Saturday, May 18, 2013

Embassy Threats Grow in Mideast

 

Embassy Threats Grow in Mideast

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323398204578489502080529138.html

 

By SIOBHAN GORMAN

 

WASHINGTON-The U.S. is seeing a spike in al Qaeda-related terror plots and threats against its embassies in Libya, Yemen and Egypt, say current and former U.S. officials citing domestic and foreign intelligence reports.

 

The threats against U.S. missions in Tripoli and Yemen's capital, Sana'a, are believed to involve bomb plots by Sunni extremists and perhaps al Qaeda-linked individuals, and have set off alarms among U.S. officials still shaken by last September's attack on a diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya.

 

A planned attack against U.S. and French diplomatic targets in Egypt was wider and more precise than had been reported when Cairo authorities said last week that they detained three men in connection with it, according to intelligence cited by the U.S. officials.

 

Earlier reports had indicated that embassies had been targeted. But the plots focused primarily on the U.S. and French ambassadors there, the current and former U.S. officials said Friday. One of the three detainees was the intended suicide bomber, these people said.

 

"There appear to be serious terrorist threats against U.S. embassies in North Africa and the broader Middle East," said Seth Jones, an al Qaeda specialist at the Rand Corp. and a former adviser to the U.S. military. "It shows that terrorist groups, including al Qaeda, remain very active. They have flourished in a political vacuum in several of these countries."

 

The apparent uptick in threats comes eight months after the al Qaeda-linked terrorist attack killed four Americans in Benghazi and as U.S.

counterterrorism officials watch for threats in the wake of the Arab Spring.

They also emerge as the Obama Administration faces heightened pressure over security issues-including accusations that it could have better anticipated the Benghazi attacks, and that it overstepped by seizing Associated Press reporters' phone records in connection with another counterterrorism operation.

 

Counterterrorism specialists draw a distinction between threats in Egypt and Libya and those in Yemen. Daniel Benjamin, who until recently was the top State Department counterterrorism official, said there are frequent threats to the U.S. embassy in Sana'a but that the country's counterterrorism efforts are making inroads.

 

By contrast, he said, the weaker governments in Libya and Egypt face a growing threat from extremist groups that previous regimes kept under wraps.

 

These groups are "under considerably less pressure than they used to be,"

said Mr. Benjamin, now director of the Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College. "That has certainly changed the security scene."

 

U.S. officials are scrutinizing the alleged plots in Tripoli, Sana'a and Cairo, although they say there have so far been no signs of ties between them.

 

In the thwarted Cairo plot, one militant group implicated by the intelligence reports is led by an Egyptian who has training camps in Libya and has received support from al Qaeda's Yemen branch.

 

That group, known as the Jamal Network, is among those implicated in the Benghazi attacks, where at least one of its operatives was among the attackers, U.S. officials say. The group's leader, Muhammad Jamal Abu Ahmad, and his top deputy were detained by Egyptian authorities prior to the most recent Cairo arrests, according to U.S. officials.

 

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined to speak specifically about the embassy plots. But she said the department works "every day with foreign governments and interagency partners to mitigate the risks to our diplomatic and consular operations overseas."

 

The alleged Tripoli and Sana'a plots appeared less developed than the one in Cairo, and it wasn't clear how likely they were to be carried out. Still, their inclusion in recent intelligence reporting suggests the seriousness with which the U.S. government is taking them.

 

A car-bombing plot against the U.S. embassy in Tripoli was corroborated by multiple intelligence agencies, and the U.S. has identified individuals associated with the plot who are part of Sunni extremist groups that may have al Qaeda links, said a former U.S. official familiar with the intelligence. It isn't clear whether the plot remains active.

 

Tripoli has been restive in the months following the Benghazi attacks. On April 23, a car bomb exploded outside the French embassy there, injuring two guards.

 

On May 8, the State Department evacuated a handful of "nonemergency"

personnel from Tripoli. The next day it issued a travel warning for U.S.

citizens but didn't cite a terrorist threat.

 

The department warned of civil unrest and urged U.S. citizens to avoid demonstrations, which could turn violent. "The security situation in Libya remains unpredictable," the warning said, citing an early May incident when armed groups seized Libyan government buildings.

 

In Yemen, intelligence agencies have warned recently of a car-bomb plot against the U.S. embassy in Sana'a. That plot, according to the intelligence reports, is connected to individuals who are part of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group's Yemen branch.

 

There have been periodic threats against the U.S. embassy there in recent years, officials said. The State Department travel warning for Yemen was last updated in November 2012, warning of a high security threat level.

 

The Egypt plot, however, appears to have been fairly advanced, said the former U.S. official, especially given that U.S. intelligence concluded that one of the three men arrested was the suicide bomber recruited to attack either the U.S. or French ambassador to Egypt.

 

U.S. officials believe that at least one of the men the Egyptians arrested has direct links to the Jamal Network's second-in-command and also has ties to al Qaeda facilitators, the former official said.

 

Egyptian prosecutors have alleged that all three men are linked to the so-called Nasr City Cell, a militant group local authorities disrupted last year and accused of plotting against Egyptian government targets.

 

Some U.S. officials are worried that the Egyptian authorities will have difficulty prosecuting this latest plot because the Egyptian legal system has strict standards of evidence.

 

The men admitted to plotting against the U.S. and French ambassadors and their embassies and revealed al Qaeda associations under interrogation, the former official said, which may not hold up in Egyptian courts, where information obtained under interrogation may be dismissed.

 

The men were found with 22 pounds of ammonium nitrate, a key bomb-making ingredient, Egyptian prosecutors said last week. That amount likely wasn't enough to make a complete bomb, according to the U.S. assessment, which may also make the prosecution difficult.

 

Security in Egypt has deteriorated significantly since the fall of the Mubarak regime, as the new government has struggled with militant attacks in the Sinai Peninsula and the emergence of the Jamal Network.

 

The State Department issued a travel alert on Wednesday that didn't mention the plot and instead warned about a May 9 knife attack on an American citizen outside the U.S. embassy in Cairo and cautioned about the potential for violent protests.

 

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