Bahrain Accuses Activists of Terror, Subversion .

Bahrain accused 23 Shiite activists, including political leaders and prominent clerics, of promoting terrorism and plotting to overthrow the monarchy, a move expected to add to sectarian tensions ahead of elections in the small Gulf Arab nation.

The accusations come after a wave of arrests last month of members of the country's majority Shiite community, which has long complained of discrimination by Bahrain's Sunni leadership, despite political overhauls ushered in by King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa. Activists say the arrests and charges against respected leaders of the community could further alienate disaffected Shiites.

Bahrain's experiment with limited democracy is often viewed as a barometer of political and sectarian tensions in the wider region, where Sunni regimes fear an expansionistic Iran and the growing clout of Shiites in Middle East affairs. Saudi Arabia, in particular, fears that instability among Bahrain's Shiites could prove a trigger point for that country's own restive Shiite minority, who live close to Bahrain in Saudi Arabia's main oil-producing region.

Bahrain is home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which is responsible for U.S. naval forces in the Mideast and off the coast of East Africa. Political unrest is unlikely to affect the status of the base.

On Saturday, state prosecutors announced charges against 23 men, including the heads of two splinter political groups and prominent Shiite clerics, including plotting against the king, terrorist financing, arson and sabotage.

"This sophisticated terrorist network with operations inside and outside Bahrain has undertaken and planned a systematic and layered campaign of violence and subversion aimed squarely at undermining the national security of Bahrain," said Abdulrahman al Sayed, an official at the Public Prosecutors office, in a statement.

Lawyers for the charged men weren't available for comment.

The Bahraini authorities have issued a gag order on local media about the case. They also recently banned opposition websites in the kingdom, including the site run by largest Shiite political organization in Bahrain, the Islamic National Accord Association, known as al Wefaq, which controls 17 of the 40 seats in the lower house of parliament.

In the 1990s, Bahrain, an island city-state, was plagued by widespread civil unrest by Shiites fighting Sunni-dominated security forces. Tensions calmed after King Hamad took over in 1999, instituted constitutional changes and allowed Shiite political organizations to participate in elections for the lower house of parliament, which helps shape laws in conjunction with a second body whose members are handpicked by the king.

Local human-rights activists said the crackdown was part of a wider strategy by the government to undermine an increasingly effective political opposition ahead of national elections scheduled for Oct. 23.

"The opposition is divided between participation and opposing participation in the vote. When you arrest one side of the debate, it makes it harder for the other supporters to vote without appearing to be puppets of the regime," said Nabeel Rajab, the vice president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, whose website has been banned in the kingdom.

On Sunday, King Hamad said in a national address that the recent arrests were necessary for national security and didn't signal a reversal of civil rights.

The government has released few details about the alleged terrorist network, and Western diplomats based in Bahrain said they didn't know what evidence the government had to support the charges.

The crackdown began with the Aug. 13 arrest of Abduljalil Al-Singace when he returned from a trip to London. Mr. Singace, named by prosecutors as a leader of the alleged terrorist network, and most of the 23 men charged with terrorism offenses, are members of Haq, or the Movement of Liberties and Democracy, a splinter group of al Wefaq.

Late-night clashes between security forces and young Shiite protesters, many of whom are unemployed and affiliated with Haq, are a frequent occurrence in Bahrain. Security forces face gangs burning tires and armed with crude Molotov cocktails.

Haq leaders said last month that they would boycott the upcoming October elections, as they did with polls held in 2006.

Last month, al Wefaq leader Sheikh Ali Salman warned that the uptick in arrests among Shiites would lead to more protests.

Colleagues of the men charged with terrorism go a step further, saying that the arrests will strengthen the extremist edge of the Shiite opposition movement. "Calling [the detained leaders] terrorists, this is something that no one believes here in Bahrain. This move shows that government does not tolerate any opposition," says Mr. Rajab, the activist. "This branch of opposition, those outside the mainstream, will now become stronger."

Write to Margaret Coker at margaret.coker@wsj.com

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Bahrain’s anti-terror efforts lauded

Bahrain has efficiently worked to combat the financing of terrorism and boosted its border patrol capabilities, contributed manpower to international anti-terror operations, said a report.

Bahrain also conducted successful court trials under its anti-terror act, added an annual report issued by the anti-terror liaison office in the US State Department.

It confirmed that Bahrain worked successfully to combat financing of terrorism and hosted the general-secretariat of the Finance Task Force. Bahrain also liaised with its banks regarding cases of money laundering and financing of terror.

The report said Bahrain, since it ratified the international anti-nuclear terrorism initiative in March 2008, has expanded its aviation and marine patrol, increased the number of checkpoints, conducted more drills for internal co-ordination and stationed more border patrol officers capable of identifying nuclear proliferation-related substances such as centrifuges and commercially-banned components.

The report praised the Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Ministry for exerting persistent efforts to combat radicalism and extremism.

The ministry organised forums and workshops for imams and also expanded its scholarships programme and finalised its annual revising of religious education curricula for its schools to update the interpretation of Islamic texts, the report added.

Source: TradeArabia News Service

Libya's Membership Application To MENAFATF Approved

Members of the anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing organization, the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force, or MENAFATF, approved Libya's membership application Tuesday, MENAFATF President Abdulrahim Al Awadi said.

"The plenary of 17 members approved the application of Libya to be a member and the application of the World Customs Organization to be an observer member," Al Awadi told reporters in Fujeirah, United Arab Emirates.

Libya will become the 18th member state of the organization, which was set up in November 2004 and includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Sudan, Iraq and Egypt. The U.S., U.K., France and Spain are observer members, as well as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The U.A.E. currently holds the presidency.

The U.A.E., which is keen to expand membership, also proposed that Djbouti, Comoros Islands, Seychelles and Maldives become members. The proposal is still being studied by member states.

Al Awadi added that the taskforce will meet next in Bahrain, which takes over the presidency of the organization in May 2009.

He also said that the global credit crisis won't draw attention away from fighting money laundering and terrorist financing.

"Members reiterate the financial crisis should not affect progress and, on the contrary, will add resolve to progress," Al Awadi said.

Source: Zawya

Is Terrorist Funding Adapting to Post-9/11 Laws?

Terrorist networks are adapting their financing methods to circumvent new anti-terror laws passed after 9/11, say Michael Jacobson and Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Both are also former officials with the Treasury Department's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. In their report released this month, The Money Trail: Finding, Following, and Freezing Terrorist Finances (CLICK TO DOWNLOAD), the pair argue that terrorist networks like Al Qaeda are increasingly relying on criminal operations, private donations, and informal transfers of cash to avoid the extensive methods of electronic surveillance enacted after 9/11.

The report was discussed in a Sunday RFE/RL interview with Jacobson, who was also a counsel on the 9/11 Commission. (Levitt wrote a concise summary of the report in his Counterterrorism Blog last week.) He warns:

"[I]n that period after 9/11, when there was greater international willingness and cooperation on counterterrorism, a lot of countries took steps to improve their own capabilities. As you've gotten further away from 9/11 – as the threat seems less clear, and along with some specific feelings in foreign governments and in the private sector wondering about the importance of combating terrorist financing – I think you've seen the international effort slipping.

[...]

That's one of the ironies of the success since 9/11. You've seen as the United States and the Europeans and other governments have cracked down on the use of the formal financial system of banks, you've seen a shift away from banks to terrorists using cash, to terrorists using cash couriers, to terrorists using Hawala and other informal financial-transfer mechanisms."

One interesting point raised was the idea that some countries are "passive supporters" of Al Qaeda. Iran, for instance, actively supports Hezbollah and Hamas, but maintains a mistrustful tolerance of Al Qaeda:

"Iran has a very tenuous relationship with Al-Qaeda. It is a balancing act for them. They do not trust each other. They do not really like each other. But I think, at times, enemies of the United States can find things to agree on. And so I think even before 9/11 you've actually seen Iran let Al-Qaeda members go through Iran on the way to Afghanistan and Pakistan and not stamp their passports so they wouldn't have a record of going into Afghanistan and Pakistan."

Additionally, on top of the lucrative opium trade in Afghanistan, terrorists are beginning to use other criminal means to raise money for operations. For example, the cell in Madrid responsible for the 2004 train bombings raised most of their money by selling hashish, while one of the UK cells behind the 7/7 attacks acquired part of their funding by defaulting on a bank loan. Well, what about the efficacy of freezing financial assets?:

"This is one of the misunderstood areas of terrorist financing, where the public and the media tend to view the public designations, the public blacklisting and the freezing as the sum total of what is being done in the terrorist financing area. To use that as the metric, I think, is misleading. It has to be coupled with a really aggressive and effective intelligence – a 'following the money approach.'

One of the difficulties the U.S. has encountered in this area has been in terms of the Gulf countries where they have made a lot of improvements since 9/11 but where a lot of improvements still could be made. There are a few problems in this area. One of them is that a few of the Gulf countries – like the United Arab Emirates and Qatar and Bahrain – are very focused on trying to make themselves international financial centers. Obviously, in that respect, it is very important to draw in capital from around the world and be an attractive place for money to come. But at the same time, you've got to make sure that the money coming in is clean and that you've put adequate controls in place to regulate. So I think that has been a hard balance to strike in the Gulf."

Jacobson also echoed what CIA Director General Michael Hayden stressed last week in a speech at the Atlantic Council: Al Qaeda has constantly been on the run since the Taliban were toppled in Afghanistan and now spends much of its resources strictly on securing the safety of its leadership. As such, "a lot of the cells, for example in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, have been raising the funds themselves at this point. So you really have seen a shift from central control of the funding for terrorist cells and terrorist plots."

In a recent piece for the New Atlanticist, my colleague James Joyner discussed Hayden's remarks on the recurring trend of Al Qaeda establishing a base in a country, being chased out, and reconstituting elsewhere. Under the Taliban's Afghanistan, Al Qaeda's fundraising activities were definitely more centralized than they are now. However, it would be very interesting to look at whether the organization's financing methods in the transitional period between Yemen and Afghanistan mimic its present methods. If parallels do indeed exist, it would seem that this knowledge could be used to improve laws aimed at stopping terror funding.

Jacobson states:

"[T]he reality is that if you don't know what you are looking for – if you don't understand terrorist financing – then you are not going to stop it. One of the things we recommend, now that they have this good rules-based structure in place, is that they have got to shift to more of a risk-based structure. You've got to figure out whether countries are actually stopping it. That would be an important shift."

Knowing what to look for may be half the battle.

Peter Cassata is an assistant editor with the Atlantic Council. Photo credit: Popsci.com.

Source: ACUS

Bahrain to Issue New Bills on March 17

The Central Bank of Bahrain, which has already received 300 million Bahraini dinars worth of all-new-look currency notes, will issue the first of the new currency through the monetary supply chain starting tomorrow, a senior official at the central bank said yesterday.

Dr. Abdul Rahman Saif, executive director banking operations, at the CBB told a Press conference that the CBB had new currency notes worth 300 million Bahraini dinars and the new notes contained security features. The CBB official dismissed speculations behind the CBB move to issue new notes and said that the issuance of new currency was in line with new law changing Bahrain Monetary Agency (BMA) into Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB).

Bahrain as the regional financial centre, Dr. Saif said, has implemented the highest standards of transparency backed by a stringent regulatory regime making it impossible for counterfeit or money laundering businesses.

He added: "Bahrain has never witnessed any major operation of money laundering and obviously the new currency notes with six security features will minimize the chances of counterfeit money business. The latest security features used in new currency has made the Bahraini Dinars the first in the GCC to have those features including for the blind or brail users."

He also announced that new Bahrain banknotes in all denominations will come into circulation from tomorrow.

The new banknotes are being issued in the existing denominations of 20, 10, 5, 1 and BD1/2. No change is being made to the coins in circulation.

The existing banknotes will remain a legal tender until further notice from the CBB. The new banknotes and the existing banknotes will co-circulate for a period of time, to allow for all existing banknotes to be returned to the CBB in the normal course of business. Earlier, the CBB began working with Bahrain's retail banks to coordinate the process of introducing the new banknotes, to enable banks to prepare automated teller machines (ATMs) to begin dispensing the new banknotes from 12.01 a.m. tomorrow.

All five denominations of banknotes are of uniform size (measuring 154mm x 74mm), which is slightly larger than the existing banknotes.

"The change to the new currency was necessitated by the enactment of the Central Bank of Bahrain and Financial Institutions Law (CBB Law) in September 2006," said Dr. Saif.

"The new currency reflects this significant change and each denomination of new banknotes bears the name of the Central Bank of Bahrain."

He stressed that the existing currency will remain a legal tender for a period of time and until further notice from the CBB.

"People do not need to rush out and exchange existing currency for the new. The existing banknotes will continue to be accepted as money for at least one year, and they will remain redeemable by the CBB for a further period of time after being withdrawn from circulation," he said.

"The new banknotes also incorporate enhancements to the security features, as well as some new features. This is designed to make the new currency easier to authenticate, harder to duplicate and more secure than ever before," said Dr. Saif.

In addition to the security features, the new banknotes also incorporate, for the first time, a feature to enable the visually-impaired to easily recognize the value of each note. The feature comprises a series of short, raised lines, which appear at the top right on the front face of the note. The BD1/2 has one line; BD1 has two lines and so on, up to BD20, with five lines.

"The CBB has been working with Bahrain's retail banks, money changers and other relevant Government and private organizations, to ensure a smooth and efficient changeover to the new banknotes," said Dr. Saif.

A CBB helpline will also be activated tomorrow, to receive any inquiries regarding the new banknotes. The CBB helpline numbers are 17547700 and 17547707, 17547711 and 17547703.

http://www.amlosphere.com/asia/legislation/bahrain-to-issue-new-bills-on-march-17.html