As Heritage Predicted, Bin Laden Planned Attacks on Energy Infrastructure

Ariel Cohen / May 25, 2011

Materials obtained in the U.S. SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden confirm what Heritage suspected all along: Al-Qaeda considered attacking tanker ships and other maritime energy infrastructure.

Bin Laden expected to drive up the price of oil and intended to cause considerable damage to the U.S. and other oil-dependent economies. As The Heritage Foundation’s 2008 and 2010 energy simulations showed, organized terrorist attacks would cause a massive disruption and long-term decline in oil production and have a significant global geo-economic impact.

Both of Heritage’s simulations of terrorism-caused energy crises demonstrated major gaps and vulnerabilities in the global energy infrastructure and an insufficient capacity to reconstitute oil production following a concerted transnational terrorist operation. (more…)