Al-Qaida hoped to blow up oil tankers, Bin Laden documents reveal

Documents seized from Pakistan compound discuss ‘aspirational’ plot designed to provoke economic crisis in west Documents seized from Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan reveal that al-Qaida considered hijacking and blowing up oil tankers to provoke an “extreme economic crisis” in the west, the US government has said. According to the documents, al-Qaida sought information on the size and construction of oil tankers in non-Muslim seas. The terrorist group had established it would be easier to destroy the vessels by taking bombs on board, due to the strength of the hulls, and test runs had been recommended, the FBI said. However, US officials said there was no “specific or imminent threat”. The department of homeland security said: “In 2010 there was continuing interest by members of al-Qaida in targeting oil tankers and commercial oil infrastructure at sea.” The plot was described as “aspirational” and in its early stages. The US government said it was not raising the nation’s terrorism alert level but a warning had been sent to companies in the oil and gas industries. There has been no immediately significant effect on oil markets. West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the benchmark for oil prices in the US, fell by 2% early in the day. The government encouraged companies to continue random screening, warn employees about possible threats and establish procedures for reporting suspicious activity. The threat to oil tankers suggests that al-Qaida was adopting the strategy of Somali pirates, who have had remarkable success in recent years using small boats to race alongside and board large commercial ships off the East African coast. They hold the cargo and crew for economic ransom. Al-Qaida attacked the USS Cole in October 2000, using a small boat loaded with explosives while the warship was docked in the port of Aden in Yemen, just across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia. Seventeen sailors were killed. The US government said al-Qaida hoped the destruction of a tanker, together with the cleanup and salvage costs and market effects would result in “extreme economic crisis” in the West. But experts said al-Qaida probably overestimated what the loss of a single oil tanker might be on the industry. Concerns about the safety of individual oil tankers from pirate activity or terrorism had not really affected oil prices, said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates, who has been trading oil contracts since 1983. A tanker holds about two million barrels of oil, enough to supply world demand for only about a half hour. al-Qaida Global terrorism Osama bin Laden US national security United States Oil Damien Pearse guardian.co.uk

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