The threat of seaborne terrorism needs to be taken as seriously as attacks from the air, with international shipping tracked as closely as airliners, the commander of US forces in the Pacific warned yesterday.
Admiral Thomas Fargo, on a visit to Malaysia where security in the vital Malacca Strait shipping lane has been high on the agenda, said the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group remained a menace in the region.
While security forces working to prevent terrorist attacks had a clear view of the movement of international aircraft, this should be extended to shipping, he told a news briefing.
PHOTO: AP
"We have a very good understanding of where [aircraft] are going, who is on board, what cargo they carry, when they will land and their status throughout their voyage," Fargo said. "We need to gain that kind of clear view of the maritime space ... so we can gain a better feel for who is moving throughout the sealanes of communication."
International concern has grown recently over the possibility of a calamitous terrorist attack in the Malacca Strait -- a narrow waterway bordered by Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia -- which is used by some 50,000 ships a year carrying a third of world trade.
Fargo would not spell out in detail the sort of attack which was feared, saying there was a "range of possibilities."
"Obviously what you would worry about is a vessel being used as a weapon, with a bomb incorporated or its cargo used in some fashion that it could cause a catastrophic occurrence," he said.
Security experts have speculated that an attack could range from crippling world trade by sinking ships in the Malacca Strait to the nightmare scenario of a hijacked fuel tanker used as a floating bomb against a port in a maritime version of the airborne Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
"We do know terrorists have used maritime opportunities to advantage," Fargo said, pointing to seaborne suicide attacks on the <
"And if we are going to ensure the security of our citizens and nations and infrastructure against terrorism we are going to have to deal with it equally effectively on the maritime side to achieve those goals," he said.
Fargo denied reports that Washington wanted US forces to help patrol the Malacca Strait, saying cooperation would focus on the sharing of intelligence and offering to help build the capacity of countries in the region to face the threat themselves.
The reported suggestion that the US wanted military involvement in the Malacca Strait was immediately rejected by Malaysia and Indonesia, both Muslim countries, which said it would infringe on their sovereignty and attract rather than repel terrorism.
Fargo, whose trip has been partly designed to reassure Malaysia that the US has no such intention, stressed that "we have tremendous respect for sovereignty."
He said he had been "warmly received" in Malaysia, where he met Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as well as the defense and foreign ministers, and believed the two countries saw security issues "pretty much in the same way".
Fargo was questioned about a comment by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Singapore earlier this month, where he said he hoped US forces would be hunting terrorists in Southeast Asia "pretty soon."
"I think it means that we'll work together with nations of the region to ensure that we share information and intelligence and build capacity so that nations can take effective action on their own right to deal with the terrorist problem," he replied.
Fargo named the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group, which was responsible for a series of bombings in the region, as a particular concern.
While countries in the region had made significant strikes against Jemaah Islamiyah, with some 200 members arrested, "this group has the ability to continue to threaten these legitimately elected democracies," he said.
Fargo was due to leave late yesterday for Thailand, before going on to Singapore.
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