Commentary on the economic , geopolitical and simply fascinating things going on. Served occasionally with a side of snark.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Was the West Gate Mall attack a False Flag attack blamed on Al Qaeda or Al - Shabaab ? Consider the strange foreknowledge of the attack by Kenya's Intelligence Agency , all of the oddities on the initial day of the attack ( an american security team at the scene - in the Mall , attackers allegedly changing clothes and allowed to escape ) , consider the strange conduct and evasiveness of the Kenyan Government - which to this day refuses to answer the many open questions surrounding the attack , consider the misinformation provided by the Kenyan President - then decide whether this was a terror attack by islamists or a false flag motivated for reasons presently unknown ?
Let's consider odd facts that have trickled out ! Recall this from my prior post .... American security team at the Mall during the attack , coupled with the curious anger of the Kenyan President toward the US and Israel ?
( An answer to why US forces were at the West Gate Mall during the attack and siege - maybe ? )
President Uhuru Kenyatta is quoted as blaming the United States and Israel, in conversation with his confidants, for the failure of their undercover agencies to prevent the large-scale terrorist attack launched on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi on Sept. 21, DEBKA file reports. He said he had counted on them for a heads-up to thwart an attack, instead of which both the Americans and Israelis were as much in the dark as his own security agencies.
After October 2011, when Kenyan forces entered Somalia to back the government’s war on the Al Shabaab insurgency, Israeli and American intelligence operatives were given broad license to operate in Kenya’s main cities and shield the country against Al Shabaab and Al Qaeda terrorist attacks.
Kenyatta was particularly bitter over the way US officials Wednesday, Sept. 25, poured public scorn on Kenyan police and military operations against the terrorists holding the mall. They said they were “mindful that Kenya… has become a precarious buffer zone between the US and Islamist militants.” The shopping mall siege was seen as “a direct threat” to America’s national security, said those US officials.
The Kenyan president takes the reverse view: He considers the US and Israel failed in their responsibility for setting up a buffer zone for protecting his own country’s national security.
In this regard, Al Shabaab Wednesday, Sept. 25, issued a “message to Westerners” to prepare for a “long war” unless foreign troops pulled out of Somalia.
US intelligence sources rebut Kenyatta’s charges. They say they undertook to train Kenyan forces up to a certain level, but then responsibility for warding off attacks devolved on the local authorities.
They had no answers for questions about another US intelligence failure to pick up word of yet another Al Qaeda attack on the way in Africa, just a year after US Ambassador Chris Stevens and four of his staff, all special US agents, were caught unready and murdered in the Libyan town of Benghazi.
After that disaster and, more recently, the Algerian gas field hostage siege targeting Western staff of Jan. 16, 2013, the US has beefed up its military and intelligence presence in Africa and overhauled the US Africa Command-AFRICOM.
Israeli security officials have refused to comment on their involvement in Kenya before, during or after the shopping mall attack, preferring to focus on rapidly rebuilding a strong security envelope in Nairobi.
In private conversation, Israeli police and intelligence sources admit they fell down badly in Kenya, their failure all the more galling in view of Al Qaeda having targeted a center which houses many Israel-owned and managed businesses.
Their most urgent task now is to find out how terrorist spies were able to conduct repeated surveillance excursions in the Westgate mall - and even smuggle in large stocks of ammunition for a long siege – undetected by Israeli security agents and without them sounding the alarm.
An American woman who was trapped inside the Nairobi mall as terrorists ran amok claims she was eventually rescued by an ‘American security team’.
That is according to Bendita Malakia, the Harvard-trained lawyer who was caught up in the siege and hid along with 15 others in a store inside the mall for five hours before the armed men arrived to lead them to safety.
Thirty-year-old Malakia, who is from Elizabeth City, North Carolina, recounted the frantic scene tonight in an interview with NBC News as her rescuers bluntly told her, ‘If you guys want to get out, we understand it’s dangerous, but this is probably your best shot. If you don’t get out now you may not get out.’
Rushing to the exit, accompanied by the armed security men who she believed were from the United States, two grenades thrown from only 30-feet away detonated near to them, but thankfully for Malakia she escaped and returned home to her parents on Monday.
While there has been no official confirmation of any direct American involvement in the stand-off between the heavily-armed militants from the Somalia-based al Shabaab and Kenyan Defence Forces, the statement from World Bank employee, Malakia, seems to suggest there was.
( Who knew ahead of time , why wasn't a broader warning not given , when will the Kenyan government come clean ? Kenyans should be outraged by this alone ! )
NIS officials told family members not to visit shopping mall
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
September 27, 2013
Kenya’s National Intelligence Agency (NIS) warned some people not to visit the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi before the bloody siege, a warning that was not received by the 67 victims who lost their lives during the attack.
Image: Westgate Shopping Mall.
Buried at the end of a London Independent report about the incident is the revelation that NIS, “did warn the police and officials inside the President’s office before the Westgate siege, but its warnings went unheeded.”
Individual officials with NIS also told their family members to avoid the Westgate mall on Saturday because it would be the target of an attack. A pregnant policewoman was warned by her brother, an NIS officer, not to visit Westgate.
“She has told police that her brother who is a NIS officer warned her not to visit Westgate that Saturday because she would not be able to run,” a senior officer said.
Evidence of prior knowledge that went unheeded is just one of the many questions that are still circulating in the aftermath of the horrific attack, details about which are only becoming more gruesome.
Doctors who have had the chance to examine victims say that their injuries are consistent with rape and brutal torture, including eyeballs being gouged out and fingers and parts of noses ripped off using pliers.
Dozens of hostages are still unaccounted for, while the fate of the attackers is still being kept under wraps by authorities. An explanation as to why part of the mall collapsed after an explosion in the final stages of the siege has also not been forthcoming, causing mounting public anger.
As we highlighted earlier this week, the attack was carried out by Somalia’s Al Shabaab terror group, which is the African branch of Al-Qaeda, and is ideologically aligned with the same jihadists that the US and NATO backed in Libya and are currently supporting in Syria. The 2011 invasion of Libya expanded Al-Qaeda’s operational capacity in both Africa and the Middle East.
Kenya's military caused the collapse of three floors of Nairobi's Westgate mall during the terrorist siege in which at least 67 people died, a top-ranking government official has said.
The account comes before the release of findings from an ongoing forensic investigation into the attack and raises the possibility that the military may have killed hostages in their rescue attempt. An undisclosed number of people are reportedly buried in the rubble.
The official said autopsies will determine if any bodies found there were killed by falling debris or the attackers.
US ambassador Robert F Godec said the United States is concerned about the spectre of more violence from the Somali Islamic group, al-Shabaab, which claimed responsibility for the attack.
"Obviously they do pose a threat and it's critically important, I think, that we understand what the terrorists in that organisation are up to, how they carry out attacks and really seek to frankly end the threat that the organisation poses," Godec said. "We are working very hard with Kenya, and other countries, to do so."
FBI agents – along with investigators from Britain, Canada and Germany – have been dispatched to investigate the crime scene. Many of the dead were foreigners.
The Kenyan official also confirmed that Kenyan troops fired rocket-propelled grenades inside the mall, but would not say what was used to cause the collapse or whether it was intentional. The account at least partially backs up information from another official on Wednesday, who said rocket-propelled grenades fired by soldiers created a gaping hole in the mall's roof and caused the floors to collapse.
Inside the mall on Friday, a pushchair was overturned on the marble floor next to wilting fresh flowers at a florist shop. Slabs of concrete sat on top of flattened cars in the parking area while in other parts there are rows of scorched vehicles.
Four huge explosions rocked the mall on Monday. The government has not publicly explained what caused the floors to collapse. One official earlier suggested it was caused by a mattress fire inside the Nakumatt department store.
A destroyed section of the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya. An undisclosed number of people are reportedly buried in the rubble. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Amid the possibility that some of the attackers escaped during the mass evacuation of civilians, Kenyan authorities have increased surveillance at border crossings and at Nairobi's airport, the senior official said.
A car has been discovered that is believed to have been used by the attackers who led the attack at the mall, the official added. Investigators are tracing the car's ownership after it was retrieved outside the mall.
Joseph Ole Lenku, Kenya's interior minister, said at least eight suspects are being held over the attack. Three others who had been detained were released.
Kenyan police have given little information since the attack, saying the investigation has only just begun.
It will take investigators at least seven days to comb through the rubble of the mall, where some bodies are believed to be buried, Lenku has said.
Al-Shabaab said it carried out the attack because Kenya sent its troops into Somalia to fight the militants.
The Kenyan Red Cross says 61 people remain missing and many worry their bodies may be buried in the destroyed part of the mall – though the government has insisted few victims are believed to still be inside.
***
( And anyone else wonder who was helping the attackers with the set up - is that why Kenya's National Intelligence got wind of an attack looming on the day in question ? )
An image from a video released by the Kenyan military on Sept. 26 shows collapsed floors at the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi after the four-day battle with Somali militants. Sixty-seven people were killed during an attack that began on Sept. 21.- Kenyan Military via AFP/Getty Images
NAIROBI - Kenyans have asked prodding questions directed at government authorities and demanded for answers which the State has avoided answering since the Saturday massacre.
Without a detailed blow by blow account of what transpired at the upscale shopping mall, questions were fired from the citizens as well as a section of members of the National Assembly even as State House Spokesman Manoah Esipisu ducked some questions from the media.
From questions about the effectiveness of the National Intelligence Service, to how the sophisticated, well planned and executed massacre happened and why it was not prevented dominated discussions online and on FM radio stations.
Members of the public spoke as the media awaited government briefing on the progress of investigations from the Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku later Wednesdayafternoon.
Their questions exposed how the Jubilee Government communicated incoherently at times contradicting each other.
Kenyans are also demanding to be furnished with the official death toll of the massacre especially the number of people buried in the mall after it was taken over by security forces. Some are demanding to be shown bodies and pictures of the terrorists arrested and those killed.
Below are some of the Tough questions:
1. How many people are still unaccounted for?
2. How many terrorists were involved in the attack? Are they all accounted for?
3. Amb Amina Mohammed said there was at least one female terrorist whom she identified as a Briton. Interior Cabinet Secretary Ole Lenku in a press briefing said they were all men. Could you clarify? Was Samantha Lewthwaite one of the attackers?
4. What of the reports the at least one terrorist escaped from Westgate? Again, Amb Amina Mohammed in her Al Jazeera English interview suggested some might have hidden among hostages and escaped. Who were the people arrested in JKIA? Were any of them in Westgate? Will any arrested terrorists be put on trial here or handed over to other states?
5. Are there any terrorists on the loose in the city who are yet to be captured?
6. Will there be an inquiry into the attack to identify potential improvements to intelligence and security? What powers of investigative authority will the group tasked with the inquiry be given?
7. Was fire on terrace started by terrorists to burn hostages and swap identities? How many escaped?
8. Will the findings be made public after the investigations?
9. What of the cars that dropped the attackers at Westgate? Are the cars still there? If not, are they being pursued? (I don’t want to delete someone elses question, I simply ask that you kindly consider this -> https://twitter.com/PoliceKE/status/382505737421070337 ) – @mwirigi
10. Who owns the Westgate Mall building? Have they been taken in for questioning?
11. There are reports of the attackers renting a store at the mall. Are these reports true and is the landlord being pursued for information on the same? Have they arrested the staff for questioning?
12.Ten suspects have been arrested for questioning. Are they part of the attackers? Are we still safe?
13. What is the security forces’ explanation to the story of the escaped hostage who says one of the gunmen blended with them and walked out as a hostage?
14. When did the terrorists get into the country? How? Where? How soon will you be able to determine this?
15. If the delay in using brute force to overcome the gunmen by Sunday morning was because there were hostages whose lives the authorities wanted to save, how many hostages were saved since Sunday Morning?
16. If it really was just about the attack, why keep hostages alive for three days…why not just kill everyone and blow the building up?
17. Do the police have access to architectural plans of Westgate and the air vents checked to ensure no terrorist is hiding?
18. Was there anyway to assess those rescued like a debrief room where details were recorded ( i.e. biographical data, contacts etc)?. How do we know who was there?
19. In the last government, there were many rumours that Kenyan Passports and Id’s were being sold for Sh300,000 . Is it possible to inspect and record how many of them were undeserving and recall them and/or deport or arrest those who own them? Also, Is it possible to use this evidence to jail those responsible for selling our country?
20. Was the CCTV footage made available to the police?
21. Why was the IG Kimaiyo asking for pictures to be sent to him on Twitter?
22. How many hostage takers have been killed?
23. When will a report by NSIS be made public with an analysis of the security situation prior and after the attack? Were we caught by surprise? If so,why? Did we know or at least suspect something like this? If so, what did we do to try averting the same? And most important, what’s the security position now?
25. In times of disasters and any such tragedies, why can’t we have a clear command structure to ensure that orders and coordination comes from one person and thereby eliminate the possibility of terrorist gelling with victims and escaping so easily?
26. Why was there conflicting information from different government sources?
28. What is the role of Rachel Omamo in the security military operation?
29.Were Kenyan Forces in control of CCTV control room by11am Tuesday morning?
30. Can we see the bodies of the “neutralized” terrorists?
31. What do we stand to gain by KDF being in Somalia?
33. Is it true that Samantha Lewthwaite aka White Widow bribed to avoid a jail term ? Who did she bribe? Where is she? What does she know?
34. Samantha Lewthwaite has been to Kenya twice (In 2011 and 2012). How did she stroll through our airports undetected? She’s been on FBI’s and Interpol’s watch list since 2011.
35. Why won’t they tell us how many hostages were rescued or where they were taken to? Why is there so much secrecy?
36. Did the Kenyan military have access to the basement parking by Tuesday 11am?
38. Every crime has a fixer. How is it possible that someone can procure such a huge cache of arms and ship it without our NSIS knowing? If the arms were imported, what are we doing to secure our borders?
39. Somalia. Let’s talk about Kenya’s invasion of Somalia. Are we finally paying for this? And if so, how can we be sure that victory is ours when victory for now just means reclaiming Westgate? What about the future?
40. Why is Kenya a terrorist target for the ninth time? What have we done? More importantly, why is the Government not able to protect its citizens? For how long will we react instead of preventing?
41. Ole Lenku said fire that started on Monday was caused by mattresses being torched by terrorists. Some time before, he had claimed that the terrorists had been “contained” in a section in one of the “upper floors”. If this is true, how did the terrorists gain entry into Nakumatt on the second floor? Better yet, isn’t Nakumatt on the ground floor in Westgate mall?
44. Why didn’t the government jam telephone network and ask service providers to block signals to Nairobi area once the magnitude was clear on day 2?
45. The public have a right to know how many citizens were killed. Fudging information won’t help. Also, information on terrorists caught, killed, and those who escaped. Will we be told the truth?
46. Are there underground tunnels eg sewage ducts at the mall that could act as passageways?
47. What do MPs and “national politicians” gain by insisting that the terrorists did not have a religious angle to their approach (even if misconceived)? Are politicians being genuine, naive or simply avoiding to explore the root cause?
48. Why would a 27-year-old soldier who has served for only 4 years be detailed to undertake an operation of that magnitude?
49. How safe are our borders?
50. What caused the floors to collapse?
51. How many children died?
52. Why did it take more than 30 minutes for the security system to get activated and act from the time the first distress signal was sent? – standardmedia.co.ke.
Kenyan army soldiers light candles during a 24-hour prayer vigil for victims of the Westgate mall massacre near the Westgate Mall on September 28, 2013 in Nairobi. Photo/AFP
In Summary
Five days after security forces broke the siege at Westgate, Kenyans are yet to know the identity of the attackers, where they went, damage to the mall and much more
The first group of terrorists may have escaped within an hour of the attack, says police source
Did the masterminds of the Westgate terror escape within an hour of launching the attack? Could the terrorists who remained behind to continue the senseless killing and repulse security forces also slip away unnoticed?
And what is the fate of the hostages thought to have been held in the siege? What about the destruction of the mall, did the military bomb it? And who looted the shops?
These are some of the hard questions that Kenyans are seeking answers to as sources reveal new accounts that have not been formally released by the government, further intensifying the mystery that surrounds the four-day siege.
Multiple sources, including some police officers who made the initial response to the distress call, confirmed that the first group of terrorists may have escaped within an hour into the attack.
Some are said to have changed their clothes, dropped their weapons, and ran out alongside terrified civilians. The government has repeatedly denied that any of the attackers escaped despite eyewitness accounts and confirmation by police officers, who spoke to the Sunday Nation in confidence.
REMAIN UNACCOUNTED FOR
The terrorists believed to have been left behind also remain unaccounted for — days after the siege ended. This brings to question the exact number of those involved in the deadly assault.
On Monday, as the military launched what was described as the “final assault” to take back the mall, Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku said there were between 10 and 15 terrorists inside holding at least 30 hostages. More than 1,000 people were said to have been evacuated.
Later, Mr Lenku announced that five terrorists were killed after the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) took over the building on Tuesday. However, he remained tight-lipped on the whereabouts of the bodies and the identity of the terrorists. Also unclear is the fate of the remaining terrorists, who should be at least 10 based on the figures provided.
“Five suspected terrorists were killed during the operation and the ongoing forensic investigations will ascertain their identities. When complete, these investigations will answer the questions being raised about their nationalities and gender,” said Mr Lenku.
The government is also yet to release details of a suspected terrorist, who reportedly died in hospital from bullet wounds last Saturday, a few hours after the attack began.
Fresh details about how the remaining terrorists could have escaped further deepen the mystery. Security officials who spoke to the Sunday Nation suspect the al-Shabaab killer gang that repulsed an elite military squad may have escaped through an underground tunnel that connects the mall and an adjacent building — about 100 metres away.
“The tunnel is big enough for an adult to walk through comfortably,” said our source, who declined to be named for his own safety.
The identity of the attackers also remains a grey area with conflicting reports about the involvement of a woman.
Mr Lenku initially denied a woman was part of the attackers, but he later admitted the possibility of British fugitive Samantha Lewthwaite, nicknamed the “White Widow” or “Dada Mzungu” (White Sister), leading the attack, after his Foreign Affairs counterpart Amina Mohammed made the claims in an interview with a US TV station.
Interpol has now issued a “red alert” notice for the capture of the “White Widow” at the request of the Kenyan authorities. The woman is, however, not seen in the CCTV footage of the attack viewed by the Sunday Nation. But some eyewitness accounts indicate a woman was leading the terrorists.
Latest intelligence reports seen by the Sunday Nation show that the mastermind of the Westgate massacre is suspected to be a 50-year-old Kenyan, Abu Sandheere — an associate of slain Al-Qaeda leader Fazul Abdulla.
At least 67 people, including six security officers, are said to have died in the attack while 175 are recorded to have been injured. It is suspected more bodies are buried under the rubble — something the government does not seem keen to acknowledge.
Even then, the puzzle of missing persons has left more unanswered questions. Red Cross figures show that at least 61 people have been reported missing.
But Mr Lenku said: “According to police records, there are no formal or official reports of missing persons who could have been at the mall during the time of the attack.”
The destruction of Westgate, including the collapse of a section of the building, has raised further questions as experts told the Sunday Nation that it must have been caused by a “huge explosion”.
On Monday, the Interior minister explained that billowing smoke was from burning mattresses lit by the terrorists to distract the security forces. However, sources within the military later said the fire was started by the Kenyan security forces.
When the final onslaught was launched on Monday, it was confirmed the terrorists may have been holding some hostages. However, after the siege ended on Tuesday, there was no information on the fate of the hostages.
Instead, Mr Lenku talked of an “insignificant number” of bodies — a reference that stirred outrage on social media.
Retired military captain Simiyu Werunga said the terrorists either bombed the building or KDF was responsible for the explosion.
“Booby traps cannot bring down a building and neither can ordinary rifles. It requires extra firepower to do that. Probably there were bombs and when these guys (terrorists) felt they were being cornered they exploded the place.
The other scenario is the military did it, because we are talking of Special Forces who use fire power superior to rifles. But we cannot be sure because we didn’t see them,” he said.
Capt (rtd) Werunga said besides bombs, the explosion could have been caused by rocket propelled grenades. His views were supported by two other security experts, who cannot be named because they are serving officers and cannot comment on such sensitive matters.
According to Capt (rtd) Werunga, the terrorists had enough time to assemble improvised explosive devices and make bombs.
“The security officers gave them enough time to do it, bearing in mind that whatever they required had allegedly been brought to the building before they struck. From Saturday to Monday, that was enough time. If so, they must have strapped them from pillar to pillar. One explosion would trigger off the next and so on,” he added.
Another security officer indicated that Nakumatt supermarket and chemists within the mall provided perfect ingredients to make a bomb.
Reports of confusion during the operation have also raised questions on coordination during such attacks. An elite police unit drawn from the Recce squad of the GSU had apparently pinned down the terrorists on Saturday before KDF arrived.
This changeover allowed the terrorists to regroup and in the confusion, led to the shooting of a GSU commander. The mission was effectively taken over by KDF chief Julius Karangi even though Inspector-General of police David Kimaiyo was nominally in charge.
Some people who entered the building after the siege was over have also said that Automated Teller Machine had been vandalised, probably with explosives, and money stolen. Inside the banks, it was reported that some safes had been tampered with by force. However, the military has denied the claim. (See separate story).
On Friday, Mr Lenku said those who operated business in the mall had been allowed access to take inventory of their property.
The BBC spoke to Ms Irene Anyango, manager of a jewellery shop at Westgate, who claimed that 90 per cent of her stock had gone missing.
“It’s not the mall you used to see... things are spoiled, glasses are broken, everything is everywhere,” the BBC quoted her as having said.
Forensic and ballistic experts —including some from US, Israeli, Britain, Germany and Canada — are combing through the rubble to establish the nature of weapons used as well as identity of attackers and hostages.
The number and identity of those arrested has also been contradictory. Last week, there were reports that at least 11 people were in custody, including a Briton arrested at the airport. No evidence has so far been found to link him with the attack. Three had, however, been released.
Well placed security sources said only two suspects were arrested in the mall. One of them, Mr Gitonga Ali, is being treated at the Forces Memorial Hospital while the other is said to have died from gunshot wounds at the Aga Khan Hospital.
Mr Lenku said police were holding eight suspects as they sought to unmask the faces behind the worst terror attack since the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi in which more than 200 people died.
Pathologists are expected to begin work at the destroyed mall on Monday when it is expected the forensic experts would have finished combing through for evidence. “Westgate mall remains a scene of crime and access remains limited,” said Mr Lenku.
Reports that hostages held by the terrorists were tortured have been confirmed, but what really happened remains a mystery.
and...
What did the Kenya Government know before the attack - were they given direct warning of an attack for the exact timeframe of the West Gate Mall attack ?
Director General of NIS Major General Michael Gichangi in deep thought during a past national ceremony. He is due to appear before a House committee on Monday [PHOTO:COLLINS KWEYU/STANDARD]
An unprecedented leak of Intelligence briefings covering the past year paint the picture of a government fully informed of an impending Al Shabaab attack ahead of the Westgate massacre.
The leak, coming days before the National Intelligence Service ( NIS) Director General Michael Gichangi is grilled by MPs on Monday, appears to draw a line in the sand as accusations are traded over the responsibility for the attack in which at least 67 were killed.
The 8,800-word dossier details terrorist plots and other activities by the militant group, including a direct warning of a terror plot in Nairobi between September 13 and 21.
This is likely to be Gichangi’s line of defence when he appears before the Defence and Foreign Relations Committee. If Gichangi’s assertions cut ice, the tide could turn against other security organs and senior officials who must answer question as to what they did or did not with the Intelligence provided.
At a closed-door meeting of a joint committee of the House that is investigating the matter, the MPs admonished Gichangi for Intelligence gaps and security lapses that allowed terrorists to plan and execute the bloody attack.
Defence and Foreign Relations Committee chairman Ndung’u Gethenji said “it is now time for people to take responsibility and to audit our security system.”
The Intelligence leak claims that a security survey on key installations and shopping malls, including Westgate, essentially assessed their vulnerability to terrorist attacks and the requisite recommendations made.
Reports by NIS are normally shared with Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku and his PS Mutea Iringo, Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kimemia (meaning President Uhuru Kenyatta must have been briefed), Inspector General David Kimaiyo and his two deputies and CID boss Ndegwa Muhoro.
NIS submitted a Situation Report dated September 21, 2002 — Serial No.184/2012 — which indicated that at least three suspected terrorists were in Nairobi planning suicide attacks on undisclosed dates.
“The following suspected Al Shabaab operatives are in Nairobi and are planning to mount suicide attacks on undisclosed date, targeting Westgate Mall and Holy Family Basilica; Sheikh Abdiwelli Mohamed, Sheikh Hussein and Sheikh Hassan. They are believed to be in possession of two suicide vests, twelve (12) hand grenades and two (2) AK47 rifles, and have already surveyed the two targets.”
“They are being assisted by Sheikh Hassan alias Blackie of Majengo and Omar Ahmed Ali alias Jerry who are currently staying near Mamba Petrol Station and Huruma Mosque along Juja Road,” the report said.
Political assassinations
The same report indicated that two suspected Al Shabaab terrorists of Somali origin had entered South Sudan through Djibouti, Eritrea and Sudan and were suspected to be in Uganda on transit to Kenya through either Busia or Malaba border points. The two were allegedly being assisted by Teskalem Teklemaryan, an Eritrean engineer who lives in Uganda and South Sudan.
The Intelligence report further advised that the duo had purchased one GPMG, four hand-grenades, one bullet belt, five AK 47 guns and unknown number of bulletproof jackets from Joseph Lomoro, an SPLA officer, and some maps of Nairobi.
The report further disclosed that one Maalim Khalid (also known as Maalim Kenya), a Kenyan explosives and martial arts expert, had been identified as the architect of current terrorist attacks in the country. Khalid, the report indicated, is associated with attacks at Machakos Country Bus, Assanands House in Nairobi and Bellavista Club in Mombasa.
He was reported to have selected 20 Kenyans in groups of 10, whom he trained at Marka and Barawe to drive, use of pistols and grenades, establish and utilise safe houses, escape and evasion tactics and effective and secure communication.
NIS’s advice to the government then was that Khalid was planning terrorist attacks in Kenya, aimed at damaging the economy, assassination of political and security leaders, and attacking Western interests and tourists.
“Elsewhere, the Al Shabaab is contemplating attacking Kenyan interests in other countries, starting with Zambia, but the timing, target and methods are still unclear. Kenyan interests anywhere in the world, therefore, remain the militant’s potential targets of attack as the Kenya Defence Forces and AMISOM exert pressure on them, and the imminent capture of Kismayu,” reads the report.
The report further established that an Al Shabaab operative, Musharaf Abdalla (also known as Zarkawi, Ali Abdalla, Musab, Shukri Abdirahman, Rashid, Noor Abdi Ismail, Alex Shikanda), who had been arrested on September 29, 2012 in Malindi, had disclosed that his associates were targeting Florida 2000, a club opposite Hilton Hotel (assessed to be Bettyz) and unidentified strip club near Nation Centre.
Changamwe refinery
Another NIS situation report dated November 9, 2012 —serial No 219/2012 — indicated that one Titus Amusibwa alias Maalim Khalid, a terrorist suspect linked to the Al Shabaab and who was arrested with arms at Mariakani on October 27, 2012, had been found with information indicating that the terror group intended to attack the Kenya Pipeline network. The planned attacks were meant to reinforce the one against Changamwe Oil Refinery for maximum damage.
Another Intelligence brief titled “Situation Report for 13.09.13 - Serial no. 178/2013” indicated that one Mohamed Ade, who is based in Kenya, sent fraudulent refugee documents to 15 Al Shabaab Amniyat operatives in Somalia in early September 2013 to enable them access refugee camps in Kenya and thereafter move to other parts of the country.
The cards, according to the reports, were handed to Abdullahi Dheere who would then pass them over to Aynanshe, the Al Shabaab Governor in Middle Juba.
The operatives, said the brief, had undergone a Swahili language course and were under the command of Moalin Ali and were to enter Kenya by mid-September this year.
Nairobi, Kenya (CNN) -- To anyone shopping at Nairobi's Westgate Mall, it would likely have seemed just another store.
But according to a Kenyan intelligence official, the small shop concealed an ominous secret. It was rented by the Al-Shabaabterrorists, or their associates, who within a year would carry out an attack on the upscale shopping mall.
The information -- revealed Friday to CNN by the source, who is close to the investigation into the attack -- suggests the Somalian terror organization had been planning the operation at least that long.
How the team of terrorists got their weapons and explosives into the mall without notice is a central part of the investigation into the attack, which left at least 67 people dead and parts of the upscale mall in ruins.
The Kenya Red Cross said Friday that 61 people remain unaccounted for. Some could be buried in the rubble of the partially collapsed mall.
Photos: Kenya mall attack
Photos: Kenya mourns mall shooting victims
Bergen: Unlikely women were attackers
Heroism during a moment of terrorism
At least five of the terrorists also died before Kenyan forces were finally able to bring the siege to an end on Tuesday. The terrorists stormed the building Saturday.
On a Twitter account believed to be run by Al-Shabaab, the group promised more attacks to come.
"The mesmeric performance by the #Westgate Warriors was undoubtedly gripping, but despair not folks, that was just the premiere of Act 1," according to a tweet posted Thursday.
CNN could not confirm the authenticity of the tweet, but CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said the account, which has also posted links to statements from Shabaab leader Mukhtar Abu Zubayr, appears to be legitimate, even if not "100% authenticated."
Several Twitter accounts attributed to Al-Shabaab have been shut down in recent days, likely for violating the company's rules against promoting violence in tweets.
While Kenyan Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said Friday that eight suspects are being held for questioning in the attack, authorities are increasingly concerned that some of the attackers managed to escape alongside fleeing civilians in the aftermath of the initial attack, U.S. law enforcement officials told CNN.
On Thursday, a Kenyan counterterrorism source told CNN that one of the suspects is an injured Kenyan who was being evacuated when a machine gun magazine fell out of his pocket, leading to suspicion he was among the automatic-weapon toting terrorists who roamed the mall killing civilians. He is being held in a military hospital, the source said.
A destroyed section of the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya. An undisclosed number of people are reportedly buried in the rubble. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
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