Shipping Security

The Reagan Administration, expanding the role of U.S. naval forces in the Persian Gulf, has decided to authorize them to aid some neutral ships under Iranian attack, congressional sources said Friday. The new rules of engagement, which were not publicly announced, go far beyond the role originally prescribed for U.S. forces in the gulf last May, when President Reagan ordered them to begin escorting 11 Kuwaiti oil tankers that had been re-registered under the American flag.

Shifting between modern offices in Copenhagen and a run-down cargo ship in the Indian Ocean, the new thriller "A Hijacking" focuses on the negotiations that ensue when Somali pirates overtake the vessel. Writer-director Tobias Lindholm ignites a pressure-cooker drama by lacing the story with details drawn from real life and subjecting the cast to some of the unpleasant ones. Playing in limited release, "A Hijacking" ratchets up the tension with a startling sense of authenticity, blurring the line between reality and fiction.

The government has taken extraordinary security precautions this week to shield President Reagan, Vice President George Bush and other top government officials from possible terrorist reprisals in the wake of military clashes in the Persian Gulf and several terrorist incidents worldwide. A sign proclaiming "Terrorist Condition Alpha. Threat Actual" was visible at the main gate of Andrews Air Force Base near Washington as Air Force One prepared to fly Reagan to a speaking engagement Thursday.

While airline security has grabbed headlines following the July 17 explosion of TWA Flight 800, cruise lines have been quietly working to formalize their own security procedures. By Oct. 16, about 25 U.S. ports and the 200 passenger ships that visit them must submit security plans to the U.S. Coast Guard, according to Cmdr. Dennis Haise, a Coast Guard project director in Washington, D.C. The plans require each ship to state how it would respond to various threat levels.

The Pentagon, facing stiff congressional opposition, Monday dropped its plan to dispatch six Coast Guard cutters to join the Navy fleet patrolling the Persian Gulf. "The Department of Defense is no longer considering sending Coast Guard vessels to the Persian Gulf at this time," the Pentagon said in a statement. At the same time, the White House announced that President Reagan will meet with Kuwait's prime minister and crown prince, Sheik Saad al Abdullah al Sabah, in July.

Like a battle-scarred whale, the Liberian-registered crude oil tanker Peconic plowed through the Persian Gulf's late-afternoon calm, once again on its way north to take on cargo. Some 25 miles northwest of this gulf trading center, the Peconic, its rusted, patched hull riding high in the water, had rejoined the flow of tankers that carry an estimated one-sixth of the world's oil, despite an increasingly lethal hit-and-run war against them. Following Monday's clashes between Iranian and U.S.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Saturday retrieved wreckage of an American helicopter allegedly shot down by Iranian forces in a showdown with the U.S. Navy, Tehran Radio reported. The broadcast, monitored in Nicosia, said naval units of the Revolutionary Guards found the wreckage in the Persian Gulf and brought it ashore. It said inspection proved the parts belonged "to the U.S. Cobra helicopter which was shot by the Iranian forces and crashed in the gulf" Monday. The U.S.

The United States is dismantling the last of its fortified barges in the Persian Gulf due to the diminished threat to shipping following a cease-fire in the Gulf War, a U.S. Navy spokesman said Saturday. The spokesman said the barge, known as Hercules, had been towed to Bahrain from Saudi Arabia and is being dismantled. The other barge, the Wimbrown 7, was withdrawn in December. The heavily armed barges were used as bases for U.S.

President Reagan warned Iran on Saturday of "very costly" consequences unless it halts military and terrorist attacks in the Persian Gulf and ends its 7 1/2-year war with Iraq. "We do not seek to confront Iran," the President said in his weekly radio address. "However, its leaders must understand that continued military and terrorist attacks against non-belligerents and refusal to negotiate an end to the war will be very costly to Iran and its people."

Kuwait has decided to withdraw six oil tankers from U.S. registration, "deflagging" the vessels and ending their right to American naval protection, Administration sources said Wednesday. The sources, who asked not to be named, said the United States has also agreed after extensive negotiations that the five ships that continue to fly the Stars and Stripes will have one year to comply with a law requiring that they sail with all-American crews.

The United States is dismantling the last of its fortified barges in the Persian Gulf due to the diminished threat to shipping following a cease-fire in the Gulf War, a U.S. Navy spokesman said Saturday. The spokesman said the barge, known as Hercules, had been towed to Bahrain from Saudi Arabia and is being dismantled. The other barge, the Wimbrown 7, was withdrawn in December. The heavily armed barges were used as bases for U.S.

Kuwait has decided to withdraw six oil tankers from U.S. registration, "deflagging" the vessels and ending their right to American naval protection, Administration sources said Wednesday. The sources, who asked not to be named, said the United States has also agreed after extensive negotiations that the five ships that continue to fly the Stars and Stripes will have one year to comply with a law requiring that they sail with all-American crews.

The Pentagon, facing stiff congressional opposition, Monday dropped its plan to dispatch six Coast Guard cutters to join the Navy fleet patrolling the Persian Gulf. "The Department of Defense is no longer considering sending Coast Guard vessels to the Persian Gulf at this time," the Pentagon said in a statement. At the same time, the White House announced that President Reagan will meet with Kuwait's prime minister and crown prince, Sheik Saad al Abdullah al Sabah, in July.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Saturday retrieved wreckage of an American helicopter allegedly shot down by Iranian forces in a showdown with the U.S. Navy, Tehran Radio reported. The broadcast, monitored in Nicosia, said naval units of the Revolutionary Guards found the wreckage in the Persian Gulf and brought it ashore. It said inspection proved the parts belonged "to the U.S. Cobra helicopter which was shot by the Iranian forces and crashed in the gulf" Monday. The U.S.

President Reagan warned Iran on Saturday of "very costly" consequences unless it halts military and terrorist attacks in the Persian Gulf and ends its 7 1/2-year war with Iraq. "We do not seek to confront Iran," the President said in his weekly radio address. "However, its leaders must understand that continued military and terrorist attacks against non-belligerents and refusal to negotiate an end to the war will be very costly to Iran and its people."

The Reagan Administration, expanding the role of U.S. naval forces in the Persian Gulf, has decided to authorize them to aid some neutral ships under Iranian attack, congressional sources said Friday. The new rules of engagement, which were not publicly announced, go far beyond the role originally prescribed for U.S. forces in the gulf last May, when President Reagan ordered them to begin escorting 11 Kuwaiti oil tankers that had been re-registered under the American flag.

While international airports around the world seem to be bristling with highly visible security forces and armed guards, cruise ships in port--admittedly not nearly as vulnerable to hijacking as airplanes--are responding with a variety of security measures.

While airline security has grabbed headlines following the July 17 explosion of TWA Flight 800, cruise lines have been quietly working to formalize their own security procedures. By Oct. 16, about 25 U.S. ports and the 200 passenger ships that visit them must submit security plans to the U.S. Coast Guard, according to Cmdr. Dennis Haise, a Coast Guard project director in Washington, D.C. The plans require each ship to state how it would respond to various threat levels.

The government has taken extraordinary security precautions this week to shield President Reagan, Vice President George Bush and other top government officials from possible terrorist reprisals in the wake of military clashes in the Persian Gulf and several terrorist incidents worldwide. A sign proclaiming "Terrorist Condition Alpha. Threat Actual" was visible at the main gate of Andrews Air Force Base near Washington as Air Force One prepared to fly Reagan to a speaking engagement Thursday.

Like a battle-scarred whale, the Liberian-registered crude oil tanker Peconic plowed through the Persian Gulf's late-afternoon calm, once again on its way north to take on cargo. Some 25 miles northwest of this gulf trading center, the Peconic, its rusted, patched hull riding high in the water, had rejoined the flow of tankers that carry an estimated one-sixth of the world's oil, despite an increasingly lethal hit-and-run war against them. Following Monday's clashes between Iranian and U.S.