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Iran says breaks up CIA spy ring, some sentenced to death
JULY 22, 2019 UPDATED 6 HOURS AGO
WORLD NEWS
Iran says breaks up CIA spy ring, some sentenced to death
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mide ... SKCN1UH0JD
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran captured 17 spies working for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and some have been sentenced to death, Iranian media reported on Monday.
Iranian state television published images it said showed the CIA officers who were in touch with the suspected spies.
There was no immediate comment on the Iranian allegations by the CIA or U.S. officials.
Iran announced in June that it had broken up an alleged CIA spy ring but it was unclear whether Monday’s announcement was linked to the same case.
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Re: Iran says breaks up CIA spy ring, some sentenced to death
With Guns, Cash and Terrorism, Gulf States Vie for Power in Somalia
The port in Bosaso, Somalia, is managed by an Emirati company. A recent attack there may have been carried out to advance the interests of Qatar and to drive out the Emiratis. Credit Feisal Omar/Reuters
By Ronen Bergman and David D. Kirkpatrick
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/worl ... r-uae.html
July 22, 2019
When a small car bomb exploded outside a courthouse in the bustling port city of Bosaso in northern Somalia, local news reports chalked it up to Islamist militants retaliating for American airstrikes. At least eight people were wounded, and a local affiliate of the Islamic State claimed responsibility.
The attack, however, may have also been part of a very different conflict: one among wealthy Persian Gulf monarchies competing for power and profits across the Horn of Africa.
Over the last two years, war-torn Somalia has emerged as a central battleground, with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar each providing weapons or military training to favored factions, exchanging allegations about bribing local officials, and competing for contracts to manage ports or exploit natural resources.
In an audio recording obtained by The New York Times of a cellphone call with the Qatari ambassador to Somalia, a businessman close to the emir of Qatar said that the militants had carried out the bombing in Bosaso to advance Qatar’s interests by driving out its rival, the United Arab Emirates.
the businessman, Khalifa Kayed al-Muhanadi, said in the call on May 18, about a week after the bombing.The bombings and killings, we know who are behind them,
The violence was
he said, referring to the Emirates’ financial capital.intended to make Dubai people run away from there,
the capital of Qatar.Let them kick out the Emiratis, so they don’t renew the contracts with them and I will bring the contract here to Doha,
If accurate, his claims are striking new evidence of the potential for the competition among Persian Gulf states to inflame strife across the Horn of Africa.
By The New York Times
said Zach Vertin, a scholar at the Brookings Institution and a former American diplomat in the region.Somalia is the most vivid example of the potential destabilization brought by the Gulf rivalry,
The scramble for power in Somalia and the Horn of Africa is in some ways an extension of the cold war that has flared across the region since the beginning of the Arab Spring uprisings more than eight years ago. Qatar and Turkey backed the uprisings and the Islamist political parties that rose with them. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia opposed the uprisings and the Islamist parties, and accused Qatar of backing militants.The Gulf sees these states as clients. It is all about controlling the space: plant a flag in the ground and lock down territory and relationships before your rival can.
Two years ago, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other allied states cut off commercial and diplomatic ties with Qatar in an effort to pressure it to alter its policies.
Somalia is an impoverished country, but its long coastline offers access to the region’s fast-growing markets and influence over vital shipping lanes from the Persian Gulf. An Emirati company manages the port in Bosaso.
Asked about the cellphone conversation, neither Mr. al-Muhanadi nor the government of Qatar disputed the authenticity of the recording, but both said that he was speaking as a private citizen and was not a government official.
the Qatar communications office said in a statement to The Times.The state of Qatar’s foreign policy has always been one of creating stability and prosperity — we do not meddle in the internal affairs of sovereign countries,
However in the recording of the phone call, which was made by a foreign intelligence agency opposed to Qatar’s foreign policies, the ambassador expressed no protest or displeasure at the idea that Qataris had played a role in the bombings.Anybody doing so is not acting on behalf of our government.
the ambassador, Hassan bin Hamza Hashem, replied.So that’s why they are having attacks there, to make them run away,
President Trump welcomed Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, to the White House this month.
Credit: Pool photo by Kevin Dietsch
Mr. al-Muhanadi, the businessman, assured the ambassador.Our friends were behind the last bombings
Mr. al-Muhanadi is known to be close to the emir, Qatar’s ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. There are photographs of the two of them together and, according to news reports and text messages provided by the intelligence agency, Mr. al-Muhanadi frequently travels with the emir.
In a brief telephone interview with The New York Times, the ambassador denied knowing Mr. al-Muhanadi and quickly hung up.
In a separate telephone interview, Mr. al-Muhanadi said that he was only a “school friend” of the ambassador’s.
he said.I am a retired man and a trader,
Asked why he had described the Bosaso attackers as “friends,” Mr. al-Muhanadi said,I do not represent any government.
If the Bosaso bombing was intended to drive away the Emiratis, it was not the first attack there directed at them.All Somalis are my friends.
In February, two assailants disguised as fishermen shot and killed the manager for an Emirati company involved in running the port. The company, P&O Ports, said that three other employees were wounded.
The militant group Al Shabab claimed responsibility, saying that it had assassinated the manager because the Emirati company “occupies” the port of Bosaso.
a Shabab spokesman said of the port manager, Reuters reported.We had warned him but he turned a deaf ear,
He was illegally in Somalia.
Somali troops at an Emirati training program in Mogadishu in 2017. The Emirates ended the program last year, shifting its support to two provinces opposed to the central government. Credit: Feisal Omar/Reuters
In the cellphone recording, Mr. al-Muhanadi refers to the government’s contracts with DP World, the main Dubai company hired to manage ports in Bosaso and a city in Somaliland province. He says that a relative of the president “is with me” and will transfer the DP World contracts to Qatar.
The Shabab, an affiliate of Al Qaeda, and the Islamic State in Somalia, a smaller group, consider the Somali government their main enemy. The United Arab Emirates have carried out military operations against both groups, but it is unclear why those groups would side with Qatar, which has also supported the Somali government.
Qatar has denied supporting the Shabab or other militant groups. President Trump once accused Qatar of financing terrorist groups, but when Sheikh al-Thani visited the White House this month, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... story.html Mr. Trump called him a friend and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin praised him for helping combat terrorist financing.
American officials say that the charges against Qatar are selective at best, noting that many Persian Gulf monarchies have struck tactical alliances with hard-line militants or struggled to clamp down on donations to extremists by wealthy individuals.
Many Gulf states are close military partners of the United States, and Qatar is the home of a major American air base.
Of the Gulf states, the United Arab Emirates have moved most aggressively to spread influence in the Horn of Africa. The Emiratis sent teams of mercenaries and commandos to Somalia as early as 2012 to combat piracy off the coast, and they extended military operations to fight the Shabab and other militant groups.
Over time, the Emiratis established a ring of more than half a dozen commercial ports or military bases around the Gulf of Aden and the Horn of Africa, including a major military base at Assab, Eritrea, that was used to launch operations into Yemen.
During a severe famine in 2011, Turkey, an ally of Qatar, donated significant humanitarian aid, and then followed with extensive commercial investment. Turkey opened a major military base and training program in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, in 2017.
A food distribution center financed by a Qatari charity feeds displaced people in Mogadishu.
Credit: Mohamed Abdiwahab/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The Somali government initially sought to stay neutral in the regional cold war.
But in April 2018, the Somali authorities seized $9.6 million in cash from an Emirati jet at the Mogadishu airport. Emirati officials said the money was intended to pay the salaries of Somali soldiers and police officers under Emirati training. Somalia accused the Emiratis of planning to use the money to buy influence or otherwise destabilize the country.
Demanding an apology, the United Arab Emirates retaliated by cutting off cooperation with the Somali government, suspecting it of siding with Turkey and Qatar. The Emiratis shifted their support and operations to two northern provinces antagonistic to the central government — the breakaway province of Somaliland and the semiautonomous province of Puntland, which includes Bosaso.
The Emirati company DP World said in 2017 that it had agreed to invest $336 million under a 30-year contract to expand and run the port in Bosaso. The company pledged $440 million the previous year to develop a port in Somaliland.
Qatar moved quickly to capitalize on the Somali government’s rupture with the United Arab Emirates by fortifying its own ties. The month after the cash seizure, Qatari officials told Reuters that they were providing $385 million in infrastructure, education and humanitarian assistance to Somalia. In January, Qatar said it was also providing 68 armored vehicles to help the government fight the Shabab and other extremists.
The Shabab have fought against both sides in the inter-Arab cold war. The group has attacked Turkey for backing Somalia and its military. In May, the Shabab claimed responsibility for a car bomb that killed a Turkish construction engineer said to be working at the Turkish military training facility in Mogadishu.
In 2013, the Shabab attacked the Turkish Embassy, killing three people and wounding nine others.
If confirmed, the claim of the Qatari businessman, Mr. al-Muhanadi, would suggest that Qatar had at least tacitly condoned the attacks by extremists in Bosaso even as it helped the government fight extremists in Mogadishu. A former Defense Department official said he would not be surprised if Qatar was trying to play both sides to its own advantage.
Tricia Bacon, a Somalia specialist at American University in Washington and a former counterterrorism analyst for the State Department, suggested that Qatar did not need a deep relationship with the Shabab in order to hire local extremists for a more limited task, as
The government of Qatar said it would investigate Mr. al-Muhanadi’s call to the ambassador.a proxy to conduct some attacks and disrupt the Emirates’ plans.
it said in a statement.He will be held responsible for his comments, which we reiterated do not represent our principles,
In the telephone interview, Mr. al-Muhanadi blamed the Emiratis for the trouble in Somalia.Somalia is an important partner for the state of Qatar, but we do not interfere in their internal affairs.
he said.Just talk to our friends from the simple people of Somalia,
Mona El-Naggar and Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.They know that the Emiratis are responsible for destruction.
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Re: Iran says breaks up CIA spy ring, some sentenced to death
July 23, 2019اردوفارسيعربي
New York Times obtains recording revealing Qatari complicity in Somalia attack
Qatari ambassador to Somalia Hassan bin Hamza Hashem pictured. (Photo courtesy: Qatari Foreign Ministry via Twitter)
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gu ... ttack.html#
Tuesday, 23 July 2019
A businessman linked to the Qatari Emir told Qatar’s ambassador to Somalia that an extremist attack carried out in May was done to advance Doha’s interests in the country against the United Arab Emirates, an audio recording obtained by the New York Times revealed.
According to the New York Times report, Khalifa Kayed al-Muhanadi tells Qatari ambassador Hassan bin Hamza Hashem that
Al-Muhanadi says the attack was done in orderthe bombings and killings, we know who are behind them.
to make Dubai people run away from there.
al-Muhanadi said.Let them kick out the Emiratis, so they don’t renew the contracts with them and I will bring the contract here to Doha,
The ambassador then tells al-Muhanadi that the attacks were taking place “to make them run away,” in reference to the UAE.
al-Muhanadi replies back.Our friends were behind the last bombings,
When asked by the New York Times about the recording, neither al-Muhanadi nor the Qatari government denied the authenticity of the phone call which was secretly recorded by a
During the phone call, the Qatari businessman tells his country’s diplomatic representative to Somalia that he is connected to a family member of Somalia's president and would help in the transfer of contracts from UAE-owned DP World onto Qatar.foreign intelligence agency opposed to Qatar’s foreign policies.
The Dubai state-owned port operator DP World has a presence in the Horn of Africa. It launched last October a $101 million project to expand a port in the breakaway region of Somaliland. https://english.alarabiya.net/en/busine ... iland.html Somaliland broke away from Somalia in 1991 and has acted as a de-facto independent state since then but is not internationally recognized.
Gunmen shot and killed a DP World subsidiary company manager in Somalia’s semiautonomous region of Puntland in February, with the al-Shabab militant group claiming responsibility for the attack according to Reuters.
When contacted by the New York Times, the Qatari ambassador denied he knew al-Muhanadi and cut the phone call short. Al-Muhanadi, however, told the New York Times that he was school friends with the ambassador.
al-Muhanadi was quoted as saying.I am a retired man and a trader … I do not represent any government,
Qatar’s communications office released a statement to the New York Times saying that
they do not meddle in the internal affairs of sovereign countries.
the statement read.Anyone doing so is not acting on behalf of our government,
Last April, the UAE ended its mission to Somalia https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/g ... izure.html after an incident that saw Somali soldiers board an Emirati airplane at the Mogadishu airport, assault its soldiers at gunpoint and confiscated https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/g ... money.html $9.6 million.
Relations between Somalia and the UAE had been strained over the ongoing diplomatic crisis engulfing Qatar, the Associated Press reported at the time. Somalia’s government remained neutral in the conflict despite the Saudi and Emirati stance in denouncing Doha.
al-Muhanadi tells the Qatari ambassador, according to the audio recording obtained by the New York Times.Just talk to our friends from the simple people of Somalia,
(With agencies)They know that the Emiratis are responsible for destruction.
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Re: Iran says breaks up CIA spy ring, some sentenced to death
Ethiopia security authorities rescind move to deport Sudan’s opposition leader
Gibril Ibrahim speaking to Journalists in Ethiopia in 2016. Photo credit : Sudan Tribune
Borkena
https://borkena.com/2019/07/22/ethiopia ... on-leader/
July 22, 2019
BBC Amharic reported on Monday that Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, Nebiyat Getachew, was contacted to remark about it but he reportedly said that he does not know anything about the incident.
However, the news source confirmed from participants of the ongoing negotiation in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa that leader of Sudan’s Justice and Equality rebel group, Gibril Ibrahim, was isolated from among his colleagues from the scenes of the negotiation and taken to Bole International AirPort, apparently for deport.
The move to deport one of Sudan’s opposition group leaders happened on Sunday.
The African Union mediators intervened to convince Ethiopian authorities not to deport leaders of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and had to explain about the negative impact the deportation could have in the negotiation process.
The Sudanese news source http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article67812 reported that the Chairperson of African Union, Moussa Faki, himself personally intervened.
Based on a report by Sudanese News source, Sudan Tribune, opposition groups protested the move to the African Union:
Ethiopian Security Forces reportedly mentioned that the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) is “unwelcome persons in Ethiopia,” when they took him out of the hotel (unspecified) where the negotiation was taking place but it unclear as to why and on what grounds the leader was unwelcome to Ethiopia.Infuriated by the decision, the opposition groups stopped their meetings and protested the move to the African Union and the Ethiopian government, as many said they should go elsewhere to pursue their meetings and others went to the airport to show their solidarity with the deportees.
Ethiopia https://borkena.com/2019/07/18/sudan-tc ... greemeent/ managed to broker a deal between Sudan’s Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the opposition – Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) sometime last week.