Terrorists know what they are doing when they target oil. In oil, as in other aspects, they take advantage of our free and open system to do us harm. From today’s WSJ:
“In September 2004, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, a delta warlord whom the Nigerian government had accused of oil smuggling, declared ‘all out war’ on the government. Annkio Briggs, a senior aide to Mr. Asari at the time, says the warlord’s comments were carefully crafted and timed to move global prices. Carried by news agencies, the remarks helped push New York futures prices above $50 a barrel for the first time.
“‘We were aware of the price of oil, and we were aware that it was dependent on supply and demand, and we were aware that supplies had to be stable,’ says Ms. Briggs in an interview. ‘We looked around at other countries that were big producers, and we could see anytime there was a crisis the price of oil would go up, so it didn’t take a lot of intelligence or mathematics to figure it out.’”
Gal Luft and Anne Korin wrote about this way back in December 2003 in the Journal of International Security Affairs: Terror’s Next Target.