Al-Qaida considered oil tankers as terror targets

WASHINGTON – The terror group al-Qaida last summer considered hijacking and detonating oil tankers in non-Muslim seas to provoke an "extreme economic crisis" in the West, according to documents seized from Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, the U.S. government said.It said there was no specific or imminent threat and that officials don't know whether al-Qaida had continued the plotting since last year.In a confidential warning obtained by The Associated Press, the FBI and the Homeland Security Department said that al-Qaida sought information on the size and construction of oil tankers, and determined that blowing them up from the inside would be easiest due to the strength of their hulls. Al-Qaida recommended test runs of the plot."We are not aware of indications of any specific or imminent terrorist attack plotting against the oil and natural gas sector overseas or in the United States," DHS spokesman Matthew Chandler said in a statement Friday. "However, in 2010 there was continuing interest by members of al-Qaida in targeting oil tankers and commercial oil infrastructure at sea."Another U.S. official, who was briefed on the bin Laden documents, described the plot as aspirational and not fully formed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.The government warning went to federal, state and local law enforcement and companies in the oil and gas industries. The Homeland Security Department said it was not raising the nation's terror alert level.