14-Dec-16: Kenya, one way or another, clarifies its stance in the face of Iranian terror

The arrested Iranians with their Kenyan driver, in the dock of the court and
in handcuffs in a December 3, 2016 Reuters photo [Source] 

Remember what we wrote here about the latest round of Iranian terrorism in East Africa? It's here: "02-Dec-16: Kenya, seeking Iranian oil and gas, learns again that it's getting a very different Iranian export". Towards the end, we offered this unwanted advice to the authorities in Nairobi:

Not to sound rude, but how well do the Kenyan authorities understand what it means to pursue counter-terror co-operation with the Islamic Republic of Iran? We have had our doubts in the past (see "24-Jul-15: Terror here? 'Ridiculous' say Kenyans, deploying their largest ever security blanket" and "16-May-14: More jihadist killings in East Africa today" and "27-Sep-13: Freeing terrorists and the Nairobi massacre"). If the US State Department doesn't return their calls (and the State Department knows a lot about Iranian terror even if they don't always own up to it), the Kenyans could go searching on the web. A good starting point might be "Iran and state-sponsored terrorism" from Wikipedia.

Turns out they didn't pay any attention to our advice on this, which in the circumstances is a real pity. A syndicated Reuters report from December 2, 2016, already conveyed a sense what might be ahead ["Iran urges Kenya to free two Iranians facing terrorism charges: Tasnim", Reuters].

Then the "semi-official" Iranian media chimed in.

Iran's Ambassador to Nairobi Hadi Farajvand announced that the country's mission is seriously pursuing freedom of the two detained Iranian nationals in Kenya, stressing that the media ballyhoos on the case are aimed at distorting the good relations between the two countries... The Iranian foreign ministry said that the two Iranians, namely Abdolhossein Safayee and Seyed Nasrollah Ebrahimi, who are lawyers and university instructors, are now in Nairobi as lawyers of the families of two Iranian prisoners in Kenya to probe into the case of the inmates and provide them with legal advice... Farajvand voiced deep regret over releasing such "baseless" media reports, and said they are merely aimed at destroying the friendly and growing ties between Tehran and Nairobi. He also expressed the hope that given the fact that the two Iranian nationals are prominent lawyers, the process to pursue the case would not be affected by the ballyhoos of ill-wishers and the two lawyers would be freed soon through good interaction between the Kenyan government and judiciary... Kenyan Ambassador to Tehran was invited to Iran Foreign Ministry on Thursday evening to be informed of Tehran's protest. "Tehran asked the Kenyan party to seriously look into the issue, while emphasizing prompt release of the two Iranian citizens," he added. [FARS News, December 3, 2016]

In Kenya, the local media expressed it very much more bluntly:

The Iranian government on Friday ordered the Kenyan government to set free two of its nationals arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit... [Iran] rubbished the terrorism link saying that the two were government lawyers on an official assignment. [A Kenyan news site, December 3, 2016 - archived by us in case the source disappears]

So having been ordered by the Islamic Republic, here's what happened in Nairobi today:

Kenyan court has ordered the deportation of two Iranian men who were accused of plotting an attack on the Israeli embassy in the capital, Nairobi. A court order issued Wednesday said an agreement had been reached between prosecutors and the Iranian Embassy leading to the termination of criminal charges and deportation. The suspects, Sayed Nasrollah Ebrahim and Abdolhosein Gholi Safaee, had been in custody since November 29, when they were arrested outside the Israeli Embassy with video footage of the facility. They had been traveling in an Iranian diplomatic car after visiting a prison where they saw two other Iranians who have been jailed for 15 years on terrorism charges, according to prosecutors. They were charged with collecting information to facilitate a terrorist act. Iranian agents have been suspected in attacks or thwarted attacks around the globe in recent years, including in Azerbaijan, Thailand and India. Most of the plots had Israeli targets. ["Kenya drops charges, deports Iranians thought plotting attack on Israelis", Associated Press via Times of Israel, December 14, 2016]

Sounds to us like a serious and regretable Kenyan mistake. Meanwhile on a completely unrelated subject:

Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan, while speaking at a conference in Tehran, said that were President-Elect Trump to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear “deal” signed by the Obama administration, Iran would destroy the State of Israel... ["Iran threatens to destroy Israel - again", Washington Times, December 12, 2016]

02-Dec-16: Kenya, seeking Iranian oil and gas, learns again that it's getting a very different Iranian export

Kenya and Iran have been trying for some time
to identify what they have in common when it
comes to terrorism [Image Source]

Iran and terrorism are linked in the news again today. This time it's about a thwarted terror attack on Israelis in East Africa. And if that sounds vaguely familiar, it's because it should. Kenyan anti-terror police

detained two Iranian men using forged Israeli passports to enter the East African country, on suspicion that they may have been involved in a plan to carry out an attack there...

That was two years ago. We looked at the surrounding circumstances in a post at the time ["20-Sep-14: Iran is not commenting but Kenya may have just thwarted another Iranian terror attack"]

Here's what happened yesterday:

A Kenyan prosecutor has charged two Iranian men with collecting information to carry out a terrorist attack after they were allegedly found with video footage of the Israeli embassy. State Prosecutor Duncan Ondimu said in court on Thursday that Sayed Nasrollah Ebrahim and Abdolhosein Gholi Safaee were arrested Tuesday in an Iranian diplomatic car while taking the pictures of the Israeli mission using a mobile phone, including when they were intercepted. They were detained in the capital, Nairobi after they had come from visiting Kamiti Prison where they saw two other Iranians who have been jailed for 15 years on terrorism charges... A Kenyan driver, Moses Keyah Mmboga, who was chauffeuring the vehicle belonging to the Iranian embassy has been charged along with the suspects and also faces a separate charge of “abetting terrorism,” Ondimu said. [Times of Israel, today]

There was more trouble of a similar nature even earlier than two years ago. See another of our earlier blog posts: "3-May-13: Kenya discovers it is hosting a "vast network" of terrorists; convicts two Iranians and hopes for the best". 

In June 2013 a Kenyan court convicted two Iranian nationals of plotting attacks against Western targets in Kenya and sentenced them to life in prison (reduced on appeal to 15 years imprisonment). Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammad and Sayed Mansour Mousavi had been arrested in June 2012 and led officials to a massive stash of explosives. Kenyan anti-terror officials said at the time that the Iranians were members of the notorious Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Iran's English-language media kept silent about the 2012 arrests of Iranian terror suspects, about the 2013 convictions of Iranian terrorists and, as far as we can tell, about the thwarted 2014 Iranian terror attack. Truly, we can understand that.

We searched the English-language edition of the Iranian regime's FARS news site just now, and didn't see any mention of what has just happened in Nairobi. Searching there for "Kenya" produces nothing about IRGC people plotting to kill Israelis or Kenyans. We understand that too.

But strikingly there is this from two years ago:

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and his Kenyan counterpart Justin Bedan Njoka Muturi [met] in Tehran on Saturday [and] conferred on mutual cooperation in the fight against terrorism. "A part of our negotiations with the Kenyan speaker was focused on the terrorism crises which are seen in our region and East Africa as Kenya is in the fight against some terrorist groups," Larijani told reporters today in a press conference after meeting with Muturi. "Our views about war on terrorism are close and the two countries have identical determination to this end and we hope to expand our mutual cooperation in campaign against terrorism," he added. Muturi, for his part, underlined the need for activation of parliamentary friendship groups between Iran and Kenya, and said, "During my talks with Mr. Larijani, we underscored strengthening friendly ties and improvement of economic and cultural relations..."
In February 2015, Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Chawahir Mohammed said that expansion of all-out relations with Iran stands atop her country's foreign policy agenda. "Nairobi is particularly interested in expansion of cooperation with Iran in oil and gas fields," the Kenyan foreign minister said in a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in Nairobi. ["Iran, Kenya Discuss Anti-Terrorism Cooperation", FARS, September 24, 2016]

Not to sound rude, but how well do the Kenyan authorities understand what it means to pursue counter-terror co-operation with the Islamic Republic of Iran?

We have had our doubts in the past (see "24-Jul-15: Terror here? 'Ridiculous' say Kenyans, deploying their largest ever security blanket" and "16-May-14: More jihadist killings in East Africa today" and "27-Sep-13: Freeing terrorists and the Nairobi massacre"). If the US State Department doesn't return their calls (and the State Department knows a lot about Iranian terror even if they don't always own up to it), the Kenyans could go searching on the web.

A good starting point might be "Iran and state-sponsored terrorism" from Wikipedia.

24-Jul-15: Terror here? 'Ridiculous' say Kenyans, deploying their largest ever security blanket

CNN as depicted on a Kenyan tweeter's stream

As the Nobel Prize-winning leader of the free world gets started with a visit to East Africa (check out the Twitter hashtag #ObamaHomecoming) today, aspects of the media messaging are getting up some Kenyan noses.

Kenyans ridicule CNN for calling the country a “hotbed of terror” |  Quartz Africa | July 23, 2015 | Kenyans are demanding an apology from CNN after the news network described Kenya as “a hotbed of terror” in a report on US president Barack Obama’s visit this week. “If CNN is civilized enough, they should apologize,” interior minister Joseph Nkaisserry said today, in response to anger on social media. Under the hashtag #SomeoneTellCNN, Kenyans have been voicing both impatience with being branded as a country rife with violence as well as pride in their country...

A Nairobi, shopping mall after a random event September 2013
[Image Source]

No reason to especially blame the Kenyans, who are looking beyond the idea of an Islamist terror war against unbelievers to make a case of a more nuanced kind.

They are doing pretty much the same as many Americans did after 9/11; as many Brits did after 7/7; as many Spanish did after 11-M; and as President Obama himself did when he called the people behind an attack on a French kosher food store in January 2015

"a bunch of violent, vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris... But we also have to attend to a lot of other issues, and we've got to make sure we're right-sizing our approach so that what we do isn't counterproductive." [Obama speaking to Matthew Yglesias in a VOX interview]

Obama has never publicly commented on the post-massacre disclosures about the passions of Amedy Coulibaly, who did the killing, for ISIS and the lethal savagery for which it stands. Perhaps, like the Kenyans, he or his advisers would ridicule those claims too, and carry with them a large slice of American public opinion. Or call them "random" as his spokesperson did in front of the media right after the killing of those French Jews.

Today's Kenyan state of excitement [Image Source]

Calling what has been happening in Kenya something other than terror or imagining that the violence upending thousands of East African lives during the past two decades (and especially the past two years) has been routine and unworthy of any special attention is tragic if it leads to paralysis of the security authorities.

Fortunately for the traveling US president, the authorities in Kenya don't play that foolish game:

Parts of the Kenyan capital Nairobi have been locked down and airspace will be closed during the president's arrival late Friday and his departure late Sunday... At least 10,000 police officers, roughly a quarter of the entire national force, have been deployed to the capital. Top of the list of security concerns is Somalia's Shebab militants, who have staged a string of suicide attacks, massacres and bombings on Kenyan soil, including the bloody attack on the Westgate shopping mall in the heart of the capital nearly two years ago that left 67 dead. ["Kenya lockdown as Obama comes to talk security, trade", Reuters, today]

It's not only the Kenyans who are (rightly) concerned:

Hundreds of US security personnel have arrived in Kenya in recent weeks and three hotels have been examined by the secret service, according to local media... Kenya is treating the visit as a chance to shine, akin to an Olympics or a football World Cup, and is all too aware how catastrophic another terrorist attack would be for its image. Three months ago Islamist militants murdered 148 people at a university in Garissa, while an attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall left at least 67 people dead less than two years ago... ["Kenya kicks off biggest ever security operation for Barack Obama welcome", The Guardian, today]

For short-of-memory readers, a random selection of some of our recent Kenya-focused posts:

• 3-May-13: Kenya discovers it is hosting a "vast network" of terrorists; convicts two Iranians and hopes for the best
• 23-Sep-13: Root cause of terrorism? Shopping malls, says Guardian columnist
• 27-Sep-13: Freeing terrorists and the Nairobi massacre
• 23-Sep-13: The fog of Nairobi
• 9-Oct-13: A very bad month, says New Yorker mag, with worse probably ahead
• 16-May-14: More jihadist killings in East Africa today
• 20-Sep-14: Iran is not commenting but Kenya may have just thwarted another Iranian terror attack

President Obama on the right, with father [Image Source]

How likely is it that the mainstream media will give attention during the Obama Kenya visit to his brother?

The extended Obama family is not small (here's an overview). We specifically mean Abon'go Malik Obama (known as Abongo or Roy), a University of Nairobi graduate who spent a decade and a half in the US working in the back-offices of Lockheed, Fannie Mae, and the American Red Cross [source]. He served as best man at Barack and Michelle Obama's wedding, and BHO did the same at several of the brother's weddings (there have been twelve). He runs a charitable foundation whose website calls him "founder" and which is

committed to a wide array of development and humanitarian projects which will help mitigate social-shortcomings in areas of education and literacy, health and well-being, poverty, and lack of community infrastructure in such basic needs such as water, electricity, shelter and sustenance... [source]

The Barack H. Obama Foundation (entirely unrelated to the Barack Obama Foundation) earned US tax-exempt status in 2011 in record-breaking time - about a week when for most applicants it takes many months, and for some, year. (Why this happened has been the subject of speculation.) It had claimed to be tax-exempt years earlier; fortunately once its approval came through [source], it was made retrospective for several years back. Talk about lucky.

Barack H. Obama, president of the United States, on the left of
a family snapshot held by his brother Malik (and other names),
a leader in a deeply troubling, terror-friendly organization
[Image Source]

But there are some puzzling aspects. Its US address is located in a UPS store. The address given in its IRS filings, namely 4201 Wilson Blvd., Suite 110-152, Arlington, Virginia, turns out to be the location of a marketing center for a drug-and-alcohol treatment organization, A Better Today Recovery Services.

When questioned about BHOF in May 2013, not a single employee in A Better Today's office had ever heard of the foundation... [source]

Most likely because of a misunderstanding.

As for Abon'go-Abongo-Roy-Malik Obama himself, the president's best man and an invited guest at the presidential inauguration, the allegations appearing across the web are considerably less benign.

He, it appears, serves as executive secretary of the Sudan-based Islamic Da’wa Organization (IDO), an arm of the jihad-friendly government of Sudan, whose ruler since 1989, president Omar al-Bashir, has for years been the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, as yet not executed. IDO, under the president of the United States' brother, is said to stand for the expansion of Wahhabist Islam throughout Africa.

Though his political activities have been almost totally ignored by the global mainstream media, Haaretz ran a piece ["Obama's half brother photographed wearing Hamas kaffiyeh"] in January 2014 that focus on the Presidential Brother wearing an item of Arabic clothing on which are inscribed the random words "Jerusalem is ours – we are coming" and "From the river to the sea".

But the most troubling? That for the most part, the disturbing ties between the president of the US and a brother with serious question marks over his head are, along with the photos, almost totally ignored and unpublished by the mainstream media. (Parts of the conspiracy-friendly web and especially some parts of it conventionally labeled right-wing in outlook, seem to be the sole exceptions. Why?)

Troubled and troublesome brothers are nothing new for incumbents of the White House (Carter, Clinton), but we can't think of another instance where the sibling benefited from so extensive a media blackout. Makes a person wonder.

06-Apr-15: Just a day in the life

Nothing obvious has happened to make the past 24 hours especially dangerous in terms of terrorist attacks. So let's assume that what we are seeing via the snippets below is a work in progress: simply a day in the life of a world falling victim to unthinkable violence of a kind most societies are ill-equipped to challenge, let alone thwart. A day among many not-so-different days.

New York

NY Daily News, April 3, 2015

NY Terror Case: Women Wanted an Active Military Role in ISIS 
Stassa Edwards | Jezebel.com | April 5, 2015

When Noelle Velentzas and Asia Siddiqui were arrested early Thursday morning at their Queens home, officers found pressure cookers, gas tanks, hand-written instructions for bomb making and jihadist pamphlets. According to the AP, Velentzas’ and Siddiqui’s arrest indicates a shift in women’s participation in “militant Islamic jihad.” Unlike women that have previously sought to join terrorist groups, Velentzas and Siddiqui had no interest in the roles traditionally reserved for women: marrying an ISIS fighter or nursing. Rather, the government alleges that the two women wanted to take active an military role by building a bomb and attacking a domestic target.

Accused bomb plotter’s husband says propane tanks were for barbecues
Beckie Strum | New York Post | April 6, 2015

The husband of accused ISIS-savage wannabe Noelle Velentzas insists she really loves America — and says building bombs made out of gas tanks, fertilizer and a pressure cooker was the very furthest thing from her mind. The 51-year-old man, who uses the admitted alias Abu Bakr, was sure the propane tanks authorities found at the home of his wife’s alleged accomplice would never have been used for explosives. “You can’t convince me that those propane tanks were going to be used for that because I know they were going to be used for barbecues,” he claimed... Velentzas did have an image of bin Laden on her phone, Abu Bakr conceded. And he admitted her political views might even “raise a few eyebrows.” But he had an explanation for all of that, too. Her admiration for the man who attacked New York City is based only on the fact that he helped the Afghans to drive out the Russians. “She doesn’t support 9/11,” the husband said... “They took two knives, which I had for more than 15 years,” he said. “They were in a box packed up. They also took two machetes I occasionally use... to clear yards and do gardening.”
...Abu Bakr said he’d never believe the accusations against his wife. “She couldn’t even hit the baby,” he said, referring to their 5-year-old daughter. “I just want people to know that’s not her . . . She never had any intentions of hurting anybody. This is her country, these are her people,” he said. "She’s a role model for women who really, really want to live as God-fearing women," Abu Bakr said proudly. "She’s passionate about her religion."

Malaysia

Malaysia detains 17 people suspected of plotting terror acts

Associated Press | April 6, 2015

Malaysian police have detained 17 suspected militants who authorities said Monday had planned to attack police stations and army camps to acquire weapons and carry out terrorist acts in Kuala Lumpur. Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said they were detained Sunday. Khalid tweeted that two of them had just returned from Syria. This brought the number of suspected supporters of the Islamic State group arrested since last year to 92, a police official said. Home Minister Zahid Hamidi said the 17, aged between 14 and 44, were planning to attack police stations and army camps to acquire weapons... Authorities also believe the suspects were trying to make bombs as police found notes on bomb-making written by Imam Samudra, an Indonesian who was convicted and executed for his role in carrying out the 2002 Bali bombings, Zahid said. The suspects included two army personnel and two students, and some of them had received militant training in Afghanistan and Indonesia's Sulawesi province... "This is a real threat and prevention measures are needed," Zahid said.

United Kingdom
Boy, 14, and girl, 16, arrested by anti-terror police
The Telegraph UK, April 5, 2015

A 14-year-old boy and 16-year-old girl have been arrested on suspicion of preparing a terror act. Counter-terrorism police detained the boy in Blackburn, Lancashire, before arresting the girl in Manchester the following day. Officers refused to say whether the case was Syria-related... The investigation is being run by the North West Counter-Terrorism Unit and the two youngsters have been bailed to May 28. The boy was arrested on Thursday after police had examined a number of electronic items, a spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said. The next day, police raided a home in Longsight, Manchester, and detained a 16-year-old girl.
Both are suspected of "engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism". The teenage girl lives with her parents and brothers in a semi detached house in Longsight. A green Nissan Micra was in the driveway of the house yesterday but no one answered the door. A next door neighbour said:" I know the girl very well and she is very nice - she goes to the school where I work. But I do not want to say anything other than they are a very nice family." Another neighbour, who also did not wish to be named, added: "There were police outside and inside the house on Friday and we did not have a clue what was going on. "The girl who was arrested has always been very pleasant to me - we have never had any problems with the family at all. "I used to see her chatting to her brothers outside in the street - they seemed just like normal kids to me." 

Kenya

Kenya Defence forces soldiers at Garissa University after the
terrorist massacre [Image Source]

Shame of slow response in 15-hour campus terror

The Nation, Kenya | April 4, 2015

The alarm... was sounded at 6 a.m. on Thursday last week. As they gathered, officers of the elite paramilitary unit were informed that a possible terrorist attack had been launched on Garissa University College... They quickly assembled their gear and got ready for deployment... But seven hours later the officers were still in Nairobi. [Our comment: Garissa is 370 km from Nairobi; driving time is about 5 hours at a normal civilized non-emergency rate.] After the long wait, the team would finally leave Wilson Airport after midday and finally enter Elgon hostel on the campus, the terrorists’ last stand, nearly 11 hours later. This was long after the killing had started and a majority of the 142 young Kenyans had been slaughtered by the extremists... On arrival in Garissa, the GSU [Wikipedia defines it as "a paramilitary wing of the Kenya Defence Forces and Kenyan Police, consisting of highly trained police officers and special forces soldiers"] team was briefed on the situation for two hours and when the ones that had travelled by road arrived, they launched the final assault on the terrorists at about 5 p.m., who they are reported to have subdued within half an hour... The Sunday Nation established that prior to the attack, local police had received intelligence of an impending attack... Four police officers were deployed at the university to provide security... Judging by security actions that preceded the attack, it was clear the government was aware of the threat, particularly targeting institutions of higher learning... On Friday, Maj-Gen (rtd) Nkaissery said: “This incident which happened today is one of those incidents which can surprise any country.” 

India

Security agencies warn of possible terror attack in Delhi

Times of India | April 5, 2015

Security agencies have alerted the Delhi Police about the possibility of [Pakistan-based] terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) carrying out a 'fidayeen' attack in the city... Asking the Delhi Police to remain on alert, the advisory said senior police officers, particularly Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCPs), should take all necessary preventive and precautionary measures in their area of jurisdiction in order to avoid any untoward incident, official sources said.

20-Sep-14: Iran is not commenting but Kenya may have just thwarted another Iranian terror attack

Kenya's Daily Nation breaks the news [Source]

Reuters reported on Friday about worrying terror-related events unfolding in East Africa:

Kenyan anti-terror police have detained two Iranian men using forged Israeli passports to enter the East African country, on suspicion that they may have been involved in a plan to carry out an attack there, officials said on Friday.
Kenyan security agencies have been on alert following several gun and grenade attacks and the killing of 67 people in an attack by Islamist gunmen on Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall last September.
Mwenda Njoka, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government, said the two Iranians had passports identifying them as Israeli nationals and had tried to enter Kenya through its main airport on Thursday. "The Iranians are suspected to be terrorists, either coming here as their final destination or in transit to another destination. The matter is being handled by the anti-terror police and Interpol," Njoka told Reuters...

They seem to be saying ("involved in a plan to carry out an attack there") that the attack would have been in Kenya. But when you look at the Israeli reports, like this one from Ynet ["Iranians caught in Kenya carrying fake Israeli passports"] they imply the attack would have been in Israel, and that one of the suspects is not a male:

Two Iranians in their early 20s, a man and a woman, were arrested in the Kenyan capital Nairobi earlier this week when they were discovered using fake Israeli passports and going by the names Adi and Avshalom. This is not the first time Iranian nationals are caught abroad with Israeli passports. These passports are very popular in the world because of the relatively extensive freedom of movement they grant their owners. The difference this time, however, was that the two did not intend to use the passports to move freely in the western world, but in order to enter Israel. The two tried to board a Brussels Airlines flight to Belgium, and from there board a flight to Tel Aviv. They were arrested at the Nairobi Airport and taken to the Kenyan immigration office, which informed Israeli authorities of the arrest. The arrest was also reported to the Israeli Embassy in Kenya.

Haaretz recalls previous terror attempts in other places in which Iranians were apprehended with Israeli passports:

In 2013, an Iranian man was arrested at the Israeli embassy in Nepal, after he was found using an Israeli passport to scout out potential terror targets. An Iranian agent was deported from India in 2012 for spying on the Chabad House in Koregaon Park and other Jewish targets; an additional Iranian spy ring was likewise discovered in Turkey.

And Reuters reminds us of some relevant Kenyan background,and again Iranians:

Two Iranian men were sentenced to life in prison by a Kenyan court in May last year for planning to carry out bombings in Nairobi and other cities. They have appealed their sentence. The two were found guilty of planning attacks and possessing 15 kg (33 lb) of explosives. Kenyan investigators said at the time it was unclear whether they had ties to al Qaeda-linked militants in Somalia or were part of another network.

A Kenyan source adds that on the same day and in the same place

Two Syrians were also arrested at JKIA for using forged Bulgarian and Greek passports. The two were also in possession of fake Algerian and Moroccan passports. [Daily Nation, Nairobi, Kenya, yesterday]

The same Kenyan source says the suspects are aged "between 19 and 20 years".

When we posted here 16 months ago ["3-May-13: Kenya discovers it is hosting a "vast network" of terrorists; convicts two Iranians and hopes for the best"] about the conviction of those two Iranian would-be bombers in Kenya, we referred to a BBC news report which managed to describe the threat and the crimes and the dangers - but without once calling the Iranians terrorists, which of course they are. 

However at the end of that 2013 report, the BBC's editors slipped in some startling news that others had not mentioned: the Kenyan police investigations showed that the convicted Iranian terrorists (though that's not what the BBC called them)

have a vast network in the country meant to execute explosive attacks against government installations, public gatherings and foreign establishments," said Sgt Erick Opagal of Kenya's Anti-Terrorism Police Unit... [BBC]

We have noted here over and again (for instance, "24-Mar-13: Seed of evil: Whitewashing terror at the BBC" and then again this past Thursday - see "18-Sep-14: Is it activism when they say they need to behead you?") about the scandalous way in which the BBC's editors seem to be so shy about calling terrorists 'terrorists'. In reality, it's not shyness but a mendacious and foolish kind of political correctness that does far more harm than any possible good. That BBC policy is online here: "BBC: Language when Reporting Terrorism"]

That 2013 BBC report also failed to point out what other sources at the time, like Associated Press, had mentioned: that the Kenyan police discovered the two convicted Iranian agents

are members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force, an elite and secretive unit... Iranian agents are suspected in attacks or thwarted attacks around the globe in recent years, including in Azerbaijan, Thailand and India. Most of the plots had connections to Israeli targets.

The BBC Persian Service reported on the arrests today,
noting that Iran has not reacted [Source]

At the time (May 2013), we pointed out that Iran's normally garrulous English-language mouthpiece PressTV ("the first Iranian international news network, broadcasting in English on a round-the-clock basis... staffed with outstanding Iranian and foreign media professionals") had published not a word about the Iranian agents or their criminal conviction for terrorism. 

We have just checked there again tonight. Unsurprisingly, not a word, as far as we can tell, about any Iranians being arrested in Kenya. 

Readers of the BBC's Persian-language news service can read all about it here. Interestingly the Persian text does mention terror. Could it be that those deplorable BBC's guidelines don't apply when Persian-speaking audiences are being addressed?

Naturally, those Iranians with the forged Israeli passports are innocent until proven guilty. They are also not assumed to be members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force until otherwise determined. Stay tuned.

16-May-14: More jihadist killings in East Africa today

Kenya is experiencing a rising wave of terror attacks. Today, Friday, two explosions in Narobi, the capital, killed 10 people and injured 70. Both were caused by improvised explosive devices placed in the Gikomba market area close to the city's downtown precinct. A mini-van used for public transportation was hit by one of the explosions. Earlier in the week, both the United States and the UK issued renewed warnings about terror attacks in Kenya. (Buses were bombed in Nairobi earlier this month; innocent people were killed then too.)

The US embassy in Nairobi which was devastated in a huge attack in 1998, issued a fresh travel alert early this morning to American citizens warning of a continued terrorist threat in Kenya. The embassy itself had said a day or two earlier that it is taking steps to increase security “due to recent threat information regarding the international community in Kenya.” The UK government has warned its citizens to avoid the coastal city of Mombasa and beach towns nearby. Hundreds of British citizens have cut short their holidays and have flown home.

Prior to today's murderous attacks, Kenya's president Uhuru Kenyatta had rather bizarrely criticized the warnings on the grounds, according to Reuters, that "such warnings strengthen the will of terrorists".

According to the BBC's report, Kenya's government

recently round up all refugees of Somali origin in an attempt to rid the city of terror suspects they believe to be hiding among refugees. The al-Qaeda-linked group al-Shabab has launched a series of attacks against Kenyan targets in recent years, claiming to be retaliating for Kenya's military involvement in Somalia since 2011.

Terrorists rarely attack without attributing their rage to some pre-existing cause. In the case of the al-Shabaab of Somalia, its composition is thought to be multi-ethnic, led by Afghanistan- and Iraq-trained ethnic Somalis and foreigners. It is loosely connected to the Boko Haram of Nigeria and, like them, describes itself as waging jihad against "enemies of Islam".

30-Sep-13: Doing better in our war with the terrorists means facing up to how poorly it's going for our side

From The Economist

One of us had the privilege of addressing a visiting parliamentary delegation from the UK on Sunday evening.

Few people come to Israel, and especially Jerusalem, without pre-existing notions. It's probably jarring for them to hear speakers like us say, as we often do (and did last night to the Brits), that it's a mistake to believe the forces of civilization are prevailing over the terrorists, and that what look like signs of success are sometimes illusory.

Our sense, living in a place where terror attacks in the name of Islamism and of related national causes have already exacted a huge toll in damaged and lost lives for generations and continue to do so, is that terror is growing in scope and intensity. The protective measures that visitors see here, and that frequently attract ill-conceived criticism, help. They are essential. But only because they are part of a larger and (mostly) less visible scheme, and even then no well informed observer says they amount to a solution. Solutions are not yet here.

Without going into the whole case, we think (and say) the war against the terrorists is not going well, is certainly not over or even approaching an end; quite the opposite. Many of the lessons about how to do it remain unlearned.

Right after we got home on Sunday night, a friend pointed us to an editorial piece ["The new face of terror: The West thought it was winning the battle against jihadist terrorism. It should think again"] in the current edition of The Economist. This article makes strongly some points we would have wanted to share with the British visitors, starting with its title. We don't share The Economist's focus on the "al-Qaeda" factor, and its conclusion leaves us with mixed feelings, but nevertheless.

It starts with this:

A few months ago Barack Obama declared that al-Qaeda was “on the path to defeat”. Its surviving members, he said, were more concerned for their own safety than with plotting attacks on the West. Terrorist attacks of the future, he claimed, would resemble those of the 1990s—local rather than transnational and focused on “soft targets”. His overall message was that it was time to start winding down George Bush’s war against global terrorism.
Mr Obama might argue that the assault on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi by al-Qaeda’s Somali affiliate, the Shabab, was just the kind of thing he was talking about: lethal, shocking, but a long way from the United States. Yet the inconvenient truth is that, in the past 18 months, despite the relentless pummelling it has received and the defeats it has suffered, al-Qaeda and its jihadist allies have staged an extraordinary comeback. The terrorist network now holds sway over more territory and is recruiting more fighters than at any time in its 25-year history. Mr Obama must reconsider.

The editorial writers then focus for a bit on the Somalians and Al-Qaeda, on what they call "the poisoning of the Arab spring" and the "unprecedented opening" this has provided to Islamists in other theatres of this ongoing war, and then criticizes the severe shortcomings of American - meaning, largely, the Obama administration's - strategy, and then deals with some larger matters.

The recently popular notion that, give or take the odd home-grown “lone wolf”, today’s violent jihadists are really interested only in fighting local battles now looks mistaken. Some of the foreign fighters in Syria will be killed. Others will be happy to return to a quieter life in Europe or America. But a significant proportion will take their training, experience and contacts home, keen to use all three when the call comes, as it surely will. There is little doubt too that Westerners working or living in regions where jihadism is strong will be doing so at greater risk than ever.

Perhaps because readers turn to The Economist for how-to-do-it advice, the editorial veers into some practical suggestions about dealing with "weak (and sometimes unsavoury) governments" as if the challenges thrown up by the terrorists mostly happen in the third world, which is only partly true and misleading. And then the conclusion:

The most dismaying aspect of al-Qaeda’s revival is the extent to which its pernicious ideology, now aided by the failures of the Arab spring, continues to spread through madrassas and mosques and jihadist websites and television channels. Money still flows from rich Gulf Arabs, supposedly the West’s friends, to finance these activities and worse. More pressure should be brought to bear on their governments to stop this. For all the West’s supposedly huge soft power, it has been feeble in its efforts to win over moderate Muslims in the most important battle of all, that of ideas.

Had The Economist's brief analysis then gone on to extend the logic into how life can and ought to be lived in London, the UK, Europe and other familiar places (Westgates can be found in places closer to home than Nairobi), and encouraged its readers to think more constructively and urgently about the tensions and frictions that this ongoing war obliges us to confront, we would have felt better about their message. Still, we see it as a valuable contribution to the process at a time when safe old ideological concepts need shaking up.

29-Sep-13: Sunday, bloody, bloody Sunday

Last Sunday, under a deliberately ironic headline ["22-Sep-13: A quiet weekend"], we reported on the ghastly weekend actions of Islamist terrorists in several places:

• Nigeria, where Islamists killed at least 159 humans in two attacks
• Pakistan where 75 were killed [the toll subsequently rose past 80] and 120 injured in a church attack in Peshawar
• Kenya, where Islamists were then still in the process of murdering more than 60 people after separating out some of the Moslems among them
• Iraq where 16 were killed in the name of Islam at a Sunni funeral, a day after 104 people were killed in an attack by Islamists on a Shiite funeral in Baghdad.

That was then. Now this weekend:

The death toll in an attack by gunmen on a college in northeastern Nigeria on Sunday has risen to 40, a Reuters witness said, in a region where Islamist militants have targeted schools and universities. Gunmen stormed the College of Agriculture in Yobe state and shot students as they slept in the early hours of Sunday, state police commissioner Sanusi Rufai said. A Reuters witness counted 40 bodies at the main hospital in Yobe's state capital Damaturu, mostly young men believed to be college students. [Reuters, reporting in the past half hour] Note: AP reports today, as well, that Nigerian Islamists killed at least 30 other civilians during the past week in separate attacks.

and

Twin blasts in the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar killed 33 people and wounded 70 on Sunday, a week after two bombings at a church in the frontier city killed scores, police and hospital authorities said... The blasts hit outside a police station in an area crowded with shops and families. Police said it appeared at least one of the explosions had been a car bomb. There was no immediate claim of responsibility... Women sobbed as ambulances pulled up with more bodies... The Taliban [Islamists] have repeatedly rejected Pakistan's constitution and have called for the full implementation of Islamic law and for war with India... [Reuters, reporting in the past hour]

And it's still only Sunday morning in some parts of the world.

27-Sep-13: Freeing terrorists and the Nairobi massacre

Nairobi's Westgate Mall: Is there anything to learn from what happened? [Image Source]

Regular readers of This Ongoing War know how troubled we are by the ongoing releases from prison - long before the end of their sentences - of convicted Palestinian Arab terrorists. We want peace and, like almost all Israelis, are prepared for our side to make painful compromises in its name. To us and most of the people we know, that seems to be a natural part of the process. But we utterly reject the idea that the path to peace has somehow to be connected to the release of murderous terrorists.

Many of the people freed in these past two years from Israeli security prisons, both men and women, are murderers. As far as anyone can tell, they are entirely unrepentant. Many were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Several of them were sentenced with strong recommendations by the court that no political decision should ever be made in the future to allow them free again under any conditions. 

That's for instance what the court that convicted the woman who engineered our daughter's murder said when passing sentence on her. It was to no avail. That woman is now living free in Jordan, and has been busy these past two years (both via public appearances and also through her own television program that is beamed throughout the Arabic-speaking world) whipping up support for the killing of more Jews, as she had done from prison throughout her ten years of incarceration.

Not a single one of the released terrorists walked out with a pardon from the government of Israel. There are many published reports that say they did [Haaretz says it, for instance], but they are all inaccurate. In reality, far from being deemed to have paid their debt to society, their sentences were simply commuted, while their convictions stand. In a formal sense, conditions were attached so that if the released prisoner engages once again in terrorism in the future, he or she will be subject to re-imprisonment. 

Though a few dozen released terrorists have indeed been recaptured by Israeli security on the basis that they breached the conditions on which their sentences had been commuted, we are not aware of a single one of them who has been sent back to prison to complete his or her sentence.

These commutations of sentence were carried out under pressure. Israel undertook to free 1,027 of them (several of the people guilty of the massacre that stole our daughter's life among them) two years ago on the basis that they were the price for a kidnapped Israeli being handed back unharmed after being illegally held captive for more than five years in a Hamas dungeon. Then just a few weeks back, in July 2013, Israel's prime minister, evidently at the behest of the US government, announced [see NYTimes and The Guardian] that 104 more of these convicted felons, almost all of them convicted of murder, were going to walk 

to pave the way for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in Washington in the coming days.

While the Palestinian Arab leadership reacted with pleasure to the freeing of the 104, they bluntly deny that there was a quid pro quo. We wrote ["25-Aug-13: Wake up call for those who thought the terrorists are walking free for peace"] that Mahmoud Abbas, whom we quoted there, said

the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails was unrelated to the launching of the peace talks

and he has reiterated this numerous times in recent weeks.

Does his regime accept that convicted felons, having paid their bill, are now being released by agreement with Israel so that a better atmosphere, more conducive to a long-term resolution of the hostility between the two sides, can be achieved?

Here's a clue. He spoke to the United Nations General Assembly yesterday. He mentioned the Palestinian Arab prisoners, almost all of them convicted on terrorism charges, currently serving time in Israeli prisons. He said:

5,000 fighters for freedom and peace are held captive in occupation prisons. So, does anyone deserve more than the Palestinian people ending this occupation and realizing a just and immediate peace? [Source: Full text of speech by Abbas to United Nations General Assembly, September 26, 2013  | WAFA, the PLO news agency]

That's a key idea. The terrorists are "fighters for freedom and peace", at least for Abbas and for those who take their lead from him. And their fate creates a moral argument for his side to get rewarded.

Abbas gave additional insights into how his side views the conflict, one which has resulted today in tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs being paid-up, armed members of various absurdly well-equipped security organizations (not, heaven forbid, an organization called an army but an army for all practical purposes) that exist into order to maintain a constant threat of still more terrorist attacks against Israeli:

Time is running out, and the window of peace is narrowing and the opportunities are diminishing. The current round of negotiations appears to be a last chance to realize a just peace. Merely thinking of the catastrophic and frightening consequences of failure must compel the international community to intensify efforts to seize upon this chance... The hour of freedom for the Palestinian people has rung. The hour of the independence of Palestine has rung. [Abbas, same source]

People on our side have learned to look beyond Abbas' carefully phrased speeches to international audiences, and scrutinize what the man says when he talks in his own language to his own people - and it's generally not about "windows of peace". Writing two weeks ago on the Gatestone Institute website, the Palestinian/Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh said:

PLO, Fatah and Palestinian Authority officials have described the talks [with Israel, via the US brokers] as "futile", "unproductive", "a waste of time" and "a cover for Israel to pursue its policy of creating new facts on the ground..." The more Palestinian officials and leaders talk about the "futility" and "ineffectiveness" of the peace talks, the bigger the opposition grows to the negotiations with Israel. [Khaled Abu Toameh on Gatestone Institute website, September 10, 2013]

People generally believe what they want to believe. If Abbas convinces fair-minded people that he is all about peace and painful compromise, so be it. We think it's a charade and that his lies cost innocent lives. But Abbas does not care what people like us think, so long as people like the US Secretary of State act as if they find him credible and serious. 

And that's where all of us have serious problems.

Six weeks ago, we wrote on this blog [see "14-Aug-13: Are the Palestinian Arab murderers who are being released at this moment, freedom fighters or terrorists? Let's check with the State Department"] about what the US State Department thinks about freed Palestinian Arab prisoners, those being released after a trial and years of time in prison. The following brief verbatim extract comes from a media briefing at the State Department on August 14, 2013:

Persistent reporter: ...Most of these people have been convicted of murder, of killing people. And the Israelis are very clear on the fact that they think that these people are terrorists, even though they’re releasing them. The Palestinians say that they are political prisoners and... have instructed their ambassadors, all their representatives around the world to refer to them as freedom fighters, political prisoners. And I want to know, if you don’t have a position... if there isn’t anything that you call them, do you object to the Palestinians referring to them as freedom fighters?State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf: The answer is, I don’t know and I will endeavor to get an answer for you on that as well. [The transcript and a video are linked here].

We have been in touch with the State Department via several channels during the past six weeks, trying to get this clarified. (Our own government, if they are doing the same, has unfortunately given no sign of it.) If anyone has heard the State Department's spokesperson clarify the things she doesn't know about the terrorists, please tell us. We think she is still, today, officially confused. We even wrote an open letter to Secretary Kerry about it ["14-Sep-13: Memo to Secretary of State Kerry: Your staff need some urgent guidance"] but it remains unanswered as of today.

We have said this before; it clearly bears repeating. Getting things right or wrong about terrorism and terrorists is a really serious thing. Treating terrorists as freedom fighters or (after they are captured and imprisoned) as political prisoners has consequences. So long as the US operates, as it is currently doing, via a policy of cloudy vagueness and public statements like "I don't know and will get back to you", this plays into the hands of the people who deal in terror. 

As we saw in Kenya this past week, the price of getting this wrong is unbearably high, and generally paid by people whose innocent lives are non-political.

In the name of future such victims, as well as in our names, we again ask the State Department and Secretary Kerry to speak up and condemn the calculated confusion of people like Mahmoud Abbas who claim to be pursuing peace and the release of "fighters for freedom and peace" at the same time. 

If the US government is not clear about the differences between terrorists and freedom fighters, let them tell us how to understand what we have all just witnessed in Nairobi.

25-Sep-13: Adjusting to post-Nairobi realities

Westgate Mall, Nairobi, this week

We can probably consider this report from India as a harbinger of how things are likely to be in other places too, now that the dust is settling in Nairobi after the horror of the last several days.

India warns Jewish groups to tighten security |  JTA September 25, 2013 | Amid a terror threat, Jewish establishments in India have been instructed by police to tighten security in and around their businesses. The call came following the interrogation of Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal by the National Investigation Agency in New Delhi, as well as in the wake of the Islamist attack on an upscale mall in Nairobi, Kenya.
According to New Delhi Television  (NDTV), Bhatkal told investigators that Jewish establishments in Mumbai have been surveyed by Indian Mujahideen members for possible terrorist strikes.  The Islamist militant group reportedly was trying to seize Jewish hostages to trade them for terrorists, the Hindustan Times reported.
Indian police called on Jewish establishments to hire security guards, install security cameras and issue ID cards for admittance to the businesses, according to NDTV. They also have been instructed to not allow parking around their buildings.

Thinking about the kind of terrorism about which the Indian authorities are warning as a Jewish or Israeli issue only would be a serious mistake. There are sixty lost Kenyan lives that testify to the stark reality of how highly-armed, highly-motivated hatred-driven terrorism works.

It ought to be clear, as well, that trying to figure out what the hatred is about is of limited help in preventing the terrorist outrages from happening again and again.

23-Sep-13: Root cause of terrorism? Shopping malls, says Guardian columnist

Hamas member, aspiring murderer of Jews, and new mother:
With all those shopping stalls around, what alternative
did she have? [Image Source]

Simon Jenkins, writing in today's far-left Guardian has made an invaluable contribution to the global debate on what to do about the terrorists.

His short op ed ["Kenya mall attack: David Cameron's rush to 'solve the crisis' won't help"] opens up promisingly enough with this reasonable challenge:

Sometimes we should stop and ask why terrorists commit outrages like that in a Nairobi shopping mall. 

Yes? But then, with absolutely no overt sign of irony or self-parody, he starts rapidly sinking:

The answer is the west always over-reacts to big, sensational gestures of extreme violence... The best defence is a sense of proportion. The "war on terror" has failed on its own terms. It had made dozens of countries not pacified but terrified. 

Then swings to the ultra-pragmatic:

There is nothing anyone can do to prevent suicide bombers hitting civilian populations. The slaughter of Christians in Peshawar this weekend showed that wherever crowds gather they are vulnerable to any group with a brainwashed youth and a bomb. It might be sensible to discourage like-minded crowds from gathering in one place, be they co-religionists or party faithful or merely the wealthy. The modern urban obsession with celebrity buildings and high-profile events offers too many publicity-rich targets. A World Trade Centre, a Mumbai hotel, a Boston marathon, a Nairobi shopping mall are all enticing to extremists. Defending them is near impossible. Better at least not to create them. A shopping mall not only wipes out shopping streets, it makes a perfect terrorist fortress, near impossible to assault.

Uncomplicated, easy-to-follow advice. Terrorism happens because of shopping malls and crowds. Alert Guardianistas will now appreciate that robbery is caused by banks, and traffic accidents by roads.

Someone might consider shouting Simon Jenkins to a tour of Yemen.

23-Sep-13: Scenes from Nairobi

Outside Nairobi's Westgate Mall today [Image Source: Telegraph UK]

Some Nairobi vignettes via the BBC:

• "A witness who survived the shopping mall siege said the gunmen were asking people to recite a Muslim shahada (testimonial to being a Muslim - "I testify that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is the Prophet of God"), according to Kenyan newspaper The Standard, seen by BBC Monitoring. The woman said she quickly memorised it with the help of a colleague. "When I mentioned the first word of the Shahada, they moved on. That is how I survived," she said."
• "Karen Allen BBC News, Nairobi One security official has told me this incident will come to be seen as a massive intelligence failure. The Kenyan authorities will have to answer questions about how much they knew in advance. How were so many gunmen able to storm this building - such a high-profile, upmarket building - despite there being real concerns for some time that it was a prime terror target?"
• "Frank Gardner BBC security correspondent This incident is grimly reminiscent of the Mumbai attacks in 2008. The authorities always feared something like that would happen again and now it has."
• "Jon Williams, foreign editor at ABC, tweets: US Embassy officials had expressed concerns over faulty security at #Westgate Mall to Kenyan authorities."
• Michael Shuval Producer, BBC Arabic tweets: Senior Israeli security official: "There are no Israeli soldiers fighting in #Kenya. There are no Israeli hostages in the mall."
• "Yolande Knell Middle East correspondent, BBC News, in Jerusalem: There have been warnings in the past from Israeli authorities that the Westgate centre could be a target because of its Israeli connections. Its owner is Israeli as are the owners of various businesses within it. There is also a history of attacks on Israeli interests in Kenya. In 2002, Islamic extremists attacked the Israeli-owned Paradise hotel, killing 10 Kenyans and three Israelis."
• "1049: Emily Buchanan BBC world affairs correspondent writes: "The attack has particular power because everyone can imagine being a victim. Those killed were just ordinary shoppers and this was a very soft target. These militants are not fighting a battle against the Kenyan army - these were unarmed civilian
• "0935: The Nairobi attackers have been using shoppers as human shields, the Daily Nation newspaper, seen by BBC Monitoring, reports. The paper quotes a police officer who says his colleagues were forced to hold fire when they chased gunmen to the first floor of the centre where they were herding women and children."