Attack against oil tanker shows why terrorists and pirates may join forces.

• Author: Frodl, Michael G.
• Position: VIEWPOINT

One night in late July, the Mitsui-owned MV M. Star, a Japanese oil tanker laden with crude and headed for Japan, experienced a "blast" against its hull as it approached the Strait of Hormuz. It was accompanied by a "flash of light," several crew members reported. Omani and United Arab Emirates authorities quickly dismissed the Japanese assertion that the ship had been attacked. They claimed a freak wave induced by an earthquake was to blame, then that the ship had either collided with a submarine, Somali pirates had bungled a hijacking attempt or an old stray mine had hit the tanker.

Only after U.S. Navy divers got a look at the tanker's hull was the Japanese claim corroborated. Her hull showed residue of homemade explosives. Investigators concluded that the tanker was the victim of a failed attacked by a suicide bomber piloting a waterborne improvised explosive device, or IED.

A previously unknown faction of al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula then took credit for the MV M. Star attack.

What was most interesting was how the Japanese claim was dismissed by Omani and United Arab Emirates officials, while most maritime security experts remained largely quiet in public. Even the experts did not want to believe that terrorists would and could target oil tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

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Maritime security experts seem unable to anticipate these events. Before 2008, when Somali teenagers wearing flip-flops and toting AK-47s hijacked a super tanker, the MV Sirius Star, the experts had said it would never happen.

Today, pirates prey on maritime commerce 1,000 nautical miles from Somalia and attack ships closer to India than to Africa.

A terrorist attack against an East Asian oil tanker inside the Persian Gulf was truly a surprise. That Oman and the United Arab Emirates were so quick to dismiss the Japanese claim of an attack, however, is not surprising. When the oil tanker Limburg caught fire in October 2002, the Yemeni government engaged in similar denial tactics. The reasons were obvious. When it was confirmed that the Limburg was indeed the victim of a suicide bomber piloting a waterborne IED, Yemen lost millions of dollars in port fees as ships shunned it for months. Oman and the United Arab Emirates did what they could to avoid a replay of the MV M. Star incident.

Whether the MV M. Star was in fact attacked in an assault similar to the Limburg was perhaps the most important question being debated behind closed...