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Africa Subsaharan
Al Qaeda Alive and Well in South Africa - Daily Maverick
2013-05-14
The police's specialised unit, Crimes Against the People State (CATS) and the State Security Agency (SSA) have been critiquing and evaluating monitoring the training of al-Qaeda terrorists in South Africa for several years, without taking any action. A year-long investigation by the Daily Maverick's DE WET POTGIETER has revealed long-standing surprising inaction by police despite small arms fire and apparent controlled detonations incriminating evidence about secret military training camps and sophisticated sniper training at three well-documented locations as well as several others across South Africa. These subversive activities have taken place at a farm near the highly effective counterinsurgency SWAT unit C10 notorious Apartheid police hit squad camp at Vlakplaas outside Pretoria, as well as a secluded farm in the mountains of the Klein [little] Karoo [desert region ideal terrain for ME or Afghan training venues].
Potgeiter's views appear to be...evolving somewhat.
Posted by:Besoeker

#4  "A muslim-sympathetic, marxist-oriented ruling political party."

Meaning the moslems will just kill them last.
Posted by: Barbara   2013-05-14 14:11  

#3  I was wondering why a largely Christian country like South Africa has been developing a Moslem terrorist problem.

1. A fairly well-developed African country.

2. Sizable Arab population.

3. Due to its location it is rather "off the radar" as far as Western anti-terrorism focus.

4. A muslim-sympathetic, marxist-oriented ruling political party.

The problem has been in the works for quite a few years. With AQIM and other groups in full swing on the continent, it's just now getting attention.
Posted by: Pappy   2013-05-14 13:51  

#2  At the centre of this alleged terrorist network are several members of the well-known and influential Dockrat family.

The family was catapulted into the world focus in 2007 when US terrorism financing trackers have noted suspicious financial transactions coming out of South Africa that appeared to benefit al-Qaeda.

Some of these transactions predate 9/11. The money trail led them to a Johannesburg dentist, Junaid Ismail Dockrat, and his cousin, Farhad Ahmed Dockrat, a Muslim cleric. Farhad, the older of the two cousins, was a leading cleric at the Darus Salaam Muslim Centre in former Indian township of Laudium outside Pretoria. This mosque is said to be popular among Pakistani Muslims.

On Friday afternoons, after the midday prayers, South African intelligence agents monitored several people leave the mosque and go to a farm. The “military style” obstacle course and the shooting range are still visible on the farm, and agents say they saw people take part in military-style training.

Daily Maverick has learned that there is an extensive dossier complied from deep-cover agentsÂ’ reports and photographic material documenting, over several years, activities on the farm.

Despite US entreaties, South African officials were reluctant to take any action beyond agreeing to monitor their activities. They asked the US to be patient as they sought to develop new information concerning the Dockrat cousinsÂ’ activities.

After numerous requests and warnings, the US decided to move against Farhad and Junaid, and thus to put pressure on the South African government to act.

In January 2007, the US presented the pairÂ’s names to the UN Security CouncilÂ’s Al-Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee for designation. South Africa had just become a member of that committee on 1 January 2007. It was hoped that South Africa would join in the request, and that all countries would then act to block their financial transactions and their assets. But, that did not occur. Instead, South Africa put an indefinite hold on the UN designation process.

“This designation freezes the Dockrats out of the US financial system and notifies the international community of the dangerous conduct in which the Dockrats are engaged,” said Adam Szubin, director of the US treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, in a statement.

The treasury said Farhad Dockrat in 2001 provided more than R400,000 to the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan to be forwarded to Al-Akhtar Trust, an Afghanistan-based entity that the treasury previously designated as an al-Qaeda fund-raising arm.

To the embarrassment of all parties, the story leaked, and Reuters journalist Michael Georgy published a story in January 2007, reporting that papers had been submitted by the United States to the UN Security Council alleging that both Junaid and Farhad had acted as al-Qaeda “financiers, recruiters and facilitators”.

According to the Reuters report, they had transferred funds to al-Qaeda and coordinated the travel of South Africans to Pakistan to train there with militant Islamic groups. Both men deny these charges.

US intelligence claimed that in 2004, Junaid Dockrat assisted al-Qaeda operations chief Hamza RabiÂ’a (now deceased) to coordinate the travel of South Africans to Pakistan in order for them to train with al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Frozen Al   2013-05-14 12:07  

#1  The cause of the anxiety stems from the fact that thousands of illegal immigrants from Pakistan manage to cross into South Africa, while the government appears to turn a blind eye.

I was wondering why a largely Christian country like South Africa has been developing a Moslem terrorist problem.
Posted by: Frozen Al   2013-05-14 11:49  

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