There are claims of specific intelligence warnings that al-Qaeda is seeking to blow up merchant ships – in particular those navigating congested shipping routes.
The vessels, which are under armed guard, are en route from the USA to Cherbourg and will pass north of the Channel Islands this weekend.
Senator Stuart Syvret, who is a member of Greenpeace, called the shipment of plutonium ‘reckless and stupid in the present political climate’.
His comments add to the many already made by ex-government nuclear physicists, experts on international terrorism and former Ministry of Defence staff, which all condemn the stupidity of the shipment at a time of fresh intelligence that al-Qaeda is plotting to target shipping.
