Opinion / Columnist
How do international terrorist suspects acquire South African passports
12 Sep 2014 at 06:40hrs | Views
CAPE TOWN - The increasing number of international terrorist suspects travelling on South African passports has become a serious cause for concern among Western intelligence communities including America's Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) and Britain's MI6.
But despite concerns raised by the international counter-terrorism experts about the presence of dangerous pro-Al Qaeda terrorists in South Africa, the authorities have not shown any willingness to act.
Some analysts have warned that South Africa will learn the hard way like what happened in Kenya in 2013 when terrorists linked to Somalia's Al Shabaab group attacked Westgate Shopping Mall and held hostages for days.
The Westgate siege left more than 100 people dead.Security experts later said the attack by Al Shabaab could have been prevented had the authorities acted on intelligence information allegedly relayed to them by Western intelligence agencies and their operatives inside Kenya.
It later emerged that one of the alleged terror suspects Samantha Lewthwaite had travelled to Kenya on a South African passport under the name Natalie Faye Webb.Webb had lived in South Africa where she made contacts with right-wing groups in the country.
She was also referred to as the "white widow" and had applied for a South African passport while in Durban.Webb was not the only suspected terrorist to have travelled on a South African passport.Libyan suspect, Ibrahim Tantoush who was said to have links with Al Qaeda also travelled to Malaysia, Australia and Indonesia using a South African passport.
He was however arrested there and deported to South Africa.According to police sources, Mohammed Galfar another terrorist suspect with suspected links with Al Qaeda lived in South Africa and had a fake South Africa passport.
He was wanted in connection with a plot to blow up Western flights in 2006.A South Africa passport was also found on the body of Al Qaeda's East African leader Fazah Abdullah who was killed in a shoot-out in Somalia last year.
Abdullah had a $5 Million bounty on his head offered by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).The ease with which terrorists get South African passports is what has prompted some Western governments to impose visa restrictions on South Africans.
South African travellers now need visas to travel to Britain, Australia, the USA and to some European Union member countries.Afghanistan trained terrorist suspect Ihsan Garnaoui, a Tunisian national was deported by South African authorities in 2004 after he was found to have been in possession of several South African passports in different names including Abram Shoman and Mlick Shoman.
US and British intelligence have warned the South African authorities in the past to stop " pussyfooting" with intelligence regarding international terrorist activities in the country.
"The fact that no bombs have gone off in South Africa does not mean the threat is not there within its borders," they warned.The Americans appeared frustrated by Pretoria's inability to take action against suspected Al Qaeda operatives visiting South Africa.
South Africa is a signatory to the United Nations resolution against international terrorism and is obliged to act against such threats.
I spoke to a Cape Town based former intelligence analyst with connections to local Muslim organisations.He is a Moslem too and he says on arrival in South Africa most suspected members of Al Qaeda and other international terrorist groups intergrate themselves into the local Muslim communities.
These new arrivals include Muslim immigrants from countries such as Somalia, Central and North Africa and some from as far as Pakistan.
The alleged terrorists also visit South Africa to re-group, lie low and plan their next move after completing their international missions.
"What I can tell you is that these international terrorists take advantage of the large Muslim population in the Western Cape.They only use our country as an operational base and transit and they have not committed any terror acts inside the country," said the source.
Probably that explains why the authorities have been reluctant to act against suspected Al Qaeda militants because South Africa is not their target.In some cases, say another source, radicalised South African Muslims volunteer to fight with Islamist terrorist groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Two Muslims who were found in an Al Qaeda safe house in Pakistan were said to have been in possession of South African passports.
But how do these international terrorist suspects obtain South African documents which they then use to travel to their target countries?
In 2004 American news agency, the Associated Press reported that numerous South African passports had been stolen from Home Affairs by a crime syndicate and were being sold for $77 to economic migrants.
The news agency quoted a Home Affairs official who confirmed that some of the stolen passports were later found in the hands of Al Qaeda members or their associates.
After the killing of Al Qaeda's East African leader, Abdullah, Home Affairs officials launched an investigation into how the dead terrorist managed to obtain the South African passport.The department's director-general, Mkhuseli Apleni told Journalists that the passport was a fake and was not issued by his department.
Africa chief analyst Ryan Cummings was later quoted as saying South Africa has proved to be attractive to international militants because it is viewed as neutral.Another counter-terrorism expert and former intelligence officer during the apartheid era told me that in most cases, the terror suspects visiting South Africa acquire genuine documents with the help of corrupt officials at the Home Affairs.
Home Affairs officials and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA)-South Africa's version of the CIA have been described by many as incompetent and lack experience in fighting the threat possed by international terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda.
For example in 2009 security officials failed to provide protection to witnesses in a trial involving two members of Cape Town based drug fighting vigilante group, PAGAD, Faizel Waggie and Shahied Davids.The two men were being prosecuted for the attempted bombings of the Keg and Swan restaurants in Cape Town in 2000.
Two members of the group who had turned state witnesses were assassinated while in witness protection.In 2006 police in Cape Town arrested Shahied Davids while travelling along the N7 highway.
When police stopped his car they found pipe bombs.It was alleged that Davids had targeted the famous V and A Waterfront which is popular with Western tourists in the city.His other targets, according to police, were three shopping malls in the upmarket suburbs of Constantia, Kennilworth and Wynberg.
Thabo Kunene is a Zimbabwean Journalist based in South Africa.He writes for several Western media organisations including Radio Netherlands Africa Desk.
Source - Thabo Kunene
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