New Terror Tactic

[aSoldier]

New Terror Tactic

Implications of the thwarted terror attack on a Saudi oil refinery

by Mark Hitchcock

 

Last week was quite a week. Just two days after Sunni Muslims in Iraq bombed a Shiite holy place, threatening an outbreak of civil war, another startling report came from the Middle East as Al-Qaeda suicide bombers attacked a Saudi oil facility. The Associated Press (2/24/06) issued this report.

 

Suicide bombers in explosives-laden cars attacked the world's largest oil processing facility Friday, but were prevented from breaking through the gates when guards opened fire on them, causing the vehicles to explode, officials said. . . . The price of oil jumped by more than $1.20 on world markets as they heard of the attack. The April delivery price of Nymex sweet light crude, the U.S. benchmark, rose $1.26 to $61.80. The European benchmark, Brent crude, leaped $1.21 to $61.75 for April delivery. It was the first attack on an oil facility in Saudi Arabia — and it targeted one of the kingdom's most important. The huge Abqaiq processing facility near the Gulf coast handles around two-thirds of the country's oil output, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Intelligence Agency. (AP 2/24/06)

 

In a statement on a militant website, Al-Qaeda said that the attack was "part of a series of operations that al-Qaida is carrying out against the crusaders and the Jews to stop their plundering of Muslim wealth."

 

The attack has raised fears that militants have adopted a new tactic. It's now clear that terrorists will use the oil dependency of the West as a strategic weapon by sabotaging, disrupting, and interrupting oil supply to tighten the noose around the West's neck. With over 260 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, which is a quarter of the world's total, Saudi Arabia is the top foreign supplier to the United States. Saudi Arabia is also the main source of petroleum liquidity in the world market.

 

Clearly, the Al-Qaeda terrorists selected their target in eastern Saudi Arabia very carefully. As the Associated Press reported, "The Abqaiq facility processes about 5-7 million barrels a day. Of this production, 93% is for export, so it is loaded directly into ocean-going tankers, the remainder being used for local consumption."

 

This new tactic by the terrorists should not be surprising. As worldwide demand for oil continues to escalate, and supply remains static, the quest for oil will become more urgent. Terrorists know this all too well and will use oil to blackmail the West.

 

Therefore, the need for peace in the Middle East will continue to be at the top of the list for the international community. Europe, with the exception of England, is totally dependent on imported oil. A successful strike on the Saudi oil fields that disrupted supply for a substantial period of time would have dramatic consequences for Europe.

 

As Iran continues with its nuclear program, it's not inconceivable that a terror group could eventually obtain a nuclear weapon and detonate it in eastern Saudi Arabia and turn the spigot completely off. This would turn off the lights in the West, plunging the entire global economy into a death spiral.

 

This recent event underscores the desperate need for peace and an end to the terror threat to guarantee the survival of the West and the world economy. It's unlikely that the U.N. or any other democratic group will have the backbone or skill to pull this off. The Bible's prediction of the rise of Antichrist on a platform of peace fits the current scenario very well. The world will welcome the one who can come and bring peace, albeit a false, temporary peace, to an anxious, desperate world.