larry Chambers, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman.

The team, at this point, is not an on-call unit. It was designed primarily to support scheduled events.

The unit includes a tactical law enforcement team, two HH-60J helicopters and a six-person chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive detachment. The team is also trained for close-quarters combat.

The E -MSST is larger and has different capabilities than MSSTs, which already have been commissioned in Boston; New York; St. Marys, Ga.; Miami; New Orleans; Hawaii; Seattle; and San Diego, Dye said. With air power, the Chesapeake-based team has the ability to protect against a range of threats.

“It’s just got more specialized units in it,” Chambers said.

The Chesapeake team was called into action in June 2004 when President Bush hosted the 30th G8 Summit with the leaders of the world’s major industrial democracies.

The team provided support during last year’s political conventions, two high-profile events that could have been terrorist targets because of the thousands of delegates, politicians, journalists, citizens and protesters who turned out in New York and Boston. It is also involved in regular training exercises.

The Coast Guard, now under the Department of Homeland Security, created typical MSSTs after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Northern Virginia.

The MSSTs, with the use of small boats, provide port safety and security to significant ports and respond to terrorist threats or incidents in ports and waterways throughout the country. They were designed to close security gaps along the nation’s waterways.

The quick-response MSSTs can deploy anywhere in the country.

PilotOnline.com

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=83353&ran=140091

[Petronas]

Pirates storm Indonesian tanker
Monday, 14 March, 2005, 12:44 GMT

Pirates have attacked a gas tanker in the Malacca Strait, kidnapping its captain and chief engineer for ransom, a watchdog said. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said about 35 pirates with rocket launchers stormed the Indonesian-owned MT Tri Samudra late on Saturday.

They diverted the Belawan-bound vessel to a different part of Sumatra, before disappearing with the hostages. The shipowners are trying to negotiate the hostages' release, the IMB says.

The narrow Malacca Strait between Indonesia and Malaysia is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes and has long been a haunt of pirates. Some 37 acts of piracy were recorded there last year but there has been a sharp fall in reported attacks after December's tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the Malaysia-based bureau says. Some experts say the giant waves could have killed many pirates and destroyed their boats, while others believe the large presence of international troops in the region has deterred attacks.

The 1,289-ton MT Tri Samudra was carrying a cargo of methane gas from Samarinda in Borneo island to Sumatra's Belawan when it was stormed. "The pirates attacked the ship... and ordered it to sail to Dumai," IMB's regional manager Noel Choong told the AFP news agency. "During the journey to Dumai the captain and engineer were kidnapped and taken off the ship," Mr Choong said.

He added that the vessel's owners believed the hijackers could be rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (Gam), which has been fighting for independence for Sumatra's northern Aceh province. "If this is a terrorist attack it will have severe consequences on the security of the ports in the region," Mr Choong said. "It looks like they [pirates] are becoming very daring and they are moving away from the... coastal attacks towards the one sea and towards Malaysian waters," he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4347167.stm

The Indonesian police have claimed tht the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) is linked to Jemaah Islamiyah, Al Qaeda's Indonesian affiliate. GAM has denied the link.

[Petronas]

Malaysia to Boost Malacca Straits Security
March 16, 2005 6:31 PM EST

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysia pledged Wednesday to boost security in one of the world's busiest waterways after pirates kidnapped three crew members of a Japanese-registered tugboat. The government also dismissed any need for international help to patrol the Malacca Straits, a pirate infested channel separating peninsular Malaysia and Indonesia's Sumatra island.

About 15 armed pirates attacked the boat and seized its Japanese captain and chief engineer and a Filipino engineer Monday night in the northern part of the Strait. "We've been told by the crew members and officers on board that the pirate or criminal boat came to the starboard rear of the tugboat," said marine police chief Sahadan Halus. Authorities said the attackers took their captives to Sumatra, but the vessel owners have not been contacted by them or received any ransom demands. The tugboat's remaining crew of six Japanese and five Filipinos, as well as more than 150 workers of various nationalities on a barge it was pulling, arrived safely Tuesday in Malaysia.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda on Tuesday urged vessels plying the strait to be more careful, noting that pirate attacks occur frequently in the 550-mile-long shipping lane, which is used by 50,000 ships annually. The International Maritime Bureau recorded 37 pirate attacks in the strait last year. Most attacks involved vessels being fired on and crew kidnapped for ransom. Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore jointly patrol the waterway for pirates. Malaysia will increase protection for slow-moving vessels such as tugboats and oil tankers, which are considered "soft targets" for pirates, Abdul Rahman said.

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20050316/4237bd50_3ca6_15526200503161305432733

[Petronas]

Next for terrorists: Seaborne attacks
Posted: March 18, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern

Recently captured terrorists say two al-Qaida-linked groups are training members in scuba diving in preparation for seaborne attacks, according to a Philippine military report. The report, obtained by the Associated Press, also points to increasing collaboration among the Muslim terrorists in other areas, including financing and explosives. As WND first reported based on information gathered by the premium online intelligence newsletter Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the threat of Islamist terrorism on the high seas is worldwide – not limited to one region. WND also exclusively reported that al-Qaida had purchased at least 15 ships, creating a veritable terror armada. An October 2003 story by WND reported growing warnings around the world that the next dramatic terror attack is more likely to come at sea than in the air.

The new Philippine report said Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah has given Abu Sayyaf at least $18,500 for explosives training alone in the past year.

One month ago, the AP reported, the U.S. Coast Guard announced it wanted to upgrade protection of the nation's ports from terrorist attacks by scuba divers. The Coast Guard is seeking development of a new sonar system that can distinguish human swimmers from dolphins. The FBI announced three years ago it was probing al-Qaida's alleged training of scuba divers to blow up waterfront targets, including ships and power plants.

The Philippine report stated Abu Sayyaf member Gamal Baharan -- a suspect in a deadly Manila bus bombing Feb. 14 -- told of being trained with other terrorists for scuba-diver strikes. Baharan said Abu Sayyaf leaders Khaddafy Janjalani and Abu Sulaiman initiated the training in preparation for a Jemaah Islamiyah bombing plot on unspecified targets outside the Philippines.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43358

[Petronas]

Military: Sayyafs training for seaborne terror attacks
Thursday, March 17, 2005

MANILA -- The Muslim militant group Abu Sayyaf has trained in scuba diving to prepare for possible seaborne terror attacks outside the country, the military said Thursday, citing the interrogation of a captured guerrilla. The al-Qaida-linked militants also received at least US$18,500 over the past year from suspected members of the regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah for explosives training, according to a report on the interrogation of Gamal Baharan obtained by The Associated Press.

Baharan, 35, also said that an Abu Sayyaf leader still at large, Khadaffi Janjalani, claimed to speak directly with al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden via satellite phone. It was unclear whether that was a boast by Janjalani to impress his men. Baharan is one of three suspects captured and charged last month for bomb attacks that killed eight people and wounded more than 100 on Feb. 14 in Manila and the cities of Davao and General Santos. Abu Sayyaf said it launched the attacks to retaliate for military assaults on Muslim rebels in Mindanao.

Although the militants' ranks have been largely depleted by U.S.-backed military assaults, the government still considers the group a major threat. Such concerns were highlighted by a botched jailbreak Monday in which Abu Sayyaf suspects seized guards' weapons in a melee that left five people dead. An ensuing, 29-hour standoff ended when police stormed the prison in a hail of gunfire Tuesday and killed 22 inmates, including three prominent Abu Sayyaf commanders.

According to the military report, Baharan said during questioning that Abu Sayyaf leaders Janjalani and Abu Sulaiman, working with Jemaah Islamiyah, had initiated scuba training for seasoned guerrillas to prepare for seaborne attacks. Last October, Baharan was told to undergo scuba training in southwestern Palawan province, the report said. He periodically received cell phone messages from Janjalani and Sulaiman "asking him how many fathoms he would be able to dive," the report said.

His training was in preparation for a Jemaah Islamiyah bombing plot on unspecified targets outside the Philippines that would require "underwater operation," the report quoted him as saying. Baharan also disclosed that Janjalani was alive, contrary to speculation he was killed in a military air strike, and said that the Abu Sayyaf chieftain claimed he communicated with bin Laden by satellite phone, the report said. That could represent a boast by Janjalani to impress his men, and military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were unable to verify it.

The interrogation report said: "Subject averred that Janjalani has a direct contact to Osama bin Laden and (bin Laden's brother-in-law) Mohammed Jamal Khalifa. Janjalani is using a satellite phone in contacting both leaders. Subject further averred that bin Laden would... talk to no one except Janjalani. They conversed in Arabic."

He told interrogators that he and another militant, Khalil Trinidad, were ordered by Sulaiman to bomb a bus in Manila last month to divert the military's attention from an offensive against rebels. During a court hearing, a bus conductor identified Baharan and Trinidad as passengers who hurriedly left the bus shortly before the blast. Both suspects pleaded innocent in court on Monday.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/net/2005/03/17/military.sayyafs.training.for.seaborne.terror.atta cks.(12.20.p.m.).html

[al-Canine]

Look Out Below—The Terror Threat From the Sea

By Mark Hosenball
Investigative Correspondent
Newsweek

March 28 issue - Al Qaeda frogmen sound like one of the more exotic terrorist threats—but Homeland Security chiefs are preparing, just in case. Last month the Coast Guard launched a special program to train members of its seagoing SWAT teams how to protect U.S. ports against scuba-diving attackers. Members of Coast Guard commando teams based at 12 ports on the U.S. coastline will be taught underwater fighting techniques and how to use secret weapons. NEWSWEEK has learned that team members will try to master the proper use of "entanglement nets." The nets are meant to be thrown over an underwater intruder, who then becomes ensnared in the mesh. The commandos are also supposed to be taught how to operate special sonar the Coast Guard is developing that should be able to tell a diver from a dolphin or seal. Sonar rigs will be deployed at strategic locations so they can be rapidly set up around ports or ships in the event of specific threats. Commandos will also get access to a special underwater sound system to send out verbal warnings to underwater intruders.

The notion that Osama bin Laden's followers might turn to scuba diving is not a Tom Clancy fantasy. Three years ago Dutch authorities looking into a jihad recruiting ring in the town of Eindhoven learned that one of their suspects was keen on scuba diving. Investigation led them to a Tunisian diving instructor with a connection to radical Islam. Dutch intelligence watched as the Tunisian ran his own diving classes, which attracted suspected Islamic militant students from around the Netherlands. The diving instructor eventually left the country, but a spokesman for the AIVD, the Netherlands' secret service, told NEWSWEEK the investigation is still open.

Dutch authorities note that they know of no current specific terrorist threat posed by Qaeda divers, nor have the Dutch launched any special diver-related security measures to protect their ports, which include Rotterdam, one of the world's largest. U.S. officials also say they know of no imminent underwater threat. An FBI official said the bureau surveyed diving schools after the Dutch case first came to light, but never repeated the exercise. An intelligence source said the threat should be kept "in proportion." But only last week, a captured militant from a Qaeda affiliate in the Philippines claimed he and other jihadis took diving lessons to prepare for a seaborne attack. A senior Homeland Security official said the administration doesn't want to take "the risk of not doing something to protect against a waterborne assault."

© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7244239/site/newsweek/

[al-Canine]

Port discussion moves beyond containers

Focus on shipping containers as potential Trojan horses for a WMD attack on the United States could be diverting needed attention from other seaborne threats, lawmakers and witnesses said at a field hearing yesterday on the subject.

The United States has done a good job of addressing the shipping-container threat across the supply chain, but other potentially devastating scenarios - the sinking of a cruise vessel at a strategic location to paralyze river commerce, for example - have gone comparatively unnoticed, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Christopher Cox, R-Calif., told reporters by telephone after a hearing of the panel in Vicksburg, Miss.

"Everybody's talking about security for containers," Inland Rivers, Ports and Terminals Association Executive Director Deirdre McGowan said when interviewed separately by telephone after testifying at the hearing. "Of course, I was audacious enough to say that the Cole was not attacked by a container."

The U.S.S. Cole was attacked by an explosive-laden terrorist craft in October 2000 the port of Aden, Yemen.

McGowan said inland ports do not get the attention that ocean ports receive even though the former can be more vulnerable, since they tend to be longer. "They just don't have the visibility that the ocean ports do," she said.

About 4 percent of federal port security grant money goes for inland ports, McGowan said. She called for a renewed commitment to inland ports, including for use as test grounds for new technologies and new approaches to port security.

Cox and McGowan both stressed the importance of basing port security funding on risk. "All of our terrorism preparedness grants should be risk-based," Cox said.

Although McGowan acknowledged that high-profile threats such as radiological weapons are not as applicable to inland ports as ocean ports, she called for a greater focus on conventional weapons that could have a serious economic effect on river commerce.

She offered the example of the port of Pittsburgh - potentially vulnerable to a container carrying radiation, she said, "but how likely is that?"

"Is this really where we should put our resources?" she asked.

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0305/032305gsn1.htm

[rectar]

Quit dishing these local pirates overseas....

[Petronas]

Pirate attacks may tempt terrorists: US official
Fri Apr 8, 9:33 AM ET

KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 (AFP) - A spate of pirate raids on ships in the Malacca Strait could tempt terrorists to stage a seaborne attack, the vice-commandant of the US Coast Guard said Friday. "We have some concerns that what the pirates might be doing is showing the terrorists where opportunities exist," Vice-Admiral Terry Cross told reporters.

Cross, who is on a tour of Asia to bolster maritime cooperation and port security, was speaking against the background of five pirate attacks on ships in the Malacca and Singapore straits in the past six weeks. The Malacca Strait is used by about 50,000 ships a year carrying a third of world trade, and the ease with which pirates board vessels has given rise to concern that terrorists could hijack a tanker to use as a floating bomb or to block the vital channel and disrupt world trade.

In the latest attack, a gang of pirates attempted to board a huge Japanese-owned crude oil tanker off Indonesia's Karimun islands, where the southern tip of the Malacca Strait joins the Singapore Strait. The tanker managed to outrun the pirates, but in four earlier attacks ships were boarded and robbed and crew members were kidnapped.

Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia last year began coordinated patrols in the Malacca Strait, and Malaysia has announced it will also place armed and uniformed police officers on board tugboats and barges plying the waterway. The government has, however, rejected suggestions that the United States or other foreign navies be allowed to help patrol the strait.

Cross said there was international concern about pirate activity in the Malacca Strait, which he described as "a very difficult problem". "We believe solving that problem is the responsibility of the nations in the region. Some progress is being made, we hope more can be made in the future," he said. A US Coast Guard team would visit Malaysia to look into port security arrangements and Malaysian maritime offcials have been invited to the US, he said. Cross leaves for neighbouring Singapore on Saturday before going on to Indonesia.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1521&u=/afp/malaysiausmaritimepiracy&printer=1

[Petronas]

I thought the following article, though from last year, would bear repeating here, as it is very much on point with respect to the previous one.

Terror threat swells at sea
Posted: June 8, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern

Singapore is trying to blow the whistle on the global threat posed by jihadists taking their terror tactics to the sea. Minister for Security Tony Tan said attacks on ships by sea pirates in Southeast Asia are resembling military operations – growing bolder, more violent and fuelling fears of an attack that would cripple world trade.

He said the risk of a devastating attack is growing. "We have been alarmed not only by the increase in the number of pirate attacks in the sea lanes of communication in this part of the world, but also in the nature of the piracy attacks," said Tan.

The U.S. is considering a plan for a Regional Maritime Security Initiative to tighten surveillance of Southeast Asia's busy Malacca Strait, through which a third of world trade passes. But, as WND first reported based on information gathered by the premium online intelligence newsletter Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the threat of Islamist terrorism on the high seas is worldwide – not limited to one region.

"In previous years when you had a piracy attack, what it meant is that you have a sampan or a boat coming up to a cargo ship, pirates throwing up some ropes, scrambling on board, ransacking the ship for valuables, stealing money and then running away," Tan told an Asian security forum, according to a report in the Khaleej Times. "But the last piracy attack that took place in the Straits of Malacca showed a different pattern," he added. The pirates were well armed, operating sophisticated weapons and commanding high-speed boats. "They conducted the operation almost with military precision."

Tan added: "Instead of just ransacking the ship for valuables, they took command of the ship, and steered the ship for about an hour, and then eventually left with the captain in their captivity. To all of us, this is reminiscent of the pattern by which terrorists mount an attack."

The International Maritime Bureau says one-third of the 445 cases of recorded pirate attacks last year happened in Indonesian waters, including the Malacca Strait linking trading and oil centers in the Middle East, Asia and Europe.

Singapore has repeatedly warned of the potential link between pirates and religious militant networks such as Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for the deadly 2002 bomb blasts in the Indonesian island of Bali and widely linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida.

"We are concerned that terrorists may seize control of a tanker with a cargo of lethal materials, LNG (liquefied natural gas) perhaps, chemicals, and use it as a floating bomb against our port," Tan said. "This would cause catastrophic damage, not only to the port but also for people, because our port is located very near to a highly dense residential area. Thousands of people would be killed."

Malaysia has rejected the use of foreign forces to patrol the area.

"If terrorists were to seize a tanker, a large ship, and sink it into a narrow part of the Straits it will cripple world trade," Tan said. "It would have the iconic large impact which terrorists seek."

But it's not just cargo shipping that terrorists hope to target. Earlier, U.S. intelligence officials said al-Qaida has turned its terror sights to a global sea jihad, targeting Western luxury liners and aircraft carriers.

Owners of the world's largest cruise ship – the recently launched $1.3 billion Queen Mary 2 – confirmed terror threats hang over its future voyages. U.S. intelligence officials also found evidence bin Laden's terror network planned to attack the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal as it passed through the Gibraltar Straits en route to the Iraq theater of war earlier this year.

WorldNetDaily exclusively reported Sept. 29, based on intelligence obtained by Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, that al-Qaida has purchased at least 15 ships in the last two years, creating a veritable terror armada. G2 Bulletin's sources said potential targets of the al-Qaida armada include civilian ports, oil rigs and cruise liners. Lloyds of London reportedly helped Britain's MI6 and the U.S. CIA trace the sales of the "terror ships" made through a Greek shipping agent suspected of having direct contacts with bin Laden.

The ships fly the flags of Yemen and Somalia – where they are registered – and are capable of carrying cargoes of lethal chemicals, a "dirty bomb" or even a nuclear weapon, according to G2B sources. The freighters left their home ports in the Horn of Africa in early September, some were believed destined for ports in Asia. WorldNetDaily reported Oct. 13 on growing warnings around the world that the next dramatic terror attack is more likely to come at sea than in the air.

The attack described by Tan is reminiscent of one last year, in which a chemical tanker, the Dewi Madrim, was hijacked by machinegun-bearing pirates in speedboats off the coast of Sumatra. But these weren't ordinary pirates looking for booty. These were terrorists learning how to drive a ship. They also kidnapped officers in an effort to acquire expertise on conducting a maritime attack.

There is also evidence terrorists are learning about diving, with a view to attacking ships from below. The Abu Sayyaf group in the Philippines kidnapped a maintenance engineer in a Sabah holiday resort in 2000. On his release in June this year, the engineer said his kidnappers knew he was a diving instructor – they wanted instruction. The owner of a diving school near Kuala Lumpur has recently reported a number of ethnic Malays wanting to learn about diving, but being strangely uninterested in learning about decompression.

G2 Bulletin said this is reminiscent of reports that Sept. 11 hijackers who attended U.S. flight schools were only interested in learning how to fly planes, not land.

U.S. intelligence services also believe scores of acoustic sea-mines, found to have disappeared from a naval base in North Korea by a U2 spy plane, could be aboard bin Laden's "terror ships," estimated by some sources to number 28.

The capture of al-Qaida's chief of naval operations, Ahmad Belai al-Neshari, helped reveal the blueprint of the group's maritime plots. Al-Neshari was found carrying a 180-page dossier that listed large cruise liners sailing from Western ports as "targets of opportunity."

If a maritime terror attack comes, it won't be the first. In October 2000, the USS Cole, a heavily armed ship protected with the latest radar defenses, was hit by an al-Qaida suicide crew. Seventeen American sailors died. Two years later, following the attacks on the Twin Towers, a similar attack was carried out against a French supertanker off the coast of Yemen.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38835

[al-Canine]

Department of Homeland Security Announces $17.1 Million Award for Operation Safe Commerce Container Cargo Security Program

April 14, 2005

The Department of Homeland Security announced today a $17.1 million award to the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey and to the Ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach and Seattle/Tacoma to strengthen the security of container cargo moving through three of the nation’s largest load centers.

These grants were awarded under the third phase of Operation Safe Commerce, a program through which ports, federal, state, and local governments, and private businesses work together to identify, test, and share information about commercially available technologies and best business practices to improve the security of the supply chain.

“Operation Safe Commerce takes a partnership approach to developing innovative new ways for ports to track and protect cargo entering the United States from all over the world,” said Matt A. Mayer, Acting Executive Director of the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness. “Through this effort, we are adding another layer of security to raise our level of port protection and fulfill our commitment to securing our homeland against all threats of terrorism, whether from air, land, or sea.”

The awards announced today are: *$6.7 million to the Ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach; $5.2 million to the Ports of Seattle/Tacoma; and $5.2 million to the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey. Prior to these new awards, the three load centers have received a total of $55 million under Operation Safe Commerce, including a total of $13.7 million for Los Angeles/Long Beach, $27.5 million for Seattle/Tacoma; and $13.8 million for New York/New Jersey.

Operation Safe Commerce is administered by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness (SLGCP) in cooperation with an inter-agency steering committee, which ensures that grant funds are used to address priority vulnerabilities and support the results of testing conducted during the different phases of the program.

SLGCP is the Department of Homeland Security’s primary source of assistance for state, local, and collaborative initiatives to improve the nation’s ability to prevent, prepare for, and respond to terrorism. Members of the inter-agency steering committee include the Departments of Transportation, State, Defense, and Commerce, and four components of the Department of Homeland Security: the U.S. Coast Guard; the Border and Transportation Security Directorate; Customs and Border Protection; and the Transportation Security Administration.

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=4459

[Petronas]

U.S. Navy SEALs in Indonesia anti-terrorism drill
May 12, 2005

JAKARTA - U.S. Navy Seals and Indonesian forces are practicing anti-terrorism drills, including boarding ships and battling pirates, in a palm-fringed string of resort islands near Jakarta, officials said on Monday. The programme, aimed at improving the ability of the two nations' forces to work closely, was part of a broader effort by Washington to boost regional security, a U.S. official said. "We are not using any lethal assets. It involves only non-lethal assets," said Max Kwak, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Jakarta. "The war on terror is also part of it," he added, but declined to say where the drills were being held or how many U.S. troops were involved.

Piracy is a big concern for Asian and Western security forces who warn that terrorists could exploit lawlessness in the region, particularly in the key Malacca Strait shipping lane, to launch a crippling attack on global trade. Fears among some states bordering the strait that the United States was seeking a policing role were a factor behind the launch last year of coordinated patrols by Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. "This event is an exercise, not a joint operation at sea between the Indonesian military and the U.S. Pacific Command," said Lt. Col. Edi Fernandi, a spokesman for the Indonesian navy's western fleet...

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/006124.php

[Petronas]

Malacca Strait states to discuss whether ships can carry arms
May 16, 2005

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Nations along the Malacca Strait will discuss whether to allow commercial vessels to carry weapons to protect themselves against pirates in the key shipping lane, news reports said Sunday. The foreign ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore will discuss the issue at a meeting on Indonesia's Batam island next month, the reports said. They said the date of the meeting had not yet been fixed.

A guideline on the carrying of arms is crucial because of recent reports of weapons aboard some commercial ships in the strait, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar was quoted as saying. "Their reason for being armed is to guard the goods against pirates," The Star newspaper quoted him as saying. "This is a worrying trend that needs to be checked before it becomes a problem."

The foreign ministers will also discuss a joint plan to ensure security in the strait, the national news agency Bernama reported. Each year, more than 50,000 vessels ply the narrow, 800-kilometer (500-mile) shipping lane. Last year, the International Maritime Bureau recorded 37 pirateattacks in the Malacca Strait, despite coordinated patrols by thethree nations. The United States and other countries have warned that the waterway is also vulnerable to possible terror attacks

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillatestnews.asp?fileid=20050515203457&irec=0

[Fatima]

Singapore, Indonesian navies launch radar surveillance for Singapore Strait

SINGAPORE (AFP): The Singaporean and Indonesian navies launched Friday (27 May 2005) a system that provides real-time radar surveillance for the Singapore Strait to improve the fight against piracy and terrorism.

Officers from the two navies signed a cooperation agreement for the "SURPIC", short for surface picture, surveillance system at a naval base on the Indonesian island of Batam, just an hour away by boat from Singapore.

The system would allow real-time surveillance of the Singapore Strait to protect sea lanes from pirates and terrorists, officials said in a statement received here.

"With this, the two navies will be better able to monitor the sea situation as well as to exchange information on a real time basis more efficiently and effectively," Singapore navy chief, Rear Adm. Ronnie Tay, said at the launching ceremonies.

"This will in turn enable the two navies to deploy their assets more optimally, and to respond more decisively should any incident in the strait develop."

He described the surveillance system as a "significant step" in efforts between the two navies to combat sea robberies and maritime security threats.

Indonesian navy chief Admiral Slamet Soebijanto was also present during the ceremonies.

http://www.thejakartapost.com

[Vancouver]

Just for reference, a great site is the International Chamber of Commerce weekly piracy report:
http://www.icc-ccs.org/prc/piracyreport.php
JI used to kidnap sailors off Aceh and nearby islets off Sumatra. Let's hope they got pummelled by the tsunami, which is possible.

[Petronas]

INDONESIA: JOINT AIR PATROLS OF MALACCA STRAIT TO BEGIN

Jakarta, 12 Sept. (AKI) - Joint air patrols of the the Malacca Strait by Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand are due to start on Tuesday. The combined effort by the various states in the vicinity of the Strait is seen as a concrete step forward in the fight against the long-standing problem of piracy and the threat of terrorism in the world's busiest shipping lane. Thailand is the only one of the four states taking part in the joint air patrols or so-called 'eye in the sky' whose coastline does not border the Strait, and its participation marks an exception to Indonesia and Malaysia's wish to limit neighbouring states' involvement to technical assistance and communications.

Planes deployed will be able to follow suspect vessels for three nautical miles outside their own countries' territorial waters. To do so, each aircraft must have a military official on board from each of the four participating countries. "If we can't send a official, then the aeroplane will not be allowed to enter Indonesian territorial waters," Suryo Wiranto, a colonel in the Indonesian navy told a two-day conference on security in the Strait in Jakarta last week.

The 'eye in the sky' is meant to back up the sea patrols which began in the Strait last year, but which do not permit the three navies to pursue suspect ships outside their terroritorial waters. The sea patrols have not yielded the results that had been hoped for, and after a period of relative calm that followed the 26 December southeast Asian earthquake and tsunami, pirate attacks in the vital waterway have continued.

According to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), there have been eight 'violent' pirate attacks in the Strait since February. One-third of the total 127 pirate attacks recorded by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in the first half of 2005 took place in the Strait, the IMO said.

The levels of pirate attacks in the Strait have prompted London-based insurance company Lloyds to classified it as "a war risk zone", on a par with the Iraqi coastline in terms of the likelihood of war or a terrorist attack. The 800-kilometre stretch of water is used by almost 60,000 commercial ships each year carrying half the world's oil and one-third of its commerce.

Also at last week's Jakarta security conference, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore - the IMO, the World Bank, and a group of shipping companies, agreed to install a multi-million dollar radar system to bolster anti-terrorism, anti-piracy and anti-pollution ship monitoring. The radar system - to be installed over a three-year period between 2006 and 2009 - will have its control centre on the Indonesian island of Batam.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.206739266&par=0

[Casey]

U.S. renews east Africa terror warning, highlights piracy threat

NAIROBI (AFP) -- The United States has renewed its terrorism warning for east Africa, alerting U.S. citizens to possible extremist attacks and piracy in the region and along its coast where a spate of ship hijackings have been reported.

Less than three months before its last such advisory, issued on July 1, was set to expire, the U.S. State Department on Friday re-released a regional terrorism alert for east Africa, noting in particular the increased threat of maritime piracy. The department said it had re-issued the warning "to remind Americans of the continuing potential for terrorist actions against US citizens in east Africa, particularly along the east African coast and to note the dangers of maritime piracy near the Horn of Africa and the southern Red Sea near Yemen."

Although the language in Friday's public announcement was nearly identical to that in earlier warnings -- advising Americans that supporters of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network and other extremist groups are active in east Africa -- it added commercial shipping to the list of potential terrorist targets.

"Terrorist actions may include suicide operations, bombings, kidnappings or targeting maritime vessels," it said, adding that US citizens should review "carefully" any plans to travel to east Africa.

The U.S. alert was issued as authorities in Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland said Friday they had arrested after a lengthy gun battle an "internationally known" Al-Qaeda operative and several followers.

The men were allegedly in the region to organize attacks on local leaders and foreigners ahead of Somaliland elections scheduled for next week, according to officials in the capital of Hargeisa.

The new U.S. advisory also came as a UN-chartered food aid vessel, hijacked in pirate infested waters off the coast of Somalia nearly three months ago, remained in the hands of gunmen with no sign of its imminent release.

That hijacking was the highest profile incident in a series of increasingly violent attempts to seize commercial ships off the coast of lawless Somalia, which intelligence agencies fear has become a haven for groups such as Al-Qaeda.

"Americans considering seaborne travel near the Horn of Africa or in the southern Red Sea should exercise extreme caution, as there have been several incidents of armed attacks and robberies at sea by unknown pirates in the last year," the State Department said.

In its weekly piracy report issued on Tuesday, the International Maritime Bureau said at least 21 attacks had been recorded off the Somali coast since March 15 and urged ships in the area to stay as far as possible from the shore.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=9/25/2005&Cat=4&Num=4

[Petronas]

Maritime borders a security headache
October 06, 2005

SOUTHEAST Asia still faced major problems in trying to track and intercept terrorists crossing international maritime borders, particularly between The Philippines and Indonesia, Alexander Downer said yesterday. The Foreign Minister said Australian authorities were working with the Philippines Government to improve their capacity to monitor people movements in and out of the country. "The Philippine and Indonesian authorities are only too aware that ... terrorists may very well be moving between their countries, and efforts are being made to stop that," Mr Downer said.

Thousands of fishing boats sailed the Celebes Sea between The Philippines and Indonesia, he said. Sending a frigate or patrol boat to the area would have a negligible effect on the problem of monitoring illegal people movements. "The dimensions of the problem are enormous, and the political will is there," he said.

Terrorist experts say Jemaah Islamiah's training of recruits in The Philippines' southern Mindanao remains a major issue between the two countries. Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Aldo Borgu said it was only natural that JI would seek to recruit "cleanskins" as bombers, given the scrutiny it was now under from law enforcement authorities. "It gives them an advantage to have suicide bombers who don't have a record and aren't recognisable," Mr Borgu said. "That link between the Abu Sayyaf training bases in the southern Philippines and JI operatives in Indonesia is always there."

Indonesia's leading news magazine, Tempo, quoting senior intelligence sources, yesterday reported that JI's top military planner, Zulkarnaen, who is believed to be hiding in The Philippines, most likely planned last weekend's Bali attacks. "Noordin Top and Dr Azahari (Husin) are just his operators. The brains is Zulkarnaen," Tempo quoted the intelligence source as saying.

Mr Downer said Canberra had recently raised its concerns about JI links with terrorist groups in The Philippines with the Arroyo Government. "I think we understand significantly what the problems are, but enormous resources are needed to resolve some of these problems," Mr Downer said. "The Philippines Government is showing the political will to address these issues, but the problem isn't fixed."

Mr Downer is expected to travel to Jakarta next week to discuss counter-terrorist strategies with senior Indonesian officials, including Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda. Mr Downer and John Howard yesterday stressed the need for Indonesian authorities to do much more to crack down on terrorism. "There are a whole lot of things that should be done by President (Susilo Bambang) Yudhoyono inside Indonesia," the Prime Minister told Sydney radio.

"I have a great deal of regard for him, but Indonesia is not Australia and there is still an enormous distance to be travelled before the right resources are put in place. And this applies not only with Indonesia, but it applies with The Philippines, it applies with a great number of countries." Mr Downer said Indonesia had being doing a good job tracking down terrorist cells, but added: "Obviously it's not a comprehensive job." He said that while he still hoped JI would be proscribed by the Yudhoyono Government, such action would not solve Indonesia's terrorist problem.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16829275%255E601,00.html

[Petronas]

Cruise Ship Escapes Pirate Hijack Attempt
November 05, 2005 4:50 PM EST

NAIROBI, Kenya - Pirates armed with grenade launchers and machine guns tried to hijack a luxury cruise liner off the east African coast Saturday, but the ship outran them, officials said. Two boats full of pirates approached the Seabourn Spirit about 100 miles off the Somali coast and opened fire while the heavily armed bandits tried to get onboard, said Bruce Good, spokesman for the Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp.

The ship escaped by shifting to high speed and changing course. "These are very well-organized pirates," said Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Program. "Somalia's coastline is the most dangerous place in the region in terms of maritime security."

The attackers never got close enough to board the Spirit, but one member of the 161-person crew was injured by shrapnel, cruise line president Deborah Natansohn said. The vessel's 151 passengers, mostly Americans with some Australians and Europeans, were gathered in a lounge for their safety, Good said. None were injured. "Our suspicion at this time is that the motive was theft," Good said, adding that the crew had been trained for "various scenarios, including people trying to get on the ship that you don't want on the ship."

The British news agency Press Association said passengers awoke to the sound of gunfire as two 25-foot inflatable boats approached the liner. Edith Laird of Seattle, who was traveling with her daughter and a friend, told the British Broadcasting Corp. in an e-mail that her daughter saw the pirates out the window. "There were at least three rocket-propelled grenades that hit the ship, one in a state room," Laird wrote. "We had no idea that this ship could move as fast as it did and (the captain) did his best to run down the pirates."

The Spirit was bound for Mombasa, Kenya, at the end of a 16-day voyage from Alexandria, Egypt. It was expected to reach the Seychelles on Monday, and then continue on its previous schedule to Singapore, company officials said. The 440-foot-long, 10,000-ton cruise ship, which is registered in the Bahamas, sustained minor damage, Good said. The liner, which had its maiden voyage in 1989, can accommodate 208 guests. "They took some fire, but it's safe to sail," he said.

There has been a steep rise in piracy this year along Somalia's nearly 2,000-mile coastline, with 15 violent incidents reported between March and August, compared with just two for all of 2004, according to the International Maritime Bureau, a division of the International Chamber of Commerce that tracks trends in piracy. In June, a U.N.-chartered ship carrying 935 tons of rice for Somali victims of the Asian tsunami was hijacked by pirates, who held crew members hostage for three months before releasing them.

Somalia has had no effective central government since opposition leaders ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The leaders then turned on each other, transforming this nation of 7 million into a patchwork of battling fiefdoms ruled by heavily armed militias.

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20051105/436c3c50_3ca6_1552620051105-1860766560

[Vancouver]

...along Somalia's nearly 2,000-mile coastline, with 15 violent incidents reported between March and August, compared with just two for all of 2004, according to the International Maritime Bureau ...Here's their interesting and detailed website
http://www.icc-ccs.org/prc/piracyreport.php
but the report is only weekly and doesn't yet cover this incident.

[Petronas]

How long until Al Qaeda gets into the act? It is high time for international naval patrols against pirates, just as there used to be hundreds of years ago against pirates and in the 19th century against slavers.

Somalia - where pirates roam free
Friday, 11 November 2005, 00:12 GMT

The attack on the luxury liner Seabourn Spirit off the coast of Somalia has highlighted the dramatic rise in piracy in the region this year. Ships carrying food aid on behalf of the United Nations are among the 25 vessels hijacked since March. Piracy has existed in Somalia's coastal waters since the country plunged into civil war 15 years ago - the anarchy on land has spread to the sea.

Between six and 10 gunmen in small fishing boats known as Volvos (because of their engines) and equipped with automatic rifles and rocket propelled grenades wander offshore in search of any vessel they can find. Sometimes ships unloading their cargo are attacked as they have to anchor 500m from the shore, with dozens of small boats and maybe 100 porters travelling back and forth, slowly unloading the goods. This creates the possibility of gunmen sneaking through among the porters with their guns hidden - as happened with the World Food Programme-chartered ship hijacked from the port of Marka.

Despite successive warnings by maritime authorities about the dangers of Somali waters, some ships continue to sail close to the coast in order to trade commercial goods and deliver humanitarian aid to the country. Pirates used to concentrate their attacks on foreign fishing vessels under the pretext of fighting illegal fishing. Lately they seem to have become more daring, venturing into the deep international waters up to 180 miles off the coast and even hijacking international aid ships.

Somalia has got one of the longest coasts in Africa - some 3,300km. Since the country remains divided between fiefdoms controlled by rival warlords, there is no single authority that can control these waters. As well as piracy and illegal fishing, there are also allegations that some countries and firms use Somalia's waters to dumping industrial waste.

Anwar Sadiqi, the chief engineer of a vessel chartered by aid agency Care-International to deliver food aid to Marka says he cannot do much to stop the ship being hijacked. "We put watchmen with binoculars and walkie-talkies on the corners of the ship to see the pirates from distance but, that's all," he said. "We prepare for safe surrender and then in the meantime tell our office that we're under attack. We're not armed, so what can we do?"

The WFP's Leo Van Der Velden is worried that it is now becoming more difficult to find ships willing to sail down Somalia's coast - with serious knock-on effects for delivering food aid. Bravo district commissioner Abdullahi Halaneh Dhuhulow was the chief negotiator for the hijacked WFP ship and says it was hard going before in the end, its release was secured. "We had serious arguments with the hijackers but after a while we managed to persuade them that they shouldn't risk their lives and jeopardise humanitarian aid," he said. "The gunmen were no strangers to this area, I have the feeling that the intellectuals - those claiming to be politicians and elders who live near these waters - have something to do with all this I know these militias belong to some other people. But there are many ways in which you can threaten them and we used all possible means to ensure success."

It is believed that seven other ships are currently being held hostage - four near the central Eyl district and three reportedly in the southern Lower Jubba region. The crew on board these ships are of many different nationalities and government officials from countries from Kenya to Ukraine are currently negotiating their safe release.

Ransoms are now routinely paid and the going rate is in the region of $500,000 for one ship, its cargo and crew. The question of whether these hijackings are motivated by purely economic reasons, or whether politics is also involved, is now being investigated by the Kenyan and the transitional Somali governments.

The government of President Abdullahi Yusuf, who is yet to establish control over most of Somalia, has publicly denounced the pirates and has called on the international community to help by patrolling its waters. The international maritime authorities think this would benefit more than just Somalia but so far no-one has offered to help. Without help from outside, it is very difficult to imagine a time in the foreseeable future when Somalia will have sufficient resources and infrastructure to deal with piracy itself. For the time-being, sailing anywhere near Somali's coastline remains a risk and one that fewer and fewer sailors are willing to take.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4424264.stm

[Petronas]

For those with access to the U.S. Naval Institute's "Proceedings" magazine, I can recommend "Before the Storm: Al Qaeda's Coming Maritime Campaign", on page 20 of the Dec. 2005 issue. http://www.usni.org/ Unfortunately, I do not think that the article is available online, so you would have to be a subscriber or obtain it through a library.
"...Indications point to an acceleration of the pace of maritime terrorism, heralding a coming campaign. ..."

[Petronas]

No indication, of course, so far that this is terrorism, but it bears watching, particularly with a chemical tanker. There have been apparent terrorist dry runs in the Malacca Straits before.

Singapore / Indonesia (Country threat levels - 2 / 4): Reports issued on 21 December 2005 indicate that police and military officials are searching for a missing chemical tanker that they believe was hijacked by pirates in the South China Sea. The tanker, owned by a Singaporean company, was traveling from Palembang, Indonesia, and was expected to arrive in Singapore on 19 December.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 12/21/2005

[Casey]

UPI Terrorism Watch

Terrorism / News
Date: Jan 02, 2006 - 10:04 PM


By JOHN C.K. DALY
UPI International Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- On Dec. 29 Ukrainian maritime authorities in Odessa set the port's Maritime Security (MARSEC) status at Level 2. The reason for the action is unknown. Odessa is Ukraine's fifth-largest city and its most important trade entrepot.

The United Nations International Maritime Organization's International Ship & Port Facility Security Code contains three levels of maritime security.

At Level 1 the designated port and ships operate under normal parameters.

Under MARSEC, Level 2 increased security measures will apply for as long as authorities assess that there is a heightened risk of a security incident.

MARSEC Level 3 regulations are enforced for the period of time when authorities determine that there is a probable or imminent risk of a security incident.

The Marine Safety Environmental Protection Department based in Monaco reports that ships making port calls in Odessa are required to act upon MARSEC level 2 security regulations and take additional security measures on board the vessel prior to and during its visit to the port.

The alert could be related to terrorism, health issues or the ongoing dispute with Russia over natural gas prices.

Last month health authorities in Odessa confirmed a swine case of Siberian plague. On Dec. 26, the Ministry for Emergency Situations reported that a piglet had died in an Ivanovka Raion village. The next day the regional veterinary laboratory confirmed diagnosis of Siberian plague in the dead animal. After cremating the carcass, local sanitary and epidemiological specialists undertook anti-epidemic measures to contain the infection. In December Ukrainian health authorities also confirmed cases of bird flu in the country.

Terrorism and energy may also have caused the change in security status. Odessa's oil processing facilities and Yuzhny oil port are now an internationally important oil terminal for transporting Russian hydrocrabons to Europe, connected to the European Union's networks by strategic pipelines. As the pipelines transport Russian gas and oil, Chechen militants might be considering targeting them.

Ukrainian authorities gave no reason for the security upgrade.

http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20060102-105541-6488r

[Atlas]

Just guessing, but I read Ukraine has some sort of mutual use treaty with the Russian Navy for a couple of their ports and it may be that they don't want a Rooskie destroyer steaming into port during their dispute with Russia over the natural gas.

Can't talk tough while staring down the barrels of naval artillery

[al-Canine]

Malacca Strait Attack Would Rock World Economies

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A maritime terrorist attack in the Malacca Strait could send economic shockwaves around the world even it was not a major strike, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet said on Wednesday.

Admiral Gary Roughead said the risk of a terrorist attack in the strait shared by Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, one of the world's busiest sea routes, continued to rise along with the increase in global shipping and continued piracy.

``The Strait of Malacca is the heaviest trafficked strait in the world, and for that reason any disruption to that commerce, not only would it affect the region, I would suggest it would have global implications,'' Roughead told Reuters in an interview.

``I am not sure it would have to be of great magnitude. The fact that a vulnerability has been demonstrated is enough to affect trade,'' Roughead, head of United State's biggest naval fleet, said on the sidelines of a major naval conference in Sydney.

The narrow, strategic Malacca Strait is a 500-mile waterway linking Asia with the Middle East and Europe and carries some 50,000 vessels a year.

It also carries some 40 percent of the world's trade, including 80 percent of Japan's and South Korea's oil and gas and 80 percent of China's oil, according to a U.S.-Indonesia Society 2005 study on the impact of a terrorism attack in the strait. The London insurance market in 2005 classed the Malacca Strait a ``war risk'' zone -- adding the sea lane to a list of 21 areas such as Iraq and Colombo that it deemed high risk and vulnerable to war, strikes and terrorism.

Roughead said piracy -- a major problem for ships using the Malacca Strait, along with drug and human traffickers on the high seas -- could be used by terror groups to launch an attack.

``The terrorist movements and their network can use those same criminal lanes that others use,'' he said. ``I think activity on the ocean is increasing and terrorism is a part of that.''

Indonesian waters pose the world's great piracy risk, accounting for almost 30 percent of reported attacks in 2005, said The International Maritime Bureau, an ocean crime watchdog.

Global piracy fell in the past year, from 329 attacks in 2004 to 276 in 2005, with Indonesian attacks down from 94 to 79 and attacks in the Malacca Strait falling from 38 to 12.

The bureau acknowledged anti-piracy operations by Indonesia, which saw gangs of pirates captured in 2005, for the fall.

Roughead said there was still a need for greater cooperation among navies to combat maritime terrorism, citing operations already under way in the region.

The four Southeast Asian nations guarding the Malacca Strait began joint air patrols over the sea lane in September 2005 to combat piracy and terrorist threats.

But the weak link in maritime security was a lack of information on ships and cargoes, said Roughead, who called for

global information sharing similar to the aviation industry.

``You can look at an airplane flying in the world today and in almost every instance you know where it came from, who's on it, where it is going, what cargo it has, what time it left and what time it arrives,'' he said.

``The immediate need that I see is the ability to build that maritime domain awareness. To share that information so we can look at the maritime picture and determine those ships that are of no concern and focus on ships we are more concerned about.''

The Pacific Fleet is the U.S. navy's largest fleet covering the Pacific, Indian and Arctic Oceans, with some 200 ships, 2,000 aircraft and more than 239,000 sailors.

Roughead, who became commander of the Pacific fleet in December 2005, said the ``war on terror'' was changing the shape of the world's navies, forcing them to become more streamlined and capable of rapid, inshore deployment.

``In the U.S. Navy, we have become much more flexible and much more unpredictable in our deployment patterns,'' Roughead said.

``I believe navies of the future will be much more agile. I believe they will be more lethal, pound for pound,'' he said.

``But navies of the future will have to operate against a wider range of threats than what we have been used to dealing with in the past -- from the transnational criminal and terrorism all the way up to the high end of combat.''


http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-security-maritime-asia.html

[Petronas]

If pirates can do it, so can Al Qaeda.

Pirates hijack UAE oil tanker off Somalia
April 03 2006 at 12:06PM

Kuala Lumpur - A dozen heavily armed pirates have hijacked an UAE-registered oil tanker along with 19 Filipino crew members off the coast of Somalia, an international piracy watchdog said Monday. "Twelve pirates armed with machine guns, AK47 rifles and sidearms boarded the tanker off Mogadishu during daylight," Noel Choong, head of the Piracy Reporting Centre of the London-based International Maritime Bureau, told AFP. Choong said the United Arab Emirates oil tanker had earlier discharged its cargo at Mogadishu port and was hit on March 29 after leaving port. Maritime officials identified the ship as "Lin 1."

Choong said the pirates are holding the ship off the coast of Somalia and are demanding "a huge sum of money" from the owners for its release. The international coalition forces consisting of US, British and Dutch warships that are helping to police the area have been informed of the latest hijack, he said.

Choong said the pirates were holding the ship inside Somalia's territorial waters and this could pose a problem should the foreign ships want to intervene. Since March 15, 2005, pirates have hit 40 ships off Somalia but many more attacks have gone unreported, he said. Choong urged ship captains to keep their vessels at least 200km away from Somalia's coast to avoid pirate attacks. "The pirates are armed and they will not hesitate to fire to stop ships," he warned.

In a recent incident, pirates fired at a UN food aid ship in an attempt to hijack it. Pirates had hijacked an Indian ship, the Bhakti Saga, on February 26. Its 25-member crew was only freed on March 29. The waters around Somalia are among the most dangerous in the world, with heavily armed gangs prepared to venture far offshore to attack vessels.

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=qw1144057322768B254

[Petronas]

Maritime Terrorism in Southeast Asia: Potential Scenarios
April 6, 2006

The MV Limburg was attacked by terrorists in the Gulf of Aden in 2002, an example of the threat posed by maritime terrorism. In Southeast Asia, home to one of the world's most strategic sea lanes—the Straits of Malacca, and the world's second largest port, Singapore—the vulnerability of the maritime sector is of great concern. As a result, over the last few years various scenarios of how terrorists might carry out an attack in the maritime domain have been put forward by the media and academics alike. Many of these potential scenarios are extremely unlikely due to their complicated nature and their sheer impracticability. Nevertheless, a great number of these scenarios have remained unchallenged due to a lack of knowledge of the geography of the region, local shipping patterns and the nature of the commercial shipping industry in general. This has led to a misunderstanding of the threat posed by maritime terrorism.

This article seeks to address this problem by examining the credibility of a number of these scenarios. In addition, several other scenarios will be discussed which have received little or no attention in the literature on maritime security but which if carried out by terrorist groups could potentially have a serious impact on both Singapore and the efficient flow of global trade through the region's strategic sea lanes.

Scenario: Ship Sunk to Block the Straits of Malacca

In an article in Singapore's major broadsheet newspaper, the Straits Times on March 27, 2004, an "expert" on maritime security is quoted as saying that "If terrorists want to mount a maritime strike here [Southeast Asia], sinking a ship in the Malacca Straits is the likely attack of choice." He goes on to say that "It would enable them to wreak economic havoc worldwide by blocking the sea lane, and is also the easiest way to attack."

This scenario is clearly impossible for one key reason: the narrowest point of the marked channel in the Malacca Straits is at One Fathom Bank, where the width is 0.6 nautical miles. Even if a ship was sunk at this point, which itself is not necessarily an easy task to accomplish, it would not block the Straits. Ships could continue to use the waterway by simply navigating around the sunken vessel.

Scenario: Tanker as Floating Bomb to Strike Ports

The second possible scenario was summed up by Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo in a speech given to the ASEAN Regional Forum on July 29, 2005: "Terrorists could hijack an LNG [Liquefied Natural Gas] tanker and blow it up in Singapore harbor. Singapore, of course, would be devastated. But the impact on global trade would also be severe and incalculable" (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore). As this statement implies, the potential threat of terrorists hijacking one of the many vessels passing through the region, particularly those carrying high-risk cargos, such as LNG, crude oil or other such inflammable chemical products, is of great concern to the Singapore government.

In addition, the high number of pirate attacks in the region, a number of which have involved the hijacking of these more high-risk vessels, has led to worry that terrorists could use copycat methods to takeover a vessel for more sinister reasons. In a visit to Malaysia in 2005, Vice Admiral Terry Cross of the U.S. Coast Guard told the media that the ease with which pirate attacks were taking place in the Malacca Straits could "alert terrorists to the opportunities for seizing oil tankers" and that "these could be used as floating bombs" (The Straits Times, April 18, 2005). In a similar vein, when the 1,289-ton MT Tri Samudra was boarded by pirates in the Malacca Straits, the regional manager of the International Maritime Bureau was quoted as saying: "This is exactly the type of tanker that terrorists would likely use to attack a shore-based port or other facility" (The Business Times Singapore, March 15, 2005). The Tri Samudra is a chemical tanker that was carrying a full cargo of inflammable petrochemical products when it was hijacked.

There are a number of issues related to this scenario that need to be considered when assessing how likely it would be and what particular form it would take. The first issue is the differing capacity of each vessel and its cargo to cause damage and the means by which this could be made possible by determined terrorists. The second issue is the actual impact on the port or facility itself.

LNG tankers and their potential role in a scenario of this kind have probably received the most attention. In its liquid state, natural gas is not explosive, and it is in this form that it is shipped in large quantities via refrigerated tankers. Once in the open air, LNG quickly evaporates and forms a highly combustible visible cloud. It has been reported that if ignited the resulting fire could be hot enough to melt steel at a distance of 1,200 feet, and could result in second-degree burns on exposed skin a mile away (Council of Foreign Relations, February 11). A fire of this magnitude would be impossible to extinguish. It would burn until all its fuel was spent. The impact of such a fire on a port like Singapore would be devastating. There would be loss of life and severe structural damage in the immediate area. This would mean that the port would have to operate at a reduced capacity, causing delays in trade and a loss of business.

The most likely way that terrorists would carry out an attack using an LNG tanker would be to create an explosion onboard the vessel as it is rammed into the target. If powerful enough this could rupture the hull and cause the gas to escape. The force required to breach the hull and tank, however, would almost certainly cause a fire at the tank location which would ignite the gas as it escaped rather than causing a cloud of fire or plume. Thus, the potential damage would be limited somewhat to the tanker's location.

If the vessel chosen was an oil tanker carrying crude oil or petroleum products, its explosive capability would depend on the nature of the cargo and whether or not the vessel had a full load. Crude oil itself is difficult to ignite; its vapor, however, which may remain in the tanks after the vessel has unloaded its cargo, is more easily ignited. The most likely risk to the target port or facility is that of a localized fire, explosion (particularly in the case of volatile petroleum products), and the consequences of a potential oil spill.

The risk from a vessel carrying chemical products is also worrisome. Chemical products may pose a toxicity risk in addition to being highly volatile. Like LNG tankers, chemical tankers are designed with the maximum provisions for safety. The vessels are designed in such a way as to maintain space between tank walls to prevent incompatible cargos from coming into contact with each other. The safeguards in place, however, may not always be sufficient and may not be designed to guard against deliberate sabotage. In addition, general cargo vessels and container ships (which may not have such safeguards in place) are also sometimes used.

Scenario: Malacca Straits Blocked by Mines

One scenario that has not received much attention is the potential for the Malacca Straits to be blocked by mines. There are two variations of this scenario, both equally alarming. The first is that terrorists mine the Straits and the authorities are alerted to this fact either by a declaration from the perpetrators or because a ship hits a mine. The second is that terrorists merely claim to have mined the Straits and simulate a mine attack on a ship to add credibility to their claims. In each scenario, assuming that there is little or no information on the exact area of the Straits that has been mined, the impact would be the same—the Malacca Straits would be closed to shipping traffic, forcing the vessels, particularly those on international voyages, to reroute around the Lombok and Sunda Straits. This would cause severe delays to shipping as these alternate routes are longer. Additionally, shipping costs would increase and world trade would be affected. The impact on the region's economies could be severe if the closure lasted more than a few days.

Scenario: Missile Launched at Aircraft from Vessel

The final scenario, and again one which has not been widely discussed, is terrorists using a portable surface-to-air missile (SAM), launched from a ship, to bring down a commercial airliner. This would be of concern to Singapore where planes coming into land must make their descent over the busy shipping lane—the Singapore Straits. While arrangements may be in place to reduce the possibility of a SAM being fired from the shore in Singapore, the same cannot be said about ships passing off-shore.

SAMs can be purchased on the black market for a starting price of $10,000 and have a range which puts aircraft that are landing or in a holding pattern waiting to land well within their targeting capability. The missile could be launched from one of the many hundreds of small vessels transiting the Singapore Straits. The impact on Singapore would be massive; not only due to the loss of life, closure of the airport and the immediate effect on the Singaporean economy, but because there would be no way of guaranteeing that a similar attack would not be carried out in the future. Short of inspecting the contents of every ship that passes though the Singapore Straits, the law enforcement agencies can do very little to reduce this particular threat.

The key to gauging the extent of the threat posed by maritime terrorism lies not only in an assessment of the capabilities and motivations of the terrorist groups themselves, but also in an understanding of the maritime environment, shipping practices, the vulnerabilities of the commercial shipping industry and the response capabilities of those agencies tasked with safeguarding the region's shipping lanes. Uninformed claims regarding potential maritime terrorist scenarios, which are based on a misunderstanding or a complete lack of knowledge of these key factors, has led to a misinterpretation of the threat from maritime terrorism. This must be rectified if there is to be any hope of reducing the threat.

http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2369950

[Petronas]

Hard times for pirates in busy world waterway
October 30, 2006 edition

Regional cooperation on policing the Malacca Strait, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, has led to a sharp fall this year in piracy attacks, cutting the cost of insuring cargo plying its hazardous waters. Crews are now considered less likely to become victims of "maritime muggings" by seaborne assailants. That's a relief to countries such as Japan and China that depend on Middle East oil imports that transit the 500-mile passageway that snakes between Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. The US also has a stake in securing a commercial choke point that is used by US warships moving between the Pacific and Indian oceans. More than 50,000 ships annually transit the waterway, where half the world's oil passes through.

Still, doubts remain about the continued effectiveness of coordinated naval and aerial patrols to deter criminals that use Indonesia's rugged coastline as cover for attacks on vulnerable vessels. Maritime officials warn that the drop in attacks may be temporary, if patrols aren't maintained, and say that records are incomplete as shipowners don't always report piracy incidents to local authorities.

"The number of attacks has gone down, that's for sure ... [but] the pirates haven't been caught, they're just lying low," says Noel Choong, head of the piracy watch center of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) in Kuala Lumpur. He says that shipowners are reluctant to report minor piracy incidents as it delays their passage and can add to insurance costs.

According to the IMB's piracy center, just three incidents were reported in the Malacca Strait in the first half of this year, the lowest level since 1999. Far more pirate-prone, based on current data, are the coastlines of Nigeria and Somalia, where attacks are on the increase. The downward trend in the Malacca Strait began last year, when attempted and actual attacks fell to 18, down from 38 in 2004.

In response to the decline in attacks in the strait, the British-based maritime insurer Lloyd's removed the region from its war-risk insurance category in August, one year after it was put there. This measure had added an extra premium of up to 1 percent of cargo value, infuriating shipping lines.

A new Japanese-led regional initiative to link government databases on maritime security may offer another way to combat the menace of modern-day bluebeards. Eleven countries in Asia have agreed to share information on piracy through a clearing office that opened in September in Singapore, which operates the largest port in the Malacca Strait.

Analysts say this could eventually lead to intelligence sharing and joint prosecutions of crime gangs that exploit the legal gray area of high-seas piracy, though initially the center will focus only on data exchange. "At least the governments in the region will be sharing information on a regular basis, so let's see what they can do," says Joshua Ho, a senior fellow at Singapore's Institute for Defense and Strategic Studies. So far, though, neither Indonesia nor Malaysia, which have jurisdiction over much of the Malacca Strait, have ratified the accord, citing concerns over national sovereignty.

And while cooperation by Southeast Asian countries to secure the strait generally is working, much less progress has been made on combating the haze from forest clearance in Indonesia, a seasonal problem that irks neighboring Malaysia and Singapore but has yet to generate any lasting solutions.

In the past, both the US and Japan have proposed sending warships to secure the strait and ensure safe passage, only to be rebuffed by Indonesia and Malaysia. Indonesia argues that it makes more sense to beef up its Navy and Coast Guard, which are often ill-equipped to detect and intercept armed pirates in speedboats. Japan has already helped to finance a modest overhaul of patrol boats.

"The Malacca Strait isn't the only place with piracy issues, but it's always going to be important because it's one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world," says Peter Hinchliffe, general manager of the International Chamber of Shipping in London.

In the strait, keeping merchant cargo safe is only part of the problem. Singapore foiled a terrorist plot in 2002 to hit visiting US naval vessels using a smaller boat rigged with explosives.

Singaporean officials warn that Al Qaeda and its regional allies could also attempt to hijack oil tankers to use as floating weapons against ports, or try to block the strait to commercial traffic. At its narrowest, the waterway is less than two miles across. But most ship owners are focused on the danger posed by pirates. Some have lost crew members to armed attackers who have turned to kidnapping and holding cargo for ransom, as well as regular heists.

And despite the global focus on safeguarding the Malacca Strait for oil tankers and other large vessels, fishing trawlers and other small local craft are more likely to be targeted. Only two of the 18 recorded piracy attacks in 2005 involved large vessels transiting the waterway.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1030/p01s04-woap.html

[Petronas]

Manila, US war games deal with maritime threats
Tuesday, February 20, 2007

The United States and the Philippines began annual war games on Monday with the focus this year on maritime threats including piracy, hijackings at sea and cross-border terror. Scenarios played out could include something similar to the plot line of British author Frederick Forsyth’s thriller “The Afghan”, in which a a gas tanker is taken over by Islamic militants, and the ship is turned into a floating bomb aimed at attacking a G-8 summit in the Atlantic. “This is the first time that we’ll have this type of maritime scenario,” Major-General Stephen Tom, commander of 400 US special forces taking part in the annual “Balikatan” (shoulder-to-shoulder) military exercises in the southern Philippines. “We’ll make sure both sides practice their techniques and procedures so if the crisis becomes so real, they will be able to operate effectively.” His Philippine counterpart, Rear Admiral Amable Tolentino, said measures will be developed to counter maritime threats such as piracy and smuggling of weapons, drugs and Islamic militants across the country’s porous borders with Malaysia and Indonesia.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\02\20\story_20-2-2007_pg4_2

[Petronas]

Not terrorism, but it shows how easy it would be for terrorists to hijack a ship. I understand a US Navy warship is steaming to the rescue.

Somalia (Country threat level - 5): On 25 February 2007 pirates hijacked a U.N.-chartered aid ship making a delivery for the World Food Program (WFP) near the port of Bosasso, located off the northeastern coast of Puntland. The seagoing bandits, armed with AK-47s, intercepted the ship with a speedboat. The ship had offloaded its cargo in Berbera and Bosasso before being intercepted. Reports indicated that the ship’s registered name was the MV Rozen, owned by the Motaku Shipping Agency, with Mombasa, Kenya being its point of origin. The pirates have not issued any demands. Authorities believe that the raiders maintained their base of operations in the port of Haradheere.

http://www.asigroup.com/HOTSPOTS.asp

[Petronas]

New terror alarm along coastline
March 12 2007 Delhi edition, page 8

INTELLIGENCE REPORTS are warning of terror attacks through the sea route, officials and anti-terrorism experts say, weeks after an unrelated but chilling reminder: the latest issue of al-Qaeda's main training manual issued an exhortation for maritime strikes.

The declaration last month in al-Battar, the main training journal for the international terror group, made no mention of South Asia. But Indian officials say there are already increasing fears of anti-India groups infiltrating from or carrying out an attack along India's sprawling coastlines, especially after the sharp reduction in militant infiltration and attacks in Jammu and Kashmir

"We have seen significant thinking and investment on the part of jihad groups to operate in the maritime domain. This is a recent development," international terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna told HT from Singapore. "Off-shore attacks are more difficult to carry out. They require more investment and planning. But they are more dramatic - which will be something new in the Indian context," Gunaratna said.

Protecting sea routes is crucial. The sea accounts for 90 per cent of India's trade by volume, and more than three-fourths by value, according to the Indian Navy Between April and December last year, India's total imports and exports were valued at Rs 1,000,000 crores. But the sprawling land mass makes foolproof surveillance virtually impossible. India has a coastline of 5,420 kilometres touching 12 states and union territories, apart from 1,197 farflung islands, accounting for 2,090 more kilometres of shores.

On Thursday, Defence Minister A.K.Antony said there were intelligence reports of militants planning a strike. "There are reports about terrorists of various tanzeems (groups) being trained and (the) likelihood of their infiltration through sea routes," he told Parliament.

The biggest maritime terror attacks so far were the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in 2000 and of the French oil tanker Limburg in 2002, both blamed on the alQaeda. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has been known to carry out several attacks using explosive-laden motor boats in Sri Lanka.

Beyond Indian waters, Indian defence officials have in recent weeks pointed to the threat from the seas in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), that spans 736 million square miles. "The IOR has become the de facto home of global terrorism with many regional states covertly or even inadvertently aiding and abetting subversive elements," Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta said last month. Coast Guard director general Vice Admiral Rusi Contractor has expressed similar concerns, citing intelligence reports. "For India, oil supplies are the most vulnerable. Militants could attack supplies coming in from West Asia or at the Bombay High," antiterrorism expert B. Raman said from Chennai. "There could be attacks on ports or landing points, because it is much more difficult to attack ships at sea, and there is U.S. Navy presence in the area."

The Ministry of Defence has suggested forging agreements with neighbouring countries and other littoral states to share information to stave off threats from the sea. India and South Africa are considering a system of regional cooperation in the IOR to combat threats from non-state actors, including terrorists and pirates.

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/Default.aspx?selpg=1691

[Petronas]

FBI PRESS RELEASE


Seattle Field Office





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


FBI | 1110 3rd Avenue | Seattle, WA 98101

For Immediate Release
August 20, 2007

Contact: FBI Seattle
(206) 622-0460

SEEKING PUBLIC’S ASSISTANCE IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUALS

The Seattle FBI and the Washington Joint Analytical Center (WAJAC) are requesting the public’s assistance in identifying the two individuals pictured below. These men have been seen aboard Washington State Ferries on several occasions and have exhibited unusual behavior, which was reported by passengers. While this behavior may have been innocuous, the FBI and WAJAC would like to resolve these reports.

If you can identify these individuals, or know their whereabouts, please call: 206 622-0460

The Seattle FBI and the Washington Joint Analytical Center (WAJAC) are requesting the public’s assistance in identifying the two individuals pictured below. These men have been seen aboard Washington State Ferries on several occasions and have exhibited unusual behavior, which was reported by passengers. While this behavior may have been innocuous, the FBI and WAJAC would like to resolve these reports.


http://seattle.fbi.gov/pressrel/2007/public082007.htm

[Petronas]

Missing ship feared seized by pirates off Somalia
NAIROBI, Oct 22 (Reuters)

A Comoros-registered cargo ship is missing off Somalia and a Kenyan maritime official said on Monday he feared it had been seized by pirates. If confirmed, the Al Marjan would be the fourth vessel being held by pirates in one of the world's most dangerous waterways.

"We are trying to find its position and who are the gunmen," Andrew Mwangura, head of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, told Reuters by telephone. "At the moment we don't know how many crew are on board and their nationalities."

The Al Marjan was heading from Somalia to Kenya, he said. Two Tanzanian fishing vessels and one from Taiwan are held by pirates off the Somali coast.

On Sunday, pirates in two speed boats attacked another Comoros-registered cargo ship working for the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) off the southern Somali coast. The WFP said the MV Jaikur II escaped by switching off its lights and speeding out into the Indian Ocean.

"WFP reiterates its calls for foreign powers to send naval vessels to international waters off Somalia to hunt down the pirates and protect the transport of humanitarian assistance," the U.N. relief agency said in a statement.

http://wap.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22392360.htm

[Petronas]

The Triborder Sea Area: Maritime Southeast Asia's Ungoverned Space
October 11, 2007

Since the al-Qaeda attacks of September 11, maritime security analysts in the Asia-Pacific region have focused their attention on the Strait of Malacca and the potential for a major terrorist strike in this vital artery of world trade. Preoccupation with the Strait of Malacca has meant, however, that another, perhaps equally serious, maritime black spot has been neglected, namely the Sulu and Celebes seas, a porous triborder sea area between the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. Decades of poor governance, economic and political marginalization, lack of state capacity, and separatist conflict have turned this area into an "ungoverned space" and hence a haven for transnational criminals, including terrorists. Addressing transnational threats in this area not only requires greater security cooperation among the three countries, but also increased assistance from external powers who have much to offer in terms of capacity building.

The focus on the Strait of Malacca during the past six years is understandable given its importance to the global economy. The 550-mile strait, located between the Indonesian island of Sumatra and peninsular Malaysia, is the shortest route between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and it is estimated that 25-30% of world trade and 50% of global energy supplies pass through it each year. Post-9/11, security analysts conflated piracy and terrorism, and posited several scenarios in which transnational terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda or its Southeast Asian affiliate Jemaah Islamiya (JI) link up with pirates to perpetrate a major attack in the Strait of Malacca with the goal of disrupting the global economy.

While these concerns were almost certainly overplayed, the international pressure generated galvanized the three littoral states (Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore) into tightening sea lane security. In 2004-2005, the three countries launched the Malacca Straits Patrols (MSP), a cooperative security measure that comprises year-round coordinated naval patrols and combined air patrols. In addition, Indonesia—the locus of maritime crime in Southeast Asia—mustered the political will and resources to increase naval patrols in its territorial waters. As a result of these and other initiatives, cases of reported piratical attacks in Southeast Asia dropped 53% from 2003 to 2006.

While international attention was focused on the Strait of Malacca, however, the security situation in the sea lanes linking the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia were allowed to deteriorate. This area—known as the triborder sea area—comprises two main sectors. The first is the Sulu Sea in the southwestern Philippines, a 100,000 square-mile body of water bounded to the northwest by Palawan Island, to the southeast by the Sulu Archipelago, and in the southwest by the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah. The second sector is the Celebes Sea (also known as the Sulawesi Sea), 110,000 square miles of water bordered by the Sulu Archipelago and Mindanao to the north, Sabah and the Indonesian province of Kalimantan to the west, and Indonesia's Sulawesi Island to the south. The Celebes Sea opens southwest through the Makassar Strait, which is increasingly used by large crude oil tankers unable to use the shallower Strait of Malacca.

The Sulu Archipelago (comprising the islands of Basilan, Jolo and Tawi-Tawi), Mindanao and Sulawesi have all been neglected by the central governments in Manila and Jakarta for decades, resulting in poor governance, corruption and high levels of poverty and unemployment. In addition, Mindanao has been wracked by over three decades of insurgency and separatist conflict. As a result, the Sulu and Celebes Seas have become notorious for illegal maritime activities such as smuggling, piracy, and trafficking in illegal narcotics, guns and people; in short, it is an ungoverned space. What most concerns security analysts is the utilization of the maritime domain in this area by terrorist organizations as a base of operations.

The locus of the problem is the southern Philippines, home to the terrorist organization the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and the separatist group the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The ASG has been based on the islands of Basilan and Jolo since its foundation in the early 1990s, and is very familiar with the surrounding maritime area. It was from these islands that the ASG launched raids against tourist resorts in Malaysia and Palawan Island in 2000 and 2001, receiving large ransoms in return. The ASG was also responsible for the world's deadliest act of maritime terrorism to date, the sinking of the MV Superferry 14 in February 2004 in Manila Bay, which killed 116 people and injured 300.

Both the ASG and MILF have been accused of conducting piratical attacks in the Sulu and Celebes Seas as a means of generating income for their causes. The full extent of this problem, however, remains unclear as accurate statistics are not available. Piracy in the southern Philippines has been a perennial problem—indeed a way of life—for many centuries. Ships' masters are often unwilling or unable to report attacks to the International Maritime Bureau's (IMB) Piracy Reporting Center in Kuala Lumpur because it only receives reports in English via high frequency radio or fax, and language skills and equipment are often lacking in the rich fishing grounds of the triborder sea area. As a result, the vast majority of maritime depredations in this area go unreported to the IMB. For instance, in early January 2007, the Philippine authorities rescued dozens of fishermen who had been held for ransom off Tawi-Tawi, and in March suspected MILF operatives held 20 fishermen hostage off Mindanao—neither incident was reported to the IMB. The IMB received just six reports of maritime crime in Philippine waters in 2006, a grossly inaccurate figure.

Both the ASG and MILF have established linkages with JI, and a recent RAND study noted that the Sulawesi-Mindanao arc provides the terrorist organization with a "key logistical corridor" and "theater for jihadist operations" [1]. JI members Umar Patek and Dulmatin, both suspected of planning the 2002 Bali bombings, are believed to be in the Sulu Archipelago after escaping from Indonesian authorities. JI operatives are known to undertake training in camps in the southern Philippines, and travel from Sulawesi to Mindanao via Sabah which is just a short boat ride from the Sulu Archipelago. Sulawesi itself constitutes an important base of operations for JI as the organization has grafted itself on to sectarian and communal violence in Poso over the past few years. Sabah is also important to JI and the ASG for another reason: it provides a place of sanctuary. Sabah is home to more than half a million illegal immigrants from the Philippines and Indonesia, allowing operatives from both groups to blend in and lie low.

Tackling transnational security threats in the triborder sea area is hindered by the lack of state capacity, especially in the Philippines and Indonesia.

Starved of funding for years, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is one of the weakest military forces in Southeast Asia. As the country's primary security threats are land-based—separatist, communist insurgent and terrorist groups—the army has received priority funding. The operational effectiveness of the Philippine Navy (PN) and Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has suffered accordingly, leaving the country's sea lanes largely unprotected. In October 2006, Philippine National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales summed up the situation: "We cannot check every boat that travels between Indonesia and Mindanao. Over 26,000 trips are made by these boats [every year] and it is impossible to monitor each of them given the government's meager resources" (The Philippine Star, October 16, 2006). The PN's inability to effectively monitor the sea lanes in the Sulu Sea enabled ASG and JI operatives to flee from Jolo and Basilan in the wake of a major U.S.-backed AFP offensive earlier this year. In early September, for instance, Philippine authorities arrested six alleged ASG members on Palawan Island, who were believed to have escaped the dragnet around Jolo.

The Indonesian Navy faces similar problems. In the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Indonesia's defense budget was slashed, and by 2003 it was estimated that less than 30% of the Navy's 113 vessels were operational. Since 2004, improved economic conditions have enabled the navy to purchase new corvettes and patrol boats, but it is still significantly below strength and incapable of monitoring the country's 34,000 miles of coastline and 4.9 million square miles of territorial waters and exclusive economic zones. The navy estimates it needs another 262 warships to adequately patrol the country's vast maritime domain (Antara, September 18). Moreover, due to international pressure, the navy has been required to concentrate its limited resources on the Strait of Malacca. Indonesia's participation in the MSP, and increased naval patrols in its territorial waters adjoining the strait, have put severe pressure on the navy's aging and fuel-thirsty vessels.

Malaysia is in a better position to deal with the problem. The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) is more professional and better equipped than its Philippine or Indonesian counterparts, and after the 2001 raid on Sipidan its presence on Sabah was beefed up. In 2005, Malaysia launched its national coast guard, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), which is responsible for enforcing maritime law in both east and west Malaysia. However, both the RMN and MMEA have focused their efforts on the Strait of Malacca for the past several years to the detriment of security in the waters around Sabah.

Security cooperation among the three countries is very limited. The naval forces of Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia conduct coordinated patrols but their effectiveness is limited by infrequency and lack of available assets. Indonesia and the Philippines conduct CORPAT PHILINDO four times a year, but each patrol involves only one vessel from each country and lasts for only 10 days. Nevertheless, Manila and Jakarta have agreed to strengthen the patrols in an effort to stem arms trafficking into Poso, but resources are very limited. Malaysia and the Philippines conduct just two coordinated patrols (OPS PHIMAL) each year. In 2006, the Philippines proposed year-round coordinated naval patrols like the MSP, as well as designated sea lanes for all maritime traffic to facilitate easier monitoring and inspection by the three navies, but so far no agreement has been reached (Associated Press, March 13, 2006). The Philippines has, however, recently announced a program designed to enhance the PN's ability to conduct surveillance and interdiction of security threats in the country's "southern backdoor" called Coast Watch South. The concept, developed with help from Australia, envisages the establishment of 17 Coast Watch Stations from Palawan to Davao provinces, equipped with fast patrol boats and helicopters. Funding the $380 million program, however, will be a challenge.

If maritime security threats in the triborder sea area are to be effectively addressed, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia will require sustained assistance from external powers in the form of capacity building. Capacity building efforts need to focus on improving the communication, surveillance, and interdiction capabilities of regional maritime law enforcement agencies such as the navy, coast guard and marine police. So far, the focus has been on the Strait of Malacca, but this is gradually changing. The United States has agreed to supply Indonesia with 12 radar stations, some of which will be situated in North Sulawesi, as well as 30 patrol boats for the Marine Police. Australia, meanwhile, has agreed to supply the Philippines with 28 high-speed boats for Coast Watch South. This is a good start, but much more needs to be done in the coming years to undo decades of neglect and rein in this ungoverned space.

Notes

1. Angel Rabasa, "Case Study: The Sulawesi-Mindanao Arc," in Angel Rabasa et al, Ungoverned Territories: Understanding and Reducing Terrorism Risks (Santa Monica: RAND, 2007), p. 116.

http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373708

[Petronas]

Japanese chemical tanker hijacked by Somali pirates
Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Somali pirates have hijacked a Japanese-owned chemical tanker in the latest such seizure in the Horn of Africa nation's notoriously lawless waters, a regional maritime official and a piracy watchdog said on Monday.

Andrew Mwangura, head of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program, said shipping sources in both Somalia and Japan had confirmed the vessel was seized eight nautical miles offshore on Sunday morning. "We are trying to establish what demands they have, and how many people were on board," Mwangura told Reuters by telephone from the Kenyan port city of Mombasa. "There are five well-organized pirate groups operating in Somali waters. We know the one which took this boat," he said.

An official from the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Center in Kuala Lumpur identified the vessel as the 12,000- deadweight-ton Golden Nory. "She has been taken into Somali waters, and we haven't heard anything from her since," the official said. Quoting an IMB official, Japanese news agency Kyodo said the tanker had 23 non-Japanese crew on board, made up of its South Korean captain and South Korean, Filipino and Myanmar nationals.

A Comoros registered cargo ship, the Al Marjan, also went missing off Somalia last week, making a total of five boats believed currently held there by pirates. The other three boats are two Tanzanian fishing vessels, and a ship from Taiwan. The Japanese-owned boat taken at the weekend was carrying a Panamanian flag of convenience, Mwangura said. The waters off Somalia, which has been in anarchy and without central government since 1991, are considered one of the world's most dangerous due to a proliferation of pirates.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/2007/10/30/128824/Japanese-chemical.htm

[Petronas]

A very good 22 page article from earlier this year.

Al Qaeda's Maritime Threat

http://static.scribd.com/docs/ecrjoj3596mym.swf?INITIAL_VIEW=width

[Petronas]

Defence minister says a smuggled bomb a major threat to North America
Wednesday, November 28, 2007

OTTAWA - Defence Minister Peter Mackay says the greatest threat facing North America is international terrorists smuggling a nuclear weapon onto the continent through a busy container port. At an Ottawa conference of transportation security experts on Wednesday, Mackay raised the spectre of radicals detonating a crude radioactive dispersal device or a conventional nuclear bomb after smuggling it in one of the millions of cargo containers arriving annually on foreign ships. "The greatest threat to North America right now is on the water," he told the audience. "This is an area where, God forbid, if someone with ill intent decided to send a dirty bomb or some kind of a nuclear device into our country, this is an area where we are vulnerable. With the number of movements of containers coming into this country today, this is an area we have to be completely and extremely vigilant and rigorous in terms of security."

His assessment of the maritime threat is the bluntest yet from a government minister and echoes concerns high-ranking U.S. officials have expressed publicly for years: al-Qaida has nuclear ambitions, is working to develop the nuclear capabilities to match, and just one of the containers arriving annually on North America's shores could be a Trojan Horse harbouring the unthinkable.

Gary Gilbert, of the giant U.S. company Hutchinson Port Holdings, which operates 48 international ports handling 60-million containers annually, later suggested to delegates it may only be a matter of time before that happens. "We have seen drugs come in, we have seen illegal aliens, we have seen weapons," he said. "Why can't it be a weapon of mass destruction?"

A nuclear device arriving undetected in a North American port could be shipped to virtually any point in the continent by rail or truck. The U.S. is now ringing its major cities, and eventually much of the country, with radiation detectors. Triggering a nuclear device within a major port would also cause devastation. The Port of Los Angles, for example, is the trans-shipment point for much of the state's gasoline supply, as well as 3.3 million direct and indirect jobs.

The U.S. also has custom agents screening U.S.-bound containers at certain foreign ports. But, as a 2004 government report to Congress noted, terrorists are expected to try to circumvent those efforts by acquiring a trusted shipping company to avoid suspicion, falsifying manifest data, infiltrating ports' administrations and shipping from ports where there are no U.S. agents.

Security improvements are being introduced at major ports in both countries. Federal authorities here for the past two years have been arming all major ports with stationary radiation detectors to better scan incoming container traffic.

"It is essential to Canada's sovereignty and to the safety of our citizens that we continue to be vigilant in guarding our coastlines," Mackay told the international gathering, sponsored by the Conference Board of Canada. "As a trading nation, our economic well-being depends very much on this."

By 2012, the U.S. wants all of the estimated seven-million cargo containers arriving on its shores annually to be scanned for hidden nuclear cargo, up from less than one per cent today.

But the economic well-being of ports, which handle the vast major of goods used by North Americans, is at stake, too. "You can have the best security in the world, (but) if commerce doesn't flow, your wasting your time. Those containers have to move," said Ralph Tracy, head of the Los Angles Port Police. He is responsible for guarding the largest port in the U.S. and third largest in the world.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=69907260-3e9b-424e-80b5-118b0ebd3528&k=62889