The Associated Press reported yesterday that in the online magazine Sawt al-Jihad (Voice of the Jihad), the terrorist faction Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula called for attacks on oil facilities throughout the world. The terrorist group included Venezuela in the list of targeted countries:

Al Qaeda 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 Usama bin Laden's declared policy.
Al-Qaeda's position on attacks on oil installations has been developing for some time. When Osama bin Laden declared war against the West in 1996, he stated that the oil wealth in Muslim countries was off limits as a military target because he viewed it as a critical resource of the coming caliphate: "I would like here to alert my brothers, the Mujahideen, the sons of the nation, to protect this [oil] wealth and not to include it in the battle as it is a great Islamic wealth and a large economical power essential for the soon to be established Islamic state, by Allah's Permission and Grace." But as bin Laden came to see crippling the U.S. economy as critical to the defeat of the West, his thinking evolved. In the video that bin Laden dramatically released just before the 2004 election, he trumpeted his "bleed-until-bankruptcy plan" for defeating America. Later that year, in December 2004, bin Laden for the first time called for attacks on oil facilities as an outcropping of the "bleed-until-bankruptcy" strategy:

One of the main causes for our enemies' gaining hegemony over our country is their stealing our oil; therefore, you should make every effort in your power to stop the greatest theft in history of the natural resources of both present and future generations, which is being carried out through collaboration between foreigners and [native] agents. . . . Focus your operations on it [oil production], especially in Iraq and the Gulf area, since this [lack of oil] will cause them to die off [on their



For more on the evolution of al-Qaeda's strategy to attack oil facilities, see my October 2005 Daily Standard article, "Al Qaeda's Oil Weapon." And in late November, I documented on this blog the general trend of increased terrorist attacks against oil facilities.

Overall, al-Qaeda and its affiliates are correct that a stable supply of oil is critical to the U.S. economy, and to U.S. war efforts. Thus, much hinges on the oil-producing states' ability to safeguard their production. A late 2005 report in Newsweek outlines a possible "nightmare scenario" for oil prices, noting former CIA agent Robert Baer's belief that "a concerted attack at several points" of production in Saudi Arabia could "push[ ] oil prices up from their current prices in the range of $60 to $70 a barrel to well over $100 for weeks or even months."