KENYAN NEWSPAPER HAS MADE A SHOCKING REVELATION OF HOW THE SOMALIA BASED ISLAMIST TERRORISTS HAD PLANNED BOMB ATTACK ON US SECRETARY OF STATE IN NAIROBI LAST MONTH
Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.
An influential and popular Kenyan weekly newspaper today made a shocking revelation of how the Kenyan police had discovered a secret plot to blow up three important installations in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The three important economic facilities targeted for bombing include the posh Hotel Intercontinental, where the US Secretary of State Mrs Hilary Clinton and her entourage were booked.
The SUNDAY NATION, in its front page headline article further disclosed that a group of extremist Islamic terrorists operating from the neighboring Somalia had plotted the bomb attack in Nairobi during the visit by the US Secretary of State Mrs Hilary Clinton last month.
The paper sited an unnamed senior security officer as its source of this information. It said the officer is working with the undercover counter anti-terrorism unit within the Kenyan police and as such cannot be identified, hence compromise his duty with the anti- terrorists unit.
It quoted the officer as saying that his unit had intercepted communications between the terrorists agents based in Kenya and their counterparts in Somalia on how the terrorists planned to stage simultaneous attacks at the Hotel Intercontinental, the Kencom – one of the busiest Bus terminals in the City centre, located outside the Kenya Commercial Bank headquarters, and the nearby Hilton Hotel.
Mrs Clinton stayed at the Hotel Intercontinental during her visit. She was accompanied by a large entourage of American top government officials, businessmen and others numbering about 300 people.
The plan, according to the paper report, was hatched in Somalia and only thwarted by the hawk eyed Kenyan security officers who are said to have intercepted secret communications between the Islamists plotters in Somalia and their accomplices in Nairobi. So far five people are reported to be in custody assisting the security men with their investigations.
The top security official, who the SUNDAY NATION says, his identity cannot be revealed without compromising anti-terrorism operations, had confided to the paper that the terrorists linked to the dreaded Al Shabaab group had wanted to embarrass the Kenyan and US governments, but their plans were thwarted before the attackers could cross the border from Somalia into Kenya.
“The threat were neutralized a week to the AGOA meeting in combined efforts by the military and other security agencies,”, the security official was quoted as saying this. The secret security dragnet in Nairobi netted five people; who are reported to be in police custody under intensive interrogation and investigations into their secret plot to blow up installations.
The report added,.”While in the past, the real target of the attacks has been Western interests, the Al-Qaeda leadership has since changed their tactics and made Kenya a new target. So serious is the threat that during the Agoa meeting, the Al-Qaeda intended to strike at the heart of the Kenyan capital during the rush hours of the day, expecting the blast to hurt as many people as possible”.
The security operations in Nairobi, according to the report, netted five crucial suspected terrorists, one of them said to be a woman. One of the suspects who carries the Danish traveling documents, is believed to be a Somali national. The other four, one of whom is a woman, hold Kenyan identification documents which are believed to be fake.
According to the security officials, the mastermind of the attack, were in constant contact with a Mr Saleh Nabban, one of the most wanted men by the US FBI. His personal assistant , a man identified as a Mr. Anus, is believed to have been coordinating the plot to attack Kenya during Mrs Clinton’s brief stay in Nairobi.
Mrs Clinton was in the Kenyan capital to officiate at trade talks between her government and the African countries, courtesy of the African Growth Opportunity Act :{AGOA}, an American law that promotes trade between the US and Africa..
Mrs Clinton arrived in the country on August 4 and left for the tour of other six African nations, which included Angola, Rwanda, Dr. Congo and South Africa on August 7. Other delegates were also booked at the nearby Hilton Hotel, where security network provided the same service of the same class with the Hotel Intercontinental.
And to reassure themselves ,Kenyan security apparatus and officials detailed officers from the elite presidential guards to her entourage, just to beef up the security services, provided logistic support to the US Secret Service and Marine.
The busy streets around the two hotels, and those buildings adjacent to the two hotels, and the Kenyatta International conference Centre, the venue of the meeting, had been closed to normal traffic as part of the stringent security measures put in place.
The information which had been received by the security network about the threat and what Kenyan officials did to stop the deadly plan was shared with US security agencies.
The presence of Al-Shabaab operatives in Kenya, the report says, was facilitated by helpers living mainly in the Mombasa, and Nairobi’s Eastleigh ,South B,South C and Kamarock estates.
The authenticity of these reports could not be verified immediately as the police are keeping a tight lip over the matter.
Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com
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From: Leo Odera Omolo
Date: Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 2:13 AM
Subject: PLAN OF THE ABORTED BOMB ATTACK ON MRS CLINTON REVEALED IN KENYA