CRC Open-Source Intelligence Briefs

W. Thomas Smith Jr., Director of the Counterterrorism Research Center

GAZA: HAMAS terrorists got a nasty surprise when they attempted to shoot down an Israeli helicopter during their war with Israel in January.

According to The World Tribune: HAMAS smuggled four American-made Stinger portable anti-aircraft missile systems through Egypt last year. Then – during the January 2009 war – when an American-made Israeli Apache attack helicopter came under fire by HAMAS, the Raytheon friend/foe identification system on the Stinger would not allow the gunner to target (what the system read as) a friendly target. When the missile was launched, instead of acquiring the helicopter, it picked up the heat signature of a HAMAS machine-gun position.

“The Stinger was drawn by the heat of our guns rather than the engines of the Israeli helicopters,” The Tribune's source said. “At that point, we stopped using this weapon.”

The source said HAMAS is now purchasing Russian-made SA-16s.

NORTH AMERICA:The FBI raided three money transfer businesses, Wednesday, in south Minneapolis, where agents served search-warrants on Mustaqbal Express, Quran Express, and Aaran Financial, all alleged to be wiring money to several African nations, including Somalia, Eritrea, Kenya, and Sudan.

Last week, we reported the development of a tri-party pact between Sudan, Eritrea, and Iran: the ultimate goal being Iran gaining a strategic presence on the Red Sea, threatening Saudi Arabia from the southwest and fronting Egypt and Ethiopia. And of course, Iran already has been smuggling weapons into Africa. Some have been intercepted.

Just connecting more of the obvious dots.

According to FOX News:

“A copy of the sealed search warrant says the FBI is investigating money laundering – specifically, money transfers between Minnesota and Somalia, and a half-dozen other African nations as well as the United Arab Emirates.

“The FBI raided the transfer businesses in search of money transfers after January 2007 – about the same time several young Somali men from Minneapolis went missing, suspected of going back to Somali to fight in a holy war.

“The FBI has long been suspicious the money wiring services could be used to launder money for Somali pirates, or to finance Al-Shabaab, the Al-Qaeda linked terror now controlling most of Somalia.”

Also Christopher Holton at the Center for Security Policy writes:

“It was treated as big news on Tuesday when Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau indicted Chinese executive Li Fang Wei and his company for using New York banks to finance the sale of tons of restricted, weapons-related material to Iran. But the truth is that some of these same banks and other major financial institutions, including those bailed out by American taxpayers, for years have deliberately been supporting ‘Shariah-compliant’ financial policies that almost assuredly end up being used to support illicit Middle Eastern, terrorist interests with close ties to Iran. Read more at The American Spectator.”

ISRAEL:Naharnet reports some 30 American citizens (injured by Hizballah rockets) in Israel, Friday, sued North Korea seeking more than $100-million in damages, accusing the communist state of “helping Hizballah build underground bunkers to safely store their Katyusha rockets.”

Naharnet adds, “Hizballah in 2006 fired thousands of missiles into northern Israel, which launched a deadly month-long offensive against its northern neighbor.”

Meanwhile, Hizballah, which former U.S. Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff says “makes al Qaeda look like a minor league team,” and which continues to violate UN mandate in Lebanon and has been directly involved – both financially and operationally – in terrorist attacks or supporting operations on five continents; continues to be soft-soaped by the Left and its new administration in Washington.

The soft-soaping comes in the form of downplaying Hizballah’s strengths and activities in Lebanon, denying and underreporting those strengths and activities, even going so far as to jest and make-light-of the terrorist group – by those who pretend they are opposed to the group (typical propaganda ploy) – as a means of marginalizing Hizballah’s threat to the world.

[Chris Carter contributed to this report.]