AQIM Mujahadine Convicted in Algeria

ALGIERS - The leader of Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) Abdelmalek Droukdel was Friday sentenced in absentia to death and 48 co-defendants for their involvement in an attack that had caused eleven dead and over 100 injured on April 2007 in Algiers, according to APS.

Besides Droukdel (already condemned to death in the past), Algiers criminal court has pronounced death sentences against

• Salah Gacemi Salah : leader of the "communication cell of Al Qaeda in Algeria"
• Rabah Ghiatou, emir of the section El Arkam who performed the operation against the buildings of the police in Dar El Beida, a district of Algiers, the agency said.
• Four defendants present in court, were sentenced for their part to life imprisonment, another to 4 years in prison and two were acquitted.

The 56 defendants were prosecuted for setting up a terrorist group, membership and joining armed terrorist group, murder with premeditation and use of explosives.

All those who testified denied the facts back on confessions they had expressed before the security forces and the judge. They were also then recognized to belong to a section based in the region of Thénia, near Boumerdes (50 km east of Algiers) of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which was transformed in late 2007 into AQMI and allegiance to the organization of Osama bin Laden.

Abdelmalek Droukdel, alias Abu Moussaab Abdelouadoud, 38, is still at large after having joined terrorism in the 90s. He has escaped several arrests and has been repeatedly condemned in absentia to death for deadly bombings claimed by AQIM. The death penalty is not applied in Algeria under a moratorium adopted in 1993.

The Rest @ Ennaharonline

Ahmed Osma's Partner Arrested in The Netherlands

Yesterday the Star Tribune (published in Minneapolis-St. Paul) reported on a seemingly significant arrest in the Netherlands related to the al-Shabaab recruiting networks that have centered on the Twin Cities area. From the Star Tribune:

A 43-year-old Somali man from Minneapolis was arrested this week in the Netherlands for allegedly financing the recruitment of up to 20 young Somali men from Minnesota to train and fight with terrorists in their homeland....

The identity of the man, who was arrested Sunday at an asylum-seeker's center 45 miles northeast of Amsterdam, was not released.

• But Special Agent E.K. Wilson of the Minneapolis FBI office confirmed Tuesday that the man was arrested in connection with the ongoing counterterrorism investigation that began here when young men began disappearing in 2007.
• "We are aware of this individual and of this arrest. And it is tied to our ongoing Minneapolis investigation," Wilson said.
• "We are and have been working closely with Dutch authorities through our legal attaché office in Brussels and coordinating with the Department of Justice Office of International Affairs."

Dutch prosecutors said in a statement that

• the man lived in Minneapolis before leaving the United States in November 2008 and arrived in the Netherlands about one month later.
• The statement said American authorities asked for the man's arrest and are seeking to have him extradited....
• According to the Dutch statement, U.S. prosecutors suspect the man of bankrolling the purchase of weapons for Islamic extremists and helping other Somalis travel to Somalia in 2007 and 2008.
• The article refers to this as likely "the most significant development yet" in the investigation into US-based Shabaab recruiting networks.

This assessment appears to be correct. A recent article in CTR Vantage that examines Shabaab recruiting networks in the West shows that though recruiters seem to play a significant role in these networks, much is still not known about them.

Those arrested to date in the Twin Cities case have been people who traveled to Somalia, or those who facilitated the travel, but the recruiters have been largely in the shadows.

For example, when 26-year-old Salah Osman Ahmed pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists based on his travel to Somalia, he spoke elliptically of the recruiters who helped draw him there, mentioning "secret meetings" beginning in October 2007 with people he would only describe as "guys."

The arrest of a bigger player in the case may provide greater insight into these networks.


Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2009/11/arrest_in_netherlands_may_yiel.php#ixzz0WguAEeSr

The Rest @ The Long War Journal

20 Swedish Youths Fight in Somalia with Shabaab

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- A former taxpayer-funded youth recreation center in Stockholm served as a recruiting center for a group of Muslim extremists, Swedish authorities allege.The Kreativitetshuset center, started by a mosque, received $70,400 in funding from the city during four years before closing in 2008, The Local reported Wednesday.

An official at the center allegedly encouraged local youth to join the Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabaab by glorifying war and showing them videos of war victims and decapitated heads, Per Johansson, head of the city's department for clubs and associations, told Sveriges Radio in a story published Wednesday."

It had a big impact on those who weren't strong enough to stand up to it," one unidentified youth told Sveriges Radio.

Al-Shabaab recruited an estimated 20 youths from Sweden in recent years, some of whom were killed in battle in foreign countries, the Swedish security service Sapo said.No information was available on whether any of those recruits attended the Kreativitetshuset center.

The Rest from Terror Free Somalia

Switzerland Opens Investigation Into Al Qaeda Nuclear Connection

Swiss inquiry into Cern terror suspect underway

Swiss authorities are pursuing a separate investigation into the case of the physicist and suspected al-Qaeda collaborator arrested in France last month.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland opened its investigation at the end of October, according to a spokesman who comfirmed a Sunday newspaper report.
The 32-year-old suspect was a researcher connected to but not employed by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern). He also worked at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.

• Cern, a joint project backed by 20 member states, has sites on the border of Switzerland and France.
• It is best known for the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest particle accelerator.
  

Arrested along with his brother in the town of Vienne in southeastern France on October 8, the Cern physicist is suspected of being close to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), also known as al-Qaeda's north African wing.

The men are French citizens of Algerian origin.

Viktor Bout Airlines and Airplane Laundering

oringially posted July 17 th 2007

Not long ago, the European Union added a whole chunk of dodgy Moldovan airlines to its flight-safety blacklist after ramp checks showed their aircraft were unsafe. Now, we have reports that the Moldovans have taken the logical next step and drained the swamp, by revoking the AOCs of the companies in question. It's bye bye to our old friends Jet Line International, but also to mystery operator Grixona (a frequent presence on the Sharjah-Iraq and Afghanistan routes), Jet Stream (another UAE-to-warzones Il76 operator), and Tiramavia (much the same). Pecotox also goes.Here's the list from ATDB:

• An-24RV (ER-AWR, msn 37308605) put in storage by Jet Line International, returned to Aerocom·
• An-24RV (ER-AZY, msn 47309310) put in storage by Aerom·
• An-24RV (ER-AZX, msn 47309804) returned to Pecotox-Air after lease to Aéro-Service then ops in Iraq·
• An-24RV (ER-AFB, msn 87310810.2)
• put in storage by Jet Line International, returned to Aerocom· Il-18V (ER-ICB, msn 188010603) put in storage by Grixona·
• An-12AP (ER-ACV, msn 347408) put in storage by Grixona· An-12TB (ER-ACQ, msn 1347908) put in storage by Grixona·
• An-12BK (ER-AXG, msn 347407) put in storage by Tiramavia·
• An-12BK (ER-AXZ, msn 8346106) put in storage by Jet Line International·
• An-12BP (ER-ADQ, msn 402410) put in storage by Jet Line International·
• An-12BP (ER-ADK, msn 5342802) put in storage by Grixona·
• An-12V (ER-ACY, msn 347306) put in storage by Grixona·
• An-12V (ER-ACS, msn 347401) put in storage by Grixona·
• An-12V (ER-ACO, msn 5343204) put in storage by Tiramavia·
• An-12V (ER-ACR, msn 6343810) put in storage by Tiramavia·
• An-26B (ER-AFE, msn 17310905) put in storage by Jet Line International·
• An-26B (ER-AFL, msn 17311705) put in storage by Jet Line International·
• An-72 (A) (ER-AVG, msn 36572095909) put in storage by Pecotox-Air·
• Il-76TD (ER-IBK, msn 53460790) put in storage by Jet Stream Airlines· Il-76TD (ER-IBY, msn 53460832) put in storage by Tiramavia·
• Il-76T (ER-IBV, msn 3423699) put in storage by Jet Line International·
• Il-76T (ER-IBF, msn 73410300) put in storage by Jet Line International·
• Il-76T (ER-IBH, msn 73411331) put in storage by Tiramavia·
• Il-76T (ER-IBD, msn 73411338) put in storage by Jet Stream Airlines·
• Il-76T (ER-IBG, msn 93418548) put in storage by Tiramavia·
• Il-76T (ER-IBP, msn 93418556) put in storage by Jet Stream Airlines·
• Il-76MD (ER-IBC, msn 83489683) put in storage by Tiramavia

It's good to see the back of the firm that brought the missing 99 tonnes of guns in Iraq, to say nothing of the mysterious "Air Bridge Group" of Australia.

Labels: 4GW, aviation, Operation Firedump, Viktor
LINK and Comments posted by Alex : 4:05 PM
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The Rest @ the Yorkshire Ranter

also Richard Chichakli appears to be backonline from Moscow

Pierre Falcone's Private Indirect Government in Angola

The convictions of Pierre Falcone, Arcadi Gaydamak, ex-president's son Jean-Christophe Mitterrand and Charles Pasqua in a French court for arms trafficking to Angola have exposed the impunity with which arms traffickers supplied weapons to Angola during its 27-year civil war.

In an effort to stem the conflict, the United Nations imposed an arms embargo on both the government and the rebels.

• Both parties contravened the international decision during the second (1992-94) and third (1998-2002) periods of the civil war.
• The Angolan government employed primarily the services of Pierre Falcone and Gaydamak to procure the arms, while the main arms dealer supplying Unita rebels was the infamous Ukrainian Victor Bout, who is currently sitting in jail in Thailand.
  
  In order to understand the significance of these convictions it is important to focus on one key player, Pierre Falcone, and his relationship with the Angolan leadership.
  
  The Angolan president, José Eduardo dos Santos, publicly hailed him as a national hero. Critical newspapers dubbed him as the "vice-president of Angola" for his privileged access to the president, and for his handling of sovereign state affairs. His influence made a laughing-stock of the former Angolan prime minister Marcolino Moco, who had only two private audiences with Dos Santos during his four years in the job. It coincided with the period of arms trafficking for which Falcone has just been convicted.
  
  In 2004, for instance, Dos Santos' office called for the prosecution of Falcone to be abandoned:
  
  During a difficult moment of the recent Angolan history, Mr Pierre Falcone, by his volition and at his own risk, made funds available to the Angolan government for it to exercise its right of sovereignty, a right that was almost denied by the international community. It was, thus, decisive, at that time, the financial support from some private entities.
  
  The ideological divide of the cold war had enabled the MPLA regime to seek international military protection from Cuba and the former Soviet Union between 1975, the year of Angola's independence, and 1989. Economic liberalisation and the new world order led Dos Santos to shift, during the 1992 post-electoral civil war, to the use of private foreign intermediaries to perform sovereign responsibilities and to enable the ruling elite to enrich themselves illicitly, including the presidential family.
  
  Angola's riches sustained and prolonged the civil war. The government traded oil for weapons, while Unita paid for arms with diamonds.
• These deals fuelled the conflict and contributed to the killings of tens of thousands of Angolans, the devastation of the country's infrastructure, and helped to institutionalise corruption.
• Furthermore, the corrupt channels established by arms trade, oil and diamonds set the stage for a culture of impunity, plunder of the state assets by the ruling elite, and the "legalisation" of such criminal acts in peace time.
  
  It is in this context that Falcone has also become a key player in Angola's state contracts with China, which are worth billions of dollars. His conviction is a serious blow to Dos Santos' arrogance as an untouchable political figure. It imperils the president's form of private indirect government – a term used by the academic Achille Mbembe to describe the privatisation of sovereignty as its various functions and obligations are transferred to private operators and for private ends.
  
  
  The Rest @ The Guaridan

Israeli-Russian billionaire Arkady Gaydamak has been sentenced in Paris to 6 years in jail for arms trafficking, corruption and tax evasion. His lawyer says he is a victim of political and legal machinations.

The businessman’s partner, French magnate Pierre Falcone, has also been convicted to six years behind bars and was immediately arrested. Arkady Gaydamak was sentenced in absentia, and it is unclear whether he will ever serve the prison term, as he reportedly is currently living in Russia.

The judge said that Gaydamak’s guilt is burdened with his attitude toward justice – the Israeli businessman of Soviet origin has ignored all requests to appear in court.

Gaydamak’s lawyer told RIA Novosti news agency it’s very much likely that they are going to appeal the court’s decision.

Falcone’s attorney is confident the case was politically motivated.

“The court hasn’t looked for any other guilty persons, even though the investigation revealed that state services had been well informed,” he is quoted as saying. “The court has interpreted the case in a wrong way. Obviously, we are going to immediately appeal the decision and demand that Pierre Falcone be released.”

The two businessmen are accused of buying Soviet-made tanks, helicopters and artillery pieces and then selling them in the 1990s to Angola during a civil war.

All the weapons – worth about $ 790 million – came from Russia through a French-based firm and its subsidiary in Eastern Europe, a company controlled by Gaydamak and Falcone.

The businessmen did not deny that they organized arms supplies to Angola.

• What they refused to admit is the accusation that they sold 170,000 antipersonnel mines.
• The two also claim they didn’t have to get the French approval for weapons supplies, since they were transported to Angola through the territory of former socialist states.
• The lawyers cited a letter sent last summer to Falcone by French Defense Minister Herve Morin where the official said the trade didn’t require permission.
• The judge nevertheless said the letter would not influence the outcome of the case.

The Rest @ Russia Today