Venezuela bolsters oil security after threat

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela’s defense minister on Thursday said the nation would reinforce security measures after a branch of al-Qaida called for attacks on suppliers of oil to the United States.

A Saudi wing of al-Qaida, in a statement posted on a Web site on Wednesday, called for attacks on suppliers of oil to the United States to cut off vital oil supplies. The faction urged Muslim militants to attack oil facilities all over the world, including Canada, Mexico and Venezuela, according to an article by the group posted on the Internet.

Venezuela provides about 11 percent of U.S. oil imports despite diplomatic tensions between Caracas and Washington over leftist President Hugo Chavez’s self-styled socialist revolution.

Gen. Raul Baduel told reporters that security and intelligence agencies would “take actions and implement previously established security plans, but reinforce them with the goal of guaranteeing security.”

He called for calm and said Chavez would provide further instructions about how to deal with the threat.

Call to cut U.S. oil imports
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula said in its monthly magazine posted on an Islamic Web site that “cutting oil supplies to the United States, or at least curtailing it, would contribute to the ending of the American occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.” The group said it was making the statements as part of Osama bin Laden’s declared policy. It was not possible to verify independently that the posting was from the terror faction.

Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for last year’s attacks on oil installations in Saudi Arabia and Yemen after bin Laden called on militants to stop the flow of oil to the West. The group also was behind the 2002 attack on a French oil tanker that killed one person in the Gulf of Aden.

The article in the online magazine Sawt al-Jihad, or Voice of the Holy War, said the United States would always need more oil.

“In the long run, America might be able to lessen its dependence on Middle East oil and would be satisfied with oil from Canada, Mexico, Venezuela and other new customers or double its dependence on alternative energy resources; therefore, oil interests in all regions that serve the U.S. and not only in the Middle East, should be attacked,” said the article.

The online magazine said the aim of the attacks was to “cut its (U.S.) oil imports or reduce them by all means.”

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service declined to comment on the report.

Ray Lord, a spokesman for Chevron Corp., told the Canadian media company CanWest News the company was not aware of the threat but it takes security threats seriously. “It is a top priority for us. Ever since 9/11 our entire company has been on an elevated alert,” he said.

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