http://www.geostrategy-direct.com/geostrategy-direct/secure/2010/11_10/ba.as p?
Failed air freight attack draws attention to likely penetration of Al Qaida The shadow war against Al Qaida was highlighted last week during the failed attempt by Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to blow up transport aircraft using the explosive PETN concealed inside printer cartridges shipped from Yemen. The discovery of two of the devices in Dubai and Britain demonstrated that the Yemen-based group is penetrated by an intelligence service since advance warning of the bombs led to their discovery. http://www.geostrategy-direct.com/geostrategy-direct/images/2010/cartridgebo mb.jpg The FedEx regional hub at Terminal 2 of Dubai airport on Oct. 30, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. <http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo/101030/481/urn_publicid_ap_or g_be6fa1fba6774c48905175e01d57b776/> AP/Farhad Berahman _____ U.S. and western security officials made the unusual disclosure that the intelligence information about the package bombs was provided by Saudi intelligence, and the public disclosure fueled suspicions that the identification of Saudi intelligence as the source for the tip is designed to protect a penetration agent in the group, or an electronic intercept link. In the past, Saudi intelligence provided to the West was masked to make it appear that it came from some place other than the Saudi government because of the kingdom's fears that terrorists will retaliate against the ruling Saudi monarchy for cooperating with non-Muslim states. In this case, intelligence officials stated publicly that Saudi Arabia provided the tips that two package bombs were being sent. Non-government intelligence analysts suspect the identification of the Saudi Arabia source was intentionally designed to protect the actual source. Additionally, by identifying Saudi Arabia as the source, the AQAP will likely begin a mole-hunt and perhaps falsely accuse those among the large number of Saudi nationals who make up the group, which was forced out of Saudi Arabia after the 2009 attempted bombing of Nayef. It was the third time the Al Qaida affiliate failed in an attack. Forensic analysis linked the explosive and design to Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, who is suspected in the failed 2009 suicide bomb that exploded near Saudi antiterrorism chief Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, and in the so-called underwear bomb that failed to detonate on aboard a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit on Dec. 25. That device was carried by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was trained by AQAP in Yemen. Counterterrorism specialist Bill Cowan, a retired special-operations officer, questioned whether the Saudis were the source of the tip. "If so, why alert AQAP that they have a leak from some connection with the Saudis?" he asked, noting that it is more likely that the real source of the tip came from somewhere else. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
