Former FBI director warns that Gaza violence will fuel al-Qaida threat

[mick silver]

Former FBI director warns that Gaza violence will fuel al-Qaida threat

At Aspen Security Forum US official also reveals that al-Qaida bosses from Pakistan are recruiting Jihadis in Syria

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FBI's Mueller: Gaza Will Fuel Jihadist Recruitment


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FBI's Mueller: Gaza Will Fuel Jihadist Recruitment
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Former FBI Director Robert Mueller at the Aspen Security

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Former FBI director Robert Mueller warned that the current violence in Gaza will inflame anti-U.S. sentiment in the region and exacerbate an increasingly dangerous terror threat to the U.S.



"We cannot forget that what's happening in Gaza today will feed and fuel the desire for many more to join radical groups," Mueller said, speaking at the Aspen Security Forum. "And with the territory you have in Syria and Iraq, with the difficulties of covering that particular area, I think you may well see as a result of what's happening between Israel and Hamas in Gaza an increase in the months ahead of those that are willing to go and join such groups."
The comments came as U.S. counter-terrorism officials express new alarms about a mounting flow of foreign fighters – many with western and U.S. passports—to join militant groups in Syria and Iraq.
Speaking on the same panel as Mueller, National Counter-terrorism Center Director Matt Olsen said that U.S. officials have uncovered evidence that “veteran” Al Qaeda operatives from Pakistan are now in Syria seeking to recruit fighters for possible attacks on the U.S. homeland.
"We certainly see that al Qaeda has identified Syria as the place to go," Olsen said. "[Ayman] al-Zawahiri very publicly said that Syria is the place for fighters to go, particularly foreign fighters...In addition to the foreign fighter flow to Syria, what is also of concern is that there are a number of veteran al Qaeda individuals now in Syria taking advantage of the really permissive environment that exists there," he said.




U.S. officials have expressed repeated concern in recent months that these foreign fighters may return to their home countries to launch attacks against U.S. and western interests. But Olsen’s comments today gave the first indication that core Al Qaeda operatives are seeking to exploit the situation, working to identify and possibly train fighters for terror attacks.
Olsen said U.S. officials are seeking to track the Amercans travelling to Syria—in many cases identifying who they are and which communities they are coming from. But once they arrive in Syria, keeping track of them is more difficult. The influx now "spreads from South Asia where it was centered several years ago to large swaths of geography in the Middle East across North Africa. "I think right now that the threat is possibly greater and certainly more complex than it's been in recent years,” said Olsen.
Mueller, speaking on the same panel, said he is worried that the continued hostilities between Israel and Hamas in Gaza will fuel the flow of fighters to the region. "We cannot forget that what's happening in Gaza today will feed and fuel the desire for many more to join radical groups," Mueller said. "And with the territory you have in Syria and Iraq, with the difficulties of covering that particular area, I think you may well see as a result of what's happening between Israel and Hamas in Gaza an increase in the months ahead of those that are willing to go and join such groups."
The comments came during a wide-ranging discussion in which Mueller, making one of his first public appearances since stepping down as FBI director last September, vigorously defended the use of undercover FBI sting operations to target suspected radical Muslims in the United States.
"If we had an opportunity to do a sting on the brothers in Boston, I would have done that in a heartbeat,” Mueller said.



Mueller was responding to questions about a Human Rights Watch report this week which sharply criticized the FBI for “overstepping its role” by effectively creating terror plots through the use of undercover informants—a practice that has alienated some Muslim communities in the U.S. "We do not troll in mosques," Mueller said, though entrapment issues are often a risk in prosecuting terrorism cases.

One such case, the so-called “Newburgh Four” were convicted of plotting to attack a Jewish community center and a U.S. military base after they were recruited by an undercover FBI informant who offered the defendants up to $250,000 to participate in the plot.
In that case, the subject of an HBO documentary that aired this week, the presiding federal judge, Colleen McMahon, had said at sentencing: “I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that there would have no crime here except the government instigated it, planned and brought it to fruition.”
“Was there a conviction?” Mueller shot back when asked about the case. (Check quote.)
Mueller also warned that current crisis over Russian actions in the Ukraine is likely to hamper U.S. efforts to crack down on cyber hackers—a large number f whom are believed to be based in that region. Asked how much cooperation the FBI can expect from the Russian FSB in identifying cyber hackers—such as those that attacked Target last year and stole 40 million credit and debit cards—he replied, “Not much.”
Watch the entire panel discussion here:




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[keehah]

Mueller was responding to questions about a Human Rights Watch report this week which sharply criticized the FBI for “overstepping its role” by effectively creating terror plots through the use of undercover informants—a practice that has alienated some Muslim communities in the U.S. "We do not troll in mosques," Mueller said, though entrapment issues are often a risk in prosecuting terrorism cases.

One such case, the so-called “Newburgh Four” were convicted of plotting to attack a Jewish community center and a U.S. military base after they were recruited by an undercover FBI informant who offered the defendants up to $250,000 to participate in the plot.

In that case, the subject of an HBO documentary that aired this week, the presiding federal judge, Colleen McMahon, had said at sentencing: “I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that there would have no crime here except the government instigated it, planned and brought it to fruition.”

“Was there a conviction?” Mueller shot back when asked about the case.

msn.com: The Boston Globe: Judge orders release of 3 of ‘Newburgh Four’ and assails FBI’s role in a post-9/11 terror sting (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/judge-orders-release-of-3-of-newburgh-four-and-assails-fbi-s-role-in-a-post-911-terror-sting/ar-AA1ev8tH)
1w
Three men convicted in a post-9/11 terrorism sting have been ordered freed from prison by a judge who deemed their lengthy sentences “unduly harsh and unjust” and decried the FBI’s role in radicalizing them in a plot to blow up New York synagogues and shoot down National Guard planes.

Onta Williams, David Williams, and Laguerre Payen — three of the men known as the “Newburgh Four” — were “hapless, easily manipulated and penurious petty criminals” caught up more than a decade ago in a scheme driven by overzealous FBI agents and a dodgy informant, US District Judge Colleen McMahon said in her ruling Thursday.

“The real lead conspirator was the United States,” McMahon wrote in granting the men’s request for compassionate release, effective in three months.

She said that it was “heinous” of the men to agree to participate in what she called the government’s “made for TV movie.” But, the judge added, “the sentence was the product of a fictitious plot to do things that these men had never remotely contemplated, and that were never going to happen.”

She excoriated the government for sending “a villain” of an informant “to troll among the poorest and weakest of men for ‘terrorists’ who might prove susceptible to an offer of much-needed cash in exchange for committing a faux crime.”

The US attorney’s office declined to comment on the judge’s decision. A message seeking comment was sent to the FBI.

Citing concerns for the men’s health and her own qualms about the case, McMahon cut the 25-year mandatory minimum sentences she imposed on them in 2011 to time served plus 90 days. She said that would allow time for probation officials to prepare and for Payen’s lawyer to line up supportive housing for the man, who has a severe mental illness.

“We are tremendously pleased that our clients are on their way home — even if it’s fourteen years too late,” said Amith R. Gupta, part of a group of lawyers representing Payen and the Willamses, who are not related. Gupta in his statement described the three as destitute men “entrapped for their race, religion, and working-class backgrounds by a government looking to spread fear of Muslims and justify bloated budgets.”...

The defense lawyers said federal informant Shaheed Hussain tried to stir up the men with rhetoric and went on to choose the targets, offer hefty payment, buy the defendants groceries, and provide the fake bombs and missile. The defense portrayed Hussain as a self-serving manipulator who was trying to please the government after his own, unrelated fraud conviction.

Jurors deliberated for eight days before convicting the men in 2010. Three years later, they lost an appeal.