Sanctions Malaysian Bank, Businesses for Involvement

by Jason Ditz, April 11, 2013

The Treasury Department has announced new sanctions against a Malaysian Bank and a handful of other businesses, claiming they are involved in a “far-reaching plot” by the Iranian government to sell oil to other people.

The US has sought to prevent Iran from selling oil, except to a handful of nations hand-picked by the Obama Administration to receive waivers, and has sought to limit Iran’s ability to either get paid for that oil or to spend the money buying other things from other nations.

US efforts to keep Iran entirely off of the international banking market has led Iranian companies to return to a gold-based barter system, and even that has been severely restricted by US threats of further sanctions for anyone caught trading gold for oil.

Indeed, this effort to ban trading in gold in that it is trading at all was the centerpiece of the US proposal at the latest P5+1 meeting, in which Iran would give up materially its entire civilian nuclear program in return for US permission to engage in limited gold-based trading.

Treasury Under Secretary David S. Cohen termed Iran’s effort to sell oil for actual money as an essence mirroring “criminal money laundering techniques,” going on to brag that Iran was “not being terribly successful” in engaging in international commerce and promising ongoing US vigilance to prevent Iran from “abuse” of the global financial system.

http://news.antiwar.com/2013/04/11/treasury-dept-iran-in-far-reaching-plot-to-sell-oil/

ISTANBUL — Turkish police said Thursday that they found evidence of a plot linked to Al Qaeda to bomb the United States Embassy in Ankara, a synagogue in Istanbul and other targets, during a raid on two houses in February, according to news reports.

The reports said the police had seized nearly 50 pounds of plastic explosives with detonation systems attached, as well as six laptop computers and other evidence. Twelve people were detained during the operation — two Chechens, two Azeris and eight Turks.

The evidence was gathered during a raid on two terrorist cells, one in Istanbul and one in Corlu, a district of Tekirdag on the Sea of Marmara. Forensic analysis of the computers’ contents and other documents, officials said, revealed preparations for bomb attacks on the embassy, the private Rahmi M. Koc Museum and a synagogue in the Balat district of Istanbul.

Photographs, floor plans and other information were found concerning those targets and the residences and offices of two popular Turks.

After the police raid, the American Embassy issued a travel warning, but it said at the time that the Turkish National Police had not provided specific threat information about the targets.

The police in Tekirdag said they had been monitoring a man said to belong to Al Qaeda who arrived in the city two years ago, after receiving military training at the terrorist organization’s camps in Afghanistan, according to CNN-Turk. That surveillance led to the February raid, they said.

The American Embassy was the target of a suicide bomb attack in February that killed a Turkish security guard and severely injured a local resident. But that attack was attributed to an extreme left-wing organization, not Islamic militants.

In 2008, three gunmen attacked security guards outside the American diplomatic mission in Istanbul in a shootout that left the assailants and three police officers dead.

By Sebnem Arsu
New York Times

AMARILLO, Texas (AP) — A former Texas college student accused of trying to make a bomb and possibly target a former U.S. president with the goal of jihad was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison.

Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari was sentenced in Amarillo, where jurors convicted him in June of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Prosecutors say he had collected bomb-making material and researched possible targets, including the Dallas home of former President George W. Bush.

Aldawsari, 22, stood silently as the verdict was read. His hair long and wearing a full beard, the former student from Saudi Arabia appeared to have lost a lot of weight.

He came to the U.S. legally in 2008 to study chemical engineering at Texas Tech University. He was arrested in Lubbock in February 2011, after federal agents secretly searched his apartment and found explosive chemicals, wiring, a hazmat suit and clocks, along with videos showing how to make the chemical explosive TNP.

Investigators say Aldawsari’s goal was to carry out jihad, though his attorneys claimed he was a harmless failure who never came close to attacking anyone.

FBI bomb experts have said the amounts of chemicals in the case would have yielded almost 15 pounds of explosive — about the same amount used per bomb in the 2005 London subway attacks. He also tried to order phenol, a chemical that can be used to make explosives.

Court records show that his emails and journal contained the explosive’s recipe.

Prosecutors said other targets he researched included nuclear power plants and the homes of three former soldiers who were stationed at Abu Ghraib prison.

During his trial, Aldawsari’s attorneys acknowledged that their client had intent, but they argued that he never took the “substantial step” needed to convict him.

Aldawsari wrote in his journal that he had been planning a terror attack in the U.S. for years, even before he came to the country on a scholarship, and that it was “time for jihad,” or holy war, according to court documents. He bemoaned the plight of Muslims and said he was influenced by Osama bin Laden’s speeches.

Authorities said Aldawsari purchased bottles of sulfuric and nitric acids — chemicals that can be combined with phenol to create TNP.

Investigators say they were tipped to his online purchases by chemical company Carolina Biological Supply and shipping company Con-way Freight on Feb. 1, 2011. The chemical company reported a $ 435 suspicious purchase to the FBI, while the shipping company notified Lubbock police and the FBI because it appeared the order wasn’t intended for commercial use.

Court records show that Aldawsari had successfully ordered 30 liters of nitric acid and three gallons of concentrated sulfuric acid in December 2010.

At his trial, prosecutors played recordings of a frustrated Aldawsari complaining to the supply company when his order was held up. He had allegedly told the company he wanted the phenol for research to develop a cleaning solution.

Aldawsari had transferred from Texas Tech in early 2011 to nearby South Plains College, where he was studying business. A Saudi industrial company was paying his tuition and living expenses in the U.S. The judge moved his trial to Amarillo, about 120 north of Lubbock.

Authorities in Jordan have disrupted a major terrorist plot by al-Qaeda-linked operatives to launch near-simultaneous attacks on multiple civilian and government targets, reportedly including the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Amman, Western and Middle Eastern officials said Sunday.

The Jordanian government issued a statement describing the plot and saying that 11 people with connections to al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Iraq have been arrested.

The foiled attack, described as the most serious plot uncovered in Jordan since at least 2005, was viewed with particular alarm by intelligence agencies because of its sophisticated design and the planned use of munitions intended for the Syrian conflict — a new sign that Syria’s troubles could be spilling over into neighboring countries, the officials said.

The alleged plotters are Jordanian nationals. The officials said the group had amassed a stockpile of explosives and weapons from Syrian battlefields and devised a plan to use military-style tactics in a wave of attacks across Amman.

The scheme called for multiple strikes on shopping centers and cafes as a diversionary tactic to draw the attention of police and security officials, allowing other operatives to launch attacks against the main targets, which included government buildings and embassies.

A Western official briefed on details of the plot confirmed that the U.S. Embassy in Amman was among the targets. Like others interviewed for this report, the official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is still unfolding.

The Jordanian government’s statement said its intelligence service had broken up a cell that had been planning the attacks since June, arresting 11 people described as “supporters” of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The group had intended to use explosives and mortar rounds acquired from Syria, as well as machine guns, car bombs and militia-style guerrilla tactics, to ensure “the highest death toll,” according to the statement.

The suspects had traveled to Syria multiple times and brought weapons with them, government officials said. They were arrested less than a week after Jordanian officials captured three Jordanians as they attempted to cross illegally into Syria, allegedly to join radical Islamist militias fighting Syrian loyalists there.

In a news conference late Sunday in Amman, Jordanian government spokesman Samih Maaytah insisted that the plot was “not related to the Syrian crisis” and stressed that “Jordan will not change its approach” to the conflict in response to the discovery.

The timing of the plot was viewed as curious. Jordan has increasingly allied itself with forces seeking the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian autocrat opposed by rebels as well as a growing cadre of foreign Islamist militants inside Syria. Jordan hosts hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees within its borders and has helped deliver humanitarian aid to rebel-held cities.

But intelligence gleaned from surveillance of the cell suggests that the plotters intended to destabilize Jordan’s pro-Western government with massive blows against the country’s government institutions and tourism-dependent economy, the officials said.

“This was a serious plan, with a great potential for loss of life,” said a former Western intelligence official briefed on the details. For Jordan, which is beset by economic problems and deepening political unrest, he said, “this may not have been a tipping point, but it could have been a very hard blow.”

The former intelligence official said the plotters had access to large amounts of explosives from Syria and intended to use them to construct massive bombs.

“Weapons are everywhere right now, flowing from Iraq into Syria, and back and forth into Lebanon,” the former official said. “The longer the conflict goes on, the worse it gets.”

Later Sunday, a Jordanian soldier was killed in a clash between government security forces and a band of 16 armed militants seeking to cross illegally into Syria, government officials said. Four of the gunmen also were killed in the 20-minute firefight, the first to claim the life of a Jordanian officer since the Syrian uprising began.

The State Department had no immediate comment on the plot and declined to confirm or deny accounts that the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy in Amman had been on the target list.

The last major terrorist strike in Jordan occurred in 2005, when al-Qaeda militants launched simultaneous attacks against three Amman hotels, killing 60 people and wounding 115.

By Joby Warrick and Taylor Luck
Washington Post

Luck reported from Amman. Joel Greenberg in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Michel Samaha, Lebanon’s former information minister and an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has been arrested on allegations of planning bomb attacks that would have coincided with the visit of Maronite Catholic Patriarch Béchara Boutros Raï to a Sunni Muslim area of Lebanon.

One car bomb was reportedly set to detonate as the patriarch was passing near a Muslim politician’s home. Other political and religious leaders were also to be targeted.

“God protected this region from bombings that were planned by the [powers] of evil,” Patriarch Raï said.

Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Grégoire III Laham initially condemned the “abusive way” in which Samaha, a Catholic layman, “was arrested and the lack of respect for the sanctity of the home and the dignity of the family.”

Asked whether the planned papal visit to Lebanon in September would still take place, Patriarch Raï said, “Of course the visit will go ahead.”

www.catholicculture.org

Chicago (CNN) — The road map out of the war in Afghanistan is expected to be drawn up by U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders when they gather Sunday at the NATO summit in Chicago.

Against a backdrop of massive protests — and a foiled, homegrown terror plot that targeted Obama and others — the summit will open with NATO countries trying to figure out how to meet a 2014 withdrawal from an unpopular war while shoring up Afghanistan’s security forces.

Security is expected to be tight at the summit following the arrest of three men, described by authorities as anarchists who plotted to attack Obama’s Chicago campaign headquarters and lob Molotov cocktails at police during the summit.

Police insist there are no imminent threats to the leaders of more than 50 nations gathering at the summit.

The leaders are expected to formally adopt a timetable to transition security from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force to Afghan forces, senior administration officials told CNN.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity as a matter of practice, said the plan will also lay out NATO’s training and advisory role after 2014.

One of the key issues to be considered by the NATO leaders is who will pay for the buildup of Afghan forces as ISAF draws down its troops. Afghan security forces are expected to total 350,000 by 2015, according to CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is attending the summit along with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, can only afford to cover a fraction of the cost of building up his country’s forces. The cost of building up forces is expected to total roughly $ 4 billion annually by 2014, Bergen said.

France’s new president, Francois Hollande, is widely expected to announce the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan by year’s end.

Also, at issue at the NATO summit, is Islamabad’s continued blockade of much-needed NATO supplies shipped over Pakistani roads to Afghanistan.

Pakistan closed the ground routes after a NATO airstrike in November killed two dozen of its soldiers. NATO insists the incident was an accident.

The United States and NATO are unlikely to reach an agreement with Pakistan at the summit, according to two senior U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the subject.

“There is no deal, and there won’t be one until President Zardari returns” to Pakistan, one of the officials said. “And even that is not assured.”

The goal, says the official, “is to get a deal. It’s less important as to when.”

Without a deal, the officials said Obama would not meet with Zardari at the summit. The two are scheduled to hold trilateral talks with Karzai on political reconciliation in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s support in reaching a deal with the Taliban is seen as critical in ending the war in Afghanistan.

Outside the summit, Chicago authorities expect to have their hands full with protests.

On Saturday, the eve of the summit, Occupy Chicago protesters accused police of running down one of their own with a patrol van. A video, posted online by a protester and picked up by a news organization, appeared to show the van bumping a protestor.

But a spokesman for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel said the driver of the van was responding to an attack by the protester.

“The individual was attacking the van and trying to slash tires on it with a knife as the van was moving slowly through a crowd,” spokesman Bill McCaffrey told CNN.

He said the person successfully slashed the tires, and then fled.

By Elise Labott and Mike Mount

CNN’s Greg Morrison and Chelsea J. Carter contributed to this report.

‘Al-CIA-Duh Bomber’ Was a CIA Informant
Infowars.com

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

COMMENT: Yes, it’s the same old pattern of a phony narrative to hype fear & subservience, but ultimately scripted at CIA/Pentagon/FBI headquarters and carried out by informant/double agents handled from the beginning.

Associated Press: Al Qaeda Bomb Plot: Would-Be Bomber Was CIA Informant
NECN/NBC News – Federal official: CIA’s source was bomber himself in Yemen
FLASHBACK: Terror Expert: London Bombings Mastermind Aswat is MI6 Asset
FLASHBACK: Two British SAS officers caught dressed up as Arabs to foment terror in Basra, Iraq

Just one day after reports that the CIA had foiled a plot involving a “sophisticated underwear bomb” targeted against U.S. airliners, the entire story has once again collapsed into a farce.
Just as the FBI has been caught directing every major domestic terror plot, it turns out that the supposed “bomber” was actually a CIA informant.

“U.S. and Yemeni officials say the supposed would-be bomber at the heart of an al-Qaida airliner plot was actually an informant working for the CIA,” reports the Associated Press.

“Officials say the informant was working for the CIA and Saudi Arabian intelligence when he was given the bomb. He then turned the device over to authorities. Officials say the informant is safely out of Yemen.”

So all the propaganda and fearmongering over this plot was once again over nothing -this was yet another staged incident just as the first underwear bomber event was a manufactured hoax from beginning to end.

Watch Alex Jones’ comments on this story from last night’s Infowars Nightly News below.

Federal official: CIA’s source was bomber himself in Yemen

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