Weekly Security Brief - May 24th

by **Sabre** 24/5/2014, 15:47

[ltr]Dilitas Weekly Security Brief
This email has been compiled from current, open source data supplied through contacts within Diplomatic Posts, law enforcement agencies and UK intelligence services.
The information herein is to keep you informed of the current security situations within the UK and the rest of the world. Please feel free to forward this document to colleagues.
If you require more specific information on any other prevailing matters, please contact us at info@dilitas.com detailing what you require and we will respond to you.[/ltr]

[ltr]Regards,
Christopher Cully
Managing Director[/ltr]

[ltr]The threat to the UK from International Terrorism is SUBSTANTIAL
The threat to Great Britain from Irish Republican Terrorism is MODERATE[/ltr]

[ltr]DUE TO OPERATION REASONS THIS SECURITY BRIEF IS BEING SENT TWO DAYS EARLIER, ON SATURDAY 24TH MAY 2014[/ltr]

[ltr]Domestic:
British student, Nawal Msaad, accused of trying to smuggle money to Turkey to fund terrorism, denied the allegations at a hearing at the Old Bailey earlier this week. It is alleged that Msaad was recruited by Amal El-Wahabi, who had requested Msaad travel to Istanbul with money and there meet El-Wahabi’s husband who is involved in terrorism in Syria. Both Msaad and El-Wahabi pleaded not guilty and were given unconditional bail.[/ltr]

[ltr]Mashudur Choudhary, 31, has become the first person in the UK to be convicted of terror offences in connection with the ongoing conflict in Syria. It is understood that Choudhary travelled to Syria last year with four other men to attend a training camp. He was arrested on his return to the UK. Choudhary was in regular contact with Ifthekar Jaman, who had already travelled to Syria, with the pair regularly discussing weapons training. Choudhary is due to be sentenced in June.[/ltr]

[ltr]Reported on 20 May that anti-terrorism police are searching four addresses in Brighton and Hove in connection with the death of a British teenager who was killed fighting in Syria. Abdullah Deghayes, 18, died on a battlefield over a month ago in north-west Syria near the border with Turkey. Two of his brothers Amer, aged 20, and Jaffar, 16, were also in Syria.[/ltr]

[ltr]Security experts have again issued a warning about the threat of “blowback” terrorism attacks in London caused by the Syrian conflict. The Royal United Services Institute said it feared a new “wave” of violent extremism that could lead to “platoon attacks”, assassinations and other atrocities. The assessment follows the conviction of Mashudur Choudhury for a Syria-related terrorist offence. At least 400 other British residents are thought to have travelled to join the fighting in Syria, where rebels seek to topple President Assad. The director general of the Royal United Services Institute said the flow of extremists from Britain to fight in Syria had given London a “bit of a break”. But he warned the respite was likely to be temporary. He added, “At some point there is likely to be a blowback in London and other European capitals when these people come back.”[/ltr]

[ltr]Fears have been raised about online extremism a year after the death of soldier Lee Rigby, as deadly jihadist material remains widely available online. Keith Vaz MP has called for renewed efforts to combat the murderous material with schemes to spread more moderate ideas and stop Muslims falling into the clutches of radicals. Experts say the internet is giving fanatics much wider opportunities to radicaliSe worshippers, having migrated from more traditional means of preaching in person.[/ltr]

[ltr]A university student who was caught with thousands of pounds worth of banknotes in her underwear at Heathrow airport has denied funding terrorism. Nawal Masaad, 26, is accused of trying to smuggle the cash to Turkey on January 16 this year, from where the prosecution alleged it would be taken by a contact to Syria. Notes totaling €20,000 (£16,300) in €500 notes were discovered wrapped in Clingfilm in the young woman’s underwear when she was searched by airport security officers. Prosecutors claim she was recruited by Amal El-Wahabi to take the money to Istanbul, where she would rendezvous with El-Wahabi’s husband, who the court heard was involved in terrorism in Syria. Both women pleaded not guilty and are on conditional bail until their trial, which is due to begin at the Old Bailey on July 7 this year.[/ltr]

[ltr]Armed police officers may refuse to carry weapons if they are banned from comparing notes with each other as they write up statements after a shooting, a police chief has said. Commander Neil Basu, Scotland Yard's head of armed policing, said plans drawn up by the Independent Police Complaints Commission to stop officers talking to each other in the aftermath of an incident would leave them feeling “criminalised”. [...] A recent survey found two-thirds of the Met’s armed officers will “think seriously” about handing back their weapons if the changes are implemented.[/ltr]

[ltr]Northern Ireland and Eire:[/ltr]

[ltr]A leader of the Real IRA has had his appeal against a terror conviction rejected earlier this week. Michael McKevitt was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to twenty years in prison, making him the first person in the Republic of Ireland to be jailed for directing terror activities. An appeal in 2005 was rejected, leading to a further application in 2008, which was also rejected. McKevitt’s latest appeal focused on the legality of a warrant which had been used in his original trial.[/ltr]

[ltr]The families of six men killed by either police, soldiers or loyalist paramilitaries are to be awarded £7,500 each in damages for unlawful delays in holding inquests, a High Court judge ruled this week. Mr Justice Stephens held that compensation was necessary for the frustration, distress and anxiety suffered by the next of kin. His landmark verdict could now open the floodgates for scores of other claims involving so-called ‘legacy cases’.[/ltr]

[ltr]The family of IRA "Disappeared" victim Jean McConville have welcomed reports that NBC News in the United States is going to the American courts to obtain the controversial Boston College tapes which are central to the arrest of Gerry Adams over the widow's murder. NBC News argues that a US supreme court judgment means it should receive copies of the tapes because they are a matter of public interest. Boston College's "Belfast project" archive has dozens of taped testimonies from ex-IRA and loyalist paramilitaries speaking frankly about their role, and the role of others, in violence during the Northern Ireland Troubles. A number of these tapes seized by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) through the US courts are being used to examine if there is a case against Adams, over his alleged involvement in the 1972 kidnapping, killing and secret burial of McConville – a crime that has haunted the Sinn Féin president's career. Source Police in Northern Ireland are to seek the entirety of the controversial US oral history project that detectives relied upon to quiz Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams about a notorious IRA murder.[/ltr]

[ltr]A man whose extradition on terrorism charges is being sought by the US authorities may get a hearing in July of his appeal against the High Court’s refusal to permit judicial review of a decision not to prosecute him here. Ali Charaf Damache (50), an Algerian-born Irish citizen previously with an address in Co Waterford, is wanted by the US authorities in connection with an alleged conspiracy to provide support to terrorists. The application for his extradition is listed for hearing on 8 September before the High Court.[/ltr]

[ltr]Plans by victims of the Dublin-Monaghan bombings to sue the UK government for collusion have been answered by border Protestants vowing to sue the Dublin government for supporting the IRA. It was revealed this week that relatives of 33 people killed in loyalist bombings of Dublin- Monaghan of 1974 are suing the British Government over alleged collusion with those responsible.[/ltr]

[ltr]International:[/ltr]

[ltr]The armed forces in Thailand have taken control of government and broadcast media throughout the country, and have suspended most of the country’s constitution. A nationwide curfew from 10.00pm to 5.00am has been declared, and political gatherings of five or more people have been banned. UK citizens are advised to visit the Foreign & Commonwealth Office website for advice before considering travel to any part of Thailand.[/ltr]

[ltr]Thailand's military has ordered 35 more people, including prominent academics, to report to them by Saturday afternoon as the post-coup crackdown continues. The move comes a day after the army ordered more than 100 politicians, including ex-PM Yingluck Shinawatra, to come to the military council. Ms Yingluck was detained in Bangkok on Friday and spent the night in custody. Meanwhile, the US has suspended $3.5m (£2.1m) in military aid to Thailand and told the army to restore civilian rule. Washington also urged tourists to cancel trips and halted non-essential visits by US government officials, following Thursday's coup. Officials said Ms Yingluck would not be held for more than a week but insisted that her detention was necessary while matters in the country were organised. Ms Yingluck, who had been PM until being removed by the judiciary this month, was ordered to report to the military along with more than 100 other politicians, including acting PM Niwatthamrong Boonsongphaisan. Thai military spokesman Col Werachon Sukhondhadhpatipak said today that the politicians were detained to give them "time to think". He refused to reveal where the detained were being held and said that their mobile phones had been confiscated.[/ltr]

[ltr]More than 30 people were killed and a number injured in a terrorist attack in Urumqi in China’s restive Xinjiang region on Thursday. It is understood that attackers in two vehicles drove into crowds of shoppers at a busy market area with one car exploding. Attackers were also reported to have thrown explosives during the incident. The region, which has witnessed several attacks in the past year, is home to the Muslim Uighur minority.[/ltr]

[ltr]Authorities in China say they have held a suspect over Thursday's attack on a market in Urumqi in Xinjiang province in which 39 people died. More than 90 others were wounded. The man was held in Bayingolin prefecture, to the south of Urumqi. The other four suspects died in the attack, officials told Xinhua. The authorities have announced a one-year campaign against militant violence in Xinjiang province, home to the Muslim Uighur minority.[/ltr]

[ltr]A suspected grenade attack wounded 11 people in the eastern town of Garissa, close to the Somali border, Kenya, on Tuesday. The attack happened a day after suspected al-Shabaab militants killed at least 12 people in northern Kenya's Mandera County in an ambush. A second grenade failed to detonate.[/ltr]

[ltr]Twin bombings killed over 100 people in the city of Jos, Nigeria last Tuesday. The first blast occurred in a busy market area, with a second outside a hospital targeting many of the rescue workers who had arrived at the scene. It is understood that the blasts were designed to kill as many people as possible of different religions. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, though Boko Haram involvement is suspected. The attacks came days after a suicide attack in a busy restaurant area in Sabon Gari which killed at least four people including a young child. A witness stated that a car bomb exploded suddenly while the driver was still driving the vehicle and may have exploded before the bomber reached the intended target.[/ltr]

[ltr]Making a rare threat against the United States, a senior member of Somalia's Islamic insurgent group that has carried out terrorist attacks abroad has said that holy war will come to America and that Islam's flag will one day fly over Washington. The al-Shabaab fighter, Fuad Mohamed Khalaf (aka Fuad Shongole) who has a $5 million US bounty on his head, said in a speech broadcast on the rebels' radio station that al-Shabaab fighters would carry out jihad, or holy war, in Kenya and Uganda "and afterward, with God's will, to America."[/ltr]

[ltr]A Pakistani court this week dropped a case against a US law enforcement agent charged with weapons offenses for trying to board a flight while carrying bullets and a knife in his luggage. The incident revived memories of Pakistan's 2011 arrest of a CIA contractor, who shot dead two men he thought were trying to rob him, souring US-Pakistani ties at a time when the two nations were already deeply suspicious of each other.[/ltr]

[ltr]Russia is under no obligation to stay out of eastern Ukraine, the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said, refusing to guarantee that Moscow will respect its neighbor's territorial integrity. Medvedev also accused US President Barack Obama of lacking "political tact" by imposing sanctions against Russia for its annexation of Crimea, saying the US response was pushing the two countries close to a new Cold War. [...] Credited with having helped "reset" the Russian-US relations during his term as Russia's president in 2008-2012, Medvedev accused Washington of building up renewed tensions through its sanctions against Russia. In the deadliest clash yet in the conflict in Ukraine, at least 14 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and dozens more were wounded when rebels stormed their checkpoint in east Ukraine yesterday. A Ukrainian commander said shortly after the attack, 'The war has started.'[/ltr]

[ltr]The notorious hate preacher Abu Hamza is likely to die behind bars in a maximum-security US prison after a New York jury convicted him of a series of terrorism charges. The conviction marks the final stage of a 10-year battle to have Hamza extradited from the UK and brought to trial in the US. It is believed Theresa May, the UK Home Secretary, will now begin moves to strip Hamza of his British citizenship, making him “stateless” and formally ending his 34-year connection to the UK. Abu Hamza, who is due to be sentenced on 9 September, could face a life term. The court heard he aided the kidnappers of 16 tourists in Yemen in 1998. The 56-year-old was also accused of attempting to build a terror training camp in Oregon in the north-western US.[/ltr]

[ltr]The FBI Director James Comey has testified that he believes the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood in Texas was inspired by al-Qaeda. Major Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, opened fire on his fellow servicemen and women in November 2009, killing 13 and injuring 30 others. He was shot and paralyzed from the waist down in the resulting hail of gunfire, and was sentenced to death in 2013. The federal government has termed the attack an incidence of 'workplace violence,' saying
that the home-grown Hasan didn't meet the legal definition of an international terrorist.[/ltr]

[ltr]Some US intelligence officials want to see more of Osama bin Laden's personal papers declassified, the Daily Beast has reported. When US Navy Seals in 2011 raided the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where the al-Qaeda founder was secretly living with his family, they made off with a trove of bin Laden's documents and computer files after killing him. At least roughly 200 pages of materials have been published, but many more papers remain classified. According to the Daily Beast, a number of al-Qaeda specialists within the US intelligence community have pushed to see more papers published. Some of the documents that were originally planned to be released were letters between bin Laden and the leadership of Boko Haram, two anonymous
intelligence officials said.[/ltr]

[ltr]Federal prosecutors have said that the Tsarnaev brothers might have received help in building the two bombs that exploded at last year's Boston Marathon, although they did not identify any potential suspects except to suggest the pair were inspired by al-Qaeda operatives overseas. In court papers, prosecutors said the brothers had emptied hundreds of packages of fireworks to create fuel for the bombs. Yet no powder residue was found in their apartments or three vehicles, "strongly suggesting that others had built, or at least helped the Tsarnaevs build, the bombs, and thus might have built more" explosive devices, the documents say.[/ltr]

[ltr]An Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack on the United States, whether manmade or naturally occurring, could result in the deaths of nine out of ten Americans through starvation, disease and the collapse of modern society, warned Dr. Vincent Peter Pry, a member of the congressional EMP Commission and executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security. “A natural EMP catastrophe or nuclear EMP attack could blackout the national electric grid for months or years and collapse all the other critical infrastructures - communications, transportation, banking and finance, food and water - necessary to sustain modern society and the lives of 310 million Americans,” Pry last week told the House Committee on Homeland
Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies. The subcommittee herd testimony from a variety of experts during a hearing to examine the potentially catastrophic impact of an EMP attack on America’s largely unsecured electrical grid and critical infrastructure.[/ltr]

[ltr]Cyber News:[/ltr]

[ltr]eBay Inc, operator of the online-auction site, asked users to change their passwords after a cyber- attack exposed a database with login information and data such as birthdays and phone numbers. There's no evidence of unauthorized activity resulting from the breach, eBay said this week in a statement. While credit-card numbers are stored separately and encrypted, it's still best to change passwords, the company said. eBay's revelations come on the heels of a web-security bug known as Heartbleed, made public on April 7, and follows high-profile consumer-data breaches at Target Corp and Neiman Marcus Group Ltd In this case, hackers reached eBay's corporate network by getting access to a small number of employee passwords, prompting the company to disclose the attack.[/ltr]

[ltr]China has denounced US charges against five of its army officers accused of economic cyber-espionage. Beijing says the US is also guilty of spying on other countries, including China, and accuses the US of hypocrisy and "double standards". China has summoned the US ambassador in Beijing over the incident. It says relations will be
damaged. US prosecutors say the officers stole trade secrets and internal documents from five companies and a labor union. Attorney General, Eric Holder, announced that the men, all members of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), "maintained unauthorised access to victim computers to steal information from these entities that would be useful" to the victims' competitors in China. Holder said some of the "victims" included US Steel Corp., Westinghouse, Alcoa, Allegheny Technologies, the United Steel Workers Union and SolarWorld. “We remain deeply concerned about Chinese government-sponsored, cyber-enabled theft of trade secrets and other sensitive business information for commercial gain.” Jen Psaki, US State Department.
China's foreign ministry [subsequently] summoned the US ambassador after the US indicted five Chinese military-affiliated hackers for stealing commercial secrets in an unprecedented cyber-espionage case. China's foreign ministry called the allegations preposterous and accused the US of double standards.[/ltr]

[ltr]During two days of operations taking place in 16 countries worldwide, [...] creators, sellers and users of BlackShades malware were targeted by judicial and law enforcement authorities. During this operation, 359 house searches were carried out worldwide, and more than 80 people were arrested. BlackShades has sold and distributed malicious software (malware) to thousands of individuals throughout the world. BlackShades' flagship product was the BlackShades RAT, a sophisticated piece of malware that enables its users to remotely and surreptitiously gain complete control over a victim's computer. Once installed on a victim's computer, a user of the RAT is free to, among other things, access and view documents, photographs and other files, record all of the keystrokes entered and even activate the webcam on the victim's computer.[/ltr]

[ltr]Seventeen men have been arrested in the UK as part of a worldwide crackdown on a malicious computer program. The "malware" was said to have infected more than 500,000 computers since 2010. The UK's National Crime Agency said 15 arrests took place in England and two men were held in Scotland.[/ltr]

[ltr]An advanced group of hackers recently attacked a US public utility, compromising its control system network without affecting the utility’s operations, according to the US Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not name the utility in a report released this week by the agency’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT).[/ltr]

[ltr]And Finally ...[/ltr]

[ltr]A City of London skyscraper that was blamed for small fires and melted cars and tiles in a nearby street is to be given a shade to act as a permanent sun block. The unusual design of 20 Fenchurch Street - nicknamed the Walkie Talkie because of its distinctive shape - reflected the sun's rays into the street, causing damage to people's cars and businesses. On one occasion when heat on the tiles of the building hit more than 92F, a journalist even managed to fry an egg. Now, developer Land Securities says it has been given planning permission for a "brise soleil" sunshade to replace a temporary system put in place last summer - work on the shade will start this month. The 37-storey building was still being erected in September when angry business owners in Eastcheap blamed the £200m project, designed by Rafael Vinoly, for blistering
paintwork, causing tiles to smash and singeing fabric. A local barber
said the position of the sun at a certain time of the day caused a searing bolt of sunlight to start a small fire and burn a hole in his company's doormat. Developers Land Securities and Canary Wharf agreed to pay for repair work and built a large screen to cut the risk of further damage to businesses from reflected sunlight.[/ltr]

[ltr]Significant Forthcoming Anniversaries:[/ltr]

[ltr]24 May 2000 Israeli troops withdraw from Lebanon after 22 years of occupation
26 May 2014 Memorial Day – US & Spring Bank Holiday - UK
27 May 1964 Founding day of FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
29 May 1972 Japanese Red Army terrorists mount grenade and automatic weapons assault on passengers at Tel Aviv’s Lod Airport killing 26 people
30 May 2001: The founder of the extremist group, the Japanese Red Army announces its dissolution, regrouping as a legal entity[/ltr]

[ltr]2 June 1953 Coronation Day of HM Queen Elizabeth ll
3 June 2007 Authorities in New York disrupt plot to blow up jet fuel supply tanks and pipelines at JFK International Airport in the city
3 June 1982 Shlomo Argov, Israeli ambassador to London, was shot in an assassination attempt outside the Dorchester Hotel in Park Lane, London W1
4 June 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon (follows the near fatal shooting of the Israeli Ambassador to London – Shlomo Argov)
4 June 1989 Massacre of students in China’s Tiananmen Square
4 June 1999 Turkish police kill two terrorists allegedly planning to attack the US Consulate.
5 June 2014 World Environment Day
6 June 1944 Commemoration of the D-Day Landings
6 June 1984 Radical Sikhs in India’s Punjab storm and occupy the Golden Temple
6 June 2001 Bomb maker Inderjit Singh Reyat charged in connection with the 1985 Air India sabotage that killed 329 people.
7 June 2011 Harun Fazul, wanted in connection with August 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killed by Somali forces; U.S. Secretary of State sees “significant blow to al-Qaeda, its extremist allies, and its operations in East Africa”
7 June 2006 Abu Mus‘ab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, killed in Coalition raid
8 June 2000 British Attaché, Brigadier Stephen Saunders, is murdered in a street ambush. November 17 claimed responsibility
9 June 2009 Massive lorry bomb attack on the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar, Pakistan, kills 18 and injures at least 50.
10 June 1973 U.S. Anniversary of Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States (Pro-life and pro-choice activists organize gatherings on this day)
12 June 2014 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil
14 June 1985 Hijacking of TWA flight 847 by Hezbollah and forced to Beirut. US Navy diver, Robert Stethem, is murdered by the hijackers.
15 June 2001 A Sudanese citizen and an Indian national are arrested in India for plotting to blow up US Embassy in New Delhi.
15 June 1996 Provisional IRA detonated a massive vehicle bomb in Manchester city centre. At about 3,000 kg in weight, the VBIED was one of the largest devices to function in peacetime UK.
23 June 1985 Sabotage of Air India flight 185 off the Irish coast. Kills 329 people
25 June 1996 Bomb at the U.S. military base at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia kills 19 US airmen.
26 June 1995 Attempted assassination of Egyptian president Mubarak during a visit to Ethiopia.
27 June 1994 Sarin gas attack in the Japanese city of Matsumoto kills 7 people. Aum Shinrikyo sect responsible.
28 June 1988 US Defence Attaché William Norden is murdered in Athens by November 17 terrorist group.
28 June 1914 Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo precipitates the 1914-1918 Great war.
29 June 2007 Two VBIED’s left in London’s Cockspur Street and Haymarket are made safe by police explosives officer.
29 June 1999 PKK Leader Abdullah Oçalan is sentenced to death by hanging for treason. Later commuted to life in jail.
30 June 2007 Two individuals attempt to crash a VBIED into a Glasgow Airport passenger terminal.[/ltr]

[ltr]Visit Dilitas at our Facebook page.[/ltr]

[ltr]Ensure that your own security arrangements are adequate and robust at all times.
Report any suspicious activity to Police immediately
Confidential Anti Terrorist Hotline: 0800 789 321 or dial 999[/ltr]