Post-9/11 situation

Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 advanced democracies involved in the global coalition against terrorism have received a wide range of threats of varying degrees of credibility and specificity.

Responsible for the attacks of 9/11/2001, the Al Qaeda network is source of preoccupation because of its threats of violence anywhere in the world against the United States and its allies.

Since 9/11/2001 the surface transportation systems of many courtiers have bee threatened or targeted by terrorist. The most prominent events include:

• United States. U.S. authorities warned the truck industry to pay attention to suspect behavior with the regards to transport of chemicals, radioactive waste, biological agents and other hazardous material. This warning was further sustained by the F.B.I. arrests in mid-September 2001 of individuals allegedly linked to al Qaeda who had showed interest in the trucking industry. One of them, Nabil Almarebh, had just obtained a license to transport HAZMAT. The following month, the F.B.I. revealed that it was looking at the whereabouts of about thirty individuals of Arab descent who had obtained a similar license. These individuals has attended a driving school in Denver in small groups over the preceding two years. They paid cash for the qualifying course spoke little English and none looked for work after qualifying for the license. The use by terrorist of large commercial vehicles transporting HAZMAT was a concern because al Qaeda had used trucks and suicide drivers to hit the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996.

• Pakistan A suicide bomber attacked the bus outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi on 5/8/2002. The bomb was detonated in a car parked close to a bus. At least 12 people, including nine France nationals, where killed and twenty injured. Al Qaeda was thought responsible.

• United Kingdom. On 11/9/2002, British authorities arrested three North African individuals and charged them with possession of fake passports and other documents under anti-terror legislation. The media speculated that the three alleged al-Qaeda linked individuals where planning a cyanide gas attack on London's subway system.