Free Republic

The Obama administration finally highlights Iran’s key role in supporting al Qaeda On July 28, the Treasury Department designated six al Qaeda operatives involved in shipping money and men from the Persian Gulf to senior al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The move targets a node of the global terror network that is critical to its overall strength, freezing any of its financial assets under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibiting any transactions with the operatives. Of the many conduits for al Qaeda funds and personnel across the world, the U.S. government believes this one is the most important. “This network...

My Op-ed in The Australian By Leah Farrall, Australia I have an op-ed piece out in today’s edition of The Australian called “Detentions come back to bite” It’s about Guantanamo blowback now having very real strategic consequences: the formation of a new strategy to kidnap civilians in Afghanistan in order to secure the release of prisoners taken by America. Sally Neighbour has a front page piece derived from my op-ed here “Afghan foreigner kidnap order by al Qaeda leader Mustafa Hamid”. I haven’t seen the broadsheet yet, so I’m not sure if the photos I provided of Hamid are on...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp1360.htm January 16, 2009 hp-1360 Treasury Targets Al Qaida Operatives in Iran Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated four al Qaida associates under Executive Order 13224, which targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism. "It is important that Iran give a public accounting of how it is meeting its international obligations to constrain al Qaida," said Stuart Levey, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. "Global efforts to financially isolate al Qaida have made it difficult for the core leadership to raise funds...