Web site encourages attacks on pipeline

By WESLEY LOY
Anchorage Daily News

Published: January 18, 2006
Last Modified: January 18, 2006 at 03:00 PM

A recent posting on a Web site purportedly affiliated with al-Qaida urges attacks against the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and Valdez tanker dock, calling on jihadists to either shower the pipe with bullets or hide and detonate explosives along its length.

The unknown author encourages small cells of four or five mujahideen, or Muslim guerrillas, living in the United States or in Canada or Mexico to mount the attacks.

The 10-page posting includes numerous links to Web sites providing maps and other, basic information about the pipeline.

Attacking oil and gas targets in the United States and other countries is key to bringing down the economy of the "American devils," the author writes, saying the message was posted in response to calls from Osama bin Laden and his top al-Qaida deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.

The Arabic posting was discovered and translated in late December by the SITE Institute, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit organization that tracks international terrorists.

The "presentation of targets" essentially was a posting to a Web log, or blog, known to be affiliated with al-Qaida, and there's no way to identify the author or know whether it could inspire an actual attack, said SITE director Rita Katz.....Source