British arms dealer arrested in US
A Briton has been arrested after a suspected plot to supply a lethal surface-to-air missile to terrorists.
It is thought the target may have been a commercial aircraft or the US President's personal aircraft.
Western intelligence officials have confirmed to the BBC it was a multinational sting operation, involving agents from the US, Russia and Britain.
It resulted in the arrest of a British arms dealer at Newark in New Jersey on Tuesday.
Officials say he successfully imported a Russian Igla missile into the US and believed he was selling it to an Muslim extremist.
But his buyer was an undercover FBI agent and the arms dealer's voice is heard on tape saying he wanted the missile to be used to shoot down a large passenger plane.
The Igla
Russian-made surface-to-air missile
4km range
Infra-red capability
believed to have been responsible for the shooting down last year in Chechnya of a Russian troop-carrying helicopter
The FBI have denied that the plane in question was Airforce One, the US President's official aircraft.
Although no actual terrorists are thought to have been involved in the operation, intelligence officials said it was a terrifying illustration of the vulnerability of Western nations to attack by extremists.
Over the last 15 months, there have been three foiled attempts by groups linked to al-Qaeda to shoot down planes carrying Western or Israeli passengers.
BBC correspondent Tom Mangold said the man bought one for $85,000 by corrupt middle management at a Russian factory and was promised another 50.
He said: "It may not have happened, but when the dealer says he wants to bring down Airforce One, it's pretty dispiriting."
He added the sting demonstrated "fantastic" cooperation between the US, Russia and Britain.
"Old enemies really have joined hands," he said.
Putin help
Washington officials are remaining tight-lipped about the operation but admitted there had been an arrest.
MI5 and MI6 in London were involved with Russian secret services and the FBI.
Russia detected the arms dealer five months ago in St Petersburg.
Russian President, Vladimir Putin, authorised for the FBI to have an undercover agent sent to Russia.
The arms dealer flew to New York on Sunday on a British Airways flight from Heathrow Airport in London.
But he was followed on to the plane and kept under surveillance until his arrest.
The man is an established arms dealer, thought to be a middle aged man who lives in London.
Al weer een Brit betrokken :o
etniciteit : Indiër. Dit zal weer veel heisa in Engeland geven.
Altijd die britten weer, altijd oorlogje beginnen :mad:
Die wapenhandelaar dacht dat hij die wapens zou afleveren aan terroristen, maar het waren FBI agenten :p
Maar het is toch wel een eng gegeven dat terroristen deze wapens op de markt kunnen kopen. Tevens vind ik de veiligheidsmaatregelen in de VS en west Europa soms overdreven, maar als je dit weer hoort, dan ga ik er toch een tikkeltje anders over denken.
Less Than Meets
the Eye?
U.S. Government Sting Operation Criticized as Setup
By Brian Ross
Aug. 13— Administration officials are leaving out key facts and exaggerating the significance of the alleged plot to smuggle a shoulder-launched missile into the United States, law enforcement officials told ABCNEWS. They say there's a lot less than meets the eye.
The accused ringleader, British national Hemant Lakhani, appeared today in federal court in Newark, N.J., and was ordered held without bond on charges of attempting to provide material support and material resources to terrorists and acting as an arms broker without a license.
Outside the courtroom, U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie called Lakhani an ally of terrorists who want to kill Americans.
"He, on many occasions, in recorded conversations, referred to Americans as 'bastards' [and] Osama bin Laden as a hero," said Christie.
But what he did not say was just how much of the alleged missile plot was a government setup from start to finish.
For example, Lakhani had no contacts in Russia to buy the missiles before the sting and had no known criminal record for arms dealing, officials told ABCNEWS.
"Here we have a sting operation on some kind of small operator … who's bought one weapon when actually, on the gray and black market, hundreds of such weapons charge hands," said military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer.
Court documents show much of the case is based on the government's key cooperating witness, an informant seeking lenient treatment on federal drug charges, officials told ABCNEWS. He was the first person who led the government to Lakhani.
‘He Might Say Anything’
The missile shipped into the New York area last month was not a real missile — just a mockup — also arranged entirely by the government. The government also arranged the meetings at a New Jersey hotel and elsewhere, where Lakhani allegedly told undercover agents posing as al Qaeda terrorists about his support of bin Laden.
"One would have to ask yourself, would this have occurred at all without the government?" said Gerald Lefcourt, a criminal defense attorney.
In London today, Lakhani's neighbors described him as a quiet man who worked in the garment industry and had faced serious financial problems.
"I would have hoped the United States is thwarting real terrorism and not something manufactured because here all they're doing is stopping something they created," said Lefcourt.
Government officials said the case will show that Lakhani went along with the scheme willingly and was not entrapped. But the question remains whether any of this would have happened if the government had not set it up.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/World/missile030813_sting.html
Wat heeft de publieke veiligheid nu in hemelsnaam gewonnen met deze operatie :confused:
Wat een onzin zeg. Als je het mij vraagt was het een psyops om het nut van anti-raket systemen op vliegtuigen aan te prijzen (kosten 1 miljoen per vliegtuig, Lockheed Martin heeft een goed systeem). Nu nog een echte aanslag en dan zullen alle Amerikaanse vliegtuigen dit systeem wel verplicht moet kopen, goed voor de Wapenindustrie, de enige industrietak in de VS dat nog groeit :p
"I would have hoped the United States is thwarting real terrorism and not something manufactured because here all they're doing is stopping something they created," said Lefcourt.
Oei oei oei. Het kost me heeeel veel moeite hier geen middelmatig grapje over te maken. :P Zeker als het ergens ook in zoveel anderen zit... :moe:
THE REAL TERROR MASTERS
Terrorism embraces ethnic 'diversity'
by Justin Raimondo
In the terrorism business, it seems, diversity is all the rage. What Hemant Lakhani, an international arms dealer of British nationality and Indian ethnicity, Moinuddeen Ahmed Hameed, a Muslim from Malaysia, and Yehuda Abraham, a Jewish-American gem dealer who works out of New York City's diamond district, have in common is that they are all being held in connection with a plot to purchase surface-to-air missiles on behalf of terrorists. Except that the alleged terrorists they were dealing with were really FBI agents and informants, who had been tracking them for over a year in an effort to smoke out the rest of Osama bin Laden's worldwide network.
A leak to the media, however, forced the feds to go public before the trap could be fully sprung, at least according to Newsweek's Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball.
Several aspects of this case are extremely odd, starting with the ethnic "diversity" of the players.
Hemant Lakhani, a.k.a. Hemad, a.k.a. Hekyat – Beginning with his exact name, we get conflicting accounts of just who and what this guy is. By some accounts he's an "international arms dealer," yet his neighbors described him as "Mr. Average" and were shocked when the cops beat down the doors of the Lakhanis' home in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Hendon, a north London suburb. The Guardian and others characterize the 68-year-old Indian-born British national as an amateur in the arms trade, whose last known profession was as a garment trader and the manager of a West End clothing store. Julian Borger disdains him as "a blusterer, rather too anxious to impress on his contact that he is a 'serious businessman' capable of getting hold of 'high-class stuff.'"
Yet in the same newspaper we read:
"A source close to British intelligence yesterday described Mr. Lakhani as a 'known arms dealer' who was thought to conduct most of his business offshore. He put 'feelers' out and 'clearly knew who he was selling the missile to,' the source added, making the point that Mr. Lakhani would not have been involved in a 'blind deal.'"
The internet turns up sparse evidence of Lakhani or what he does for a living.
Yehuda Abraham – If Lakhani's neighbors were somewhat surprised to see his house swarming with police, Yahuda Abraham's family and friends are even more mystified. What possible connection could this 76-year-old pillar of the Orthodox Jewish community in New York City have to do with international terrorism? Mr. Abraham is described by the New York Times as "a slight, stooped 76-year-old gem dealer, with a house in Queens, an office in New York's diamond district and shops around the world." Pretty much the last person you might expect to be involved in a scheme to sell SAMs to Al Qaeda. And yet:
"One night last October, prosecutors say, a client entered Mr. Abraham's 12th-floor Midtown office and handed him $30,000 in hundred dollar bills, an odd, if believable transaction in the world of international gem dealers. Mr. Abraham, by the government's account, counted out every note, then gave the client his business card. But this was not a jewelry sale, prosecutors allege. It was a secretive deal, with a code number and a cash commission, in which Mr. Abraham agreed to transfer the client's money to a bank account in Europe, out of the sight of federal regulators."
The code number, which was used to identify the FBI agent posing as a "client," consisted of the serial number of a $1 bill in Abraham's possession, It was like something out of a James Bond movie: hardly the sort of elaborate precaution an ordinary criminal would take.
Abraham's family is predictably indignant, and his colleagues in the diamond trade are baffled. Says one:
"'For a Jew to do something like that, I cannot believe it or understand it,' said a 49-year-old jewelry wholesaler whose shop is on 47th Street. 'He's a prominent member of our community. To do something like that is crazy.'"
But we are living in crazy times, an era that might even be termed the Bizarro Age, like the Bronze Age. So it is not only possible it is altogether all too probable that what the FBI says has some basis in fact:
"Mr. Abraham was the money man, a shadowy figure who facilitated the work of terrorists by giving them the means to finance their actions – the purchase of the missiles – through an informal money transfer system, known as hawala, which is common in the Middle East and a preferred method of finance for terrorists."
The third member of this disparate trio, Moinuddeen Ahmed Hameed, is even more shadowy than the others: described as a "Malaysian resident," he turned up on the scene the week before the final transaction was to occur, apparently to launder the proceeds. The Washington Post reports:
"Hameed, who is charged with operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, was allegedly brought into the deal only this week to handle a scheduled down payment of $500,000 on the purchase of 50 more missiles, officials said."
Hameed is described in some news accounts as an employee of Abraham's Ambuy International, a.k.a. Ambuy Gem Corp., probably the only Jewish-owned company to boast of offices in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Both Hameed and Abraham are charged with operating an illegal money-laundering scheme, which could get them a mere 5 years and a $250,000 fine. As Abraham's lawyer was quick to point out:
"It was not alleged that Mr. Abraham engaged in conversations discussing missiles and terrorist activity."
Lakhani is the only one who has actually been charged with aiding and abetting terrorism, but can you imagine what would have happened if any Saudis had been involved?
With far less evidence, the government of Saudi Arabia has been tried and convicted in the court of bipartisan public opinion of financing – through the hawala system – a worldwide terrorist conspiracy, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks. We are supposed to believe that it's "us" against "them," that, as George W. Bush put it, "you're either with the terrorists, or you're with us." But who is "them" – and who be "us"?
I am struck by what Lakhani said to the FBI informant as they planned in a hotel room looking out on Newark International Airport. Planes winged their way into the horizon while Lakhani declaimed:
"Make one explosion...to shake the economy."
Surely this threat was directed at the American people, in general. ln a more specifically political sense, however, the one American who would be dealt a terrific blow by another successful terrorist operation on American soil would be George W. Bush. But who would want to bring down the economy, and this President, aside from the usual Islamic fundamentalist suspects?
It is interesting that, in all the news accounts of the recorded conversations between Lakhani and the informant, the former never endorses the Islamist ideals of Bin Laden. He merely expresses approval for bringing down the U.S. a notch or two: Lakhani disdains Americans as "bastards," who deserved what they got.
Abraham's central role in all this, as the chief financier of the terror deal, makes it hard to believe that he was merely acting as a purely functional go-between, and was motivated by greed. The actual amount of money involved in the attempted transaction never amounted to more than half a million, with a small commission for Abraham, hardly enough to justify the high risks.
We are at war. 9/11 made that plain enough. But the problem with the "war on terrorism" from the beginning has been the elusive nature of the enemy. We're supposed to believe it's the Muslim world, personified by Osama bin Laden, versus America, Israel, and parts of the West (not including France). The 28 blank pages of the recent congressional report on 9/11 have provided ample opportunity for conspiracy theorists like Dore Gold to put Riyadh at the center of the terrorist web, and we constantly hear that 15 out of 19 hijackers were Saudis.
So let's take a look at the nationality of the latest terrorist operatives, and extrapolate similarly. Let's see: we have an Indian of British nationality, who may or may not be a Hindu, depending on which version of his name is correct; a Malaysian, presumably a Muslim, and an American of Jewish ethnicity. It would it be too politically incorrect to note that two out of three of the conspirators might be said to embody the Indo-Israeli alliance. (Correction: make that three out of three, since it turns out that Hameed is an Indian citizen.) So I shall refrain from doing so, except to note that ethno-religious analysis of that sort is allowed only when it applies to Saudis.
Both Israel and India have their increasingly bitter grievances against the U.S. The former is being pressured to accept a peace settlement that high-placed extremists in the government find unacceptable, and the latter on account of American support for Pakistan's heroic General Musharraf, a moderate Muslim who risked his position, and his life, to side with the Americans against terrorism.
If the intelligence agencies of either nation were involved, albeit peripherally and in a "rogue" manner, with the activities of the Lakhani-Abraham terror ring, it would hardly be surprising. The Lavon Affair, in which Israeli agents masquerading as Muslim fanatics bombed American interests in Egypt, is infamous throughout the Arab world, and largely unknown in the West. More recently, the spate of stories that the Israelis had some foreknowledge of the events leading up to 9/11, yet failed to inform us, points to the dark side of our relations with our closest ally.
We don't know enough, yet, to come to any definite conclusions about this case, but one thing is for sure: the exclusively Muslim-Arab face of terrorism is changed forever.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j081503.html
Dus een internationale diamantenhandelaar Joode Amerikaan, een Indiaanse werknemer bij een Joodse diamantenhandelaar, en een Indiaanse Brits staatsburger waren betrokken bij deze deal. Geen moslims!