WASHINGTON: U.S. Navy vessels are deployed off the coast of Somalia to make sure al-Qaida and allied jihadists are not able to escape the country by sea now that the once-dominant Islamist forces in Somalia are in retreat, the State Department said Wednesday.
Of particular concern is the fate of three al-Qaida militants who were believed by U.S. officials to be under the protection of the Islamic Courts Union in Mogadishu until Ethiopian forces drove the Courts from power in recent days.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack noted that the missions off the coast are being carried out by a U.S. task force based in the Horn of Africa,
The al-Qaida militants are believed to have had a role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and in the 2002 bombing of a hotel in Kenya.
Kenya sent extra troops to its border with Somalia on Wednesday to keep Islamic militants from entering the country
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http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/03/america/NA_GEN_US_Somalia.php
Kenya on alert as fighting nears border
Thu, January 4, 2007
Kenyan soldiers and helicopters bolstered defences at the Somali border yesterday to stop fighting from spilling over after Ethiopian warplanes attacked fleeing Islamists on the other side of the frontier.
A local police commander said a Kenyan helicopter had escaped undamaged after being shot at by Somali militia and an Ethiopian missile targeting Islamists strayed into Kenya late on Tuesday.
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A new Congressional report outlines additional -- but still circumstantial -- links between Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols and World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef.
Titled "The Oklahoma City Bombing: Was There A Foreign Connection?," the report was conducted by the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee, at the request of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. (Click here for full text of the report.)
The report was provided to INTELWIRE by attorney Jesse Trentadue, who has been pursuing new information on the case through Freedom of Information Act requests and other means (link). Trentadue said he seriously questioned the report's focus on possible connections to Islamic extremists, but said it clearly illustrates the Justice Department's unwillingness to cooperate with investigations of the Oklahoma City bombing.
The report contains a number of new tidbits of information, many of which are suggestive of a broader conspiracy in the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred E. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, but none of which are entirely conclusive.
According to the report, former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating told investigators that President Bill Clinton's first comment to him after the bombing was, "God, I hope there's no Middle Eastern connection to this."
The report focused on three main issues:
Whether Terry Nichols met Ramzi Yousef during the period both men were in Cebu City, the Philippines. Whether Nichols and McVeigh were connected to a German national named Andreas Strassmeir who was linked to domestic white supremacist organizations. Whether the FBI made an adequate investigation of eyewitness reports linking McVeigh to other individuals around the time of the bombing. Some of those reports generated a composite sketch of a suspect known as "John Doe #2."
In large part, the report reiterates the findings of previous investigations and media reports (see INTELWIRE reports Al Qaeda and OKC and Did Yousef and Nichols Meet?).
The report did find significant new clues that suggest a link between Terry Nichols and Ramzi Yousef, including material gleaned from a review of Yousef's phone records. But it stopped short of saying a connection can be proven.
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http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_j_m__ber_061223_congressional_invest.htm