CIMSEC’s DC chapter will be heading to the Drafting Table, 5 blocks east of the Dupont Circle metro stop, for our informal August meet-up next Wednesday. We hope you’ll join us to meet some interesting people, discuss all things maritime, and recap International Maritime Shipping Week (oh and the drinks are good too).
All are welcome and no RSVP is required, but if you’re planning on coming please drop me a line so we have an idea of how many seats to reserve: [email protected]
Among the aspects of the “thwarted” terrorist Al-Qaeda attacks that authorities in Yemen claim they disrupted on Wednesday were attacks on port facilities and petroleum infrastructure:
“The plot described Wednesday by Rajeh Badi, a spokesman for Prime Minister Mohammed Basindwa, involved seizing control of Mukalla, a vital sea port and capital of the Hadramaut governorate, and Bawzeer, another key port roughly 27 miles from Mukalla. Both ports employ a large number of workers from Western countries. At the same time, separate groups of militants were to target the Belhaf gas pipeline in Yemen’s southern Shebwa province, as well other gas facilities there, Badi said.”
While Yemen-based attacks at sea such as those against USS COLE (DDG-67) in 2000 and the French tanker LIMBURG in 2002 are better known, Al-Qaeda has has a history of purported planning for attacks against maritime infrastructure on the Arabian peninsula itself. While there is no evidence that Al-Qaeda has conducted actual maritime attacks from the sea (or attacks on coastal installations) in Saudi Arabia to date, its Saudi branch has attacked coastal oil infrastructure on land, and the Saudi security services claim that they have prevented AQ attacks in the past.
In 2003 Saudi authorities stated that Al-Qaeda cells were planning attacks against the oil facility in Ras Tanurah. In 2004 they conducted attacks against westerners at oil facilities in Yanbu and Khobar. In May 2007, Saudi television aired confessions of a captured terrorist who claimed that the February 2006 suicide attack on the Abqaiq oil refinery near Ras Tanurah was ordered by Usama bin Laden. In November 2007 the Saudi government claimed that they had detained “more than 200 suspected militants, including a cell that had been planning an imminent attack on a support installation in an oil-rich eastern province and others who were attempting to smuggle missiles into the country.”
The validity of Yemeni claims regarding these alleged attack plans remains unclear, but it does seem that land-based attacks against maritime infrastructure could still be a potential course-of-action that Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula wishes to pursue in the future.
Lieutenant Commander Mark Munson is a Naval Intelligence officer currently serving on the OPNAV staff. He has previously served at Naval Special Warfare Group FOUR, the Office of Naval Intelligence, and onboard USS Essex (LHD 2). The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not reflect the official viewpoints or policies of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government. You can follow him on Twitter @markbmunson.
As I conduct turnover with Chris Barber, CIMSEC’s new 2013-14 Director of Membership, I have found it exciting to reflect on the growth that CIMSEC has seen in the last year.
Upon assuming the inaugural position of Membership Director in June of last year, I found CIMSEC to have a whopping 30 ‘official’ members. But this was not an insurmountable challenge: Scott C-P, Matt Hipple, and other CIMSEC leaders were actively engaged through social media and other outlets. There were many great candidates corresponding and participating in our discussions. The great aspect of CIMSEC is that we have been very open and flexible to the topics discussed here, and I personally believe that this fundamental strength has drawn in many more interested participants and willing blog posters. This angle of CIMSEC, along with social gatherings, membership recruiting, social media feeds, hat-tips from other bloggers, CIMSEC published works, and down-right good articles – has expanded membership to an exciting level.
In the last year, CIMSEC has grown by 99 members (I could not hold out writing this post any longer for that milestone 100) and the physical locations and areas of expertise are vast:
Ladies & Gentlemen, Please start a line to the left!
USN, USNR, and USMCR
USN and USCG (Retired)
E-5 to 4-star Admirals
CEOs of various companies
PhDs, MBAs, Masters, Bachelors, and Midshipmen
Contractors, Government Employees, and Congressional Aides
International Military Officers (Philippines, Cameroon, Uruguay, Norway, Poland, Royal Navy)
US and International Organization members (UN, ACC, EIAS, ICWA, NOAA, USNI, Institute for Security Policy, and Pew Trust)
Other international locations: Japan, Canada, Germany, Australia, Lebanon, India, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Egypt, Hong Kong, R.O.K, Djibouti, and New Caledonia)
Despite this great growth of membership, we know that there are many more interested CIMSEC followers out there. They may just need a slight incentive or urging to apply for membership and start participating. I ask all current members to reach out to their family, friends, and co-workers who have the potential of providing valuable articles, counter-points, or comments to consider joining CIMSEC – strengthen the discussion of International Maritime Security.
I know Chris will do an outstanding job as the new Director of Membership and with our member’s assistance I believe we can see membership increase threefold in the next year.
A.J. “Squared-Away” is a husband, father, U.S. Navy Surface Warfare Officer, and is currently a joint planner at a US combatant command. He has completed multiple deployments to the Mediterranean Sea and Arabian Gulf on patrol boats, destroyers, aircraft carriers and aboard an Iraqi oil terminal. He is a graduate of the USMC School of Advanced Warfighting (SAW) and holds two master’s degrees from Marine Corps University. The opinions and views expressed in this post are his alone and are presented in his personal capacity. They do not necessarily represent the views of U.S. Department of Defense or the U.S. Navy.
Don’t look for us among these tables, the waitstaff is sure to shunt us off towards a bar…
Join us for our July DC-area informal meet-up/happy hour. The crowd will be heading to the upstairs bar area of the District Chophouse at the Gallery Place/Chinatown metro stop. We hope you’ll join us to meet some interesting people and some of our new officers, discuss all things maritime, and brainstorm ideas for our next analysis week.
Time: Wednesday, 24 Jul 5:00-9pm Happy hour lasts til 7:00pm
Place: District Chophouse (Main floor bar until 6:30, then upstairs if we can turf it out)
509 7th St NW, Washington, DC
Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro (Red/Green/Yellow lines)
All are welcome and no RSVP is required, but if you’re planning on coming please drop me a line so we have an idea of how many seats to reserve: di[email protected]
CIMSEC’s DC chapter will be heading to the Drafting Table, 5 blocks east of the Dupont Circle metro stop, for our informal August meet-up next Wednesday. We hope you’ll join us to meet some interesting people, discuss all things maritime, and recap International Maritime Shipping Week (oh and the drinks are good too).
