Feds Disrupt Iranian-Backed Plot to Bomb Israeli Embassy, Assasinate Saudi Envoy to USA

Agents from the FBI and DEA have reportedly disrupted a terror plot liked directly to Iran's Quds force that involved simultaneous attacks against the Israeli and Saudi embassies in Washington D.C.

Federal investigatos allege that an Iranian American identified as 56 year old Mansour Arbabsiar, a Corpus Christi TX used car salesman as the man who approached what he thought was a member of the Los Zetas cartel with a proposal to kill the Saudi ambassador to the USA and bomb the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C. in exchange for $1.5 million and an undisclosed amount of opium.

Arbabsiar and the informant met twice in Reynosa in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, across the border from McAllen, TX [interestingly, observers note that Reynosa is in territory still under control of the Gulf Cartel, but the accused was meeting with what he thought was an enforcer from the archrival Los Zetas- NANESB!] where Arbabsiar bragged that he had a cousin who was a high-ranking member of the Quds force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and that they were being directed by senior-level officials of the Iranian regime.

The five count criminal complaint names Gohlam Shakuri, an Iranian based member of the Quds force still at large in Iran, as a co-conspirator in the plot. Arbabsiar and the informant negotiated a $1.5 million payment to carry out the attacks, with the accused wiring two seperate payments of $49,960 into a dummy FBI bank account. Arbabsiar also told the informant that his contacts in Iran couild provide Los Zetas with 'tons' of opium if they were interested.

Federal agents said they recorded a number of phone calls and meeting with the informant and Arbabsiar, some of the calls coming from Iran. In late September, when Arbabsiar was flying to Mexico City from Iran via Frankfurt, he was refused entry into Mexico by immigration officers at Arturo Beneitez international airport and was put on a flight to New York where he was taken into custody.

Not surprisingly, Iran has denied the charges against their regime, claiming the case is a 'prefabricated scenario' and propaganda against the Islamic regime.

Interestingly, even though Arbabsiar was taken into custody nearly two weeks ago, Attorney General Eric Holder's press conference announcing the disruption of the plot came a day before House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chariman, Darrell Issa (R- CA49) issued Holder a subpoena in regards to their ongoing Fast & Furious probe in which the ATF allowed firearms to be trafficked from the USA to Mexican drug cartels. In fact, one of the reporters brought up Fast & Furious during the press conference, only to have Holder dismiss it with a boilerplate statement about turning over the relelvant documents before walking out.

There is precedent for Iranian-backed groups co-ordinating attacks out of Latin America. In 1992, 29 people were killed when a truck bomb exploded outside the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires. A group with links to the Iranian back Hezbollah terrorist group and Iran called the Islamic Jihad organization claimed responsibility. The Isreali Embassy attacks were followed up by the 1994 bombing of the AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina) building in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people. Argentine investigators believe that both operations were planned and financed in the Tri-Border area where the boundaries of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil meet near Iguazu Falls and where Hezbollah has been active over the last two decades. More recently, Mexican intelligence has been aware of a Hezbollah presence in Tijuana and Durango.

Horn of Africa Update- Suspected Al Shabaab Car Bomb Kills 70 in Mogadishu; Somali Pirates Sentenced in Murder of American Yachters

MOGADISHU: The Islamic Al-Shabaab militia took credit for a deadly truck bombing that tore through the heart of Mogadishu, killing at least 70 people on a crowded street outside of the Ministry of Education this week.

A truck loaded with drums of fuel exploded outside the Ministry of Education, where students accompanied by their parents registered for scholarships offered by the Turkish government. The thunderous blast covered the city in dust more than a half-mile away, leaving blackened corpses sprawled on the debris-strewn street amid burning vehicles. One woman used a blue plastic bucket to pour water on a smoldering body.


Even in a city mired in war and anarchy for two decades, Tuesday's attack by the al-Shabab group horrified rescue workers. Ali Abdullahi, a nurse at the city's Medina Hospital, said countless victims were being brought in with amputated limbs and burns.

"It is the most awful tragedy I have ever seen," he said. "Imagine dozens are being brought here minute by minute. Most of the wounded people are unconscious and others have their faces blackened by smoke and heat."

Duniya Salad sobbed over her brother's burnt body after he died while undergoing treatment at the hospital.

"They killed him before he started university! Why was he killed? Damn to al-Shabab," she said.
Al-Shabab, which was formed about five years ago, immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on a website it uses.

"Our Mujahideen fighters have entered a place where ministers and AMISOM foreigners stay," al-Shabab said in a brief post on a website, referring to the Ugandan and Burundian forces who make up the African Union peacekeeping mission.

The attack took place on one of the busiest streets in the capital, and it was not clear whether the Ministry of Education was the intended target.

In the last few days, the death toll from the attack has climbed past 100, as hospitalized victims have succumbed to their injuries. The bomber was reportedly a dropout named Bashar Abdullah Nur who wanted Somali youth to abandon secular eduacation and take up arms in jihad instead.

This is the part where I remind you that Somalia hasn't had a functioning government since 1991 when Said Barre's autocratic regime collapsed in a civil war that fractured most of the country into feuding fiefdoms controlled by bandits, pirates, warlords, smugglers and Islamic militias.

Backed by peacekeepers from Burundi and Uganda, Somalia's transitional government was able to clear the Somali capital of al Shabaab militants over the last year, although the Islamic terrorist group still controls large swaths of territory to the south of the capital and is reportedly fighting against Yemeni government forces with their Al Qaeda counterparts on the Arabian Peninsula. To hardly anybody's surprise, Al-Shabaab has vowed to carry out further attacks.

VIRGINIA: The leader of a gang of Somali pirates who hijacked an American yacht off the coast of Yemen and murdered the 3 Californians on board received a life sentence at a federal court in Norfolk, VA this week.

Mohamud Salad Ali is the fifth of 11 men who have pleaded guilty to piracy in the case to be sentenced.

He received a second life sentence that he'll serve concurrently with the other one because he also pleaded guilty to hostage taking resulting in death. That charge carried the possibility of the death penalty, but prosecutors agreed to the lesser sentence as part of a plea deal.

Ali has detailed for investigators how piracy operations in Somalia work and has agreed to help prosecutors as they pursue charges against other men.

None of those who have pleaded guilty in the case so far are believed to have been the triggermen. Three other men are charged with murder and other death penalty-eligible counts.
Ali -- a former policeman who recruited men for the expedition -- was on board a U.S. Navy warship at the time the killings happened.

The Navy had offered to let the pirates take the 58-foot sailboat in exchange for the hostages, but the men refused because they wouldn't get the kind of money they wanted. Hostages are typically ransomed for millions of dollars.

"Mohamud Salad Ali led the pirate attack, and his refusal to release the four Americans -- even with the opportunity to proceed to Somalia with the Quest -- reveals the callous regard that Somali pirates have for their hostages and the threat they pose to any U.S. vessel on the high seas," U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride said in a written statement.

Two other pirates had been sentenced this week to life in prison for their role in the February hijacking. Aside from Californians Jean and Scott Adam, four of the Somali pirates were killed in close-quarters combat when US sailors boarded the hijacked vessel.

KENYA: Two European tourists were abducted from upscale resorts along the Kenyan coast in separate incidents in the past month. In mid September, a British tourist was shot to death and his wife was abducted by gunmen on a speedboat in the Kenyan island of Lamu, less than 50 miles south of Kenya's border with Somalia.

The defense minister for Somalia's transitional government says that it's possible that al-Shabaab could be holding the woman for ransom, but didn't rule out the possibility of bandits. Police in Kenya and the UK believe that somebody on the staff might have tipped off the kidnappers, who had checked in a few hours before the gunmen raided the resort.

Members of the al Shabaab-linked Ras Kamboni brigades have calimed credit for the kidnapping- and announced that they were using her as a human shield to protect themselves from US Predator drone airstrikes amid multiple reports that the captive Briton was being held in an Island in Somali waters.

In the beginning of October, a disabled French woman was abducted by gunmen from her vacation home on the Kenyan island of Manda- across a lagoon from Lamu. Despite a brief chase and firefight with the Kenyan Navy, the abductors were able to slip back into Somali territory and the woman is reportedly being held in a coastal area in southern Somalia's Lower Jubba Region.

SEYCHELLES: British officials have announced the formation of a task force in the Indian Ocean island chain of they Seychelles that will be dedicated to tracking the pirate financiers and ransom money.

Ministers plan to despatch officers from the Serious and Organised Crime Agency to staff a new Indian Ocean unit dedicated to hunting pirate financiers, who provide start-up cash for gangs in return for the lion's share of ransom proceeds.

A financier who offers as little $10,000 to equip a gang with skiffs, fuel and guns can easily expect a return of 10 or 20 times his money in the event of a successful hijacking.

But while such profits are now believed to run into tens of millions of dollars a year, relatively little is known about exactly where the cash ends up, beyond a widespread acknowledgement that it makes the gangs ever more powerful, and may also line the pockets of Somalia's al-Shabaab Islamist movement.

"Pirate financiers are the kingpins of piracy," said Henry Bellingham, Foreign Office minister for Africa, who will announce details of the new centre in a speech to the Chamber of Shipping in London on Wednesday. "Effectively targeting them will have a huge impact on the ability of pirates to terrorise the high seas."

The new unit will be based in the Seychelles Islands, nearly 1,000 miles east of Kenya, which have now become a key forward operating base against pirate gangs as they spread their reach across the Indian Ocean.

As Somali pirates stage attacks further east, local fishermen and tourism officials in the Seychelles fear that pirate activity could do long-term harm to the small island nation's economy.

US Born Al Qaeda Cleric Killed in Arabian Peninsula Drone Airstrike

The good news is that you still get your virgins, Anwar. The bad news is that all 72 of them look like Michael Moore.

Anwar al-Awlaki, Al Qaeda's internet savvy, New Mexico-born propagaindist was killed in Yemen on Friday when what's believed to be a CIA drone fired a missile on a convoy.

Fluent in English, al-Awlaki is said to have inspired numerous attacks against American and Western targets, including the failed Christmas 2009 underwear bomber over Detroit, an October 2010 plot to bring down aircraft using explosive parcels. The Islamic cleric is said to have corresponded via e-mail with Nidal Hasan prior to his November 2009 Fort Hood murder spree and Faisal Shahzad's botched May 2010 attempt to set off a car bomb in New York City's Times Square.

Also in may 2010, a 21 year old unemployed woman named Roshonara Choudharay who said she was inspired by al-Awlaki's online sermons and articles stabbed Labour MP Stephen Timms at the Beckton Globe library.

Beginning in 2000, al-Awlaki preached in a San Diego area mosque where he met two parishoners who were later identified as Khalid al-Midar and Nawaf al-Hamzi- two of the 9/11 hijackers. The following year, al-Awlaki moved to northern Virginia before heading back to Yemen by way of London in 2002. From Yemen's tribal controlled hinterlands, al-Awlaki delivered sermons and oversaw recruitment for Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninusla, escaping a similar attempt on his life in May of this year.