Al Qaeda's scathing letter to troublesome employee Mokhtar Belmokhtar reveals inner workings of terrorist group

Some intriguing insights into structures and financial accountability. A full copy of the letter would be most useful. Belmokhtar accused of failing to provide monthly accounts and of not getting a decent ransom for a kidnap.

AP IMPACT: Al-Qaida carves out own country in Mali

Piece from Associated Press reported in the Guardian breaking news stream. Report on the situation in Northern Mali, where al Qaeda related groups appear to be digging in for a long conflict. The lesson should be: the West cant afford to undermine states. The long term winners are non-state actors such as al Qaeda. There is no mention of organised crime in this piece, but the people smuggling and trafficking trails will be there at the very least. What else?

Plan for hunting terrorists signals US intends to keep adding names to kill lists

First article in a series of three on counter terrorism policy reprinted from the Washington Post by the Independent. Drone victims will hit 3,000 in the near future.Reads a bit like the Wild West mentality is still alive and well at the highest echelons of US government. What will they do with all this stuff when the last al Qaeda operative has been killed? What do we learn from a study of the end of the Cold War and the redeployment of the spooks and funnies? Its essay question time!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/plan-for-hunting-terrorists-signals-us-intends-to-keep-adding-names-to-kill-lists-8224945.html

CIA veteran Brennan transforms counterterrorism approach

Part 2 of the three article series on contemporary US counter-terrorism. The role of John Brennan in devising strategy and running the system of targeted assassinations. Could this policy be transferred to "organised crime"? Will it be? These are not themes in the article, but once youve declared organised crime to be a national security issue, it's fairly easy to do.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/cia-veteran-brennan-transforms-counterterrorism-approach-8225627.html

Remote US base at core of secret operations

Third in a series originally published in the Washington Post describing a US drone base in Djibouti

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/remote-us-base-at-core-of-secret-operations-8227588.html

Organized crime may be moving bioweapons

Officials with the United Nations Security Council's Counterterrorism Committee have expressed concern about the close connection between terrorists and transnational organized criminals, including cooperation in the illegal movement of biological weapons of mass destruction.

UN: Terrorists linked to organized crime in traffic of nuclear, biological materials

The United Nations committee entrusted with helping countries tackle terrorism today voiced concern at the close connection between terrorists and transnational organized crime, including the illegal movement of nuclear, chemical, biological and other potentially deadly materials.

Pakistan army attacks warlord's bases

Different spin on yesterday's story. This one claims the attacks were not on the Taliban but on Mandal Bagh's Lashkar-e-Islam movement. Surprise, surprise!

Taliban to Intensify Insurgency says Pentagon

Guardian refers here to two reports, one on the insurgency and one on the Afghan Police and Army. This appears to be totally at odds with Gerard Baker's triumphalist piece in the Times yesterday telling us to rejoice because we are winning the war on terror: http://tinyurl.com/43evnh
I present both without comment. Will try to find links to the reports.
Washington Post article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/27/AR2008062702202.html

Taleban's $100 million takings

Claim by UN official that Taleban impose 10% religious tax on opium production. Nice map. Heard interview on 5live this morning and thought..."better blog that!" Full programme available on File on Four site. There is a link from the article. Nice map too.

MI6 probes UK link to nuclear trade with Iran

A British company has been closed down after being caught in an apparent attempt to sell black-market weapons-grade uranium to Iran and Sudan, The Observer can reveal.[..]During the 20-month investigation, which also involved MI5 and Customs and Excise, a group of Britons was tracked as they obtained weapons-grade uranium from the black market in Russia. Investigators believe it was intended for export to Sudan and on to Iran.[..] British agents believe Russian black-market uranium was destined for Sudan, described as a 'trans-shipment' point. The alleged plot, however, was disrupted in early 2006, before the nuclear material reached its final destination. [..] Alleged evidence of Sudan's role will concern British security services. The East African state has long been suspected of offering a haven for Islamist terrorists and has been accused of harbouring figures including Osama bin Laden who, during the mid-Nineties, set up a number of al-Qaeda training camps in the country.

Organized crime may fuel terror (Dailynews)

Operating from a Glendale office, Global Human Services shipped everything from milk and salad dressing to medicine and clothing in a humanitarian effort designed to help the needy in Eastern Europe.

But the organization was also a front, authorities say, for an international fraud and car-theft ring that stashed at least $5million in stolen luxury vehicles into the same shipping containers with the relief supplies.

The organization was broken up a year ago, with 17 people arrested on suspicion of grand theft and insurance fraud. Authorities said at the time they thought the group had ties to organized crime.

Now, police say the group also was funneling money to Chechen terrorists - the same group that raided a school in Russia three years ago and killed 331 innocent men, women and children.

"The concern was they were using some of the proceeds to support terrorist activities elsewhere," Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton said in a recent interview. "We had an organized gang creating crime and havoc here, but some of the proceeds were stirring up revolution elsewhere."

Growing ties

Officials interviewed by the Daily News during an 18-month investigation of Eurasian crime syndicates say the case highlights a growing global convergence of organized crime and terrorist groups. And in recent months, concern has grown that crime syndicates are defrauding billions of dollars from U.S. government programs and funneling the money to terrorist groups overseas.
"We are very concerned where the money goes when it leaves the country," said Robert A. Schoch, special-agent-in-charge of U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement in Southern California. "That's why we look at this as a national security vulnerability.

"What is the money used for? Could it wind up in the hands of some radical terrorist organization looking to try to find some type of weapon of mass destruction?

"That's very much a concern of ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies."

Sally Thomas, head deputy in the District Attorney's Organized Crime Division, has prosecuted these types of cases since the 1980s.

"I think everybody has concerns about money that is derived from criminal activities being used to support terrorism," Thomas said. "Our concern is that money would be sent to a terrorist group who would use it to harm people in the United States or elsewhere in the world."

Recent reports by the state Attorney General's Office said al-Qaida, Hamas and Hezbollah are among the groups seeking to raise money in California.

"When you find these fraudulent activities that generate a significant amount of money - and they are connected to people who are allegedly involved in terrorist activities - it's kind of like connect the dots," said Marcia Daniel, the deputy district attorney in the Organized Crime Division who is prosecuting the Global Human Services case.

Two years ago, members of a suspected Russian and Armenian organized crime ring - including six from the San Fernando Valley - were charged with plotting to smuggle $2.5million in black-market weapons into the United States.

They were nabbed when they tried to sell rocket-propelled grenade launchers and shoulder- fired missiles to an FBI informant posing as an arms trafficker selling weapons to al-Qaida, authorities said. The trial is set to begin June4 in New York City.

Chechen links

"The concern in the law enforcement and intelligence community worldwide is that organized crime groups have the ability to operate in a wide range of countries, across borders and conduct transnational operations providing terrorist groups with the reach and ability to penetrate areas they wouldn't be able to otherwise," sheriff's Lt. John Sullivan said at the National Terrorism Early Warning Resource Center.

"Organized crime provides links to traffic weapons, personnel and materials across borders and could facilitate terrorist operations."

The case of Global Human Services is typical of the growing links between the two groups, LAPD Detective Mark Severino said.

After Chechen terrorists raided a Russian school in 2004, former LAPD Deputy Chief John Miller asked detectives to investigate whether any Chechen organized crime members were operating in Los Angeles.

"An informer had told us the Chechen `godfather' was still here," Severino said. "We started to look at him, and the investigation quickly revealed that there was some possible Medi-Cal fraud. And while looking at that, Global Human Services came to our attention."

Severino said Ali Karabachev was known as the Chechen "godfather" and had worked for the group.

"Given the information we had that these Chechens were sending stolen cars overseas and the links of GHS with the Chechen godfather - and on the other end was an associate with Chechen organized crime - the FBI told us there is a fine line between Chechen organized crime and terrorism," Severino said.

Chechen authorities have since arrested Karabachev on unrelated charges, and the Los Angeles Police Department is seeking to interview him, Severino said.

Eleven people have pleaded guilty to insurance fraud in the case, and some have been sentenced to probation and ordered to perform community service, Daniel said. Six others pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.

Earlier this year, Yakoob Habib, a 58-year-old tax preparer from Buena Park, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for his role in an international money-laundering operation that involved $28million in unreported income.

The source of the money included money stolen from Medi-Cal using fraudulent labs that billed for blood work that wasn't done or authorized, officials said.

The Attorney General's Office identified more than $12million that Habib illegally transferred to the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Russia and Latvia.

During a search of Habib's business, investigators discovered pictures of anti-aircraft weaponry, the World Trade Center, Los Angeles International Airport and Department of Motor Vehicles logos, Deputy Attorney General Hardy Gold said.

"He had also downloaded a Web site with offensive anti-American banter on it," Gold said.

"Did we trace any funds to the hands of terrorists? No. ... On the other hand, he was a very effective money launderer who was able to erase the money trail. And the money transfer network he operated was for the benefit of organized crime."

Terrorism experts say such connections are particularly worrisome because of some countries' lax security for highly enriched uranium and other potentially dangerous materials.

Melinda Redman, senior director of intelligence and analysis at the Virginia-based Terrorism Research Center, said government officials are concerned about organized crime groups selling highly enriched uranium, plutonium or even nuclear devices to terrorists.

Former Russian Security Council Secretary Alexander Lebed claimed a decade ago that as many as 100 small nuclear devices had disappeared from Russian stockpiles. Officials have denied the claims, but experts still are worried.

"We have no idea what happened to (the nuclear devices)," said Michael Intriligator, a terrorism expert and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. "And it's something that could be smuggled as easily as a bail of marijuana across the Mexican border. And Los Angeles is a prime target."

Nuclear concerns

In a recent report, the International Atomic Energy Agency noted 540 confirmed cases of illicit trafficking in nuclear and other radioactive materials from the early 1990s to 2004.

"It's very real and a very great concern," said Graham Allison, founding dean of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. "The U.S. and Russia have a cooperative program to recover highly enriched uranium.

"That's good. But the pace at which it's happening is still way too slow. And the notion that any material which people could use to make a nuclear bomb is not locked up to the highest level of security is nuts."

Cristina-Astrid Hansell Cheun, a senior research associate at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, said organized crime groups in Russia have been involved in the theft of highly enriched uranium and other nuclear materials in the past.

"It's frightening if the terrorist groups get connected with the organized crime groups that have these materials," she said.

In a recent report on nuclear smuggling by the Center for Strategic & International Studies, authors wrote of an increasing threat that terrorist groups aided by organized crime in Russia and Central Asia will steal nuclear materials.

"Clearly, the capacity for criminal groups and terrorists to work together is growing," wrote American University professors Robert Orttung and Louise Shelley.

"As the threat of nuclear smuggling increases and Russia's ability to deal with the problem decreases, Russia and the United States need to work together to develop a serious analysis."

Next month, officials from around the world are scheduled to meet in Florida to develop strategies to combat the threat of nuclear terrorism.

Schoch said ICE has investigated numerous reports in recent years regarding terrorists, gangs and others attempting to smuggle nuclear weapons and other dangerous materials into the United States.

"We take it very seriously, but typically when we look into them we are not able to corroborate any type of real connection," Schoch said.

"But regardless, if you look at some of these gangs and some of the things they are venturing into, like human trafficking and narcotics, all of those are vulnerabilities."

The Convergence of Crime and Terror: Law Enforcement Opportunities and Perils

The growing post-Cold War terrorist involvement in criminal enterprises has provided more opportunity for the government to prosecute suspected terrorists. From a law enforcement perspective, it is critical to minimize the advantage that terrorists gain from involvement in criminal activity and maximize the opportunity to prosecute them for the full range of illegal activities in which they engage. With this paradigm in mind, this paper explores five areas of criminal enterprise where there has been known terrorist involvement: drug trafficking, financial scams, cyber-crime, illegal money transfers, and immigration violations.

The Threat Posed by the Convergence of Organized Crime, Drugs Trafficking and Terrorism.

Written Testimony of Ralf Mutschke Assistant Director, Criminal Intelligence Directorate International Criminal Police Organization - Interpol General Secretariat before a hearing of the US Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime in 2000.

Structural links between political terrorism and traditional criminal activity, such as drugs trafficking, armed robbery or extortion have come increasingly to the attention of law enforcement authorities, security agencies and political decision makers. There is a fairly accepted view in the international community that in recent years, direct state sponsorship has declined, therefore terrorists increasingly have to resort to other means of financing, including criminal activities, in order to raise funds. These activities have traditionally been drug trafficking, extortion/collection of "revolutionary taxes", armed robbery, and kidnappings. The involvement of such groups as the PKK, LTTE, and GIA in these activities has been established.

The Links Between Organized Crime and Terrorism in Eurasian Nuclear Smuggling

At a 2005 Kennan Institute talk, Louise Shelley, Director, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center, American University, and former Title VIII-Supported Research Scholar, Kennan Institute; and Robert Orttung, Associate Research Professor, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center, American University, and former Title VIII-Supported Short-Term Scholar, Kennan Institute, argued that there is a fatal flaw in most U.S. programs designed to safeguard nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union. Such programs, according to Shelley, focus exclusively on the technical aspects—such as locks and security systems—of safeguarding nuclear materials. Although these technical safeguards are important, Shelley contended that we need to pay more attention to the complex criminal and terrorist networks that have the desire and ability to gain access to nuclear materials. You can also watch the video of this event.

Motorists hit by card clone scam

Thousands of motorists who use a bank card to buy petrol are thought to have lost millions of pounds in an international criminal operation. It is believed cards are being skimmed at petrol stations, where the card details and pin numbers are retrieved and money withdrawn from the account. About 200 of the UK's 9,500 petrol stations are thought to have been hit.

The Sri Lankan government claims the rebel Tamil Tigers are to blame but according to the BBC police say there is no definite link. The Hull Daily Mail however quoted a detective saying his seven-strong team was investigating possible links with the Tamil Tigers.

Recently in Norway customs officers detected a credit card scam run by the Tamil Tigers.

Methods and Motives: Exploring Links between Transnational Organized Crime & International Terrorism

The nexus with transnational organized crime is increasingly a focus for security planners in their analyses of terror groups. Their approach is best described by the phrase “methods, not motives.” While the mo- tives of terrorists and organized criminals remain divergent most often, our research indicates this is not always the case. For that reason, this report argues that such a general approach has become too restrictive and can be misleading since the interaction between terrorism and organized crime is growing deeper and more complex all the time. In short, the lines of separation are no longer unequivocal.

The report analyzes the relationship between international organized crime and terrorism in a systematic way in order to highlight the shortcomings of the “methods, not motives” argument. In so doing, the re- port considers the factors that most closely correspond to crime-terror interaction and identifies those regions of developed and developing states most likely to foster such interactions. Likewise, the paper will suggest an evolutionary spectrum of crime-terror interactions that serves as a common basis for discussion of such often-used terms as “nexus.”

The report is the product of a recently concluded and peer-reviewed 18-month NIJ-sponsored research project, and includes empirical evidence drawn from numerous case studies developed in the course of the research program.