Peril on the sea

Durante algún tiempo participé en un foro donde se discutían asuntos relacionados con el futuro de la energia. Aprendí varias cosas, aunque no conseguí acostumbrarme al tipo de discusiones que se daba (en rigor, que dábamos), y lo terminé dejando. Este artículo del Economist acerca de la posible interrupción de las vías de transporte marítimo de la energía (Peril on the sea) me llamó mucho la atención.
Naturalmente hay muchos otros Perils on the sea, pero una cosa no quita la otra.

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Iba a copiar el artículo aquí aunque veo que el enlace funciona bien sin necesidad de subscripción. Lo dejo de todos modos por si la generosidad del Economist tiene un límite. El diagrama no es del artículo.

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Peril on the sea

Oct 2nd 2003
From The Economist print edition

Are terrorists now aiming to block shipping lanes and disrupt the flow of oil and other goods ?

ON MARCH 26th, the Dewi Madrim, a chemical tanker off the coast of Sumatra, was boarded by ten pirates from a speedboat. They were armed with machine guns and machetes and carried VHF radios. They disabled the ship's radio, took the helm and steered the vessel, altering speed, for about an hour. Then they left, with some cash and the captain and first officer, who are still missing.

So what? South-East Asia is the home of piracy. There was an alarming 37% increase in incidents during the first half of this year. Raiders board ships, steal cash and kidnap crew members, then hold them for ransom. Some criminals even steal a ship and sell its cargo—then repaint it, equip it with false documents and put it to work. The region, with its lax security and poor maritime supervision, is famous for such “ghost ships”.

But according to a new study* by Aegis Defence Services, a London defence and security consultancy, these attacks represent something altogether more sinister. The temporary hijacking of the Dewi Madrim was by terrorists learning to drive a ship, and the kidnapping (without any attempt to ransom the officers) was aimed at acquiring expertise to help the terrorists mount a maritime attack. In other words, attacks like that on the Dewi Madrim are the equivalent of the al-Qaeda hijackers who perpetrated the September 11th attacks going to flying school in Florida.

Coupled with this, there is evidence that terrorists are learning about diving, with a view to attacking ships from below. The Abu Sayyaf group in the Philippines kidnapped a maintenance engineer in a Sabah holiday resort in 2000. On his release in June this year, the engineer said his kidnappers knew he was a diving instructor; they wanted instruction. The owner of a diving school near Kuala Lumpur has recently reported a number of ethnic Malays wanting to learn about diving, but being strangely uninterested in learning about decompression.