New terror target
CIA focuses on Somali- based al- Shabab terrorist group.
WASHINGTON — The CIA is adding operatives and resources to focus on alShabab terrorist group as the FBI sends scores of agents to help examine evidence taken from the rubble of the shopping mall massacre in Nairobi, Kenya, U. S. officials say.
The FBI is taking the lead in the U. S. portion of the investigation, while the CIA and other U. S. intelligence agencies are mining electronic data and quizzing informants in an effort to determine if the Somalibased terrorist group is planning fresh attacks, including any against U. S. facilities or interests.
The CIA’s counterterrorism center has several analysts and operatives who work full time on al- Shabab, but they detected no warning that the audacious attackwas being planned. The center will add experts and other assets to step up collection and analysis of intelligence on the group’s leaders and operations. The FBI team in Nairobi has begun collecting DNA, fingerprints and other biometric information to try to identify the gunmen and victims, officials said, as well as studying data from cellphones, surveillance video and other digital devices that might shed light on the four- day siege at the Westgate Mall, which left at least 67 people dead and dozens wounded or missing.
Agents fromthe FBI’s field office in New York and its Joint Terrorism Task Force also are examining the financing of the plot and trying to determine if anyone helped choose the target or coordinate the terrorist tactics but did not join the attack. The FBI eventually hopes to create a timeline that shows how the bloody assault was planned, funded and executed.
“There’s a lot to learn here,” said an FBI agent who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We want to get all we can.”
The State Department separately issued a “worldwide caution” on the potential of terrorist attacks by groups around the globe. It specifically accuses al- Shabab of “assassinations, suicide bombings, hostage taking and indiscriminate attacks in civilian-populated areas” in Somalia and nearby East African nations, including attacks on humanitarian aid groups. U. S. officials long considered al- Shabab, a militant Islamist group that joined al- Qaida in February 2012, as a regional danger but not a specific threat to America. That assessment is now under review. “We are taking ( the threat) as a serious one,” Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters Thursday.
“I would not say that we have any specific, credible evidence that Shabab is planning to do anything in the United States,” he said. “I’m not sure if they have the capacity to do anything in the United States.”
But the FBI is concerned about al- Shabab’s success in recruiting Somali- Americans to its cause. More than 20 are believed to have traveled to the Horn of Africa to join the militant group.
The FBI has not verified if any Americans took part in the attack, Holder said. “That is one of the things that we are trying to do with our Kenyan colleagues, to go through the forensic things, materials thatwe have, physical things, to make that kind of determination.”
Kenyan authorities initially claimed two or three Americans were among the 10to15 terrorists who opened fire in the mall. Holder said Kenya officials have not provided any details of Americans’ alleged involvement.
Holder said FBI agents have been “on the ground since right after the incident began” on Sept. 21 and have been “flowing ... into Nairobi on a continuing basis.”
Kenya’s interior minister, Joseph Ole Lenku, told reporters that Israel, Britain, Germany, Canada and Interpol also are helping with the investigation at the mall, whichwas popular with Nairobi’s large expatriate community. Several Americans were injured in the attack, but none are known to have been killed.