Container Ships The Next Terrorist Weapon?

NEWSMAX ^ | 4/15/02 | Dave Eberhart

[shaggy eel]

,,, here ya go! Your COSCO thoughts lie within.

[A. Morgan]

Geeze... you mean instead containers packed of dozens of Chinese, they'll be replaced with dozens suicide bombers?

[Aquinasfan]

Bummer. I was thinking of the LNG tankers as the next likely scenario.

I heard a couple of teasers the last couple of days saying that "Bin Laden was closer to having weapons of mass destruction than we thought" but never heard the story. Anyone hear anything?

[tubebender]

Better get right down to Wally Mart and stock up on...er... stuff.

[Cindy]

In your post #2, are you referring to the "COSCO" also known as the China Ocean Shipping Companies Group which has offices in America?

[Robert357]

An ISO 40 foot container stacked on a Container ship could be loaded just like a truck bomb. That is it could have sufficient power to make a very large explosion. While the results would be tragic, most intermodal ISO containers never, and I repeat never get into areas where there are thousands of people. Therefore, the comparison to the damage at the twin towers, is not valid. Yes, such a device could do damage to the ship, it could make a mess, but it could not kill two to three thousand people, just because it would not be in a place where that kind of population density would likely be.

Every since the "Canadian" was found in an airplane pilots uniform within a customized ISO container that he was taking a trip from Egypt to Canada, there has been a theory that container shipping security is way too lax. Also the US has sent agents to various Canadian ports to check cargo containers there prior to their shipment to the US. So it is possible and would be horrible, but survivable.

[AmericaUnited]

Noted journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave, in a special "Off the Record” briefing to NewsMax readers warns that terrorists have already talked and bragged about being able to explode a fully loaded oil tanker as it passes through the Straits of Hormuz.

Such a disaster, de Borchgrave says, would close the narrow straits, and send the world economy into a tailspin.

I find this not credible. If a tanker was sunk, it would be refloated and towed out of there ASAP! There is enough oil in reserves or coming from other areas as to not cause a crisis over the straights being closed for a week or so.

[shaggy eel]

,,, at this point the thinking seems to be confined to cargo. There's a possibility of a device being submerged alongside a ship too.

[Diddle E. Squat]

I'm ready. Got a month's supply of pop-tarts, bottled water, and pigs-n-blankets.

[RipSawyer]

I was born in a cabin without running water and only an open fireplace for heat, my mother cooked on a wood stove until I was four or five years old. Why do I find myself thinking that I would rather live that way again than live in the future that I see coming?

[survivalforum.com]

really doubt a 'nuclear device' would be brought in this way, at least by a terrorist outfit, especially now. Should a terrorist group gain a nuclear device or even a radiological weapon a shipping container is just too slow and too vulnerable a delivery mechanism. These are going to be their pride and joy, a one of a kind weapon. Such a device would not be left unattended in someone elses custody for weeks. The plot could be detected during the interim. The device could become damaged or even lost. The consequences of failure would be catastrophic for if the bomb were discovered or failed to detonate properly its antecedents would be traced.

Too slow? Device would be watched?

Are you aware that some of these containers have been rigged like hotel rooms? People being transported within these containers wearing a three piece suit, cell phones and laptops?

Damaged or lost?

Only one percent if that are inspected...the container shipping system is one of the most reliable shipping mechanisms around...

Franklin

[goodnesswins]

Ok....so we live above a busy container port (Tacoma, WA) - should I not worry?

[mathurine]

At some point it will be necessary to eliminate the threat by greasing the middle eastern islamic idiot pool in its entirity; sooner would be betterthan later in this case.

[mathurine]

At some point it will be necessary to eliminate the threat by greasing the middle eastern islamic idiot pool in its entirity; sooner would be betterthan later in this case.

[chaosagent]

Therefore, the comparison to the damage at the twin towers, is not valid. Yes, such a device could do damage to the ship, it could make a mess, but it could not kill two to three thousand people, just because it would not be in a place where that kind of population density would likely be.

The Texas City, Texas explosion in 1947 of first one ship and then a second, killed almost 600 hundred people and injured almost 4000. It is said that if the same thing happened in the same location today, the dead toll would be in the 10's of thousands.

[Travis McGee]

Who needs nukes? Just load a container with ANFO for a bomb 20 times bigger than OKC, detonate the container using a GPS trigger when the truck the container is loaded onto passes over a critical bridge etc.

Or an LNG tanker can be used as a bomb, or a crude oil supertanker rammed into a city on autopilot. The possibilities are limitless.

And there is not much we can do to stop it without severely hindering free world trade, leading to a global depression.

OTOH, look at the bright side. The arab death cult islemmings will be totally quarantined from world trade, and will have to find a way to drink oil and eat sand.

We will have a bad period of adjustment to the new economic realities, but the islemmings will starve by the millions, being totally dependent on outside food, with very shaky water resources. (A half dozen bombs could destroy 90% of Saudi Arabia's water desal plants, leading to the end of them once and for all.)

It's a classic case of nasty creeps living in a glass house throwing pebbles at the giant who owns the rock quarry. Long term, it's suicidal for them. Alive or dead, their oil will still be there waiting to be pumped by anyone who takes the fields.

[shaggy eel]

,,, there's always a bright side Travis!