Belgium Shows New Seriousness in Fighting Terrorism at Home and Abroad

By Victor Comras

The Belgium Government has just brought its first criminal action under new anti-terrorism legislation that makes it a criminal offense to be a member of a terrorist or terrorist support group. Formal charges were lodged August 29th against 13 Islamic extremists suspected of being members of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM). Trial has been scheduled for November before the Tribunal Correctional of Brussels. This will be the first test in criminal court of Belgium�s new Anti-Terrorism legislation.

The GICM emerged in the late 1990s as an important salafist terrorist group spread widely across Europe. Its membership draws from Moroccan recruits, many of whom trained along side al qaeda in armed camps in Afghanistan. They have reported established a number of cells in Europe and, at least until recently, considered Belgium as �safe harbor.� They are also believed to operate in the UK, Denmark, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, Spain and France, and to deal in the trafficking of falsified documents and arms smuggling. The group was designated as an Al Qaeda support group by the UN Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee following its implication in the March 11, 2004 Madrid bombings. The Group is also believed responsible for the May 19, 2003 bombings in Casablanca. But there is no indication that the 13 GICM members now under arrest were involved in either of these previous attacks. Belgian investigator had previously extradited Youssef Belhadj to Spain, where he was wanted on suspicion of being the al Qaeda spokesman who claimed responsibility for the Madrid bombings on a videotape in 2004.

Belgium had traditionally adopted a tolerant attitude toward the growing number of radical Islamic movements established there. The Belgian authorities sought to keep close tabs on these groups, but choose not to interfere with their activities so long as no Belgian laws were broken. In fact, Belgium only passed its first specific anti terrorism legislation in December 2003 to bring it in line with EU rules and standards. Following Madrid, and growing indications that GICM members in Belgium were directly implicated in the terrorist attack, the Belgian Prosecutors Office began to use this new legislation to tighten restrictions and oversight over these groups. These measures were further strengthened following the July 7, 2005 London bombings.

A Final Thought on Diamonds

By Douglas Farah

I agree that Dennis and I, from our different prespectives, will continue to disagree on this matter, while agreeing that commodities like diamonds presented and present and ongoing area of vulnerability that needs greater attention. I hope it has been an informative debate, and I learned some things.

I will only reiterate my belief that the investigations of the FBI were trying to answer a question that was not asked: whether al Qaeda funded itself through diamonds. The central contention, however, was that al Qaeda moved its money into diamonds to avoid possible freezing actions. Therefore, the primary purpose was not to make money, but to hide it, even if it entailed taking a small loss on transactions. Starting with a different question, one can get a different answer.

The history of al Qaeda's involvement in gemstones (including opening two diamond businesses in East Africa in the mid-1990s, the statements of bin Laden's closest aides on al Qaeda's diamond businesses, bin Laden's personal secretary's globe-trotting on diamond and other gemstone deals, bin Laden's personal interest in Liberia, and the court statements of al Qaeda operatives on buying and selling diamonds) seems to me to give a logical and historical framework to the development of the al Qaeda invovlement in the diamond trade as I described it. The FBI investigations seemed to me to view the diamond-buying activities in a historical and contextual vacuum.

Finally, I reiterate the different conclusions reached by people who spent considerable time--months and years at a time--on the ground, meeting with people directly involved, and investigations that, out of necessity, relied on more formal channels and could not spend time on the ground. It was not just media that came up with the allegations, but other serious law enforcement investigators coming from several different angles. The two types of investigations reached two very different conclusions. And, for the time being, that is where we are. I will leave it at that.

Technology Transfer and Terrorism: Growing Lethality in Southeast Asia

By Zachary Abuza

There has been a lot of press in the past few weeks about the growing terrorist threat in Southeast Asia. The region is clearly jittery. In May Philippine authorities seized a cache of more ton of ammonium nitrate in a Manila warehouse. Earlier this month, two bombs wounded 30 people in Zamboanga city. On 28 August the ASG detonated another bomb on a ferry that had 300 passengers. Last year a similar bomb killed 116 people, the most lethal attack in Southeast Asia since the Bali blast. Though no one was killed in last Sunday�s bombing, more than 30 were wounded and inter-island transport, the impoverished archipelago's prime means of transit, slowed. The situation is as tense in Indonesia, where President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has recently warned that terrorist attacks are imminent. Earlier this week, a bomb-scare shut down the British Embassy in Jakarta. Indeed, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), though degraded, has the capability to execute one major attack a year (Bali October 2002, JW Mariott August 2003, and the Australian embassy September 2004). As the last bombing was one year ago, we are due for a major attack. Indonesian police recently intercepted a letter from one cell leader to the JI leadership that they are ready and able: Explosives had been procured and 12 martyrs (shaheeds) readied.

But the real reason for concern is that there is a significant degree of technology transfer going on. Simply put, more people have more sophisticated and lethal bomb technology.

CT Blog to Join Bloggers' Effort to Aid Hurricane Katrina Victims

By Andrew Cochran

Hurricane Katrina was the worst natural disaster ever to hit the United States. The victims need our money and prayers in abundance. So we're joining with other bloggers, organized by Glenn Reynolds, Michelle Malkin, and others, in urging our readers to give to a number of fine organizations. On Thursday, we'll join them in a special "Bloggers' Beg" by posting a list of organizations recommended by our Contributing Experts. Of course, as in other disasters, the Red Cross is a great place to start, but other organizations have additional distribution channels and outstanding records of providing disaster assistance. We know you'll want to help.

I thought diamonds were supposed to be clear? Then why are they so gray?

By Dennis Lormel

There is one thing that Doug and I are clear about concerning this subject. We will continue to agree to disagree on the issue of Al Qaeda�s involvement in the diamond trade. There are a number of factors that contribute to the inconsistency concerning this subject. Doug noted the number of witnesses who provided information to him and others supporting his case. I can point to similar numbers contradicting it. We can go back and forth and make compelling arguments for our respective positions concerning this debate. I don�t argue Al Qaeda�s presence in the region or that certain individuals have Al Qaeda affiliations. My focus was specific to Al Qaeda�s alleged involvement in the diamond trade. Whether or not Al Qaeda�s name was mentioned anywhere is secondary to the diamond issue. Experts in the diamond business have advised that characteristics of the trade argue against the possibility that Al Qaeda could enter the industry or make a great deal of profit from it.

Allegations articulated by Doug and others in various media were placed in a matrix by the FBI. Each was investigated. They were vetted with the CIA, the interagency community and international counterparts. In conjunction with other investigative steps, extensive Al Qaeda detainee interviews were also conducted. The allegations could not be substantiated. In the aftermath of the FBI investigation, the Department of Justice referred this matter to the Southern District of New York (SDNY) for an independent review. An Assistant United States Attorney, SDNY, determined that no further investigation was warranted. Subsequently, the 9/11 Commission assessed the allegations that Al Qaeda used the trade of conflict diamonds to fund itself. The 9/11 Commission reviewed the full scope of the allegations in reaching the conclusion that Al Qaeda did not fund itself through diamonds. With specific respect to diamond trafficking, no other country in the world investigated or presented the United States with evidence that Al Qaeda was involved in conflict diamonds. One final point, in response to an inquiry by Representative Frank Wolf, then National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice commented by letter that the interagency community possessed no credible evidence of Al Qaeda�s involvement in diamond trafficking.

Conflict diamonds are an area of vulnerability which clearly warranted investigation. For my part, I am satisfied that the appropriate investigation was conducted. I�m sure Doug does not share that view. If diamonds are supposed to be clear, why were they so gray when it came to Al Qaeda?

Walid Phares: LEBANON SECURITY ARRESTS COULD LEAD TO SYRIA AND HIZBOLLAH

By Walid Phares

Today, the Lebanese Government accepted a UN investigation commission request to have a number of former security chiefs brought in for interrogation in the Hariri assassination. The three directors detained were:  Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed, the former chief of General Security; Maj. Gen. Ali Hajj, the former director general of the Internal Security Forces; and Brig. Gen. Raymond Azar, the former director general of military intelligence. The commander of the Presidential Guards, Brig. Gen. Mustafa Hamdan, also appeared before the U.N. investigation in response to a summons. The Commission ordered former pro-Syrian MP Nasser Kandil to appear as well. But according to official sources, he has taken refuge in the Syrian capital. The four former security officials are considered as the strategic arm of the Lebanese regime and the umbrella that protected Hizbollah under Syrian Baathist supervision. Jamil Sayyed, according to well-informed Lebanese sources was the highest Syrian Mukhabarat �man� inside the Lebanese apparatus since the early 1990s. Mustafa Hamdan, commander of the Harass al Jamhuri, Lebanon�s version of the �Republican Guards,� is accused of masterminding many assassinations, and potentially part of the conspiracy to kill Hariri. Sources in Lebanon believe that the UN investigation may well link the Lebanese regime, Assad�s agencies and Hizbollah to the assassination.

British Request Extradition of Terror Suspect Detained in Thailand

By Zachary Abuza

The British government has formally requested the extradition of the Algerian man arrested by Thai authorities who is wanted in conjunction with the 7/7 attacks in London. A Thai court will soon rule on the extradition request.

Atamnia Yachine (33) was arrested in Bangkok last week in possession of some 186 fake French and Spanish passports. Authorites tracked him down in the ongoing investigation of another ethnic Algerian (though British citizen), Mahiededine Daikh, who was arrested on 2 August at Bangkok�s airport in possession of 452 fake passports.

Yachine has long been a suspect in the sale of forged documents. According to press reports, British authorities issued a warrant for Atamnia Yachine�s arrest in 1995 when his fingerprints were found on a parcel that contained 200 passports. British police believe that Yachine supplied fake travel documents to the London bombers.

That Thai authorities have made two recent seizures of 638 passports is commendable, but it highlights the fact that Thailand remains an important back office � especially for forged documents � for trans-national criminal organization and terrorist organizations. Yet, Thai authorities deserve significant credit for substantially tightening their border controls at the Don Muang airport in Bangkok. Documents receive far greater scrutiny while all foreigners are digitally photographed on arrival and departure.

Who is the New Saudi Ambassador and Why Don't We Care?

By Douglas Farah

I have waited in vain for someone in the major media to run something telling the American people who the new Saudi ambassador to the United States--Prince Turki al-Faisal--really is. Yet his naming has passed almost unnoticed and uncommented since it was made last month.

It is important to understand that Prince Turki not only has ties to U.S. intelligence dating back to the BCCI scandal of the 1980s. But more importantly, he was was head of Saudi intelligence for 24 years, and as such one of the chief propagators of the spread of wahhabism around the world. He also supported radical Islamic and wahhabist causes without hesitation or reserve. He resigned his intelligence position a month before 9-11, and, since 2002 was Saudi ambassador to Great Britain.

He was one of the primary architects and bagmen for the Saudi funding of the Taliban's victory in Afghanistan. He supervised the purchase of some 400 pickup trucks for the Taliban's final push to victory in 1996, and worked closely with Pakistani intelligence to arm, train and supply the Taliban long after the Taliban took in Osama bin Laden as a special guest. He has helped spread around the world the wildly anti-Jewish hate literature that the Saudi government prints and Saudi intelligence helps distribute. This includes calls to kill all Jews, along with calls to wage war against Christianity. These are not passing references, but the heart of wahhabi teachings, which Prince Turki has overseen and spread.

While Prince Turki denies any sympathy for bin Laden, and states that he only met bin Laden in the 1990s on visits to Afghanistan, his support for the Taliban, his support for the Saudi diplomatic recognition and funding for the Taliban and the deep involvement of his intelligence operatives is forming and shaping the Taliban place him in very close proximity to al Qaeda. According to published accounts, Prince Turki's enthusiasm for the Taliban faded after a 1998 visit to Kandahar, Afghanistan, when Taliban leader Mullah Omar, insulted him and refused to discuss handing bin Laden over to the Saudis.

I find it hard to imagine why the Bush administration, despite the ties of the Bush family to Prince Turki (he worked with Bush I when Bush I was head of the CIA) accepting this appointment. Why would you accept a hate-spewing architect of one of your worst enemies as ambassador to your country? I find it even more interesting that no one is questioning this at all in the major media or in public forums. Even in a slow August no one seems to care. To continue reading, please go here.

Debate Continues Here on Al Qaeda's Involvement With African Diamond Trade

By Andrew Cochran

One of my original goals for this site was to hold the definitive debate on the issue of Al Qaeda's possible involvement with the diamond trade in West Africa. The world had heard from Douglas Farah, former award-winning Washington Post reporter, whose investigative work in Africa led him to write "Blood From Stones: The Secret Financial Network of Terror.� Released in 2004, the book laid out the evidence for his thesis that Al Qaeda "moved tens of millions of dollars from banks into diamonds, gold, tanzanite, emeralds, and sapphires" to finance its operations. But that thesis was always discounted by law enforcement and the intelligence community, and the 9/11 Commission staff agreed with that side in its Monograph on Terrorist Financing: "No persuasive evidence exists that al Qaeda relied on the drug trade as an important source of revenue, had any substantial involvement with conflict diamonds, or was financially sponsored by any foreign government." The most knowledgeable former law enforcement official in the world who can discuss the issue openly is Dennis Lormel, former Director of the FBI�s Terrorist Financing Operations Section, from where he directed the FBI's investigation into Doug's thesis.

Doug and Dennis touched on the issue periodically prior to this month, when they engaged in a full point-counterpoint debate. I've decided to compile all of their CT Blog posts on this issue for our readers in a single document. I invite you to download it (I'll also save it in the Counterterrorism Library), and I'll update the file as needed:
Download debate_on_alqaeda_african_diamonds.doc

Links Added to Buy Contributing Experts' Books & Other Changes

By Andrew Cochran

Some site changes today: I've added a new section in the left sidebar with links to other sites where you can buy books written by our Contributing Experts. I've removed the "Oil-for-Food Collection" (although I still have the files), because it appears that the links between the OFF program to terrorism have been developed, and I want to use that space for the book links and the Counterterrorism Library. And I've added Rachel Sullivan, my co-worker at our Washington government relations firm, as Assistant Editor to help with a wide range of blog issues.

Security Concerns as Afghanistan Elections Approach

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

Afghanistan's parliamentary elections are scheduled for September 18.  Just as security concerns were paramount for both Iraq's National Assembly elections and for the coming vote on its constitution, so too is this a large issue for the Afghanistan elections.  The UN's Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) provides an excellent overview (reprinted at the Reuters website) of the security concerns.  There are three major levels of threat:  national and international forces and electoral bodies, candidates and voters.

Thus far, most of the recent violence by extremist groups in Afghanistan has targeted pro-government and international forces.  Aside from escalating attacks on military forces, at least four election workers have been killed since preparations for the upcoming elections began this spring.  There have also been attacks on candidates.  This Saturday, for example, parliamentary candidate Haji Atiqullah was killed in the Uruzgan province.  The Afghan-UN Joint Electoral Management Body has said that at least three other candidates have been killed since preparations for the elections began.  IRIN reports that there have also been other attacks on candidates and attempts at intimidation:

In the run-up to the polls, candidates have been attacked when out electioneering. In one case, a woman from the southern city of Kandahar was shot at after receiving threatening phone calls warning her not to make remarks against the Mujahideen, or holy fighters.  In another incident, the home and car of a candidate who edits a secular newspaper known for being critical of Jihadi fighters, were firebombed.

Although the Taliban has condemned the election and warned citizens not to take part, a spokesman purporting to represent the group announced this month that the Taliban doesn't plan to attack polling stations on election day.  Not everybody takes the Taliban at their word.  Lt. Col. Cristoni Riccardo, spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force, commented, "We don't trust this [Taliban statement] because they have lied about several other issues in the past."

In an attempt to ensure the polls' security, American forces have stepped up their offensive against the Taliban in recent weeks.  The U.S. military claims to have killed over 100 militants in recent weeks, including today's killing of a suspected Taliban commander and nine other rebels.

While the Taliban almost certainly won't be able to cause a major disruption to the country's elections, this situation deserves our attention.

Algerian "Junior Osama Bin Laden" Resurfaces in Bosnia-Herzegovina

By Evan Kohlmann

An Algerian terrorist commander once thought to head a transnational sleeper cell network that included would-be Al-Qaida Millenium bomber Ahmed Ressam has resurfaced in Bosnia-Herzegovina, vehemently denying allegations recently presented to the Bosnian Supreme Court in Sarajevo that his foreign mujahideen unit committed war crimes during the Bosnian civil conflict of the 1990s.  Algerian militant commander Abu el-Maali--the former chief of the foreign mujahideen unit in Bosnia--granted an exclusive interview to a mujahideen-affiliated magazine in Bosnia in order to respond to charges leveled during the recent trial of Iraqi-born Abduladhim Maktouf--convicted in early July of aiding in the 1993 kidnapping of three Croat civilians subsequently held prisoner in a mujahideen-run torture camp.

Click to view exclusive report c/o Globalterroralert.com

NOTE: In the interests of full disclosure, I should add that I appeared as an expert witness on behalf of international prosecutors during the recent Bosnian Supreme Court case against Abduladhim Maktouf to testify about Abu el-Ma`ali and the foreign mujahideen detachment in the Balkans.  I challenge Abu el-Ma`ali to abandon his ridiculous rhetoric and respond to a single substantive point of my testimony--including my discussion of his petty blood feud with fellow terror recruiter Abu Hamza al-Masri.  For more, see my book Al-Qaida's Jihad in Europe: the Afghan-Bosnian Network.

Context in Perspective

By Douglas Farah

I think we are straying from the real issue of debate: Did al Qaeda enter the gemstone trade in West Africa to hide its assets and move its resources. However, I will respond to some of what Dennis has said.

I am a little puzzled by the references to context. The context of the Belgian police report was that it was prepared by three Belgian investigators and given to the FBI in its Detroit office, as a powerpoint presentation, in 2003. It is marked "For Police Use Only." The names of the authors are on the cover sheet. It was a summary of a much longer Belgian police report, translated so the FBI could read it, and speaks for itself. It can be viewed on my website. Perhaps the Washington office never saw it.

It is also not true, and I have provided the quotes and citations, that al Qaeda was not mentioned in the Belgian police court case. It was, multiple times. There are transcripts on this, which I am happy to provide. But the context of that is that it is the official prosecutor/police report place before a judge in the trials, outlining the official state findings.

While it is true that Osaillly and Nassour were tried on illegal diamond charges, it is not a strategy unknown to U.S. law enforcement officials, who have routinely failed to win convictions on terrorism charges. Rather, they ask, as in the case of Abdulrahman Alamoudi, for terrorism enhancements to the sentences because they could not prove the terrorism allegations in court in a satisfactory way. The federal government, including the FBI, chose not to prosecute Enaam Arnout on terrorism charges, despite the fact Arnout was present at the founding of al Qaeda and was photographed carrying an AK-47 beside Osama bin Laden. Instead, there was a plea bargain on much lesser charges. And of course Al Capone was never tried as a mobster, but for tax evasion. I think it is amply clear in the post-9/11 world that laws have not caught up with the new reality. The Belgian prosecutors told me they wanted to go for a sure conviction on what they knew they could get, rather than going the more risky route of terror prosecutions. A choice the FBI has made many times, despite evidence those involved in many different cases were linked to terrorism.

Finally, it is not in dispute that the FBI investigated the allegations. But it seems to me that, had anyone known beforehand that al Qaeda was involved in diamonds, that police or intelligence service would have moved to cut it out. Going back to legal attaches in countries that obviously had no information, confirming they have no information and taking that as evidence confirming something did not happen is hardly a surprising outcome.

The FBI may not have relied on hearsay, but that strongly implies that everyone else who came to separate conclusions did, and that is not true and insulting. Several people, myself included, risked their lives investigating the story on the ground. My pregnant wife and 2-year-old son had to be evacuated because Charles Taylor wanted to kill us, an unlikely reaction if everything we said was not true. Al White of the Special Court was almost killed numerous times during his investigations.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone found 12 witnesses to events, told separately. These investigations were carried out by people with 30 years experience in U.S. law enforcement. It was not a fly-by-night, in-and-out deal talking to people through official channels. I had four witnesses when I wrote the first story, most of whom were different from the Court sources. In most cases, 15 witness describing seeing the same people, during the same time frame, in the same place, meeting the same people, is not considered hearsay.

There is documentary evidence, including the calls to Afghanistan, a country that had no known jewelry business under the Taliban that would merit long discussions of diamond purchases. And no one but the Taliban and al Qaeda had satellite phones with Afghan prefixes at that time. The market for diamonds in Sierra Leone was sufficiently skewed in the summer of 2001, when the purchasing was going on, that the U.S. Ambassador there, Joseph Melrose, wrote a cable to the State Department saying there were mysterious Arab buyers who were purchasing the vast bulk of diamonds from the RUF rebels, causing fears that the diamonds were being purchased by criminals. Unfortunately, terrorism did not enter into the the thoughts at the time.

Finally, it is not true that no other country found evidence of al Qaeda's ties to the diamond trade. The Israelis, Indonesians and British all did, and wrote cables to the State Department and intelligence community on it. The Israelis identified Ibrahim Bah, one of those interviewed extensively by the FBI teams in West Africa, as an al Qaeda operative. Bah's name was found in the al Qaeda rolls in Afghanistan. However, he produced a passport (one of at least five he holds, including diplomatic passports from Gambia and Burkina Faso) to the FBI showing he was born in 1969. Despite the fact that his real birth date was 1957, the FBI accepted this as evidence he was too young to have been in Afghanistan. Dennis acknowledged in the Dateline NBC interview that the the FBI "didn't have any
leverage on him (Bah). He certainly adamantly denied al-Qaeda being involved with him and we--we couldn't find any information to discredit what he said." One has to ask how likely it would be for a person to admit to FBI officials they were involved with al Qaeda, while residing in a country that has given them a diplomatic passport?

I will be happy to get back to issues of more substance as the debate continues.

Diamonds...Counterpoint....II

By Dennis Lormel

With respect to Doug�s last post, I again question the context. I have not seen the Belgian Police Report that is referred to. The case that is referred to was not a terrorism case. Ossailly and Nassour were prosecuted on criminal charges. My understanding is that there was no mention of Al Qaeda or terrorism in either the report or the trial. The FBI dealt directly with Belgian investigators who were involved in that case. Again, they stated they had no evidence concerning Al Qaeda and diamonds. Others having information to the contrary just points to the number of inconsistencies this case presented.

No other country in the world has linked Al Qaeda to diamonds. During the FBI investigation, FBI Legal Attaches were tasked to query their law enforcement and intelligence contacts about this matter. All responses were negative concerning the conflict diamond issue. During the time frame of the investigation, while still with the Bureau, I traveled to a number of countries and held meetings with a variety of law enforcement and intelligence executives. In every meeting, the conflict diamond matter was discussed. My counterparts were always dumbfounded by and had no information concerning the diamond allegations.

The FBI reports demonstrate that the FBI did not rely on hearsay. Wherever possible, an investigation was conducted to attempt to corroborate statements. At the end of the process, the allegations could not be substantiated.

I�m not going to comment about the information flow in other agencies other than to say, at the time this investigation was conducted, no other agency presented information to support the allegations. This matter rose to the National Security Counsel level in attempting to determine if any agency had information to support the diamond allegations.

Suspect in London Attacks Arrested in Thailand

By Zachary Abuza

Thai immigration authorities announced today that they have apprehended an Algerian wanted by British authorities in conjunction with the 7/7 attacks. A report in Thailand�s English-language daily, The Nation, states that Atamnia Yachine (33) was arrested in Thailand after a tip off regarding fake travel documents. He was arrested with some 180 fake French and Spanish passports. Thai authorities are currently debating whether to hold him for further questioning or quickly deport him to the UK.

A Final Point

By Douglas Farah

I think the Belgian police report, which is available to all on my website, speaks for itself. It is an official document. The same is true for the formal police statement to the judge in the trials of Samih Osailly and Aziz Nassour, and I would be happy to provide the full transcript to anyone who requests it, or post it on my site or this site. The Belgians told me and numerous other investigators that their official report shows of the belief of a connection to al Qaeda and terrorism. Why they told the FBI something different is an interesting question. It is clearly not what they said in their reports or to others.

Gen. Wald, as sitting deputy commander of the U.S. European Command, speaking on the Voice of America, likewise, was not speaking as an individual or out of synch with his command. Nor was the DIA report.

Perhaps this is another instance where information gathered by different agencies simply was not shared across institutional bounderies. It is a difficult and complex investigation. There are no signed checks going to al Qaeda, nor invoices for diamonds for them. And so the debate continues.

Conflict Diamonds....Counterpoint

By Dennis Lormel

In response to Doug�s rebuttal I�d like to reiterate my closing comment in my last posting. Based on a number of dynamics, including cultural considerations, this is a gray area. There is a considerable amount of �he said, he said� which is quite inconsistent. I could easily list a number of individuals and officials who concur with my position. In the interest of brevity, I would ask Doug to legally stipulate on this issue.

The FBI traveled to Belgium and met directly with the Belgian Police on one of the deployments to West Africa to investigate the conflict diamond issue. The Belgians specifically advised that they did not state that Al Qaeda was involved in the diamond trade and had no such information. The results of the FBI investigations were reported in trip reports.

All of the allegations that were known at the time of the FBI investigation were placed in a matrix and thoroughly investigated. None of the allegations could be substantiated.

Interestingly, the US officials identified in Doug�s post appear to have acted/commented unilaterally and not in conjunction with their agency headquarter components in Washington, DC. The interagency community in Washington was all in agreement on this issue. Had other information been available it would have been investigated.

Conflict diamonds are clearly an area of vulnerability. As such they were closely scrutinized. The subject is also extremely confusing and contradictory. Hence the debate continues.

A Slight Clarification on Diamonds

By Douglas Farah

I would only clarify that it is simply not true that no other police or intelligence service in the world found ties between al Qaeda and the diamond trade.

On my website is a copy of a Belgian police report prepared for the FBI that has a section called "Indications of Terrorism," showing the calls of the al Qaeda-linked diamond dealers to Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Lebanon, as well as other evidence gathered. It can be viewed in its entirety here. The terrorism section begins on page 26, but it is all interesting.

The more complete internal Belgian police report--carried out because the diamonds were arriving in Antwerp, Belgium, the diamond capital of the world-- gave even fuller information, and police investigators there said they were satisfied "at the level of very good intelligence" that al Qaeda was involved in the diamond purchases they investigated.

The same police, when filing diamond trafficking charges against the individuals, wrote in their court brief that "�When we compare the allegations in the Washington Post (where they were first published in November 2001) about conflict diamonds serving to lock al Qaeda�s assets, with the chronology and combination of the above mentioned conclusions, they appear to be coincide remarkably.�

It is not just Europeans who found the story at least credible. Several U.S. agencies and officials have as well, and said so publicly.

The DIA has also written a highly classified report on the diamond ties to al Qaeda in 2003 and concluded it was "likely" that such ties existed, something Gen. Charles Wald, deputy commander of the U.S. European Command, then publicly stated the ties I and others outlined were "a fact."

Dateline NBC got a former CIA station chief for Liberia to appear on camera last month to use remarkably similar language: �They (al Qaeda operatives) were there during the period in question,� said Mike Shanklin, referring to the period of 1998-2001. �And clearly they were involved in some sort of a diamond business. That�s a fact.�

Finally, U.S. investigators on behalf of the United Nations have written extensively and publicly on the ties that exist. So, while the FBI may not agree with these conclusions, it is incorrect to state no one else, looking at the same evidence, came to very different conclusions.

My only point is, one can disagree about where the evidence leads. But those that arrived at conclusions starkly different from the FBI's are many and public.

Conflict Diamonds....Round 3

By Dennis Lormel

In response to Doug Farah�s posting earlier today, I concur with his argument about the Al Qaeda presence in West Africa and the significance of the potential future threat. It is a very alarming situation. The potential volatility of the region is well articulated, and I absolutely concur with the content on every point up to the Al Qaeda diamond trading.

The last two paragraphs of the article are a bit out of context. The FBI teams that were sent to West Africa were there to specifically look at the diamond trading allegations. The two trips, as pointed out, spanned a matter of weeks. What was not mentioned was the fact that the investigation was conducted for well over a year. There were pre and post deployment investigative activities to address all aspects of this matter ranging from planning to coverage of outstanding leads. The FBI and CIA were not alone in their assessments. No other law enforcement or intelligence service in the world developed evidence of Al-Qaeda trafficking in diamonds. In addition, the FBI and CIA conducted extensive interviews of detainees in venues to include Guantanimo Bay, Pakistan and Afghanistan. There was not one instance where an interview developed any positive information about diamond trade. There were numerous instances where rationale was provided as to why Al Qaeda was not involved in diamond trade.

The FBI took the allegations very seriously. If there was a funding mechanism that was viable, the FBI wanted to disrupt or eliminate such a threat. The FBI, in conjunction with the US interagency community and international counterparts could not substantiate the allegations that Al Qaeda was involved in the conflict diamond trade.

If anyone, especially an individual with on-the-ground experience in the region can provide evidence that can be substantiated; I encourage them to do so. I�m confident the FBI would conduct additional investigation of any allegation that was open ended. The dynamic of the situation in West Africa is not one that is black and white. It is extremely gray. As such, the standard of evidence is extremely challenging and the debate will likely continue.

John Byrne Leaves the American Bankers Association

By Dennis Lormel

In a press release dated August 25, 2005, Bank of America announced the appointment of John Byrne to the position of Anti-Money Laundering Strategy Executive in the bank�s Compliance Risk Management Division. Prior to accepting this position, John served with the American Bankers Association (ABA). He joined the ABA in 1983. I first met John in the early 1990�s when I was a Supervisor at the FBI in the Financial Institution Fraud Unit. Subsequently, when I was Chief of the Financial Crimes Section, in 2000, our association became more focused in dealing with issues germane to the banking industry with regulatory and investigative agencies. Following 9/11, when I formed the Terrorist Financing Operations Section at the FBI, John offered his assistance and counsel on issues critical to our ability to better interact with the banking community.

Since December, 2003, John has been the Director of the ABA Center for Regulatory Compliance. In that time, he was always a major contributor to industry conferences and forums promoting training and addressing sensitive banking issues. In every encounter I�ve had with John, he has displayed the utmost professionalism and concern for bridging gaps between the government and industry.

There are numerous issues involving the benefits and burdens of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). John Byrne and Bill Fox, Director of FinCEN, have been among the most visible leaders in addressing these important issues. Their ability to be sensitive to each others position, while representing the interests of their constituencies has been commendable. In part, they�ve achieved this through the BSA Working Group. One of the central issues they�ve addressed has been the development of methods to most effectively and efficiently address money laundering and terrorist financing. The PATRIOT Act enhanced BSA reporting requirements. John and Bill have worked very closely to ensure that at the end of the day, law enforcement is given the best opportunity to disrupt or prevent terrorist activities through banking facilities. When I was at the FBI, I was a direct beneficiary of industry and government cooperation on such issues as Suspicious Activity Reporting. In this regard, John has been one of the true unsung heroes in combating terrorist financing, as well as money laundering.

On one hand, I�m sorry to see John leave the ABA because of the contributions he has made; on the other hand, I�m excited for the opportunity that awaits him at Bank of America. John, thank you for all you�ve done to advance anti-money laundering and terrorist financing compliance.

Taylor, Africa and Thoughts on the Diamond Debate

By Douglas Farah

There is new evidence that Charles Taylor continues to meddle in West African affairs, this time presented by a Liberians United for Transparent Elections. The group went public with the information, including airplane tail numbers, travel tickets and other information on Taylor's movements out of his guilded exile in Nigeria, and the movement of those rebel leaders in the region who Taylor supports. The full story from Allafrica.com can be found here.

In a nutshell, this shows that a man who dealt extensively with al Qaeda and international criminal syndicates has spent considerable time meeting with rebel leaders from Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Gambia. Yet the Nigerian government, (president Obasanjo and foreign minister Oluyemi Adeniji) refuse to take action. One of the few viable explanations left is the conclusion of the investigating organization: "the presence of Charles Taylor in Nigeria is reduced to personal and business interests between president Obasanjo and his foreign minister Adeniji."

These developments--the willingness to protect mass murderers and terrorists--make it all the more likely that the recent prediction by a senior U.S. military official will come true sooner rather than later. Maj. Gen. Douglas Lute, director of operations for the U.S. Central Command, said earlier this week that al Qaeda fighters in Iraq will fan out to the "vast ungoverned spaces" of Africa when (and if) the situation in Iraq stabilizes. Lute predicted that Zarqawi and his followers would take the "path of least resistence" if forced to leave Iraq, and that would be to resettle in the stateless regions of Africa. The full story from the Guardian of London can be found here.

Unfortunately, Nigeria's handling of Taylor is an open invitation for not only terrorists but criminals of all stripes to move in. If Taylor will not be turned over for trial after his atrocities and terrorist ties, then anyone else will be safe there too, if the price is right.

It is interesting to note that while some, like my friend Dennis Lormel, continue to dispute the reality of al Qaeda's ties to the diamond trade, there is near-unanimous consensus that the "vast ungoverned spaces" of Africa are and have long been attractive to al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. There is also a growing recognition that the intelligence community does not and did not have any idea what was happening in those areas, especially ones wracked by violence like Liberia and Sierra Leone. There was simply no one but a few U.S. military attaches providing any intelligence at all on the conflicts.

It would be extremely challenging, in the best of circumstances, to "thoroughly investigate" anything in the region in two trips taken more than two years after events occured, each lasting a few weeks, with teams made up of people with no regional experience, and assume one can gather the "facts." This is not due to incompetence, political agendas or anything else. It is simply not possible to go into countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burkina Faso, trace a story as one would in the United States, and assume the case is closed based on that information.

The biggest divide in the diamond debate is between people who spent considerable time on the ground in the region dealing with those directly involved in the diamond transactions (the Special Court for Sierra Leone investigators, intelligence officials from the U.S. European Command, myself, Global Witness, European intelligence investigators), who came to one conclusion, and those (the FBI and some in the CIA), who spent minimal time there, relied of formal channels for information and came to a very different conclusion. Maybe the thorough investigations by the FBI found more in a few days on the ground than the rest of did in years, but I remain unconvinced.

Changes in DHS Border Security Are Just a Bandage, Not a Strategy

By Michael Cutler

Radical Indoctrination in the U.S. Prisons

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

The investigation of a recent alleged terrorism plot that law enforcement officials say was hatched in a California prison has raised fears about radical Islamic indoctrination in the country's prison system.  Law enforcement officials told ABC News that former Oakland gang member Peter Martinez and cellmate Kevin James, both held in the New Folsom State Prison, organized a plot to attack military and Jewish targets in the Los Angeles area this coming September 11.  The plot was discovered when former Folsom Prison inmate Levar Washington (who converted to Islam while in prison) and an accomplice were arrested for a string of gas station robberies.

The San Diego Union Tribune explains the concerns that this incident raises about radical Islamic recruiting in the prison system:

The allegations seem to support comments that FBI Director Robert Mueller made to the Senate Intelligence Committee:  "Prisons continue to be fertile ground for extremists who exploit both a prisoner's conversion to Islam while still in prison, as well as their socio-economic status and placement in the community upon their release."  Fears that Islamic prison groups could foster terrorism have grown since the arrest in 2002 of Jose Padilla, a former Chicago street gang member and former convict who converted to Islam and a few years later allegedly attended an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan.  Padilla is in jail, accused of plotting to create a crude radioactive device, or "dirty bomb."  Similar concerns were raised after a Muslim chaplain for New York's state prison system was dismissed for allegedly using his position to promote Islamic radicalism.  Richard Reid, the British citizen convicted in a failed shoe-bomb attack aboard an American Airlines flight in 2001, reportedly converted to Islam in prison.  At least one of the suspects arrested in the July 21 attempted suicide attacks in London reportedly converted to Islam while behind bars.

However, not everybody is convinced that fears of prison-bred terrorism are warranted.  Maher Hathout, a senior adviser to the Muslim Public Affairs Council, commented, "The prisons are a breeding ground for drugs, for violence, for rape, for gangs, for everything.  There should not be hysteria or fear because we're dealing with that ghost named Islam."  And scholar Robert Dannin claimed that the cases that officials and experts cite as proof of Islamic proselytizing in prison are often incorrect.  "People have taken this (tale) of Malcolm X, the one famous example (of a prison conversion to Islam), and built it into a powerful myth," he said.

I would like to shed some light on the kind of material that has been used in recent years to indoctrinate prison inmates by showing selections from two books that were widely distributed in American prisons by the U.S. branch of the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, which was designated a sponsor of terrorism by the Treasury Department in September 2004.  The .pdf's that you can dowload below are a Counterterrorism Blog exclusive.

First, the al-Haramain Foundation distributed The Noble Qur'an, translated by Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali and Muhammad Muhsin Khan, to an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 prisoners.  (Download NQ_Title.pdf)  This translation uniquely advances a radical interpretation of the Muslim holy book through the use of footnotes and bracketed material that does not appear in the Arabic text, but rather serves an entirely "explanatory" function.  An early footnote in this translation lays out, at length, the importance of jihad:  "Al-Jihad (holy fighting) in Allah's Cause (with full force of numbers and weaponry) is given the utmost importance in Islam and is one of its pillars (on which it stands).  By Jihad Islam is established, Allah's Word is made superior, . . . and His Religion (Islam) is propagated.  By abandoning Jihad (may Allah protect us from that) Islam is destroyed and the Muslims fall into an inferior position; their honour is lost, their lands are stolen, their rule and authority vanish.  Jihad is an obligatory duty in Islam on every Muslim, and he who tries to escape from this duty, or does not in his innermost heart wish to fulfil this duty, dies with one of the qualities of a hypocrite."  (Download NQ_71.pdf)  Thus, this translation both rules out non-military interpretations of jihad by specifying that it involves "full force of numbers and weaponry) and also states that it is "an obligatory duty on every Muslim."

Netherlands: no distinction between Hezbollah political and terror branches

By Matthew Levitt

The Netherlands just issued the English version of its 2004 annual report on intelligence, a copy of which may be found here.

Note what the report has to say about Hezbollah:

"Investigations have shown that Hezbollah�s terrorist wing, the Hezbollah External Security Organisation, has been directly and indirectly involved in terrorist acts. It can also be concluded that Hezbollah�s political and terrorist wings are controlled by one co-ordinating council. This means that there is indeed a link between these parts of the organisation. The Netherlands has changed its policy and no longer makes a distinction between the political and terrorist Hezbollah branches. The Netherlands informed the relevant EU bodies of its findings."

The Dutch findings are particularly revealing in light of the appointment last month of Hezbollah member Muhammad Fneish as Minister of Energy and Water in the new Lebanese government. For more on Fneish's appointment and Hezbollah activities in Lebanon, see "The New Lebanon: Democratic Reform and State Sponsorship"