US/1 - Member Contribution
By: Anthony Kimery
07/14/2011 ( 8:33am)
As America’s economic stagnation continues largely unchanged in the face of a looming federal government debt crisis, federal counterterrorism intelligence officials and other authorities told Homeland Security Today the nation’s security increasingly is being put at risk, making the US at this moment in time a target for a major attack.
“Under Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda’s goal had been to find a way to attack us in a way that would hurt us economically – and I mean really hurt us. So if Al Qaeda still wants to slam us economically, now is the time to do it,” said one of the US counterterrorism officials who has studied the terrorist network’s capabilities to cause America grievous economic damage.
This and other officials said on background because of the sensitivity of their positions that the time has never been better for Al Qaeda “or any of its capable franchises” to attack in a way that would directly or indirectly result in not only a potentially debilitating economic blow to the country, but an economic collapse of some sort that would ripple around the world, especially in Europe,” another said.
Indeed. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke just told Congress that “the [US] Treasury security is viewed as the safest and most liquid security in the world, and the notion it would become suddenly unreliable and illiquid would throw shockwaves through the entire global financial system.”
He added that the largest credit ratings agencies might even downgrade America's credit rating even if the US does not default and Congress agrees to raise the debt level in order to continue servicing its loans.
Coinciding with Bernanke’s warning, Moody's Investors Service credit rating agency announced that it is reviewing the US’s financial malaise and related problems as part of a possible downgrading of its current AAA credit rating on US credit worthiness.
Moody's said it saw a "rising possibility that the statutory debt limit will not be raised on a timely basis, leading to a default on US Treasury debt obligations.”
Moody's is the first of the big three credit rating agencies to review America’s triple-A rating.
A reduced US credit rating by any of the big three credit rating companies could provoke possible mayhem in financial markets around the planet and vastly escalate borrowing costs for the federal government and businesses, which would have a directly negative impact on public finances and further depress the nation’s overall economy.
“So you can understand why Al Qaeda, or any other terrorist organization motivated by the jihadist ideology, would see that America is highly vulnerable right now – perhaps more than it’s ever been - to an attack or attacks the impact or direct effect [of which] would be further depression of the US’s economy,” one of the counterterrorism officials said.
The other officials interviewed agreed. One explained: “Al Qaeda probably has never had a better point in time for attacking us in a way that would hit us hard economically.”
“And what’s scary is that that it can be any kind of attack," the official continued. "Certainly a catastrophic, mass casualty attack would have a dramatic impact on the economy, but so, too, would a coordinated small cell attack with automatic weapons at major amusement parks across the country.”
“Can you imagine what would happen if Disney’s amusement parks in Florida were attacked?” asked Laura Hains, a ranking Customs and Border Protection officer when she retired in 2008. “Florida’s economy would collapse.”
An authority in seaport security specializing in port security/intelligence, cargo, commercial vessel, container and cruise ship security who designed, implemented and supervised two port intelligence units, Hains added that California – which also has an important amusement park industry – would also suffer economically if terrorists were to attack theme parks there, too.
But it’s not just amusement parks, Hains said. She stressed that attacks at just one or two major US ports not only would close these ports, but many other US ports potentially would be closed as authorities worked to determine if they were subject to attack.
“Closing just one port would have a devastating impact on the nation’s economy,” Hains said, noting that the recovery could be long and painful depending on how long the port or ports were closed. And some ports could be closed for quite some time if they were substantively destroyed by a powerful explosive, like a liquefied natural gas, or LNG, container ship in port.
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