Smurf-Herder
01-19-2009, 08:18 PM
US Treasury targets bin Laden son, Al Qaeda with Iran ties
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Treasury Department on Friday targeted one of Osama bin Laden's sons and three other alleged Al Qaeda operatives with Iranian ties under an executive order that freezes their assets under US jurisdiction and outlaws their supporters.
Osama bin Laden's son Sa'ad, along with Mustafa Hamid, Muhammad Rab'a al-Sayid al-Bahtiyti and Ali Saleh Husain, are alleged to have worked for Al Qaeda in Iran, and some have ties to the Iranian government, said the department in a statement.
The designations, which prohibits transactions between the group and US citizens, were put in place to give Iran "public accounting of how it is meeting its international obligations to constrain Al Qaeda," according to Stuart Levey, the US Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
The four men were all detained by Iranian authorities in 2003, said US officials, although Sa'ad bin Laden may not have been in Iranian custody since September 2008.
All are accused of ties with Iran before their arrest.
Sa'ad bin Laden "made key decisions for Al-Qaeda and was part of a small group of Al-Qaeda members that was involved in managing the terrorist organization from Iran," the department alleges.
Another of the accused, Mustafa Hamid, is accused of being a "senior Al-Qaeda associate who served as a primary interlocutor between Al-Qaeda and the government of Iran." The others are alleged to have conducted activities for Al-Qaeda while in Iran.
Executive Order 13224, designed to both target the operatives and those who support them, can have a "far reaching impact," said Levey.
"Even though individual terrorist attacks are relatively inexpensive to carry out, it costs a great deal of money for Al-Qaeda to operate globally," he said.
"Designations have a far reaching impact, deterring would-be donors from providing financial support to terrorism and leaving Al-Qaeda leadership struggling to identify much-needed funding resources."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iLyX8gyrge48gAWeruAwqO09yKGQ
U.S. Treasury Links Iran and Al Qaeda
The U.S. Treasury Department dropped a bombshell today when it sanctioned four al Qaeda operatives known to be operating in Iran. Osama bin Laden's son Sa'ad along with Mustafa Hamid, Muhammad Rab'a al Sayid al Bahtiti, and Ali Saleh Husain have been designated as terrorists under Executive Order 13224. All four men serve on al Qaeda's Shura Majlis, or executive council. Mustafa Hamid's dealings with Iran, which the Treasury provides great detail, are especially interesting.
A senior U.S. military intelligence official who tracks al Qaeda told me that Hamid is both "al Qaeda’s emir of Iran" and "al Qaeda’s ambassador to Iran." Here is how the Treasury described Hamid:
While living in Iran, Hamid was harbored by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which served as Hamid's point of contact for communications between al Qaeda and Iran...
In the mid-1990s, Mustafa Hamid reportedly negotiated a secret relationship between Osama Bin Laden and Iran, allowing many al Qaeda members safe transit through Iran to Afghanistan.
In the late 1990s, Mustafa Hamid passed communications between Osama bin Laden and the Government of Iran. When tensions were high between Iran and Afghanistan, Mustafa Hamid traveled multiple times from Kandahar to Tehran as an intermediary for the Taliban.
In late 2001, Mustafa Hamid was in Tehran delivering messages from the Taliban to the Government of Iran. Hamid also negotiated on behalf of al Qaeda in an attempt to relocate al Qaeda families to Iran. As part of this effort, senior al Qaeda member Abu Hafs the Mauritanian traveled with Hamid and two IRGC members to Tehran for meetings. Beginning in late 2001, the family of a senior al Qaeda military commander lived with Mustafa Hamid's family in Iran. Separately, in 2002 Mustafa Hamid facilitated contacts between the IRGC and another senior al Qaeda military commander. In mid-2003, Mustafa Hamid was arrested in Iran along with other al Qaeda members and associates.
The "arrests" were made after the 2003 bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia were directly traced back to al Qaeda's network in Iran (Sa'ad was involved the planning of this attack.) But the arrests were merely window dressing, as noted here at THE WEEKLY STANDARD back in 2005. Incidentally, in June 2008, the Treasury confirmed this when it sanctioned three al Qaeda financiers who operated from Iran and moved freely throughout the Middle East and South Asia well after 2003.
Not only has the Treasury linked Iran to al Qaeda, but it has linked the group to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Back in October 2007, the Treasury sanctioned the Qods Force, the special operations branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for providing "material support to the Taliban, Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC)." Hamas and Islamic Jihad are also Sunni terror groups.
We're constantly told that Shia Iran and Sunni al Qaeda would and could never cooperate due to the ideological differences between the two sects. But the Treasury, whose information is valuable in understanding al Qaeda's global network, shows this is patently false.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/01/us_treasury_links_iran_and_al_1.asp
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Treasury Department on Friday targeted one of Osama bin Laden's sons and three other alleged Al Qaeda operatives with Iranian ties under an executive order that freezes their assets under US jurisdiction and outlaws their supporters.
Osama bin Laden's son Sa'ad, along with Mustafa Hamid, Muhammad Rab'a al-Sayid al-Bahtiyti and Ali Saleh Husain, are alleged to have worked for Al Qaeda in Iran, and some have ties to the Iranian government, said the department in a statement.
The designations, which prohibits transactions between the group and US citizens, were put in place to give Iran "public accounting of how it is meeting its international obligations to constrain Al Qaeda," according to Stuart Levey, the US Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
The four men were all detained by Iranian authorities in 2003, said US officials, although Sa'ad bin Laden may not have been in Iranian custody since September 2008.
All are accused of ties with Iran before their arrest.
Sa'ad bin Laden "made key decisions for Al-Qaeda and was part of a small group of Al-Qaeda members that was involved in managing the terrorist organization from Iran," the department alleges.
Another of the accused, Mustafa Hamid, is accused of being a "senior Al-Qaeda associate who served as a primary interlocutor between Al-Qaeda and the government of Iran." The others are alleged to have conducted activities for Al-Qaeda while in Iran.
Executive Order 13224, designed to both target the operatives and those who support them, can have a "far reaching impact," said Levey.
"Even though individual terrorist attacks are relatively inexpensive to carry out, it costs a great deal of money for Al-Qaeda to operate globally," he said.
"Designations have a far reaching impact, deterring would-be donors from providing financial support to terrorism and leaving Al-Qaeda leadership struggling to identify much-needed funding resources."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iLyX8gyrge48gAWeruAwqO09yKGQ
U.S. Treasury Links Iran and Al Qaeda
The U.S. Treasury Department dropped a bombshell today when it sanctioned four al Qaeda operatives known to be operating in Iran. Osama bin Laden's son Sa'ad along with Mustafa Hamid, Muhammad Rab'a al Sayid al Bahtiti, and Ali Saleh Husain have been designated as terrorists under Executive Order 13224. All four men serve on al Qaeda's Shura Majlis, or executive council. Mustafa Hamid's dealings with Iran, which the Treasury provides great detail, are especially interesting.
A senior U.S. military intelligence official who tracks al Qaeda told me that Hamid is both "al Qaeda’s emir of Iran" and "al Qaeda’s ambassador to Iran." Here is how the Treasury described Hamid:
While living in Iran, Hamid was harbored by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which served as Hamid's point of contact for communications between al Qaeda and Iran...
In the mid-1990s, Mustafa Hamid reportedly negotiated a secret relationship between Osama Bin Laden and Iran, allowing many al Qaeda members safe transit through Iran to Afghanistan.
In the late 1990s, Mustafa Hamid passed communications between Osama bin Laden and the Government of Iran. When tensions were high between Iran and Afghanistan, Mustafa Hamid traveled multiple times from Kandahar to Tehran as an intermediary for the Taliban.
In late 2001, Mustafa Hamid was in Tehran delivering messages from the Taliban to the Government of Iran. Hamid also negotiated on behalf of al Qaeda in an attempt to relocate al Qaeda families to Iran. As part of this effort, senior al Qaeda member Abu Hafs the Mauritanian traveled with Hamid and two IRGC members to Tehran for meetings. Beginning in late 2001, the family of a senior al Qaeda military commander lived with Mustafa Hamid's family in Iran. Separately, in 2002 Mustafa Hamid facilitated contacts between the IRGC and another senior al Qaeda military commander. In mid-2003, Mustafa Hamid was arrested in Iran along with other al Qaeda members and associates.
The "arrests" were made after the 2003 bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia were directly traced back to al Qaeda's network in Iran (Sa'ad was involved the planning of this attack.) But the arrests were merely window dressing, as noted here at THE WEEKLY STANDARD back in 2005. Incidentally, in June 2008, the Treasury confirmed this when it sanctioned three al Qaeda financiers who operated from Iran and moved freely throughout the Middle East and South Asia well after 2003.
Not only has the Treasury linked Iran to al Qaeda, but it has linked the group to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Back in October 2007, the Treasury sanctioned the Qods Force, the special operations branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for providing "material support to the Taliban, Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC)." Hamas and Islamic Jihad are also Sunni terror groups.
We're constantly told that Shia Iran and Sunni al Qaeda would and could never cooperate due to the ideological differences between the two sects. But the Treasury, whose information is valuable in understanding al Qaeda's global network, shows this is patently false.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/01/us_treasury_links_iran_and_al_1.asp