LNG Politics Heat Up

Former White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke may have put a monkey wrench into plans for rapid expansion of LNG in the U.S.

In his controversial, and best-selling, new book Against All Enemies: America's War on Terror, Clarke reveals that terrorists were slipping into the U.S. clandestinely aboard liquid natural gas tankers. Clark writes that the administration knew, before September of 2001, that al Qaeda operatives had been infiltrating Boston by coming in on liquid natural gas tankers from Algeria. Clarke adds that had one of the giant tankers blown up in the harbor, it would have wiped out downtown Boston.

On Tuesday, the Boston Globe reported that Roger Cressey, who was Clarke's deputy at the White House counterterrorism shop, confirmed what his former boss said. Cressey told the newspaper that more than a dozen stowaways with al Qaeda ties got into the U.S. through the LNG terminal at Everett, Mass., right across from downtown Boston.

The LNG tanker was an underground railroad for these guys to come into the country illegally, Cressey told the paper. Were a majority just looking to come to the U.S. and start over again? I think that's a safe bet. What we don't know is what percentage had other motives. The paper also reported that Kenneth Kaiser, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston office, said that the FBI had no evidence that the stowaways had terror ties. Cressey responded that the White House information came from other intelligence sources, not the FBI.