Daily News (NY) December 29, 2003
New luxury liner a possible terror target, authorities say
By James Gordon Meek
WASHINGTON _ Transatlantic terror fears extended Sunday to the world's newest and largest luxury liner _ the Queen Mary 2.
Just two weeks before its Jan. 12 maiden voyage from England to Florida, two U.S. officials have confirmed that the $800 million ship is mentioned as a possible target in intercepted al-Qaida communications.
"It's being taken seriously," a federal law enforcement source told the New York Daily News.
But Queen Mary 2 owner Cunard denied that the company, which is a subsidiary of Carnival Cruise Lines, has had any threat to the QM2.
"We have received no specific threat against the Queen Mary 2," said Cunard spokeswoman Julie Davis. "For the safety of our passengers and crew, we continue to work very closely with authorities on both sides of the Atlantic."
Still, Cunard officials might be kept in the dark if U.S. officials wanted to thwart an attack, said one defense analyst.
Homeland Security Department officials "are clearly worried about somebody taking a pop at a cruise ship," said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org.
Al-Qaida bombed the destroyer Cole in 2000, a French oil tanker in 2002 and is known to have targeted other seagoing vessels.
The threats against the QM2 were first reported by British newspapers Sunday, quoting unnamed Cunard officials.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Christopher Cox, R-Calif., suggested such threats _ including the large volume of intercepted terrorist "chatter" that prompted the latest orange alert on Dec. 21 _ could be al-Qaida probing U.S. and other countries' defenses for weaknesses.
"That concerns me a great deal, and that's a very real possibility," he told "Fox News Sunday." "It's a very inexpensive way for terrorists to do great damage."
But others dismissed Cox's "asymmetrical warfare" theory _ the concept of feeding disinformation to U.S. intelligence collectors to test America.
"I haven't heard anybody present that as a plausible analysis," said one Daily News federal law enforcement source. "If that was a real theory, I don't think we would have gone to orange."
U.S. intelligence grew concerned about real attacks occurring because of specificity in terrorist chatter and "who it was coming from," the official said.
Meanwhile, British authorities announced they will begin putting armed sky marshals on U.S.-bound jetliners in response to continuing fears that al-Qaida will try to hijack an aircraft for another round of suicide flights.
© Copyright 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
