If you know anything about the geography in this region, or have been there, then you can understand the "Saddam/AQ" link with this. There are thousands of "dhows", a common commercial boat used to carry normal freight in the Arabian Gulf. Its impossible to intercept them all (or even a very small percentage) and check them out. On a USN ship, you're outnumbered several hundred to one at any given time, 24/7/365. We've been doing this for...12 years of UN sanctions with little results. Funny, after the capture of a certain individual with many a briefcase/paper/pager on him, this particular dhow gets "pulled over." Oh, it happens to have some AQ guys onboard, plus $10M USD worth of stuff heading straight up the waterway for who? If you still don't get it, then look at a map. The KAA don't end up in Afghanistan, Dr. Dean.<br />---------------------------------------------<br />WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US Navy destroyer seized two tonnes of hashish on a dhow in the Gulf this week and detained a dozen crew members to bust up a drug smuggling operation with clear links to al-Qaeda, the US military said. <br />At least four of the crew members detained in the raid December 15 by a boarding party from the USS Decatur were believed to have links to al-Qaeda, the US Central Command said."An initial investigation uncovered clear ties between the smuggling operation and al-Qaeda," it said. <br />The Decatur was operating near the Strait of Hormuz in the southern Gulf as part of a maritime interdiction operation targeting al-Qaeda militants and smugglers. <br />The boarding party that went aboard the 40-foot dhow found that its crew lacked proper documentation of its nationality or cargo. <br />A search turned up 54 70-pound bags of hashish, which the military estimated to have a street value of eight to 10 million dollars. <br />US sailors took the crew into custody and have assumed control of the dhow. <br />It was unclear what will happen to those in custody. <br />"Future disposition of the dhow and its crew will be determined following coordination with investigation by legal authorities," the command said
