Spy satellites and surveillance planes are being used by US intelligence to track about 15 cargo ships which it believes are owned or controlled by al-Qaida, it was reported yesterday.
Officials are concerned that the freighters could be used to smuggle explosives, chemical or biological weapons, or even a radioactive dirty bomb into a US port. They could also be used to put al-Qaida members into a target country or as floating bombs against cruise ships.
Hundreds of searches of the suspect ships in the past 16 months have uncovered little apart from hashish, a few rifles, and some stowaways.
The Washington Post reported that the surveillance effort was given greater focus by information provided by Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, an alleged senior al-Qaida planner who was seized in November in the United Arab Emirates and is being questioned by US interrogators.
One of a group of men arrested in the UAE along with Nashiri had been studying for a seaman’s licence, which would allow him to enter any port without a visa.
US navy and coastguard intelligence officers are scrutinising the enrolment lists of maritime academies around the world, but their certificates are widely faked.
Nashiri is suspected by US officials of having organised the suicide attack on the USS Cole off the Yemeni coast in 2000 and of having played a role in the 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
A US intelligence official said yesterday: ”There is concern that there are cargo ships that are used by al-Qaida for various purposes. But that’s not new.”
He said the the Washington Post article gave an ”overstated” impression of an elevated threat.
Nevertheless, US naval intelligence is coordinating a marine tracking operation on an unprecedented scale from its headquarters in Suitland, Maryland, drawing on information from dozens of cooperative navies.
The hunt is a cat-and-mouse game as the suspect ships, like many of the 120 000 merchant vessels around the world, sail under flags of convenience.
The number of ships suspected of links with al-Qaida has fluctuated between 12 and 50. The figure of 15 is the current estimate.
David Osler, industrial editor of the maritime journal Lloyd’s List, said: ”We’ve suspected the existence of these vessels for over a year now. There has been a huge operation in the Mediterranean, searching several ships a week for the last year, but it’s had a really low success rate.”
Navy officials quoted by the Washington Post said al-Qaida had used one particular shipping fleet, flying the flag of the Pacific island of Tonga, to carry its members around the Mediterranean.
The fleet is registered by a firm called Nova, incorporated in both Delaware and Romania. Its Delaware address is an empty shell.
According to the Romanian newspaper Ziua, Nova is being investigated by US officials with the cooperation of the Romanian authorities.
In August, 15 Pakistanis were arrested on board one of Nova’s ships, the Sara, in the Mediterranean, and charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism. – Guardian Unlimited Â