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| Terror Networks |
| Al Qaeda now has own air network |
| 2010-01-17 |
| TIMBUKTU, Mali -- In early 2008, an official at the US Department of Homeland Security sent a report to his superiors detailing what he called "the most significant development in the criminal exploitation of aircraft since 9/11." The document warned that a growing fleet of rogue jet aircraft was regularly crisscrossing the Atlantic Ocean. On one end of the air route, it said, are cocaine-producing areas in the Andes controlled by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. On the other are some of West Africa's most unstable countries. The report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, was ignored, and the problem has since escalated into what security officials in several countries describe as a global security threat. |
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| #5 That operation was likely the American response to the DHS analyst's report. FARC has been extensively penetrated, perhaps fatally, by DEA and the Colombian security services. This should have been obvious to anyone with a brain after the spectacular FARC hostage rescue in mid-2008. I'm afraid I generally need it explained in very small words before I realize things like this, Pstanley. I read Rantburg because there is always someone who will do so, eventually. This time it's you I can thank for elucidating. :-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-01-17 23:27 |
| #4 the most significant development in the criminal exploitation of aircraft since 9/11." What is it with Al Qaeda always trying to get into a Cock Pit? Sounds a tad gross put that way doesn't it? |
| Posted by: GirlThursday 2010-01-17 19:00 |
| #3 The US official who wrote the report for the The official is a counter-narcotics aviation expert who asked to remain anonymous as he is not authorized to speak on the record. He said he was dismayed by the lack of attention to the matter since he wrote the report. The answer to this may lie, in part, later in the article: Just days later, US Drug Enforcement Administration officials arrested three West African men following a sting operation in Ghana. The men, all from Mali, were extradited to New York on December 16 on drug trafficking and terrorism charges. That operation was likely the American response to the DHS analyst's report. FARC has been extensively penetrated, perhaps fatally, by DEA and the Colombian security services. This should have been obvious to anyone with a brain after the spectacular FARC hostage rescue in mid-2008. The DHS analyst wrote his report in early 2008, so at the time it might have seemed a good idea to use the FARC penetration to attack the African side, but it seems that AQIM was reading the newspapers. I guess DEA finally tired of being jerked around, and closed the thing down, arresting these three guys who I pretty much guarantee don't know anything. |
| Posted by: Pstanley 2010-01-17 02:00 |
| #2 If true, it might be time for some airplanes to disappear over the mid-atlantic. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2010-01-17 00:57 |
| #1 lots of words and speculation but pretty empty of actual info |
| Posted by: lord garth 2010-01-17 00:13 |