Al-Shabab: We will strike Kenyans where it hurts

Mail & Guardian

Al-Shabab: We will strike Kenyans where it hurts
Africa

02 OCT 2013 09:29AFP, REUTERS


Militant group al-Shabab, who have claimed responsibility for the attack on Westgate mall, have threatened to step up militant attacks against Kenya.
Kenyan troops drive towards Westgate mall on September 24. (AFP)
Somalia's al-Shabab threatened on Wednesday to step up militant attacks against Kenya, after Nairobi refused to pull its troops out of Somalia.

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for last week's attack on Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall, in which at least 67 people died, with 39 more listed as missing by the Red Cross.

"We will strike Kenyans where it hurts the most, turn their cities into graveyards and rivers of blood will flow in Nairobi," the al-Shabab said in a statement.

"The Kenyan government's decision to keep its invading force in Somalia is an indication that they haven't yet learnt any valuable lessons from the Westgate attacks," the extremists added, warning that Kenya was "inviting unprecedented levels of insecurity, bloodshed and destruction".

Kenya invaded southern Somalia to attack al-Shabab bases two years ago, and later joined the 17 700-strong African Union force deployed in the country.

Somalia timeline - Why did the Kenya massacre happen?
Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday said troops had been sent to Somalia to restore order to their anarchic neighbour, and they would not leave until the job was done.

"We will not be intimated, we will not be cowed," Kenyatta said. "We will stay there until they bring order to their nation."

'Exit Somali soil'
In turn, al-Shabab said it was "fully determined to intensify attacks inside Kenya until the last KDF [Kenya Defence Force] boots exit Somali soil", saying it had the "right to defend our land and our people from enemy aggression".

"If Kenya's political leaders are still persistent in their quest to occupy our Muslim lands and carry out heinous atrocities against our people, then let them know that Kenyans will never find peace and stability in their country."

Meanwhile, Kenya's president told Somalia on Tuesday to "put their house in order", in a sign of frustration at the festering instability in the neighbouring country after the attack on the Nairobi shopping mall.

Kenyatta said he would not be bullied into withdrawing his soldiers, who are part of an African peacekeeping force.

He also took aim at the Somali government, which a source close to the Kenyan presidency said had also recently called for Kenyan troops to leave before withdrawing the demand under pressure from regional leaders.

Islamist warlord
"If their desire is for Kenya to pull out of Somalia, my friends, all they need to do is what they should have done 20 years ago, which is put their house in order," Kenyatta told religious leaders at a multi-faith prayer meeting.

Mogadishu, in turn, has been angered by Kenya's perceived close relationship with a former Islamist warlord now in control of Somalia's southernmost region, which borders Kenya.

There was no immediate reaction from the Somali government.

But al-Shabab said in a statement that if the Kenyan government's decision was to keep its forces in Somalia, it was an indication that it hadn't yet learned "any valuable lessons" from the Westgate attack. – AFP; Reuters


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Why Kenya should be furious with SA

01 OCT 2013 VERASHNI PILLAY


Jacob Zuma's good-news philosophy is costing us lives, writes Verashni Pillay, in the wake of the Kenya attack and the release of the crime stats.
A woman pays her respects to the victims of the Westgate mall siege outside the shopping centre in Nairobi.(AFP)
Jacob Zuma's good-news philosophy isn't just something to poke fun at on Twitter. It's costing us lives.

Think I'm being too dramatic?

Two weeks ago South Africa's annual crime statistics were released for the previous financial year: April 2012 – March 2013. This means it is six to 18 months out of date and we can't tell when any of the crimes occurred within that period.

Security experts have pointed out that this is a huge blow to a number of critical crime prevention strategies. Civil organisations, community forums and anyone interested in combatting crime in their area don't have any real-time information to work from.

Why? Because that's too much information to control for our increasingly secretive government.

Instead it wants to package that information in ways that are positive – or the "opposite of negative" as Zuma so memorably put it while addressing journalism students.

The debate around positive or sunshine news is more insidious than we realise. It's one thing having the threat of muted investigative reports, it's quite another stifling the regular release of data that could bring down crimes and save lives. The crime statistics are a new facet to this dangerous philosophy.

But wait, as your telesales presenter puts it, there's more. The politics of good news also means that people sympathetic to the powers-that-be are put in strategic places.

Think Richard Mdluli at the head of crime intelligence – that is when his friends in high places can keep him there between court challenges over his many alleged crimes.

For the likes of Zuma to keep their hold on power, and reduce the leaks of pesky bad news, it is critical to have those sympathetic to their interests in key positions like intelligence.

The problem is that crime intelligence is pretty damn important to us as the public too. It's what we need to bring down organised crime such as hijacking syndicates and, on a more sinister note, to prevent terrorism attacks.

Our politically beleaguered crime intelligence has failed on both these counts.

Reports around "White Widow" Samanthat Lewthwaite indicate that she used a false South African passport to get around, popped in and out of the country a number of times, and even stayed at length while planning her path of destruction.

Lewthwaite is thought to be responsible for the recent al-Shabab terrorist attacks at Kenya's Westgate mall that left more than 65 dead and scores more injured and missing.

It turns out various South African intelligence services knew about her, and were informed of the danger she posed by foreign intelligence services a few years back – as well as the fact that she was spotted in the country watching key embassies as recently as February this year.

In the biggest indictment of our intelligence in the aftermath of the nightmarish attack, various agencies seem to have failed to act on this and other indications that Lewthwaite was a danger and should be stopped. (Reports from Kenya reveal its intelligence services also failed, but that's a topic for another time).

The cynic in me feels that our intelligence service are instead wrapped up in politically significant "spy tapes" , intercepting sensitive conversations to help a particular ANC faction win, and uncovering ground reports of political conspiracies to win favour with our current president.

That seems to be all I've been hearing about our crime intelligence in the past few years.

Forget the critical work of actually protecting those you serve. And there's more besides the threat of terrorism.

The unit is so weakened by the political appointments, factionalism, interference and the lack of a morally strong leader that they have not been able to attend to the growth in organised crime over the past 18 months, which South Africans only found out about earlier this month thanks to the delayed statistics release.

But the authorities must have known about this unusual uptick in organised criminal activities – a direct result of a failing crime intelligence unit – yet did nothing about it and continued with the petty politicking protecting the likes of Mdluli and, by extension, Zuma.

Political games, it sometimes seems, wins over saving people's lives as far as our current crime intelligence unit is concerned.

Verashni Pillay is an associate editor at the Mail & Guardian.
Read more from Verashni Pillay
Twitter: @verashni
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Most Wanted Terrorists

MOHAMMED ALI HAMADEI

ADNAN G. EL SHUKRIJUMAH

ABDULLAH AHMED ABDULLAH

JOANNE DEBORAH CHESIMARD

AHMAD IBRAHIM AL-MUGHASSIL

ABDUL RAHMAN YASIN

HAKIMULLAH MEHSUD

DANIEL ANDREAS SAN DIEGO

ADAM YAHIYE GADAHN

FAOUZI MOHAMAD AYOUB

JEHAD SERWAN MOSTAFA

JABER A. ELBANEH

JAMEL AHMED MOHAMMED ALI AL-BADAWI

JAMAL SAEED ABDUL RAHIM

OMAR SHAFIK HAMMAMI

ALI SAED BIN ALI EL-HOORIE

ISNILON TOTONI HAPILON

ABD AL AZIZ AWDA

IBRAHIM SALIH MOHAMMED AL-YACOUB

ALI ATWA

HUSAYN MUHAMMAD AL-UMARI

MUHAMMAD AHMED AL-MUNAWAR

AYMAN AL-ZAWAHIRI

RAMADAN ABDULLAH MOHAMMAD SHALLAH

HASAN IZZ-AL-DIN

ABDELKARIM HUSSEIN MOHAMED AL-NASSER

SAIF AL-ADEL

ANAS AL-LIBY

WADOUD MUHAMMAD HAFIZ AL-TURKI

MUHAMMAD ABDULLAH KHALIL HUSSAIN AR-RAHAYYAL

ZULKIFLI ABDHIR

RADDULAN SAHIRON
The alleged terrorists on this list have been indicted by sitting Federal Grand Juries in various jurisdictions in the United States for the crimes reflected on their wanted posters. Evidence was gathered and presented to the Grand Juries, which led to their being charged. The indictments currently listed on the posters allow them to be arrested and brought to justice. Future indictments may be handed down as various investigations proceed in connection to other terrorist incidents, for example, the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

The Rewards for Justice program, administered by the United States Department of State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, offers rewards for information leading to the arrest of many of these terrorists.

It is also important to note that these individuals will remain wanted in connection with their alleged crimes until such time as the charges are dropped or when credible physical evidence is obtained, which proves with 100% accuracy, that they are deceased.