Sunday, October 11, 2009
By Makhudu Sefara and Peter FabriciusadvertisementsA phone call made in Khayelitsha to a militant group based in Somalia is what triggered the US's panicked closure of its offices in the country just before Heritage Day last month.
The intercepted conversation is said to have confirmed a plot to blow up American interests in South Africa and to disrupt the World Cup by targeting US interests.
A source said US intelligence agents and South Africa's National Intelligence Agency and SAPS Crime Intelligence operatives launched a surveillance operation on a Cape-based militant group, gathering information before the operation was thrown into disarray.
| Confirmed a plot to blow up American interests in South Africa |
As the US embassies were closed just before Heritage Day National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele went on national TV to say the country's intelligence structures were on top of the situation.
This, it was established, led to the group discarding the SIM cards and the phones it had used to cover its tracks. The source said: "What has been established is that the Cape guys are linked to al-Qaeda cells in Somalia, who are connected to the group in Afghanistan.
"We have established that most al-Qaeda operatives are relocating from Afghanistan to Pakistan, attracted by increased lawlessness in Pakistan. Our information is that there is a trail that links Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and, most interestingly, Mozambique, where Somalis have formed an anti-US cell already.
"The interception revealed that these people plan to move en masse from Mozambique to here (South Africa) in 2010 to attack American interests. Their point is that South Africa is not a target, but if South Africans are caught in the crossfire, then that would be unfortunate.
"Part of the intercepted conversations is on how America was stronger elsewhere but could be vulnerable here in South Africa."
This in spite of the US boosting over-the-top security at its new premises in Sandton and Pretoria.
US embassy spokesperson Sharon Hudson-Dean said: "We do not comment on intelligence matters."
An NIA official said yesterday: "This is classified information. If you publish it, this will jeopardise an operation already under way."
The source said this was untrue because Cele had already said publicly that intelligence officers were on the trail of the extremists - which is why they had changed phones and gone to ground without arrests.
"I do not mean to be alarmist, but the US was right to take these people seriously because we now know that these people have links with shady characters who have access to old military hardware in Eastern Europe," said the source.
Rich Mkhondo, the chief communications officer for the World Cup Organising Committee, said security was provided by the state, which merely "alerted us that the embassies would be shut without providing details".
The Mozambican embassy could not be reached yesterday.