Plots

Bin Laden Wanted to Blow Up Tankers

Had links to planned U.K. Easter bombing.

We can add oil tankers to the list of vehicles Osama bin Laden was planning to hijack and blow up. Files obtained in the bin Laden raid reveal the al Qaeda leader wanted to hijack oil tankers and blow them up at sea in an attempt to rattle the world's oil market. The plot seems not to have gone beyond fantasy, but the FBI issued a warning to police and the energy industry Friday that the terrorist group had shown interest in tankers as late as 2010, and that it wanted to blow them up in the spring and summer. Security analysts have warned for years, especially since the outbreak of pirate hijackings off Somalia, that blowing up a tanker would be an easy way to affect global markets. More files obtained in bin Laden's compound show he may have had a hand in a plot to carry out bombings in England during Easter. The plot was foiled in 2009, though not in the most effective way: Britain's head of counterterrorism was photographed carrying plans for the raid, forcing police to act before they had sufficient evidence to convict the plotters.