Dubai is setting the standard in the Gulf for port security; late last year it was the first to agree to implement the United States? Container Security Initiative (CSI) for US-bound cargo (WAR Report). Concerns about port and maritime security have arisen recently since Osama Bin Laden issued a message to Mujahideen urging them to hurt the United States economically and to work to drive the price of oil up (WAR Report). With those strategic considerations, oil tankers make great targets. Further, animosity toward the American naval presence in the Persian Gulf outdates the Iraq war but has been worsened since the invasion. Plans to attack these ships have been uncovered and thwarted in the past.

A warning was also raised last month by Aegis Defence Services? Dominic Armstrong, who warned that the new leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Saud al-Otaibi, was a maritime terrorism expert who had been the mastermind behind the attack on the USS Cole . Although maritime security in the Persian Gulf should be a concern, other sources do not support Armstrong?s claim. According to al-Otaibi?s life story as provided in the al-Qaeda publication Sawt al-Jihad, the Saudi al-Qaeda leader is not much of an expert in anything (WAR Report). He went to Afghanistan to receive training but sickened almost immediately and returned. His activities for al-Qaeda prior to becoming its leader were fundraising, carrying money between higher-ups, and writing for al-Qaeda?s media wing. He has become a leader because he has outlived al-Qaeda?s militarily-skilled operatives, and this is probably because he did not have the skills to be included in dangerous attack operations. Saudi analysts confirm the al-Otaibi is a weak leader with no military expertise (Intel Report).