Counter-Terrorism: Sea Marshals

Archives

November 10, 2007: The latest counter-terrorism method is the use of "sea marshals" on the hundreds of ferries that provide a major form of transportation in the Philippines. This is a country of 88 million people, and over 7,000 islands. So ferries are an important part of the economy. Islamic terrorists figured that out, and after a major 2002 terrorist bombing on a "SuperFerry," that left over a hundred dead, measures were taken to make such attacks more difficult to carry out in the future. While the ferry companies have their own security, which was increased after the 2002 incident, the sea marshals provide another layer of security, in the form of security experts who can search for less obvious terrorist methods to attack. This includes terrorist attempts to plant bombs at key locations on the ferries, where a small explosion would cause a disproportionate amount of damage. On shore, the police have also increased checks on vehicles traveling on the larger ferries. The sea marshals are only assigned to the larger ferries, where the damage could be the most catastrophic.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close