The New UN Sanctions Resolution Against Iran

The UN Security Council approved a resolution on June 9th imposing a fourth round of sanctions on Iran in response to its continued nuclear enrichment program in violation of prior Security Council resolutions. The vote was 12 in favor, 2 against (Brazil and Turkey) and 1 abstention (Lebanon).

The new resolution imposes new financial restrictions on Iran, expands an existing arms embargo, and authorizes greater stop and search of Iranian cargo ships. Targeted sanctions on specific individuals and entities were expanded. The resolution also includes measures directed against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

While the United States, Great Britain and France were its strongest sponsors, China and Russia also expressed their verbal support along with their votes, although the Russian ambassador added a major caveat in his response to a reporter’s question about Russia’s prospective sale of a sophisticated anti-aircraft system to Iran.

Lebanon’s decision to abstain was a pleasant surprise, considering the influence of Iran-backed Hezbollah in the Lebanese government. However, Brazil and Turkey as expected opposed the new resolution on the grounds that it could undermine the proposed nuclear fuel swap agreed by the two countries with Iran last month. They seemed to forget that the European Union has been trying to negotiate with Iran since 2005 and the Obama administration waited 18 months while trying to engage Iran before seeking passage of this resolution. Only when new sanctions became a real possibility did Iran come around to the fuel swap concept that it had first agreed upon and then promptly reneged on last fall.

Rice’s Positive Spin

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters after the vote that the “resolution is strong, it’s tough and it’s comprehensive. And it is something that Iran fought very hard to prevent passage today. The effort, the time, the money, and the poise that they employed, to try to prevent this resolution’s passage only underscores their understanding, that this is a major blow.”

Despite the ineffectiveness of the three prior resolutions, Ambassador Rice expressed confidence that the cumulative effect on Iran of all the resolutions is “harmful and hurtful.”

Iran’s Rebuke

Iran remains unbowed. Its representative told the Security Council after the vote that it had no intention of changing its present course. He accused the United States and Great Britain in particular of continuing a long pattern of interference in Iran’s affairs and displaying a double standard vis a vis Israel. Ambassador Rice told reporters that these comments were “reprehensible, offensive, and inaccurate.”

Stronger Resolution on Paper

On paper at least, the new resolution does appear to represent a significant move forward from the prior three. More specifically, the resolution prohibits Iran from investing in sensitive nuclear activities abroad, like uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities, as well as activities involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. The ban also applies to investment in uranium mining.

States are prohibited from selling or in any way transferring to Iran various categories of heavy weapons (battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, large caliber artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, and certain missiles or missile systems). States are similarly prohibited from providing technical or financial assistance for such systems, or spare parts.

The resolution also sets up a new cargo inspection framework. States are expected to inspect any vessel on their territory suspected of carrying prohibited cargo, including banned conventional arms or sensitive nuclear or missile items. States are also expected to cooperate in such inspections on the high seas.

States are called upon to prevent any financial service and freeze any asset that could contribute to Iran’s proliferation.

Resolution targets the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Most significantly, the resolution targets the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for its role in proliferation and requires states to mandate that businesses exercise vigilance over all transactions involving the IRGC. Fifteen IRGC-related companies linked to proliferation will have their assets frozen. The IRGC is the major power center in Iran’s economic and military spheres as well as one of the government’s primary instruments for suppressing political dissent. Impairing the IRGC’s freedom of operations will be a significant accomplishment, if successful.

The Proof Will be in Enforcement

UN Security Council sanctions resolutions against Iraq, North Korea and Iran have had a bad track record in actual practice. The resolutions have been easy for the sanctioned countries to evade, through the use of multiple front entities, money laundering and trading partners unwilling to give up short term advantage for longer term peace and security.

Also, enforcement of the cargo inspection at sea will be a challenge if Iran, as expected, refuses to cooperate. When the French UN ambassador, for example, was asked what measures France would be willing to take in such a scenario, he refused to answer what he called a “hypothetical question.”

Most ominously, the Russian UN ambassador told reporters that Russia did not consider the sale of its sophisticated S-300 anti-aircraft system to Iran to be within the resolution’s scope. The S-300 missile defense system would no doubt be used by Iran to shield its nuclear sites against a potential air strike, should military force become necessary to stop Iran from producing nuclear bombs. The Russian ambassador is technically correct because the resolution’s ban on the transfer to Iran of certain missile systems is written in such a way that it creates a big loophole for Russia to walk through in delivering to Iran its ground-to-air missiles, including its S-300 anti-aircraft missiles and anti-missile interceptors.

The Obama administration will spin the latest sanctions resolution against Iran as a major diplomatic triumph and a significant obstacle in the way of Iran’s progress towards achieving a nuclear arms capability. I hope they are right. However, until the S-300 loophole is closed; until the U.S. and its allies figure out a way to effectively stop evasions of the sanctions; and until enough countries show that they are willing to enforce the cargo inspections, the Obama administration might want to wait before it celebrates.

Source: Canada Free Press

FBI agents in town help fight cross-border crime

By Marie Magleby, Special to Gulf News

Published: May 31, 2008, 23:44

Abu Dhabi: Gary Price and Ernest Herbert carry FBI badges, but their job descriptions are significantly different here than in the US.

"I have no law enforcement authority here," Special Agent Price said.

Instead, the duo are go-betweens for local and US law enforcement. He said, "We work closely with UAE government officials to share information that protects the two countries."

They also offer training at the request of local authorities. The training involves many aspects of law enforcement, including ways to combat white-collar crime, violent crime, forensics and counter-terrorism.

In addition, the agents coordinate the Middle East Law Enforcement Training Centre in Dubai, which offers week-long courses for law enforcement personnel from around the Gulf.

Local authorities choose the topics and dates, and FBI specialists come from the US to teach the courses. Since its establishment in 2001, the centre, co-sponsored by the FBI and Dubai police, has conducted about 40 courses dealing with money laundering, computer crimes, intellectual property rights, kidnapping, auto theft, homicide, financial institution fraud, terrorist financing, hostage negotiations and more.

The globalisation of crime, especially financial and internet crime, places the agents in a pivotal position. "The UAE is an important crossroads for business and, as a result, also for crime," Price said of the potential for fraud or abuse in the banking system. With the help of local officials, they routinely seek to investigate bank records and track financial transactions linked to the US.

When internet crime is traced back to the US, the agents are also able to help. Just months ago, a prominent UAE citizen received a cyber threat from a location in the US.

Local law enforcement officials contacted Price and Herbert, who enlisted agents in the US to conduct an investigation. The man was arrested, charged and is now facing imprisonment.

About working with local authorities, Price said: "I truly enjoy working with the Emiratis. They are professional and very gracious." There are, however, obstacles. According to Price, a federal law that regulates "international judicial cooperation" is often misinterpreted to be a roadblock to investigations. "There is not a timely, quick way for law enforcement response because of the bureaucratic process," he said.

Law enforcement mechanisms do not always translate across cultures and borders, Herbert said in a similar vein. "Things are run differently here than in the US, so we have to do things differently."

When FBI agents are on international assignment, they assume the title of Legal Attaché in their respective embassies. Price and Herbert are successors to three other agents since the Abu Dhabi office opened in December 2003. They cover both the UAE and Oman. In the region, the FBI also has agents posted in Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

During his tenure, former FBI director Louis Freeh pushed to expand the bureau's international presence. It now has offices in 62 countries. This worldwide network of agents is a necessary countermeasure against the growing nexus of international crime. "Just as there are no borders for crime and terrorism, there can be no borders for justice and the rule of law," current director Robert Mueller told the US Senate in March.

Progress

"Twenty years ago, the idea of regularly communicating with our law enforcement counterparts around the world was as foreign as the internet or the mobile phone. Today, advances in technology, travel and communication have broken down walls between countries, continents and individuals," Mueller added. Price and Herbert embody this prog-ress.

Mueller became the dir-ector one week prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The FBI began as a special agent force in 1908 and received its current title in 1935. Since its genesis, the FBI has seen its share of success and failure. Though it has successfully foiled numerous plots, conspiracies and espionage attempts, it has been criticised for shoddy investigation tactics and ignoring intelligence reports that could have prevented past attacks. Regardless, it has survived a century of challenges.

- The writer is a journalist based in Abu Dhabi.

Source: GulfNews

Senior Al Qaeda member killed in U.S. raid in Syria, officials say

Abu Ghadiyah was a key player in funneling foreign fighters to Iraq, a U.S. official says.

By Greg Miller and Josh Meyer
October 28, 2008

U.S. commandos crossing into Syria in an unprecedented raid this weekend killed a senior Al Qaeda associate accused of funneling fighters, weapons and cash to the insurgency in Iraq, U.S. officials familiar with the operation said Monday.

Abu Ghadiyah, the chief of a Syrian smuggling network who was killed in the controversial operation Sunday, was "one of the most prominent, if not the most prominent, facilitators of foreign fighters going into Iraq for Al Qaeda," a senior U.S. official said.

The raid was the latest sign that the U.S. is now willing to mount attacks in sovereign nations in pursuit of insurgent groups operating in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as those who support them. Last month, U.S. special operations forces carried out a similar raid in the tribal border region of Pakistan, drawing loud criticism from the Pakistani public and senior government officials in Islamabad, the capital.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said the U.S. committed "criminal and terrorist aggression" by conducting a raid in which seven civilians died, including three children, a woman and a fisherman.

Two U.S. helicopters flew about five miles into Syria, he said, with one landing at a farm while the second provided cover. A villager told the Associated Press he saw at least two men taken into custody by U.S. forces and whisked away by helicopter. He spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he feared for his life.

U.S. officials did not say how many people died in the raid.

Abu Ghadiyah, an Iraqi native believed to be in his late 20s, has for several years been a key figure in the flow of foreign fighters and weapons into Iraq, American officials said.

"He comes from a family of smugglers," said the senior U.S. official. "He seems to have turned the family business toward the movement of terrorists, explosives, weapons, etc., into Iraq."

That official, along with others, spoke on condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the operation.

Other than reporting Abu Ghadiyah's death, U.S. officials offered few details about the raid. Pentagon officials declined to comment. The rationale for using commandos was unclear.

Since the terrorist attacks on America in 2001, the United States has carried out dozens of missile strikes, mostly in Pakistan, but also in Yemen and elsewhere, aimed at killing Al Qaeda operatives. However, almost all of those operations have relied on CIA-operated Predator drones firing Hellfire antitank missiles.

The use of U.S. soldiers carries significantly greater risk and often leads to diplomatic strain, as has been the case with Pakistan.

U.S. counter-terrorism experts described Abu Ghadiyah, who is from Anbar province in western Iraq, as the head of a successful terrorist financial network supporting Iraq's Sunni Arab-led insurgency and a close associate of Al Qaeda in Iraq leaders.

"He's the classic example of a terrorist facilitator and financier," said Matthew Levitt, who from 2005 to early 2007 helped oversee a U.S. government crackdown on Abu Ghadiyah's financial network while deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the Treasury Department.

However, Abu Ghadiyah's death is unlikely to decimate the network because of its strong funding streams and because other members, including a brother, have been active, said Levitt, now with the Institute for Near East Policy, a Washington-based think tank.

The Treasury Department had previously imposed financial sanctions on Abu Ghadiyah and family members, saying they facilitated and controlled the flow of money, weapons, terrorists and other resources through Syria to Iraq.

The effectiveness of such financial enforcement actions has been questioned. The actions target militants and those providing financial or material support, freezing any known assets under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibiting U.S. firms and individuals from doing business with them.

U.S. officials said Abu Ghadiyah, a nickname for Badran Turki Hishan Mazidih, was appointed by former Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab Zarqawi to be the group's Syrian commander for logistics in 2004. After Zarqawi's death in 2006, Abu Ghadiyah began working for the new leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub Masri, according to U.S. officials.

Abu Ghadiyah provided and arranged false passports, weapons, guides, safe houses and allowances to foreign terrorists preparing to enter Iraq, Treasury officials said.

U.S. officials maintain that Syria has long functioned as a hub for terrorist financing in Iraq, coordinating the movement of recruits and money between cells in Europe and Ansar al Islam training camps in northern Iraq.

In Baghdad, the Shiite Muslim-led Iraqi government said it wanted good ties with Syria but that Damascus needed to do more to stop fighters from slipping across its borders.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali Dabbagh described the region targeted by the Americans as the "scene for many terrorist activities of the last few months," including the killing of 13 policemen in an Iraqi border village in Anbar province. Staunch Syrian ally Iran, which holds enormous sway over the Baghdad government and opposes the U.S. troop presence in Iraq, condemned the U.S. operation.

"We condemn any attack which leads to the killing of innocents and civilians," Foreign Ministry official Hassan Qashqavi told reporters in Tehran.

Miller and Meyer are Times staff writers.

greg.miller@latimes.com

josh.meyer@latimes.com

Times staff writers Ned Parker and Saif Hameed in Baghdad, Borzou Daragahi in Beirut and Julian E. Barnes in Washington and special correspondent Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran contributed to this report.

Source: LA Times

Arab Nations Unite Against Al Qaeda

June 24, 2008: Most Arab nations have agreed on a new set of regulations to crack down on terrorist fund raising and money laundering in their countries. Until the recent defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq, it was considered too politically risky to go after wealthy donors to Islamic radical groups. Money laundering was another untouchable area, because corruption was so common, and money laundering was part of that. But "reform" has become increasingly popular in the Arab world over the past few years, and these new counter-terrorism efforts are part of it.

It's no longer fashionable to rejoice whenever a Islamic terrorist bomb goes off in the West, or anywhere else for that matter. Since 2003, most of the al Qaeda violence has been against Arabs, and after a few years of this, public opinion turned on the Islamic terrorists. Public opinion wants these butchers shut down. This means that those who support Islamic radicalism are no longer as tolerated as they used to be.

Another aspect of the crack down on money laundering is the growing popularity of honesty is business and government. Lots of corruption is still tolerated, and many Arabs insist that corruption is "part of the culture." But the money laundering is seen as primarily criminal, a tool largely for gangsters and terrorists.

How successful these new agreements will be remains to be seen. It will be at least a year before one can tell with any certainty.


Source: StrategyPage

U.S. Intelligence Chief Outlines Successes Against Terrorism

Michael Hayden, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, spoke recently of the international community's successes against terrorism in key regions of the world and diminished worldwide support for al-Qaida.

Hayden told the Washington-based Atlantic Council of the United States November 13 that the United States - in cooperation with partners such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and the Philippines - has greatly diminished the reach of several terrorist groups.

Al-Qaida in Iraq, for example, "is on the verge of strategic defeat," with the flow of money, weapons and foreign fighters into Iraq now "greatly diminished," Hayden said.

And al-Qaida's operational arm in Saudi Arabia largely has been defeated, he said. Indonesia has made inroads in detecting and disrupting terrorist plots in the past three years as a result of what he called "aggressive action by one of our most effective counterterrorism partners." Filipino allies have kept the pressure on the Abu-Sayef group, Hayden said, limiting its effectiveness.

While the remote, tribal areas on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border remain problematic, progress has been made, according to the CIA director. He said the practice of terrorists taking refuge in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas is lessening. Due to cooperation among the Pakistan government, its military and the U.S. intelligence community, terrorist networks have lost many "decision makers, commanders, experienced and committed fighters" who, Hayden said, planned attacks against Europe and the United States.

The Pakistani government and military "deserves great credit for its current campaign against extremists," he added. More al-Qaida leaders have been killed or captured "in partnership with our Pakistani allies than ... with any other partner around the world," Hayden said.

The CIA official cited another reason for optimism in the fight against terrorism: "Some hard-line religious leaders are speaking out against al-Qaida's tactics and its ideology." Hayden cited generic polling showing declining support for al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden in predominantly Muslim countries.

More and more Muslims "are pushing back against the senseless violence and flawed worldview of al-Qaida," he said. Credible, authentic, influential Islamic voices are speaking out and "refuting al-Qaida's twisted justification for murdering innocents" as well as its ideology seeking to erase the distinction between combatants and noncombatants.

Besides Pakistan and Indonesia, Hayden praised the counterterrorism efforts of other U.S. partners such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Military and law enforcement activities and even efforts addressing the conflict of ideas have resulted in improvements in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, he said. "I have always said that the civilized world will win this fight when we win the war of ideas," he added.

NEXT STEPS

Efforts to defeat al-Qaida in the near future will continue to center on Yemen, Somalia and the Afghan-Pakistan border, according to Hayden. Intelligence suggests that some veterans of terror operations in Iraq are now drifting to other regions, such as North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, in search of new action.

Even though al-Qaida has suffered serious setbacks in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the intelligence-agency director said, "it remains a determined, adaptive enemy." Al-Qaida is still "the most dangerous threat we face," he told the Atlantic Council's Global Intelligence Forum.

In Hayden's opinion, al-Qaida's base of operations on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan remains "the single most important factor today in the group's resilience and its ability to threaten the West." He contends that the remote, tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border have supported terrorist financing, recruiting, training and plotting in the past.

While al-Qaida-related operations in the tribal regions do not rise to the level of activity that once existed in Afghanistan, Hayden said, its recent efforts to destabilize Pakistan are worrisome.

The Pakistani army has been fighting extremists "forcefully and with considerable success since early August," Hayden said. The Pakistanis have a multibrigade operation under way in the tribal area of Bajaur, and while they have sustained losses, "they are also imposing significant casualties on our common enemy."

But when al-Qaida is dealt a blow, Hayden said, its senor leadership recalibrates. "They constantly look for ways to make up for losses, extend their reach, take advantage of opportunities, and we're seeing that ... in some places like ... Somalia or Yemen."

Yemen has witnessed an unprecedented number of attacks in 2008, Hayden said, including two against the U.S. Embassy. The sophistication of attacks and the range of targets are broadening. Hayden said that, like what has happened elsewhere, terrorist cells in Yemen "are operating from remote, tribal areas where the government has traditionally had very little authority."

That al-Qaida tends to gain strength only in isolated, ungoverned territories "may be the most damning thing we can say about this organization," Hayden said. It can subsist only beyond the reach of civilization and the reach of the rule of law.

HANDLING THE TRANSITION

As head of the CIA, Hayden's service may continue into the Obama administration, although frequently a new president appoints his own director. Asked about his interest in continuing in his present position - which includes conducting daily presidential intelligence briefings at the White House - the director said he serves at the pleasure of the president, but would consider staying if asked.

As this is the first wartime presidential transition for the United States in 40 years, some thought is being given by transition officials to keeping some Bush appointees, at least temporarily, so the transfer of power from one administration to another is as seamless as possible.

Hayden said members of the Bush administration have been directed to "make this the smoothest transition in recorded history." With the United States on a wartime footing and al-Qaida already having made a critical remark about President-elect Barack Obama on the Internet, the director said, efforts are under way to get a new team ready for any contingency as swiftly as possible "so that there is no diminution in the ability of the Republic to defend itself."

Video of the forum ( http://www.acus.org/event_blog/cia-director-event ) is available on the Atlantic Council Web site. A transcript of Hayden's remarks ( https://www.cia.gov/news-information/speeches-testimony/directors-remarks-at-the-atlantic-council.html ) is available on the CIA Web site.

For more information about U.S. policy, see Confronting Terrorism ( http://fpolicy.america.gov/fpolicy/security/counterterrorism.html) on America.gov.

Source: NewsBlaze

Libya's Membership Application To MENAFATF Approved

Members of the anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing organization, the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force, or MENAFATF, approved Libya's membership application Tuesday, MENAFATF President Abdulrahim Al Awadi said.

"The plenary of 17 members approved the application of Libya to be a member and the application of the World Customs Organization to be an observer member," Al Awadi told reporters in Fujeirah, United Arab Emirates.

Libya will become the 18th member state of the organization, which was set up in November 2004 and includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Sudan, Iraq and Egypt. The U.S., U.K., France and Spain are observer members, as well as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The U.A.E. currently holds the presidency.

The U.A.E., which is keen to expand membership, also proposed that Djbouti, Comoros Islands, Seychelles and Maldives become members. The proposal is still being studied by member states.

Al Awadi added that the taskforce will meet next in Bahrain, which takes over the presidency of the organization in May 2009.

He also said that the global credit crisis won't draw attention away from fighting money laundering and terrorist financing.

"Members reiterate the financial crisis should not affect progress and, on the contrary, will add resolve to progress," Al Awadi said.

Source: Zawya

Islamic Charity Charged with Terrorist Financing; Former U.S. Congressman Indicted

KANSAS CITY -- A federal grand jury in the Western District of Missouri has returned a superseding indictment that charges the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA) and several of its former officers with eight new counts of engaging in prohibited financial transactions for the benefit of U.S.-designated terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The indictment also charges former U.S. Congressman Mark Deli Siljander with money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the case.

The 42-count superseding indictment returned today was announced by Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; John F. Wood, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri; Joseph Billy, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division; and Monte C. Strait, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Kansas City Field Office.

“This superseding indictment paints a troubling picture of an American charity organization that engaged in transactions for the benefit of terrorists and conspired with a former United States Congressman to convert stolen federal funds into payment for his advocacy on behalf of the charity,” said Assistant Attorney General Wainstein.

“An organization right here in the American heartland allegedly sent funds to Pakistan for the benefit of a specially designated global terrorist with ties to al-Qaeda and the Taliban,” said U.S. Attorney Wood. “By bringing this case in the middle of America, we seek to make it harder for terrorists to do business halfway around the globe. The indictment also alleges that a former congressman engaged in money laundering and obstruction of a federal investigation in an effort to disguise IARA’s misuse of taxpayer money that the government had provided for humanitarian purposes.”

IARA, the Islamic charitable organization named in today’s indictment, was headquartered in Columbia, Mo., and was formerly known as the Islamic African Relief Agency-USA. IARA was officially formed in 1985 and closed in October 2004, when it was identified by the U.S. Treasury Department as a specially designated global terrorist organization. Mubarak Hamed, 51, of Columbia, Mo., a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sudan, served as IARA’s former executive director and is named as a defendant in the indictment.

Also charged in today’s superseding indictment is Mark Deli Siljander, 57, a former U.S. Congressman from Michigan (1981-87) who serves as the owner/director of Global Strategies, Inc., a planning, marketing and public relations company located in the Washington, D.C. area.

Other defendants named in the indictment are Ali Mohamed Bagegni, 53, formerly of Columbia, Mo, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Libya and a former member of IARA’s board of directors; Ahmad Mustafa, 55, of Columbia, a citizen of Iraq, and a former fund-raiser for IARA; Khalid Al-Sudanee, 56, a citizen and resident of Jordan, and the regional director of the Middle East office of the Islamic African Relief Agency (also known as the Islamic Relief Agency, or ISRA); and Abdel Azim El-Siddig, 51, of Palos Heights, Ill., a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Sudan, and formerly vice president for international operations for IARA.

On March 6, 2007, IARA, along with five officers, employees and associates were charged in a 33-count indictment for illegally transferring funds to Iraq in violation of federal sanctions. They were also charged with stealing government funds, with misusing IARA’s charitable status to raise funds for an unlawful purpose, and with attempting to avoid government detection of their illegal activities by, among other things, falsely denying in a nationally-televised interview that a procurement agent of Osama bin Laden had been an employee of IARA. These charges are included in the superseding indictment returned today.

New Terrorism-Related Charges Against IARA

Today’s superseding indictment adds to the original charges by alleging that IARA and its former executive director, Mubarak Hamed, engaged in prohibited financial transactions for the benefit of Specially Designated Global Terrorist, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan mujahideen leader and founder of the Hezb-e-Islami-Gulbuddin (HIG), who has participated in and supported terrorist acts by al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Hekmatyar has vowed to engage in a holy war against the United States and international troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. government designated Hekmatyar as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on Feb. 19, 2003, thereby blocking all property and interests in property of Hekmatyar.

According to Counts Thirty-Four through Forty-One of the new indictment, IARA and Hamed knowingly and willfully engaged in financial transactions for the benefit of Hekmatyar’s organization by sending approximately $130,000 in 2003 and 2004 in numerous transactions to Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA) bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, purportedly for an orphanage housed in buildings owned and controlled by Hekmatyar.

“Sending money to benefit designated terrorists jeopardizes both U.S. national security and the security of nations around the world,” said Assistant Director Joseph Billy, Jr., FBI Counterterrorism Division. “The FBI will continue to work diligently with our partners in the law enforcement and intelligence community to pursue suspected terrorists and their supporters, whether in the United States or overseas.”

It is important to note that the indictment does not charge any of the defendants with material support of terrorism, nor does it allege that they knowingly financed acts of terror. Instead, the indictment alleges that some of the defendants engaged in financial transactions that benefited property controlled by a designated terrorist, in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

New Charges Against Former Congressman

Today’s superseding indictment also names Mark Deli Siljander as a defendant on counts of money laundering, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. According to the indictment, Siljander was hired in March 2004 by defendants IARA, Hamed, and Bagegni to advocate for the removal of IARA from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of non-profit organizations suspected of being involved in supporting international terrorism.

The Senate Finance Committee placed IARA on this list of charities and published the list on Jan. 14, 2004. Siljander was to advocate for IARA’s removal from the list and reinstatement as an approved government contractor by gathering information and meeting with individuals and agencies of the U.S. government.

As compensation for the services that Siljander agreed to perform, IARA transferred roughly $50,000 in stolen federal funds to accounts that were controlled by Siljander at the National Heritage Foundation and the International Foundation. According to the indictment, the funds used to compensate Siljander for his services had previously been stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) by IARA, Hamed and Bagegni. The International Foundation and the National Heritage Foundation, which is not related to the Heritage Foundation, are not charged with any wrongdoing in this case.

IARA, Hamed and Bagegni had previously entered into a series of agreements with USAID for relief projects in Mali, Africa. When USAID terminated those agreements in December 1999, the amount of money involved totaled approximately $2 million. IARA had allegedly failed to fully fund the matching contributions required to receive USAID funds. After the termination of these agreements, the indictment alleges, IARA, Hamed and Bagegni, without authorization, retained approximately $84,922 of USAID money and failed to return the funds to USAID as called for by the agreements.

According to Count Twenty-Eight of the indictment, Siljander and defendants IARA, Hamed, Bagegni and El-Siddig conspired to engage in money laundering by transferring stolen USAID funds, knowing that the transfers were designed to conceal the nature, source and ownership of the proceeds. Counts Twenty-Nine through Thirty-One of the indictment charge Siljander along with IARA, Hamed, Bagegni and El-Siddig with engaging in money laundering by transferring stolen USAID funds, knowing that the transfers were designed to conceal the nature, source and ownership of the proceeds.

Obstruction of Justice

Count Thirty-Two of the indictment alleges that Siljander obstructed the due administration of justice in the grand jury investigation in the Western District of Missouri by making false statements to FBI agents in December 2005 and to FBI agents and federal prosecutors in April 2007.

According to the indictment, Siljander told federal officials that he had not been hired to do any lobbying or advocacy work for IARA and that the money or checks he received from IARA were charitable “donations” intended to assist him in writing a book about bridging the gap between Islam and Christianity. When he made these statements, he then well knew and believed that each statement was false, the indictment alleges.

The public is cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, IRS-Criminal Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. AID-Office of Inspector General.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony P. Gonzalez from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri, in conjunction with Trial Attorneys Corey J. Smith, National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and Steven M. Mohlhenrich, Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

http://www.thesop.org/article.php?id=9137

New charges against Islamic charity allege money-laundering link to a former congressman

A federal grand jury has re-indicted a defunct Columbia, Mo., charity, accusing it of sending money to benefit an Afghan terrorist who has attacked U.S. forces there.

The indictment also accuses former U.S. Congressman Mark Deli Siljander of money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

Grand jurors added the new charges to an existing indictment that accused the Islamic American Relief Agency and five of its officers and associates of sending money to Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s reign in violation of U.S. sanctions.

According to the new charges, the charity sent about $130,000 in 2003 and 2004 to bank accounts in Pakistan, allegedly for an orphanage housed in buildings owned by Glubuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan mujahedeen leader.

The U.S. government designated Hekmatyar as a global terrorist in February 2003 because of his links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.

“By bringing this case in the heartland, we are making it more difficult for terrorists to operate around the world,” U.S. Attorney John Wood said at a news conference.

The charges also accuse Siljander, a Republican who represented Michigan in Congress from 1981 to 1987, of receiving almost $50,000 from the charity in 2004. Siljander, who operates a Washington public relations firm, was hired to lobby Congress to remove the charity from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of nonprofit organizations suspected of being involved in supporting international terrorism.

Siljander did not return messages to his office seeking comment about the charges.

His Kansas City lawyer, J.R. Hobbs, said that Siljander vehemently denies the charges and plans to plead not guilty soon.

Hobbs noted that Siljander was not named in the indictment as a defendant who allegedly sent assistance to Hekmatyar.

“Mr. Siljander is … world renowned for his efforts to bridge the Muslim-Christian divide,” Hobbs said.

Because the fresh accusations have been tacked on to the existing litigation against IARA and its officers, they could slow the resolution of a criminal case already moving at a snail’s pace. The existing case was filed in March 2007, and complications about classified evidence have slowed progress. No trial date has been set.

“This constitutes a substantial expansion of an already complex case,” said Curtis Woods, a criminal defense lawyer in Kansas City who is representing Mubarak Hamed, IARA’s former executive director.

The fresh accusations are the latest twist in a federal investigation of the charity that goes back long before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

In 1999, the U.S. Agency for International Development revoked grants to the agency, stating they would “not be in the national security interest” of the United States.

In October 2004, federal agents raided IARA’s offices in Columbia on the same day the U.S. Treasury Department designated the organization as a supporter of international terrorism.

Supporters of the organization cried foul, pointing to a list of worldwide humanitarian projects that the charity had supported.

If established, the link to Hekmatyar would be the most serious terrorism allegation in the criminal case.

Hekmatyar leads the Hezb-e-Islami-Gulbuddin, a fundamentalist faction of mujahedeen, and was prime minister of Afghanistan for periods in the mid-1990s. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Hekmatyar has organized an alliance with Taliban leader Muhammad Omar and the remnants of al-Qaida in Afghanistan, according to GlobalSecurity.org.

In a video broadcast on Al-Jazeera last year, Hekmatyar announced that he and his followers supported Osama bin Laden. His group also has been blamed for attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan.

According to the indictment, IARA sent money to accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, purportedly to develop an orphanage in buildings owned by Hekmatyar.

That orphanage in the Shamshatu refugee camp has been under scrutiny for some time. In 2005, federal prosecutors filed declassified documents in a civil lawsuit in Washington that alleged IARA had been supporting the children of Afghan “martyrs” at the orphanage.

IARA supporters, however, cautioned that the word “martyr” can have a much more benign interpretation than “suicide bomber.”

The allegations against Siljander elaborate on information provided in the March 2007 indictment, including identifying the former congressman as a lobbyist for IARA.

According to prosecutors, IARA transferred about $50,000 in federal international aid grant money to pay for Siljander’s work to clear the charity’s name before the Senate Finance Committee. But instead of just sending the money to Siljander’s firm, the charity transferred it through accounts controlled by Siljander at a couple of other charities.

When questioned by FBI agents about the funds in December 2005 and by prosecutors in April 2007, Siljander allegedly said the money was to have assisted him in writing a book about bridging the gap between Christianity and Islam.

Siljander operates Global Strategies Inc., which helps its clients resolve international business, political and illegal issues, according to its Web site.

A gallery of photos on the site includes Siljander posing with former U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, as well as politicians Newt Gingrich, Trent Lott and Bob Dole. Foreign dignitaries in the photos include President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and the Dalai Lama.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Timeline
Feb. 1985: Islamic African Relief Agency founded in Columbia, Mo., to support charitable work in Africa.

Nov. 1996: IARA’s Webmaster purchases satellite telephone that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida use to plot 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa.

Feb. 1999: Charity changes name to Islamic American Relief Agency-USA.

Oct. 2004: Federal agents raid charity’s Columbia offices; U.S. Department of Treasury rules donations to charity illegal.

March 2007: IARA and five officers/associates charged with illegally sending more than $1.4 million to Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s reign.

Wednesday: IARA, the five officers/associates face new terrorism-related charges tied to $130,000 the charity sent to a Pakistani orphanage owned by an Afghan terrorist. Also Wednesday, a former U.S. congressman is charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the case.

Individuals charged
Mubarak Hamed, the charity’s former executive director.

Ali Mohamed Bagegni, former charity board member and treasurer.

Ahmed Mustafa, former charity fundraiser.

Khalid Al-Sudanee, Middle East coordinator for a related charity based in Jordan.

Abdel Azim El-Siddig, former charity vice president for international operations.

Mark Deli Siljander, a U.S. congressman from Michigan in the 1980s and current congressional lobbyist.

http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/448158-p2.html

International Arms Dealer Extradited on Terrorism Offenses

U.S. Department of Justice

**Verbatim

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, June 13, 2008
WWW.USDOJ.GOV

NEW YORK- Michael J. Garcia, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Michele M. Leonhart, the Acting Administrator of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), announced that international arms dealer Monzer Al Kassar, a/k/a Abu Munawar, a/k/a El Taous, arrived in New York today after being extradited from Spain on federal terrorism charges. Al Kassar was extradited to New York for his participation in a conspiracy to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (the FARC) -- a designated foreign terrorist organization -- to be used to kill Americans in Colombia. Al Kassar’s co-defendants, Tareq Mousa Al Ghazi and Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, were both previously extradited to New York from Romania to face the same terrorism charges. According to the superseding Indictment filed in Manhattan federal court:

Since the early 1970s, Al Kassar has been a source of weapons and military equipment for armed factions engaged in violent conflicts around the world. Some of these factions have included known terrorist organizations, such as the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF), the goals of which included attacking United States interests and United States nationals.

To carry out his weapons-trafficking business, Al Kassar developed an international network of criminal associates, including co-defendants Al Ghazi and Moreno Godoy, as well as front companies and bank accounts in various countries, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania. Additionally, Al Kassar has engaged in money-laundering transactions in bank accounts throughout the world to disguise the illicit nature of his criminal proceeds.

Between February 2006 and May 2007, Al Kassar agreed to sell to the FARC millions of dollars worth of weapons, including thousands of machine guns, millions of rounds of ammunition, rocket-propelled grenade launchers (RPGs), and surface-to-air missile systems (SAMs). During a series of recorded telephone calls, e-mails, and in-person meetings, Al Kassar agreed to sell the weapons to two confidential sources working with the DEA (the CSs), who represented that they were acquiring these weapons for the FARC, with the specific understanding that the weapons were to be used to attack United States helicopters in Colombia.

During their consensually-recorded meetings, Al Kassar provided the CSs with, among other things: (1) a schematic of the vessel to be used to transport the weapons; (2) specifications for the SAMs he agreed to sell to the FARC; and (3) bank accounts in Spain and Lebanon that were ultimately used to receive and conceal more than $400,000 sent from DEA undercover accounts that the CSs represented were FARC drug proceeds for the weapons deal. During his meetings with the CSs, Al Kassar reviewed Nicaraguan end-user certificates that he accepted despite knowing that the arms were destined for the FARC in Colombia. Al Kassar also promised to provide the FARC with ton-quantities of C-4 explosives, as well as expert trainers from Lebanon to teach the FARC how to effectively use C-4 and improvised explosive devices (commonly referred to as IEDs). In addition, Al Kassar offered to send a thousand men to fight with the FARC against United States military officers in Colombia.

The Indictment charges Al Kassar with four separate terrorism offenses:

Count One: Conspiracy to kill United States nationals, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2332(b);

Count Two: Conspiracy to kill United States officers or employees, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1114 and 1117;

Count Three: Conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2332g; and

Count Four: Conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, in violation of Title 18,

United States Code, Section 2339B.

In addition, Al Kassar is charged in Count Five with money laundering, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1956.

The superseding Indictment seeks the forfeiture of an estate located in Marbella, Spain, and all funds contained in three separate bank accounts. The forfeitures represent the alleged proceeds obtained from the charged offenses.

Al Kassar is expected to appear later this afternoon in Magistrate court in Manhattan federal court.

If convicted of Counts One through Three, Al Kassar faces a maximum sentence of any term of years or life imprisonment, as well as a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years’ imprisonment on Count Three. As part of the extradition process, however, the United States has provided assurances to the government of Spain that it will not seek a life sentence for Al Kassar, but instead will ask for a prison term of years. If convicted of Count Four, Al Kassar faces a maximum sentence of 15 years' imprisonment. Finally, if convicted of Count Five, Al Kassar faces a maximum sentence of 20 years' imprisonment.

The international law enforcement operation that culminated with today’s extradition was the result of cooperation between the DEA, the Spanish National Police, and the Romanian Border Police.

Mr. Garcia praised the investigative efforts of the DEA, the Spanish National Police, and the Romanian Border Police. Mr. Garcia also thanked the United States Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs and the U.S. State Department.

"Monzer Al Kassar intended to provide millions of dollars worth of lethal weapons to a foreign terrorist organization to be used to kill Americans," said U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia. "As a result of extraordinary cooperation with our international law enforcement partners, Al Kassar will now face justice for his crimes in a United States courtroom."

"The arrest, extradition and pending criminal prosecution of Monzer Al Kassar before a U.S. Court of justice are a testament to DEA's global alliances and unique investigative skills," said DEA Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart. "Al Kassar's days of arming and funding global terrorists are over. Spanish authorities are to be commended for their diligence and perseverance to ensure Al Kassar's extradition to the United States."

Assistant United States Attorneys Boyd M. Johnson III, Leslie C. Brown, and Brendan R. McGuire are in charge of the prosecutions.

The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

US: Changes Demanded in terrorist Financing Laws

Friday, 04 January 2008
by William Fisher

The government’s spotty record in obtaining convictions of people charged with providing “material support” to terrorist organizations is adding new impetus to the efforts of prominent constitutional lawyers to seek substantial changes in the law.

The latest failure in a terrorism-financing prosecution came late in 2007, when a Texas jury failed to render any guilty verdicts in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) – once the largest and most prominent charity dedicated to supporting Palestinian and other Muslim causes. Several HLF officials were charged with giving money to Hamas, the militant Palestinian organization designated a terrorist group by the U.S. in 1995. The trial ended with a mix of acquittals and deadlocks.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation started looking into HLF in 1993. In December 2001, the U.S. Treasury Department (DOT) seized and confiscated the charity’s assets and records, effectively putting the organization out of business. Given that outcome, some legal scholars have questioned why the government pursued a criminal prosecution at all. The trial did not begin until mid-2007.

William Neal, a juror in the HLF case, told the media that the government’s evidence “was pieced together over the course of a decade — a phone call this year, a message another year.” Instead of trying to prove that the defendants knew they were supporting terrorists, Mr. Neal said, prosecutors “danced around the wire transfers by showing us videos of little kids in bomb belts and people singing about Hamas, things that didn’t directly relate to the case.”

Civil liberties groups say the HLF case was just the latest in a line of misguided prosecutions. One such group, OMB Watch, charges that the USA Patriot Act gives the government “largely unchecked power to designate any group as a terrorist organization.” It says that “once a charitable organization is so designated, all of its materials and property may be seized and its assets frozen. The charity is unable to see the government’s evidence and thus understand the basis for the charges. Since its assets are frozen, it lacks resources to mount a defense. And it has only limited right of appeal to the courts. So the government can target a charity, seize its assets, shut it down, obtain indictments against its leaders, but then delay a trial almost indefinitely.”

One result, say critics of the government’s policy, is that Muslim charities have experienced a precipitous decline in contributions. Contributions that do arrive often come in cash from anonymous givers. And donors who happen to be Muslim are increasingly turning to the large household names like Oxfam and Save the Children, which may conduct programs in predominantly Muslim areas abroad.

One of America’s foremost constitutional scholars, Prof. David Cole of the Georgetown University Law Center, argues that the “material support principle is ‘guilt by association’ in 21st-century garb, and presents all of the same problems that criminalizing membership and association did during the Cold War.” He told us that the problem requires fundamental changes in the terrorism-financing law.

Included in Cole’s recommendations for major changes:

1. The Treasury Department should be required to permit closed charities to direct their collected funds to charities mutually approved by the frozen charity and the government.

2. Congress should enact a statutory definition of a "specially designated terrorist." “Right now the Treasury Department makes such designations entirely on the basis of an Executive Order, and accordingly Congress has given the President essentially a blank check,” Cole told us.

3. Treasury should allow designated entities to use their own funds to pay for their own defense. “Treasury not only shuts down charities in a secretive one-sided process, but then bars the charities from using any of their own money to defend themselves against the designation,” according to Cole.

4. The criminal material support statutes should be amended to require proof that an individual supported a proscribed group with the intent to further its illegal activities. “Today,” according to the government, “even aid intended to discourage terrorist activities is a crime under the material support laws,” Cole says.

He adds, “There is no requirement that the aid have any connection to terrorism,” and cites a case he is handling with the Humanitarian Law Project (HLP) at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR).

He told us, “My clients had been providing human rights advocacy training to the PKK in Turkey, as a way of encouraging them to use peaceful lawful means to resolve their disputes with the Turkish government over its treatment of the Kurdish minority. By encouraging lawful outlets for dispute resolution, such aid would presumably discourage terrorism. Yet under the material support statute it is a crime even if HLP could prove that both the purpose and the effect of their support was to decrease the PKK's resort to violence.”

OMB Watch says the “material support” effort has resulted in the government shutting down charities that were not on any government watch list before their assets were frozen.

The organization says the result is that Muslims have no way of knowing which groups the government suspects of ties to terrorism. “Organizations and individuals suspected of supporting terrorism are guilty until proven innocent,” it says.

OMB Watch told us, “A group could comply 100% and still be shut down ‘pending an investigation’."

Material-support cases are just a small fraction of the Justice Department’s terrorism prosecutions, but some observers believe they represent a shift in government strategy from punishment to prevention. Earlier prosecutions were for acts of violence that actually took place. Examples include the first World Trade Center attack, the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Africa, and conspiracies that were relatively close to fruition.

Nonetheless, government terror-financing prosecutions have been reasonably successful. From the Sept. 11 attacks to last July, the government started 108 material-support prosecutions and completed 62. Juries convicted nine defendants, 30 defendants pleaded guilty, and 11 pleaded guilty to other charges. There were eight acquittals and four dismissals.

In terrorism prosecutions involving a violent act actually committed or near fruition, the government’s record is spottier. According to the Center on Law and Security at the New York University School of Law, the government has a 29 percent conviction rate in terrorism prosecutions overall, compared with 92 percent for felonies generally.

The latest government setback involves the so-called Liberty City Seven – seven men named for the blighted Miami district where they allegedly operated. Charged with plotting to join forces with al-Qaeda to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower, one was acquitted last month and a mistrial was declared for the six others after the federal jury deadlocked.

Prosecutors acknowledged that no attack was imminent, and then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said after the arrests in mid-2006 that the alleged terror cell was ''more aspirational than operational.''

In some cases, defendants are arguably convicted of terror-related offenses in the court of public opinion rather than in the courts. One example often cited by lawyers is the case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir, an Iraqi-born American citizen, who organized and raised money for a charity providing humanitarian relief to children in Iraq. He was never charged in court with a terrorist-related offense; the word “terrorism” was not allowed to be used in his trial, although prominent politicians such as then-New York Governor George Pataki hailed his arrest as a victory in the war on terror.

The upstate New York oncologist was sentenced to 22 years in jail in 2005 for 59 felony charges, including violating U.S. sanctions against Iraq.

http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/3179/32/

UK Officer faces charge over secret files left on train

By Kim Sengupta

Civil service An intelligence officer from the Cabinet Office who left top secret documents about Iraq and Afghanistan on a train is to face charges under the Official Secrets Act.

The civil servant, who had been suspended and interviewed by detectives since the incident three months ago, is expected to be formally charged when he arrives at a police station in the next few days for an appointment, when he will be accompanied by his solicitor.

According to security sources, the main basis of the charge would be the allegation that the official had taken highly sensitive material out of the office without authorisation.

It is believed that the civil servant, an analyst with the Cabinet Office's Joint Intelligence Committee, was taking the documents home to read but accidentally left them behind in the carriage.

The paperwork, in an orange cardboard folder, was found on a seat on a London to Surrey train on 10 June and handed over to the BBC by a member of the public. It was subsequently produced on the evening news by the corporation's security correspondent Frank Gardner.

One set of documents contained scathing assessments of Iraqi security forces and intelligence. Another, commissioned by the Foreign and Home Offices, looked at al-Qa'ida's supposed vulnerabilities. As well as British officials, they were due to be circulated to their American, Australian and Canadian counterparts.

A few days later a second batch of confidential documents was left on a train from Waterloo in London and handed over to The Independent on Sunday. The files included briefing notes for a meeting of the Financial Action Trust Force (FATF) which deals with financial crime and the funding of terrorism.

Sir David Omand, former permanent secretary for security and intelligence, carried out an investigation into the loss of the first set of documents, and its conclusions are due to form new guidelines on security.

For the story see also:

• More secret papers found on British commuter train
• Jacqui Smith faces Commons summons over secret government papers left on train

The Economic Crisis: Al-Qaeda's Response

By Richard Barrett
March 9, 2009

The deepening global financial crisis has focused international attention on failing companies, rising unemployment, and diving stock markets. Little attention, however, has been given to the downturn's significant effect on terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda, which has altered its central message and is facing dwindling financial resources. Although the economic situation has likewise affected government and private-sector counterterrorism efforts, steps can be taken to improve the current counterterrorism financing regime even in these troubled times.
Background

Al-Qaeda's immediate reaction to the financial crisis has been to claim credit for the economic misfortunes of the West. The group argues that today's financial problems are the consequences of the September 11 attacks and the cost of the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda leaders have always regarded the West's consumerism as a key vulnerability and have consistently espoused attacks against economic targets. Despite complaining that the Muslim world's resources benefit Western countries and their allies more than they do the Muslim community, terrorist leaders regard oil as the treasure of their future caliphate.

It was notable that both Usama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri issued statements encouraging attacks on oil refineries in the months before the failed attack on the Abqaiq oil-processing plant in Saudi Arabia in February 2006. Considering that Abqaiq is the largest facility of its kind in the world and represents 60 percent of Saudi Arabia's daily output, a successful terrorist attack there would have significantly disrupted global energy supplies. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula issued a statement following the attack, stating that it was part of "the war against Christians and Jews to stop their pillage of Muslim riches."

Al-Qaeda's focus on economic targets will likely sharpen under the current economic conditions, prompting more strikes on oil facilities on land or against ships at sea -- a capability already demonstrated by the attack on a French tanker off the coast of Yemen in October 2002.

Changes in Message

Prompted by the financial crisis, al-Qaeda leaders also have begun reaching out to people facing economic hardship. Until now, al-Qaeda has appealed to the individual as a member of a community, but recent statements by al-Zawahiri and Abdulmalek Droukdel, the leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, have tried to persuade individuals in financial difficulty that their personal hardship is the result of the West's exploitation. This change of emphasis -- from threat to the community to threat to the individual -- challenges a central tenet of al-Qaeda's message, which has until now always focused on an individual's duty toward God rather than to himself.

Al-Qaeda's Financial State

Al-Qaeda leaders, unlike their Taliban hosts who are heavily involved in the lucrative drug trade, do not currently have significant financial resources. (Their current financial state contrasts sharply with the situation before the September 11 attacks, when the annual al-Qaeda budget was between $20 and 30 million a year, of which several million went to the Taliban.) The financial crisis is most likely affecting the amount of donations al-Qaeda receives, as donor resources fall and requests from other supplicants increase.

Because of its tenuous financial state, al-Qaeda often asks for money. Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, also known as Shaikh Said, whom the 9/11 Commission Report identified as al-Qaeda's chief financier, and who is now considered the head of al-Qaeda operations in Afghanistan, often makes direct appeals for donations. For example, in an interview in mid-2008, he stated that al-Qaeda had many potential suicide bombers but lacked the resources to equip them. Abu Yahya al-Libi, considered the principal religious authority in al-Qaeda, also often appeals for money in his statements, arguing that donating is a perfectly adequate and acceptable alternative to fighting.

Financial problems take a serious toll on al-Qaeda's ability to run its organization effectively. Even the group's leadership in the Afghan-Pakistani border area must pay for food, living quarters, accommodations for families of fallen comrades, and security, both in terms of hiring guards and in buying the silence of their neighbors. In addition, the leaders need money to recruit and train operatives and to mount operations.

Impact on Counterterrorism Efforts

Unfortunately, the financial crisis is also likely to have consequences for counterterrorism efforts. As official budgets come under increasing pressure, the huge investment in counterterrorism over the last seven years will probably decrease. Some governments may accept a greater degree of risk from terrorism in the face of the far greater risk of economic collapse. While redundancies in current counterterrorism precautions may allow for some cutbacks without a significant deterioration in protection, it will be important to avoid cutting those measures that are essential to thwarting terrorist attacks.

The private sector plays a pivotal, frontline role in countering terrorism financing, as well as in post-incident investigations. Banks know more about their clients than any other professional body: they know how, where, and when their clients get their money, as well as how, where, and when they spend it. Without bank cooperation, counterterrorism work would be far more difficult and less successful.

Nonetheless, the private sector also faces the danger of less-rigorous counterterrorism measures as a result of the financial crisis. Protecting personnel, buildings, and facilities completely is impossible, and the costs of trying to achieve such security are high. As a result, private enterprises may decide to lower their security standards as a way to save money. The financial sector is particularly problematic: not only must it physically protect staff and property, it also has to bear the added compliance costs relating to counterterrorism. These measures involve investments that show poor returns, and compliance staff cost money but do not bring in new business -- in fact, they are more likely to turn business away. In desperate times such as these, banks may therefore tend to see a double advantage to cutting back on compliance with government regulations on countering money laundering and terrorist financing.

Taking Advantage of the Crisis

To find some advantage in the financial crisis, government regulators should seek ways to work more closely with private financial institutions to ensure that they clearly understand terrorist financing and where it is likely to occur. Regulators should encourage these institutions to report suspicious activity by using well-informed, risk-based assessments rather than a mechanical application of the rules. This would save financial institutions money on compliance and reduce government expenditure by cutting back on the flow of unhelpful or irrelevant reports.

Al-Qaeda is looking to exploit the current crisis with its reshaped message, hoping to lure new recruits and raise funds to strengthen its organization. Ensuring that governments and the private sector remain focused on blocking al-Qaeda in this effort will be critical to our continued success in diminishing the threat that this dangerous organization poses to the civilized world.

Richard Barrett is the coordinator of the al-Qaeda, Taliban Monitoring Team, appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General to support the UN Security Council's 1267 Committee.


Source: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

US officer charged with stealing Iraq relief funds

A US military officer was charged Thursday with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash intended for relief and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Department of Justice said.

While stationed in Iraq between April 2007 and February 2009, 28-year-old Michael Dung Nguyen is alleged to have stolen more than 690,000 dollars in US currency, sending it back to his home in northwestern Oregon state, the department said in a statement.

The funds were swiped from the Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP), designed to empower local commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan to respond to humanitarian relief and reconstruction efforts.

After his return from Iraq, Nguyen is accused of opening new accounts at numerous banks, including Bank of America and Washington Mutual Bank, to deposit the cash.

After making the deposits "in a manner intended to avoid detection," according to the Justice Department, Nguyen allegedly attempted money laundering with the purchases of high-end goods.

He bought a luxury BMW vehicle and a 2009 model Hummer truck H3T, along with computers, electronic equipment and furniture, the indictment said.

Nguyen has been officially charged on three counts -- theft of government property, money laundering and structuring financial transaction -- and if convicted could face 30 years in prison and a 500,000-dollar fine.

The conduct alleged in the indictment amounts to a "flagrant and reprehensible disregard" of US army principles, according to prosecuting attorney Karin Immergut.

"By stealing money intended to assist Iraqi citizens, Capt. Nguyen betrayed his country and the fine men and women of our nation's armed services," she added in a statement.

Source: AFP

Terrorists launder cash through online gambling

Islamic terrorist networks are using online gambling websites to launder money for attacks, security analysts have disclosed.

The security services have been warned that the internet is increasingly being used to train terrorists, raise money and as the main form of media to promote radical Islam.

Computer experts in al-Qaeda have created an "online University of Jihad" that is recruiting and training potential terrorists in Britain without them having to risk travelling to camps in Pakistan.

A new generation of encrypted software has been developed called Mujahidden Secrets 2 whose updated security is said to allow militants to communicate freely by email without fear of being spied on by the intelligence services.

At a select conference on the Terrorist Threat to Britain experts from Jane's Intelligence Group said an online community was growing with younger and more impressionable people inadvertently sponsoring terrorism.

Terry Prattar, a specialist in counter-terrorism with Jane's Strategic Advisory Services, said: "Al-Qaeda want to create a University of Jihad on line, both in a spiritual and financial sense.

"They want a community that can carry out attack without having to travel abroad for training.."

He said the internet had been used to raise funds for terrorists in Afghanistan including the use of on-line gambling sites to launder cash.

Youngsters are invited onto security protected areas after they have been recruited by "proving themselves on online forums".

A specialist group calling itself the Al Ansar Media Battalion has used videos of American and British troops being blown up to "make people here feel they are taking part in what going on over there," Mr Pattar said.

An insurgent sniper called Juba who alleges to have killed 140 US soldiers is said to have a substantial following on the Facebook website under the name Baghdad Sniper. It is thought he had since been killed by coalition forces.

The terror groups in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan continue to use Google maps as an information resource for targeting.

Analysts are encouraging moderate Muslims to enter the online discussion sites to dismiss the extremists' arguments that gain popularity among the young.

Security sources have told The Daily Telegraph there was a new battle against al-Qaeda on the internet.

The fight against extremists was one of "ideas, not weapons and a campaign of internet, not training camps'', an intelligence source said.

He described their target as "a 17-year-old who has no criminal record, who sees images on a screen, talks to his friends but never touches a terrorist''.

The European Commission's anti-terrorism unit has promised to tighten legislation across the continent to try to target the grooming of young Muslims for terrorism over the internet.

Under the EU proposals there would be a criminal offence of "public provocation to commit a terrorist offence'', that would include "the distribution, or otherwise making available, of a message to the public, with the intent to incite'' acts of terrorism. The plans would carry a minimum jail term across the continent.

Legislation already exists in Britain to jail for up to seven years those who incite terrorism over the internet.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Iraq trucking fees were no secret: judge

THREE former consultants from the accounting firm Arthur Andersen are expected to tell a Victorian court next week how they tried to alert AWB in 2001 that some of its senior managers may have been involved in fraud, bribery or corrupt dealings overseas.

AWB commissioned the firm in October 2000 to conduct a covert review of the wheat exporter's international sales and marketing operations. In February 2001 the firm warned AWB's senior executives of numerous ''red flags'', or seriously risky activities, that if not halted could bring it into disrepute.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has told the Victorian Supreme Court that AWB's former chief executive, Andrew Lindberg, was one of the senior executives present when the the firm presented the company with its findings.

ASIC is prosecuting a civil penalty case against Mr Lindberg that alleges he breached his fiduciary duties by failing to halt a stream of illicit kickbacks AWB paid to Saddam Hussein's regime in the form of bogus trucking fees. The payments, which were made between 1999 and 2003 in US dollars and later in Deutschmarks or euros, breached UN sanctions against the Iraqi regime.

ASIC alleges that Mr Lindberg should have halted the payments when he knew about them because their disclosure seriously damaged AWB's reputation and ultimately caused it commercial damage.

The counsel for ASIC, Norman O'Bryan, QC, read portions of the unedited version of the Arthur Andersen's report to the court. He told the court it highlighted concerns about three ''suspicious transactions'' allegedly conducted by a former AWB executive, Mark Emons, on his last day of work: the payment of commissions to agents in Pakistan; the involvement of Mr Emons and his colleagues, Terry Aucher and Michael Watson, with a British company called Ronly; and a lack of disclosure to AWB's management about what was going on.

Arthur Andersen was suspicious of using Ronly as an intermediary and suggested it could be ''misinterpreted as a money-laundering exercise''. It also suggested the trucking rate ''appears to be high'' and there was ''a risk that this money [the trucking fees in Iraq] is being diverted to other purposes''.

ASIC also showed the court an email from an AWB manager, Darryl Borlase, which appeared to have been copied to dozens of colleagues, that specifically referred to the trucking fee.

Justice Ross Robson suggested the number of people copied into the email indicated that the fees by 2001 were widely known inside AWB.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald by LEONIE WOOD

Follow the terrorists' money

by Matthew Levitt and Michael Jacobson

The terrorist attacks on the transit system in London in July 2005 killed 52 innocent people but only cost about $15,000 to carry out. The 2000 attack on the U.S. destroyer Cole in Yemen and the 2004 train attacks in Madrid, Spain, set the terrorists back about $10,000 each. Even the 9/11 attacks — the largest-scale terrorist plot in history — cost less than $500,000, according to the 9/11 Commission report. Unfortunately, cutting off all funding for terrorist organizations is next to impossible, making efforts to combat terrorism financing seem a fruitless exercise, particularly with devastating terrorist attacks being so cheap to mount.

But the Obama administration would be wise to retain targeting of terrorists' financing as a key part of the U.S. government's counter-terrorism tool kit.

Though mounting a terrorist attack is relatively inexpensive, the cost of maintaining a terrorist infrastructure is high. Terrorist networks need cash to train, equip and pay operatives and their families, and to promote their causes. Recruiting, training, traveling, bribing corrupt officials and other such activities also cost money. Limiting their ability to raise funds therefore limits their ability to function.

Before 9/11, al Qaeda's annual budget was an estimated $30 million, according to the CIA. And documents seized by the U.S. military indicate that al Qaeda in Iraq, or AQI, has also been expensive to run. One of its branches spent about $175,000 over four months in 2007 — with only about half going to weapons.

Perhaps a better indicator of the importance of money to these networks is how much attention finances command from the terrorist groups themselves. Sheikh Sa'id, the head of al Qaeda's finance committee in 2001, was "notoriously tightfisted," according to a 9/11 commission report, even vetoing an expense for an operative's trip to Saudi Arabia to obtain a U.S. visa for the 9/11 plot. Osama bin Laden was forced to step in and overrule Sa'id.

This frugal approach permeates al Qaeda even at the operational level. The 9/11 hijackers returned $26,000 in unused funds, viewing the money as "blessed and honored."

AQI takes the same approach to financial matters — putting management controls in place to ensure that money was being spent carefully. Operatives were required to provide signed forms, acknowledging funds they received and justifying their expenditure.

AQI tracked expenses down to the dollar. Seized documents show that AQI's border emirate spent $727 on food during a two-month period, in addition to tracking funding for salaries, weapons, document forgery and smuggling costs. Given the security risks of maintaining such an extensive paper trail, it is clear that AQI's leaders attach great importance to the organization's financial state.

Efforts to disrupt terrorist groups' finances can have a real effect. In a May 2007 al Qaeda video, Sa'id noted the group's precarious financial state: "As for the needs of the jihad in Afghanistan, the first of them is financial. The mujahedin of the Taliban number in the thousands, but they lack funds. And there are hundreds wishing to carry out martyrdom-seeking operations, but they can't find the funds to equip themselves. So funding is the mainstay of jihad."

Perhaps even more important than cutting off funding to terrorist groups may be the benefits of financial intelligence — better known as "following the money." Definitively linking people with numbered accounts or specific money changers is a powerful pre-emptive tool.

British authorities foiled a plot in the summer of 2006 to blow up airplanes over the Atlantic, thanks in large part to critical intelligence about the money trail. Financial intelligence also played an important role in the investigation leading to the capture of Hambali, Jemaah Islamiyah's operations chief — the mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings.

And though following the money will not stop all attacks, it can frustrate terrorist activity. In 1995, captured World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Ahmed Yousef was flown over the twin towers on his way to a New York jail. When an FBI agent pointed out that the towers were still standing, Yousef replied, "They wouldn't be if I had enough money and explosives."

Ultimately, combating terrorist financing will not, in and of itself, defeat terrorism. But when employed as part of a broader strategy, it represents a powerful weapon in tackling the terrorist threat facing the nation today.

Levitt directs of the Stein Program on Counter-terrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Jacobson is a senior fellow in the program. They authored of the recent study 'The Money Trail: Finding, Following and Freezing Terrorist Finances.'

Source: Statesman

UK: Muslims Boycott Bank Over Closed Accounts

By Ted Jeory

British muslims are organising a boycott of Barclays Bank after it closed the accounts of an Islamic charity that operates in some of the world’s terror hot spots.

Barclays has given the Bradford and Bolton-based Ummah Welfare Trust just 30 days to move millions of pounds, but the bank has refused to explain why.

The charity says it raises funds for orphanages and other humanitarian aid projects in war torn countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Kashmir, Kosovo, Chechnya, Sudan, Iran and Iraq.

However, the Sunday Express has discovered that as part of its work, it also channels funds to controversial Palestinian charity Interpal, which is the subject of a current Charity Commission investigation over alleged improper links to Palestinian “terror” organisation Hamas, and whose own accounts were closed last month by Lloyds TSB.

In a further finding, the charity also openly advertises its close associations to the Al-Salah Society—also known as the Al-Salah Islamic Association—an organisation blacklisted last year by the US Treasury for being a charitable “front” for Hamas’s “terrorist agenda”.

American pressure is believed to be behind Barclays’s move, but the lack of any explanation from the bank has caused many in Britain’s Muslim communities to believe the decision is part of a wide-ranging “Zionist” attack by the City on Islam.

Supporters of the trust are now urging Muslims throughout Britain to trigger a wave of account closures in protest.

The Muslim Council of Britain has even called on Gordon Brown to intervene, saying Barclays’s “unjustified” decision has caused “anxiety” and “deep concern”.

The MCB’s deputy general secretary Dr Daud Abdullah said the Prime Minister should resist any pressure from foreign government that result only in discrimination.

He added that despite his warnings “the actions against Muslim charities are being escalated”.

The Ummah Welfare Trust claims the decision will harm “millions” of vulnerable people in 25 countries and it has warned Barclays that its reputation among worldwide Muslims could be ruined.

It is now urging Muslims to inundate Barclays chief executive John Varley with letters stating: “I would also request you to review your decision to avoid unnecessary disruption. Otherwise, I will urge all friends and colleagues to close their accounts with Barclays Bank.”

Six years ago, the Charity Commission froze the accounts of the Ummah Welfare Trust while investigators and police probed allegations that donations were being misused in Kashmir.

However, an eight-month commission inquiry was satisfied that “considerable aid” had been handed out in the region and investigators concluded they “did not find any evidence of any misapplication of the charity’s funds”.

The commission then allowed its operations to continue.

Since then, its donations have spiralled from £240,000 a year to more than £2.3milion, according to latest accounts.

Trustees say the bulk of the cash is sent to their flagship project in Pakistan, a “rehabilitation” academy for 1,000 orphans aged between eight and 14.

The accounts also show that during the past four years, the charity has also issued more than £200,000 in grants to Palestine and Lebanon via Interpal.

City legal sources believe British banks are becoming increasingly wary about how charity money is being used.

They say that bankers’ concerns follow an historic court decision in America last month when the Holy Land Foundation, once the US’s largest Muslim charity, was found guilty of illegally financing Hamas by about £8million.

“You can’t be a multinational bank and hope not to fall foul of the US’s anti-terrorism funding laws,” one source said.

“The Holy Land Foundation trial that has made it pretty clear to bankers that you can’t do Nelsonian Blindness about what these ‘charities’ are doing.”

Under UK law, banks must report any suspicions of laundering to the Government’s Serious Organised Crime Agency, which is unable to comment on any potential specific ongoing investigations.

A Barclays spokesman its decision was not “taken lightly”, while the Charity Commission confirmed there was no current investigation into the Ummah Welfare Trust.

Interpal chairman Ibrahim Hewitt said: “This is the latest case of Islamophobia within the banking sector. This is purely another attack against the Muslim community."

Source: Sunday Express

Fight against funding for terrorists founders on eighth-century system

Hi-tech attempts to stop the flow of finance to terrorist organisations in the Middle East have been stymied by a system of money transfer that dates back to the eighth century.

In the wake of the attacks on 11 September 2001, Washington pushed Arab financial institutions to crack down on illicit money transfers and implement regulations stipulated by the OECD's Financial Action Task Force (FATF) - an international body overseeing initiatives to combat money laundering and terrorism.

Arab central banks and financial institutions were quick to adopt FATF recommendations so that they could continue dealing with Western banks and compete on the global market.

The Middle East North Africa-FATF (MENA-FATF), established two years ago, claims illicit activity has declined by 90 per cent.

But with tighter regulations on banks, criminals are returning to the use of the hawala system of moving money from country to country.

Money is transferred through a network of hawala brokers, or hawaladars. A customer approaches a broker in one city and provides a sum of money to be transferred to a recipient in another, usually foreign, city. The broker who has received the money calls his counterpart in the recipient's city, providing instructions on the disposal of the funds and promising to settle the debt at a later date.

The method relies entirely on the honour of the brokers and no records are produced of individual transactions.

"What happens now does not go through financial institutions or banks; it's smuggled or goes via the hawala system," said Masood Safar Abdulla, the compliance manager at the Commercial Bank of Dubai.

The ancient hawala system is popular with the Gulf's massive expatriate Asian labour force as a cheap way of sending money home, estimated to run to billions of dollars a year.

Although much of the money transferred is legitimate, a drug bust by the Italian police late last year connected several Pakistanis with a Dubai-based Indian who received money through his informal bank to channel funds to drug cartels and arms dealers.

The incident is a single example of how dirty money could be laundered via the hawala system, and has put pressure on countries to improve regulation of alternative remittance systems. "The fact that MENA-FATF is organising a conference on hawala shows it is more serious about the issue," said Michel Nassif of World-Check, a British company that runs an intelligence database on financial risk.

But even if central banks can bring the hawala system under control, large sums of ready cash are being transported around the Middle East, eased by the region's lack of transparency.

"The most troubling spot is Dubai," said a source at a regional central bank. "There is a lot of cash coming in and out. If you look at the construction boom, it doesn't make sense: are these new skyscrapers really economically viable? That is a big indicator of money laundering."

Some money invested in UAE real estate is allegedly from Russian and Indian individuals. But how much is being laundered is anyone's guess. "Who can measure it? We know it is going on and we are not doing enough. UAE says it is, but it is a convenient system for everyone," the source said.

Another banking executive in the region said: "MENA-FATF is not very effective and governments are paranoid about financial transparency."

Iraq is considered a particular problem for regulators, with cash flowing in and out of the country to be laundered or to fund insurgents. "A lot of terrorist financing is going on in Iraq; how else are they being funded?" the central bank source said.

Incidents of money laundering connected to Iraq abound, with one source giving the example of an Iraqi-Lebanese businessman "cleaning" Kuwaiti money in Azerbaijan for an Iranian client to fund Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army in Baghdad.

Mr Nassif said the Middle East needed peace and stability before illicit funding could be curbed. "The more turmoil in the region, the more regulations will not be implemented."

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2258772.ece

Iraqi official held in corruption, money laundering probe

Iraqi forces on Thursday detained a senior Health Ministry official accused of corruption and helping to funnel millions of dollars to Shiite militiamen blamed for much of the recent sectarian violence in the capital, the U.S. military said.

The raid was the latest action in a crackdown on radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s militia, coming a day after the chief U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said a security sweep to stop the rampant attacks in the capital was under way.

Violence also was unrelenting Thursday, with car bombs striking Shiite targets in Baghdad and south of the capital. At least 43 people were killed or found dead in Iraq.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, meanwhile, said U.S. officials were investigating a Jan. 31 incident involving a civilian helicopter after The New York times reported that insurgents had brought the chopper down with ground fire during a flight between Hillah and Baghdad.

If confirmed, it would be the sixth helicopter to crash in Iraq since Jan. 20, prompting the U.S. military to review flight operations. The most recent crash occurred Wednesday when a CH-46 Sea Knight went down northwest of Baghdad, killing seven people.

The military statement did not name the official, but a ministry spokesman said earlier that U.S. and Iraqi forces had seized deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili, an al-Sadr supporter, from his first-floor office in northern Baghdad.

The detainee was implicated in the deaths of several ministry officials, including the director-general in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, the military said.

He reportedly orchestrated several kickback schemes related to inflated contracts for equipment and services, with millions of dollars allegedly funneled to the Mahdi Army militia that is loyal to al-Sadr, according to the statement.

The official also was suspected of providing large-scale employment of militia members who used Health Ministry facilities and services for “sectarian kidnapping and murder,” the military said.

Joint U.S.-Iraqi forces stormed the Health Ministry compound early Thursday, causing all the employees to flee, spokesman Qassim Yahya said.

One of al-Zamili’s bodyguards said he heard gunshots, then the Americans asked him to step aside and approached the deputy health minister, who introduced himself by name and title. A U.S. soldier told al-Zamili he was on a list of wanted names and handcuffed him before leading him away, the bodyguard said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

In the deadliest attack Thursday, a parked car bomb exploded about 10:30 a.m. at a meat market in the predominantly Shiite town of Aziziyah, 56 miles south of Baghdad, killing 20 people and wounding 45, police said.

Another parked car bomb tore through a minibus nearly an hour earlier in the mainly Shiite Amin neighborhood in southeastern Baghdad, killing seven passengers and wounding 10, police said.

The blast blew out the windows of at least one car parked in a nearby driveway and left piles of rubble and ashes that were being cleared away by street sweepers as the burned out frame of the bus stood nearby.

Baghdad’s streets have been electric with tension as U.S. officials confirmed the new security operation was under way. U.S. armor rushed through streets and Iraqi armored personnel carriers guarded bridges and major intersections.

New coils of barbed-wire and blast barriers marked checkpoints that caused traffic bottlenecks. U.S. Apache helicopters were in the air over parts of the city where they hadn’t been seen before. Gunfire still rang out across the city and some residents said they doubted life would get better.

“Nothing will work; it’s too late,” said Hashem al-Moussawi, a resident of the Sadr City Shiite enclave who was badly wounded in a bombing in December.

Underlining the dangers ahead, a Sea Knight helicopter crashed Wednesday northwest of Baghdad, killing all seven people on board, the U.S. military said.

A military statement did not give a cause for the crash, but a senior U.S. defense official in Washington said the CH-46 helicopter did not appear to have been hit by hostile fire. An Iraqi air force officer said, however, the helicopter was shot down with a missile. An al-Qaida-linked Sunni group said in a Web statement it was responsible.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that insurgents attacked another helicopter with ground fire in a previously undisclosed incident on Jan. 31, forcing it to land on a flight between Hillah and Baghdad in support of State Department operations.

Another American helicopter rescued passengers and crew but a U.S. military quick reaction force suffered several casualties while responding to the scene, the newspaper said, citing unnamed American officials. The U.S. military had no immediate comment.

The five confirmed helicopter downings include a chopper operated by the private security group Blackwater USA, which provides guards for State Department employees.

Caldwell said Wednesday that the much-awaited Baghdad security operation was finally under way but would be implemented gradually. It is the third attempt by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his U.S. backers to pacify Baghdad since the Shiite leader came to office in May. The operation, which will involve about 90,000 Iraqi and American troops, was seen by many as a last chance to curb Iraq’s sectarian war.

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/wp/2007/02/08/2032