Caracas, 16 Feb. (AKI) - Venezuela - one of three US oil supplying countries whose oil industries al-Qaeda has purportedly threatened to attack - reacted sceptically to the message posted on Wednesday to the Sawt-al-Jihad (Voice of Holy War) website. Admiral Luis Cabrera, a military advisor to Venezuela's anti-American president Hugo Chavez, has questioned the authenticity of the threat. In comments cited by local media, Cabrera said it was "illogical that "al-Qaeda, which is against North American imperialism, would go against a state that is fighting, though in a different way, against that hegemony. We fight for constitutionality, legality, morality and truth - not acts of terrorism." Defence minister General Raul Baduel nonetheless announced on Thursday that Venezuela will reinforce security measures and its armed forces are "on alert."The government also said its intelligence services have been mobilised to safeguard Venezuela's strategic resources.
The Internet message, signed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - a Saudi wing of of the terrror network - stated 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 threatend to attack Venezuela, Mexico and Canada's oil wells, oil export pipelines, oil rigs and oil tankers, as part of Osama bin Laden's declared policy. The authenticity of the message has not been verified. Mexico's president Felipe Calderon's office said it was evaluating the threat. The executive said Mexico's oil installations are guarded "24 hours a day, 365 days a year." The authorities have however stepped up security in the state of Campeche on the Gulf of Mexico. Officials and regulators who oversee the bulk of Canada's oil and gas production were taking a threat from al Qaeda seriously on Wednesday, but have not raised security levels. Energy regulators said they are in a state of "heightened awareness."