Al Qaeda plotted to hijack or sink oil tankers last year to prompt a spike in prices and trigger an economic crisis in the West, United States officials said on Friday, in the latest warning based on intelligence from Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.
The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sent an intelligence note this week to federal, state and local law enforcement and energy sector companies to alert them to al Qaeda’s interest in targeting oil and natural gas infrastructure, they said. Despite al Qaeda’s interest in targeting oil tankers and commercial oil infrastructure at sea, the officials said there was no indication of any specific or imminent terrorist attacks being plotted.
Earlier this month, US officials said al Qaeda considered attacking the US rail sector on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, in describing intelligence from bin Laden’s hide-out. The officials said it was not surprising the US found ideas for potential terrorists plots involving oil tankers and trains in the information seized by the US Navy Sea, Air and Land commandos during the raid that killed the al Qaeda leader.
