Terrorist threat from Trinidad

[BEER980]

A Canadian newspaper in a front page story published on Saturday claims that the CIA fears a devastating terrorist attack could be launched from Trinidad aboard a liquid natural gas tanker.

According to the Ottawa Citizen in a story written by Donna Jacobs, US Coast Guard "now rides shotgun on selected Boston-bound freighters from the Caribbean island in the wake of an intelligence report commissioned last year by the US. The international consulting firm TRW Inc identified tankers from Trinidad as one of the most significant terrorist threats against the US. TRW also identified tankers carrying Canadian oil or cruise liners carrying hundreds of tourists as possible security risks. The US depends on Trinidad for two-thirds of its liquid natural gas imports, but underfunded US port security has left 95 per cent of ship cargo uninspected.

"A port attack, says a 2003 Homeland Security report, would be consistent with the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks because 'terrorists see the dual benefit of killing Americans and wreaking economic havoc by striking commercial targets'.

"The report cites the CIA's conclusion that the US 'is more likely to be attacked with a weapon of mass destruction smuggled into the country aboard a ship than one delivered by ballistic missile'.

"Even a minor attack in a US port could shut down maritime commerce nationwide for a month," it says, interrupting supplies of winter heating oil and manufacturers' spare parts. "Boston's mayor, Thomas M Menino, fears tankers entering his port 'could be attacked or turned into a weapon of mass destruction'."

The Ottawa Citizen report goes on to add that "despite intelligence experts' worst fears, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning met with US President George W Bush a month ago to assure him of Trinidad's continuing stability as an energy supplier.

In return, he asked the US for trade agreements, help in boosting Trinidad and Tobago's national security and assistance in combating the island's flourishing drug trade.

"Mr Manning, a former energy minister, has also driven bargains with multinational oil companies for increased royalties to help fund his ambitious 2020 programme, designed to move Trinidad and Tobago from the Third World to the First World in less than two decades.

"Mr Manning may need that extra security help from the US, according to the Washington, DC-based US Center for Strategic and International Studies, which now warns of rising Al Qaeda and terrorist presence in the southern hemisphere."

Source