'Pigs' cited as serious terror threat

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Pipeline-cleaning machine called a pig

The idea of using a device called a "pig," or pipeline inspection gauge, for mayhem isn't new, and even was highlighted in the James Bond movie "The World is Not Enough," where a nuclear bomb is attached to such a device, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

In the movie storyline from many years ago, the plan was that the explosion would happen in a strategic oil pipeline in Kazakhstan and cut vital oil supplies to Europe. But analysts say that the concept is, indeed, grounded in reality.

In fact, there are U.S. security experts who believe terrorists would be capable of using pigs to infiltrate the pipeline networks in the United States and create havoc and destruction.

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A pig is a device used by pipe contractors to clean or detect weaknesses in pipelines used for oil and gas, water or sewage. The device gets its name not only because of the acronym for pipeline inspection gauge but because it makes a squealing sound while traveling through a pipeline. Pigs come in various sizes and can travel remotely at high speeds. Contractors routinely use pigs in maintaining their pipelines.

Crisscrossing U.S. cities and states, pipelines carry the nation's oil and natural gas, sewage and water and other products. Pipelines also connect to refineries and liquefied natural gas terminals and cross properties including airports, federal lands, streets, highways and interstates.

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In fact, the use of pigs to carry explosives or even weapons of mass destruction in pipelines while performing various operations without stopping the flow of product in the pipeline is quite possible.

"Terrorists throughout the world are very familiar with this simple method of delivering conventional and/or unconventional weapons anywhere and at anytime," according to David Gaubatz, a former agent for the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations.

"The weapons can be placed into a pig launching system from any section of a city and sent remotely to any location that has oil, water, gas or sewage continuous pipelines," Gaubatz wrote to the G2Bulletin. "The weapons/explosives can then be detonated."

One of Gaubatz' assignments as a special agent was to go into Iraq at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom in early 2003 to locate WMD sites. He pointed out that Saddam Hussein and Islamic terrorist organizations already knew the significance of the pig as a tool of mass destruction and terror.

"Even Iraqi citizens were aware of the pig system," he said. "Chemical, biological and/or nuclear weapons can be stored in the pig and moved remotely through the thousands of miles of sewage, oil and water pipes throughout Iraq," he added. "There is a reason the water and sewage pipes (infrastructure) were bombed … to hopefully destroy WMD that was hidden inside the pipes."

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