Terrorists Training Scuba Divers To Attack Ships

The Associated Press reports that two al-Qaida-linked groups in Southeast Asia are training terrorists in scuba diving for seaborne terror attacks.

In the past year, the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah has given Abu Sayyaf militants in the Philippines at least $18,500 for explosives training alone, the report said.

The report comes a month after the U.S. Coast Guard announced it is seeking to better protect the nation's ports from terrorist attacks by scuba divers by developing a sonar system that can distinguish human swimmers from dolphins.

Concerns about terrorist strikes by scuba divers were raised three years ago after the FBI announced it was investigating whether al-Qaida operatives took scuba training to help blow up ships at anchor, power plants, bridges, depots or other waterfront targets.

According to the Associated Press, this development is outlined in a Philippine military report and is based upon the interrogation of a recently captured "guerrilla:"

According to the Philippine report, an Abu Sayyaf suspect in a February 14th bus bombing in Manila, Gamal Baharan, described how he and other seasoned guerrillas took scuba diving lessons as part of a plot for an attack at sea.

Abu Sayyaf leaders Khaddafy Janjalani and Abu Sulaiman initiated the training, Baharan said, adding that Janjalani claimed to speak directly with al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden via satellite phone. Authorities couldn't verify any such conversations and said Janjalani may have been boasting, according to Philippine military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Baharan, 35, said he was told in October to undergo the scuba training in southwestern Palawan province, where he periodically received cell phone messages from Janjalani and Sulaiman "asking him how many fathoms he would be able to dive," the report said.

The training was in preparation for a Jemaah Islamiyah bombing plot on unspecified targets outside the Philippines that require "underwater operation," Baharan is quoted as saying.

Comments

[chuckmiser]

To do damage to most things that have to do with the water you don't need to scuba dive deep at all; most ships, even the very biggest only go down 40 feet, you could do that free diving if you could get close enough. I be more worried about many more places than this like water supply's or fuel trucks in cities.