DrMaddVibe
14 years ago
Kenyan police uncover Iranian bomb plot on Israeli targets


Kenyan police arrested two Iranian nationals in Nairobi, linked to a shipment of bomb material arriving in the port city of Mombasa. Police say they were casing US, Israeli, British targets.

Two Iranians suspected of plotting attacks in Kenya on Western embassies and Israeli interests including a synagogue and tourist hotels were recently arrested in Nairobi.

The pair, allegedly agents of the elite al-Quds division of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, were charged with possession of 33 pounds of RDX – a component of the plastic explosive Semtex – that they had imported via Iraq. Both have denied charges of planning “acts intending to cause grievous harm.”

But senior Kenyan police officers told the Monitor that investigators believe the men planned to try to explode several devices at sites across Kenya.

“Our officers were highly suspicious of them from the moment that they landed in-country,” a senior detective with knowledge of the case tells The Monitor. “They were driving around Nairobi, they went past the British High Commission, they went past the [Nairobi Hebrew Congregation] synagogue in town, they went to the Israeli embassy.

“The only reason they avoided the US embassy was that it is in a complicated area," the detective continued. "It is very clear that they were casing these places, that they were up to no good. From what we saw, their intention was clear to plan and execute terrorism attacks.”

Following al-Qaeda bombings at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, most diplomatic missions in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, are heavily fortified and guarded. The Israeli embassy is especially well-protected.

“That would have been a very ambitious target for a terror attack,” one Nairobi-based security analyst said. “But the fact that they were looking there illustrates that they were not aiming low.”

The men – Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammad and Sayed Mansour Mousavi – were arrested after police linked them to a package containing the explosives that had been delivered to a warehouse near the port in Mombasa, Kenya’s main coast city.

Investigators believe that the men planned to attack Western interests in Kenya because of the country’s ongoing battle against Islamist militants from neighboring Somalia.

There is no indication that Iran is linked to the Somali militant group Al-Shabab, security experts say, but any major bomb attacks would likely immediately be blamed on al-Shabab rather than Iran, which has not known to have carried out significant direct or proxy strikes against the West, or Israel, in East Africa.
Had the attacks been successful, they would have matched an emerging pattern of Iranian actions against Israel taking place across the globe.

Last October, the US justice ministry said it had uncovered an Iranian conspiracy to use members of a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

Other overseas plots believed to have been carried out by Iranian agents include bomb plans in Thailand, an attack against the wife of an Israeli diplomat in India, and the targeting of Israeli teachers at a Jewish school in Azerbaijan.

It has been claimed that the missions were part of a retaliation program against Israel following the deaths of five Iranian scientists with links to Tehran’s nuclear program.

"Iranian terrorism knows no borders," Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said in a statement late Monday. "The international community must fight against this major player in the world of terrorism."

Security sources said that Israeli-owned hotels and businesses on Kenya’s coast, and a smart shopping centre in Nairobi that is part-owned by Israelis could also have been targets.

Fifteen people died when an al-Qaeda cell dispatched suicide bombers to target the Paradise Hotel north of Mombasa in 2002, the same day that other agents failed to shoot down an Israel-bound charter jet taking off from the city’s airport.

Eric Kiraithe, official spokesman for the Kenya Police, would not go into any details of the case. “It is a matter before the court and I will not comment,” he said.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2012/0703/Kenyan-police-uncover-Iranian-bomb-plot-on-Israeli-targets?s=yaho 


I wonder if the networks are covering this?:-k
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DrafterX
14 years ago
tehy shoulda just hired the pirates..... nobody ever thinks about the Somali Pirates..... 😞
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DrMaddVibe
14 years ago
U.S. Adds Forces in Persian Gulf, a Signal to Iran

WASHINGTON — The United States has quietly moved significant military reinforcements into the Persian Gulf to deter the Iranian military from any possible attempt to shut the Strait of Hormuz and to increase the number of fighter jets capable of striking deep into Iran if the standoff over its nuclear program escalates.

The deployments are part of a long-planned effort to bolster the American military presence in the gulf region, in part to reassure Israel that in dealing with Iran, as one senior administration official put it last week, “When the president says there are other options on the table beyond negotiations, he means it.”

But at a moment that the United States and its allies are beginning to enforce a much broader embargo on Iran’s oil exports, meant to force the country to take seriously the negotiations over sharply limiting its nuclear program, the buildup carries significant risks, including that Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps could decide to lash out against the increased presence.

The most visible elements of this buildup are Navy ships designed to vastly enhance the ability to patrol the Strait of Hormuz — and to reopen the narrow waterway should Iran attempt to mine it to prevent Saudi Arabia and other oil exporters from sending their tankers through the vital passage.

The Navy has doubled the number of minesweepers assigned to the region, to eight vessels, in what military officers describe as a purely defensive move.

“The message to Iran is, ‘Don’t even think about it,’ ” one senior Defense Department official said. “Don’t even think about closing the strait. We’ll clear the mines. Don’t even think about sending your fast boats out to harass our vessels or commercial shipping. We’ll put them on the bottom of the gulf.” Like others interviewed, the official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the diplomatic and military situation.

Since late spring, stealthy F-22 and older F-15C warplanes have moved into two separate bases in the Persian Gulf to bolster the combat jets already in the region and the carrier strike groups that are on constant tours of the area. Those additional attack aircraft give the United States military greater capability against coastal missile batteries that could threaten shipping, as well as the reach to strike other targets deeper inside Iran.

And the Navy, after a crash development program, has moved a converted amphibious transport and docking ship, the Ponce, into the Persian Gulf to serve as the Pentagon’s first floating staging base for military operations or humanitarian assistance.

The initial assignment for the Ponce, Pentagon officials say, is to serve as a logistics and operations hub for mine-clearing. But with a medical suite and helicopter deck, and bunks for combat troops, the Ponce eventually could be used as a base for Special Operations forces to conduct a range of missions, including reconnaissance and counterterrorism, all from international waters.

For President Obama, the combination of negotiations, new sanctions aimed at Iran’s oil revenues and increased military pressure is the latest — and perhaps the most vital — test of what the White House calls a “two track” policy against Iran. In the midst of a presidential election campaign in which his opponent, Mitt Romney, has accused him of being “weak” in dealing with the Iranian nuclear issue, Mr. Obama seeks to project toughness without tipping into a crisis in the region.

At the same time he must signal support for Israel, but not so much support that the Israelis see the buildup as an opportunity to strike the Iranian nuclear facilities, which Mr. Obama’s team believes could set off a war without significantly setting back the Iranian program.

A key motivation for “Olympic Games,” the covert effort to undermine Iran’s enrichment capability with cyberattacks, has been to demonstrate to the Israelis that there are more effective ways to slow the program than to strike from the air.

But this delicate signaling to both Iran and Israel is a complex dance. Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said that the administration must strike a fine balance between positioning enough forces to deter Iran, but not inadvertently indicate to Iran or Israel that an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites is imminent or inevitable.

“There are a lot of expectations to manage,” Mr. Kerry said in an interview. “People need to know you’re serious, but you must also leave room for peaceful resolution. It’s very important not to take steps that send the wrong messages here.”

There is little evidence that the increased pressure is having the desired effect. Negotiations with Iran are at a stalemate, though a group of Iranian, American and European experts are expected to meet in Istanbul on Tuesday to review a recent American proposal and Iranian response. So far, though, Iran has strenuously resisted all efforts to force it to give up enrichment of uranium, starting with production of a type that is considered relatively close to bomb grade.

Responding to the tightening of Western sanctions, Iran on Monday announced that it would consider proposed legislation to disrupt traffic in the Strait of Hormuz as well as missile tests, in a drill clearly intended as a warning to Israel and the United States.

The Iranian legislation calls for Iran’s military to block any oil tanker en route to countries no longer buying Iranian crude because of the embargo. It was unclear whether the legislation would pass or precisely how Iran would enforce it.

Senior Pentagon and military officials acknowledge that Iran has the capability to close the strait, at least temporarily, and the additional mine-clearing forces can be viewed as both concrete and spoken evidence of Washington’s commitment to make sure any closing is as brief as possible.

The most significant Iranian threat to shipping came during its war of attrition with Iraq in the 1980s. Iran attacked tankers and other commercial traffic to disrupt Iraq’s oil revenues and threaten shipments from other Arab states viewed as supporting Baghdad. Iran also laid significant numbers of mines in an attempt to block transit, prompting mine-clearing operations and attacks on the Iranian Navy by American warships.

Defense Department officials stressed that the recent reshaping of American forces in the Persian Gulf region should not be viewed as solely about the potential nuclear threat from Iran.

“This is not only about Iranian nuclear ambitions, but about Iran’s regional hegemonic ambitions,” the senior Defense Department official said.

“This is a complex array of American military power that is tangible proof to all of our allies and partners and friends that even as the U.S. pivots toward Asia, we remain vigilant across the Middle East.”

While American ground troops have been withdrawn from Iraq, a force equivalent to an extra Army combat brigade has remained in Kuwait, officials said. It could have many roles to contain regional instability, but Iran is a primary concern.

While it always is difficult to read Iran’s intentions, senior American Navy officers have noted that Iranian ships in the Persian Gulf have refrained recently from provocative behavior.

“Things have been, relatively speaking, quiet,” said Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, the chief of naval operations, assessing actions by Iranian Navy vessels over “the last couple of months.”

But that was without the pressure of the new sanctions; already Iran is exporting far less oil every day than a year ago: about 1.5 million barrels a day versus 2.5 million before the gradual imposition of earlier sanctions.

While Iranian vessels have avoided any confrontations with allied warships in recent weeks, Iran expects to equip its ships in the Strait of Hormuz soon with shorter-range missiles, a Revolutionary Guards commander said on Friday, according to the semiofficial Mehr news agency.

With an eye on the threat of a belligerent Iran, the administration is also seeking to expand military ties with the six nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

The United States and 19 other countries will hold a major mine countermeasure exercise in the Persian Gulf in September, said a senior military officer who noted that countries in the region were taking more steps in their own defense, including buying American-made air defense systems and other weaponry.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/world/middleeast/us-adds-forces-in-persian-gulf-a-signal-to-iran.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all 
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rfenst
14 years ago
One way or incident or another, military conflict with Iran is unavoidable.
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HockeyDad
14 years ago

One way or incident or another, military conflict with Iran is unavoidable.

rfenst wrote:




It is the Lord's will.
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bloody spaniard
14 years ago
No, please no... not sacrifice more of our youth nor rebuild another country...[-o<
Is this appropriate use of our military??? How does this "protect" us non-investors?
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DrMaddVibe
14 years ago
Somebody has to do the heavy lifting for God's "chosen people".


Leaves more time for praying and lamenting.
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HockeyDad
14 years ago

Somebody has to do the heavy lifting for God's "chosen people".

DrMaddVibe wrote:




You would think that with facing a new existential threat every day, the ultra-orthodox would be willing to join the military. It is easier to get the USA to backfill instead.
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DrMaddVibe
14 years ago

You would think that with facing a new existential threat every day, the ultra-orthodox would be willing to join the military. It is easier to get the USA to backfill instead.

HockeyDad wrote:




KnowwhatI'msayin?
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DrMaddVibe
14 years ago
An American Navy ship fired on a boat in the Persian Gulf today, killing one person and injuring three others aboard the craft, a U.S. naval official told ABC News.

A spokesperson for the Navy's 5th Fleet, which is based in nearby Bahrain, said that a security team aboard the oil supply ship U.S.N.S. Rappahannock fired a .50 caliber machine gun at a "small motor vessel after it disregarded warnings and rapidly approached the U.S. ship" off the coast of Jebel Ali, a city approximately 30 miles from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

The Navy is investigating the incident as details continue to emerge. A Navy official said the offending vessel was a white pleasure craft, but a UAE official told ABC News it was a fishing boat with four Indians and two Emirates on board. There doesn't appear to be any indication the incident was terror-related, the UAE official said.

The Navy official said it's not uncommon for Iranian speed craft to harass U.S. ships in the region, but in this case the boat wasn't Iranian.

"I can't emphasize enough that this has nothing to do with Iran," the official said.

American sailors are trained to take special caution of any vessels that appear to be approaching their warships. In 2000 the destroyer U.S.S. Cole was attacked off the coast of Yemen by al Qaeda terrorists who used a small private craft armed with explosives to ram the ship, killing 17 American sailors.

Word of the shooting comes on the same day that the Pentagon confirmed that it had agreed to a recent request from U.S. Central Command to maintain a two carrier presence in the Middle East.

The carrier U.S.S. John C. Stennis has been ordered to head to the region four months ahead of schedule in September to replace the outgoing U.S.S. Enterprise. A Pentagon spokesman said the Stennis is being sent so that there is no gap in between two carrier assignments to the region.

On Sunday, the U.S.S. Eisenhower replaced the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln in the region. By replacing the Enterprise, the U.S. will now be able to avoid having just one carrier in the region.

The U.S. Navy usually rotates one of its two carriers into the Persian Gulf while the other operates in the Arabian Sea providing air support for the war in Afghanistan.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-navy-fires-ship-persian-gulf-dead/story?id=16787035 
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