Switch to Desktop Site  How Al Qaeda might strike the US by sea
Port authorities prepare for a variety of potential attacks from
a terror group believed to own as many as 15 ships.  About these
ads  Al Qaeda terrorists proved with the attacks in Saudi Arabia
this week that they are still capable of staging simultaneous
bombings. And they did so at the same time that the US is
carrying out its largest public drill to test the preparedness
for such an attack at home.  So far, the terrorists have used
trucks - as in the 1998 bombings of the US Embassies in Africa
and Monday night in Saudi Arabia, and turned airliners into
weapons on Sept. 11. Now, one of the biggest concerns of
authorities is that the terrorists may try the same thing with
another form of transportation - ships.  Smuggling a biological
or chemical weapon in a ship container could be just one
approach. Another might be exploding an oil tanker at anchor, an
action that might wreak devastation on petroleum ports. Or a
large vessel could simply be