Monitors: Jihadist threats to Navy increasing - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Monitors: Jihadist threats to Navy increasing

Jihadist threats online against U.S. warships in the Middle East have spiked since just before the New Year, according to a monitoring group in Washington, including some of the most ambitious calls yet for terror attacks specifically on the Navy and sailors.

One Dec. 30 post, translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, calls for readers to assemble and submit information about American ships and their crews in chilling detail:

“Information on every U.S. naval unit — and only U.S. [units]! — should be quietly gathered [as follows:] [The vessel’s] name, the missions it is assigned; its current location …; the advantages of this naval unit; the number of U.S. troops on board, including if possible their ranks, and what state they are from, their family situation, and where their family members (wife and children) live; what kind of weapons they carry; the [vessel’s] destination …; the missions it has carried out; the way to monitor it around the clock; if its location is changed, define its movements and its route; monitor every Web site used by the personnel on these ships, and attempt to discover what is in these contacts.”

The writer, whose handle is “Ubada bin Al-Samit” and who posted on a Web forum called Al-Falluja, assured readers every item would be useful:

“My Muslim brothers, do not underestimate the importance of any piece of information, as simple as it may seem; the mujahideen, the lions of monotheism, may be able to use it in ways that have not occurred to you.”

The posts were provided to Navy Times by MEMRI spokesman Richard Wachtel, who said his group does not usually see comments that call so specifically to target American warships. Also significant, he said, was that the post was a response to an official call from the Yemeni terror group, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, to Muslims: “Kill the crusaders in the Arabian Peninsula on land, in the air, and at sea.”

The Yemeni branch of al-Qaida has been in an international spotlight after a man linked to it allegedly tried to blow up an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day.

A Jan. 4 post on another jihadist site alluded both to the failed attack and to the pending “threat” to American warships, Wachtel said.

“We have attacked you on land and in the air ... and soon [we will attack] in the sea ... . Al-Qaida’s troops, especially those in the Arab Peninsula, have expertise in this area. Their first naval operations ... were the destruction of the [destroyer] Cole [in 2000] and of the French oil tanker [Limburg in 2002].”

As in posts on any topic across the Internet, the terror sites apparently include their share of bluster and bravado: Neither the Cole nor the Limburg were “destroyed” after their respective attacks.

Cmdr. Chris Sims, a spokesman for 5th Fleet in Bahrain, told Navy Times that officials there “[take] all threats, real or perceived, very seriously and therefore maintain a constant high level of vigilance to ensure the safety of our personnel both ashore and afloat.”