MaxedOutMama
Thursday, November 25, 2004
Interesting foreign developments
Five foreign fighters arrested by Iraqi police at checkpoint. Iraqi police said they were heading to Basra to join up with another group in Basra and that they had been told the arms they needed were already in Basra. That struck my eye because it seemed similar to the Beslan MO. Certainly it sounds like central direction of some type.
More arrests in Mosul and supposedly one of them is a top guy. Most interesting is the off-hand comment that the entire police force in Mosul disintegrated and outside forces (Iraq & US) had to come into the city.
A very interesting article on cell-phones and Swiss investigations:
Last year, Swiss lawmakers closed a legal loophole that allowed customers to purchase SIM cards anonymously. That change came into force in August.
In January, Swiss police discovered 300 SIM cards at the home of a suspect captured in a sweep on an alleged al-Qaida support network that investigators say supplied fake documents to enable collaborators to enter Switzerland and other European countries.
The alleged Swiss-based gang is suspected of ties to terrorists behind a series of attacks on foreigners' residential compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May 2003. The bombings killed 34 people.
Cell phones seized from terror suspects in Saudi Arabia were found to contain several Swiss numbers, which investigators here have tied to the men seized in the sweep in Switzerland.
Earlier this year, Swiss authorities said investigators concluded that Switzerland was likely used as a base for the financing and logistical support of al-Qaida, although it was not a hub for the terror group.
(I need to check the dating, but the article would lead one to suspect that the Swiss didn't crack down until the Saudis felt threatened internally. I could not hazard a guess as to the exact amount, but I think it's safe to say that an awful lot of Saudi money is sitting in Swiss banks. An AWFUL lot.)
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana says he met with Hamas. He thinks they're "getting more pragmatic". But wait! No he didn't! It was all a misinterpretation. When Javier Solana said in the BBC interview he had meetings, he was really talking about "indirect contacts". Whatever.
This story about a mob in Mexico City attacking and burning Mexican federal agents alive is chilling. In a chaotic atmosphere like this, it seems clear that foreign terrorists could find a home. One wonders exactly what Fox and Bush have been discussing.
The peace talks between India and Pakistan have been problematic, but buried in this article I find a reference to banks reopening in the other countries (i.e. India state bank branch in Pakistan), and a proposal to build a pipeline from India, through Pakistan to Iran. Well, well. Dovish bankers and gassy diplomacy. Iran, by the way, does have a pipeline into Iraq in the south. Interesting.
Here are some nice UN maps of Iraq. Click on the tabs to get population distributions, pipelines and all that good stuff.
Where Schroeder goeth, Chirac must follow. In this case, to Libya:
Chirac, applauding "an exceptional moment" for the two nations, met for an hour with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and spelled out the business benefits France hopes to achieve in this oil-rich North African nation.
The German high court stayed the extradition of a man indicted in Spain for links to Al-Queda. He is a naturalized German citizen. The plea was that the new system of European arrest warrants is unconstitutional in Germany. The man is charged with nothing in Germany. The German justice ministry approved his extradition.
Darkazanli, 46, was detained last month on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain. Spanish authorities accuse him of providing al-Qaida with logistical and financial support. He appears in a 1999 wedding video with two of the three Sept. 11 suicide pilots who lived and studied in Hamburg -- Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah.
The United States has labeled Darkazanli's Hamburg-based trading company a front for terrorism. He appeared on U.S. suspect lists after the Sept. 11 attacks but has denied any links to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden or the attacks.
and
German police questioned Darkazanli shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, but he was freed for lack of evidence and continued to live in the northern port city.
"The police have found nothing -- neither money laundering, nor terror, nor Sept. 11. No weapons, no propaganda," Darkazanli was quoted as saying in an interview in Thursday's edition of the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung. "But instead of admitting that, instead of protecting me, they are sending me to Spain."
But this is what Mama found. Illegal exports, joint bank accounts with Al-Queda figures and so on:
Darkazanli, 44, a naturalized German citizen who also goes by the name Abu Ilyas, is identified by intelligence officials in Hamburg as a longtime member of the Syrian wing of the ultra-radical Muslim Brotherhood.
and
Darkazanli nevertheless has a history of associations with high-level Al Qaeda figures going back at least to 1993, the year he told police he first met Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, described by U.S. prosecutors as a "founding member" of Al Qaeda who once tried to acquire nuclear weapons for Osama bin Laden.
In 1995, police files show, Darkazanli opened a joint bank account in Hamburg with Salim, who allegedly specialized in setting up bin Laden-owned companies in Sudan. Darkazanli told the police the account had been created for the purchase of a radio transmitter to be shipped to Sudan, where bin Laden then had his headquarters.
Even Canada's got this guy on their blocked list. (A version of our OFAC). Here's a nice little list about our innocent friend's activities. This is his entry on the UN Security Council's list:
43. *Name: 1: MAMOUN 2: DARKAZANLI 3: na 4: na
Title: na Designation: na DOB: August 4, 1958 POB: Aleppo, Syria Damascus/Syria *Good quality a.k.a.: na Low quality a.k.a.: na a) Abu Ilyas b) Abu Ilyas Al Suri c) Abu Luz *Nationality: na Syrian and German Passport no.: 1310636262 (Germany), expire October 29, 2005 National identification no.: na German identity card No. 1312072688, expires August 20. 2011 Address: Uhlenhorster Weg 34, Hamburg, 22085 Germany *Listed on: 17 Oct. 2001 *Other information: na
He also might be out there under the name Namoun Darkazanli. The Spanish believe he got money from Abu Thala. I guess the Germans have no intention of arresting him. It should be very interesting to see how this story ends.
More arrests in Mosul and supposedly one of them is a top guy. Most interesting is the off-hand comment that the entire police force in Mosul disintegrated and outside forces (Iraq & US) had to come into the city.
A very interesting article on cell-phones and Swiss investigations:
Last year, Swiss lawmakers closed a legal loophole that allowed customers to purchase SIM cards anonymously. That change came into force in August.
In January, Swiss police discovered 300 SIM cards at the home of a suspect captured in a sweep on an alleged al-Qaida support network that investigators say supplied fake documents to enable collaborators to enter Switzerland and other European countries.
The alleged Swiss-based gang is suspected of ties to terrorists behind a series of attacks on foreigners' residential compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May 2003. The bombings killed 34 people.
Cell phones seized from terror suspects in Saudi Arabia were found to contain several Swiss numbers, which investigators here have tied to the men seized in the sweep in Switzerland.
Earlier this year, Swiss authorities said investigators concluded that Switzerland was likely used as a base for the financing and logistical support of al-Qaida, although it was not a hub for the terror group.
(I need to check the dating, but the article would lead one to suspect that the Swiss didn't crack down until the Saudis felt threatened internally. I could not hazard a guess as to the exact amount, but I think it's safe to say that an awful lot of Saudi money is sitting in Swiss banks. An AWFUL lot.)
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana says he met with Hamas. He thinks they're "getting more pragmatic". But wait! No he didn't! It was all a misinterpretation. When Javier Solana said in the BBC interview he had meetings, he was really talking about "indirect contacts". Whatever.
This story about a mob in Mexico City attacking and burning Mexican federal agents alive is chilling. In a chaotic atmosphere like this, it seems clear that foreign terrorists could find a home. One wonders exactly what Fox and Bush have been discussing.
The peace talks between India and Pakistan have been problematic, but buried in this article I find a reference to banks reopening in the other countries (i.e. India state bank branch in Pakistan), and a proposal to build a pipeline from India, through Pakistan to Iran. Well, well. Dovish bankers and gassy diplomacy. Iran, by the way, does have a pipeline into Iraq in the south. Interesting.
Here are some nice UN maps of Iraq. Click on the tabs to get population distributions, pipelines and all that good stuff.
Where Schroeder goeth, Chirac must follow. In this case, to Libya:
Chirac, applauding "an exceptional moment" for the two nations, met for an hour with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and spelled out the business benefits France hopes to achieve in this oil-rich North African nation.
The German high court stayed the extradition of a man indicted in Spain for links to Al-Queda. He is a naturalized German citizen. The plea was that the new system of European arrest warrants is unconstitutional in Germany. The man is charged with nothing in Germany. The German justice ministry approved his extradition.
Darkazanli, 46, was detained last month on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain. Spanish authorities accuse him of providing al-Qaida with logistical and financial support. He appears in a 1999 wedding video with two of the three Sept. 11 suicide pilots who lived and studied in Hamburg -- Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah.
The United States has labeled Darkazanli's Hamburg-based trading company a front for terrorism. He appeared on U.S. suspect lists after the Sept. 11 attacks but has denied any links to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden or the attacks.
and
German police questioned Darkazanli shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, but he was freed for lack of evidence and continued to live in the northern port city.
"The police have found nothing -- neither money laundering, nor terror, nor Sept. 11. No weapons, no propaganda," Darkazanli was quoted as saying in an interview in Thursday's edition of the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung. "But instead of admitting that, instead of protecting me, they are sending me to Spain."
But this is what Mama found. Illegal exports, joint bank accounts with Al-Queda figures and so on:
Darkazanli, 44, a naturalized German citizen who also goes by the name Abu Ilyas, is identified by intelligence officials in Hamburg as a longtime member of the Syrian wing of the ultra-radical Muslim Brotherhood.
and
Darkazanli nevertheless has a history of associations with high-level Al Qaeda figures going back at least to 1993, the year he told police he first met Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, described by U.S. prosecutors as a "founding member" of Al Qaeda who once tried to acquire nuclear weapons for Osama bin Laden.
In 1995, police files show, Darkazanli opened a joint bank account in Hamburg with Salim, who allegedly specialized in setting up bin Laden-owned companies in Sudan. Darkazanli told the police the account had been created for the purchase of a radio transmitter to be shipped to Sudan, where bin Laden then had his headquarters.
Even Canada's got this guy on their blocked list. (A version of our OFAC). Here's a nice little list about our innocent friend's activities. This is his entry on the UN Security Council's list:
43. *Name: 1: MAMOUN 2: DARKAZANLI 3: na 4: na
Title: na Designation: na DOB: August 4, 1958 POB: Aleppo, Syria Damascus/Syria *Good quality a.k.a.: na Low quality a.k.a.: na a) Abu Ilyas b) Abu Ilyas Al Suri c) Abu Luz *Nationality: na Syrian and German Passport no.: 1310636262 (Germany), expire October 29, 2005 National identification no.: na German identity card No. 1312072688, expires August 20. 2011 Address: Uhlenhorster Weg 34, Hamburg, 22085 Germany *Listed on: 17 Oct. 2001 *Other information: na
He also might be out there under the name Namoun Darkazanli. The Spanish believe he got money from Abu Thala. I guess the Germans have no intention of arresting him. It should be very interesting to see how this story ends.
