The Athena: A Case of Peter and the Wolf?

[BEER980]

I am not sure if any of you have been folling the story of the Athena. I have and found this interesting.

Jack Grady

Arab News

DUBLIN, 23 December 2003 — In the current, post-Sept. 11 atmosphere of false alarms and paranoia, of false-flag operations and disinformation, there is the growing danger that the public and even governments may dismiss future threats and alerts as being little more than examples of Peter’s crying wolf.

The most recent case pertaining to Osama Bin Laden’s “Phantom Fleet” may, I fear, prove to be an apt illustration in point. For more than two years now, the world’s intelligence services and military forces have been engaged in a sometimes desperate hunt for Bin Laden’s mystery navy, a fleet ranging in number from 15 to as many as 300 ships. Perhaps the most credible estimate of the fleet’s size was provided by Norwegian intelligence sources and confirmed by the CIA, both placing the number at 23 vessels. The recent scare involving a 17,000-ton freighter named the Athena, which flies the flag of the Bahamas and is owned by Petrobulk Maritime of Athens, could be the result of misinformation or faulty intelligence. Then again, the scare could have been an Al-Qaeda-planted red herring, or, it could have been simply a case of mistaken identity. The ship was reported in Australian waters in June and July this year.

It next emerged in New Zealand toward the end of September. Although the Australians made no public fuss about the ship in June and July, they have since admitted that they had been tipped off about it and that they investigated both the ship and the crew.

The Athena first made calls in New Zealand at the North Island ports of Auckland and Tauranga before continuing on toward the South Island, where it berthed at Lyttelton on Oct. 2. As a result of a tip (probably from the United States, according to sources who requested anonymity) that Al-Qaeda operatives might be on board the ship, the New Zealand authorities decided to board and search it and examine the ship’s and the crew’s documentation.

The ship and crew were eventually cleared for entry and for departure, for nothing suspicious was found. As a precaution, however, the crew was not allowed to leave the ship. Before departure, a final check was performed to ensure that all of the crew was still on board. The ship then set sail for South Korea with a cargo of logs and arrived at the port of Kunsan, on the West Coast of South Korea, 150 km south of Seoul, on Oct. 31.

Before the ship’s arrival at Kunsan, the South Koreans received a tip-off similar to what the New Zealanders had received, that is, that the Athena might be harboring Al-Qaeda operatives. According to South Korean officials, the source of the information was the US military. After boarding and searching the ship and examining the documentation of the ship and crew, the South Koreans found nothing suspicious nor any trace of Al-Qaeda. As a precaution, though, they also banned the crew of the ship from shore leave. The Athena remained in port for ten days, during which time its cargo of timber was unloaded.

As I suggested, there is the possibility that the suspicions regarding the Athena could have been fabricated as part of a disinformation campaign to foster fear and paranoia worldwide as well as in America.

The Bush administration has been able to increase and consolidate its expanded power over its citizens by keeping the American public in an unrelenting state of fear through a steady and perhaps calculated inundation of terror alerts and warnings of dirty bombs, of chemical and biological terrorism, and of terrorists having the means to detonate a nuclear device in an American port or inland city.

This managed to whip up the public to such a degree that it drowned out dissent and applauded a foreign adventure against a country and leader that had no link with either 9/11 or Osama Bin Laden. Fabricated intelligence, indeed, contributed to the American public’s buying into its government’s position hook, line, and sinker.

Considering this disinformation and propaganda campaign and the public’s growing suspicion that it may have been hoodwinked by it, it is possible that the public may assume that Bin Laden’s “Phantom Fleet” is also a fabrication calculated to frighten foreign nations (as well as Americans) in order to win over or ensure adherence to the US government’s position, including its position on Iraq.

Supposing that Bin Laden’s fleet really exists, on the other hand, suspicions regarding the Athena may have been a deliberately planted red herring, fed to US intelligence agencies by Al-Qaeda itself in order to propel America’s intelligence agencies, naval forces, spy satellites, etc., into chasing shadows while real Al-Qaeda ships safely elude surveillance and capture as they sail toward their destinations and targets.

And this brings me to a third possibility, that is, that the suspicions regarding the Athena that was inspected in Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea are the result of mistaken identity. Among the 120,000 merchant ships operating in the world, there are, according to Lloyd’s Intelligence Unit, six registered under the name of Athena. To further complicate matters, in the murky and corrupt world of international shipping, where “flags of convenience” and “flag hopping” are the rule rather than the exception, it is not uncommon for ships to change names, be repainted, and don new flags of registration. So, at some point, there could have been, or perhaps there still is, a Bin Laden ship named the Athena; but apparently that ship is not the one that was recently searched in South Korea.

The Bin Laden Athena may be one of the other five ships registered in the world under that name, or the mystery ship may now have a different name altogether. In all events, and whether or not this recent incident involved disinformation, a red herring, or mistaken identity, it is clear that the freighter the Athena that was inspected in Kunsan, South Korea is not part of an Al-Qaeda fleet.

Nevertheless, the potential threats posed by a terrorist fleet remain real and significant. Far less has been initiated to ensure security on the high seas and at ports than has been done for air transport, and both shipping and seaports remain extremely vulnerable to a terrorist attacks. Indeed, no longer do maritime security personnel ask the question “if?” regarding the possibility of maritime terrorism.

The subject has passed beyond the realm of possibility to one of probability, for the questions they ask now are “when?” and “where?”. Perhaps, if we had less disinformation inundating our communication channels, we might be alerted by the real cry of the wolf long before we have to ignore Peter’s final whimper.

— Jack Grady is a freelance writer and journalist and a former intelligence professional. He now resides in Ireland
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