A growing number of extremist groups from Africa to southeast Asia are shifting their allegiance to the Islamic State group, leading to greater risks for “cross-pollination” among conflicts beyond Syria and Iraq, the head of Interpol said Friday.
Juergen Stock cited this shift as an emerging trend at a UN Security Council meeting along with changing travel methods being used by foreign fighters seeking to join groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
Stock was a keynote speaker at a meeting attended by half a dozen ministers including US Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson to assess progress in implementing a US-sponsored resolution adopted last September requiring all countries to prevent the recruitment and transport of would-be foreign fighters preparing to join extremist groups.
On Friday, the Security Council adopted a presidential statement calling for a significant increase in border controls, improved cooperation at all levels “including preventing terrorists from exploiting technology, communications and resources.”
Johnson said the United States will be developing a new passenger data-screening and analysis system within the next 12 months which will be made available to the international community at no cost for both commercial and government organizations to use.
In a report obtained by The Associated Press on April 1, the panel of experts monitoring UN sanctions against al-Qaeda said the number of fighters leaving home to join al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group in Iraq, Syria and other countries has spiked to more than 25,000 from over 100 nations. The panel said its analysis indicated the number of “foreign terrorist fighters” worldwide increased by 71 percent between mid-2014 and March 2015.
Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble told ABC News that one of the only ways to prevent terrorists from hitting soft targets was to arm citizens globally, noting that the Westgate mall siege would have been averted far quicker if it had taken place in gun-friendly areas like Denver or Texas.
Noble’s statements are a powerful rebuttal to the anti-gun lobby, especially given his background. The Interpol chief was formerly the head of all law enforcement for the U.S. Treasury Department.
Stressing that an “armed citizenry” was the only option besides turning soft targets like shopping malls into enclaves surrounded by “extraordinary security” perimeters, Noble suggested that the siege in Kenya, which dragged on for days and ended in the slaughter of 60 civilians, represented a huge public relations blow for gun control advocates.
“Ask yourself: If that was Denver, Col., if that was Texas, would those guys have been able to spend hours, days, shooting people randomly?” Noble said, referring to states with pro-gun traditions. “What I’m saying is it makes police around the world question their views on gun control. It makes citizens question their views on gun control. You have to ask yourself, ‘Is an armed citizenry more necessary now than it was in the past with an evolving threat of terrorism?’ This is something that has to be discussed.”
“For me it’s a profound question,” he continued. “People are quick to say ‘gun control, people shouldn’t be armed,’ etc., etc. I think they have to ask themselves: ‘Where would you have wanted to be? In a city where there was gun control and no citizens armed if you’re in a Westgate mall, or in a place like Denver or Texas?’”
As we reported last month, an off-duty SAS soldier armed with a handgun helped save at least 100 lives during the Westgate siege, returning to the building a dozen times to rescue hostages.
Noble’s argument that guns in the hands of responsible citizens can prevent bloodshed is backed by hard statistics.
According to a 1993 National Self- Defense Survey conducted by Gary Kleck, Ph.D., a professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Americans use guns to defend themselves against a confrontation with a criminal up to 2.5 million times a year. This means that every day in America some 6,800 people use guns to protect themselves.
Scholars Clayton E. Cramer and David Burnett have documented how “a great number of tragedies — murders, rapes, assaults, robberies — have been thwarted by self-defense gun uses.” – prisonplanet.com
Police are investigating another 44 people with possible links to an international child pornography ring, and have obtained at least 30 search warrants so far, a spokesman said on Friday.
“We did an investigation on 50 suspects… we then obtained 30 search warrants early in August,” said Lt-Gen Solomon Makgale.
“We executed those warrants and that’s how we arrested those six. The six are part of the 50.”
Police had followed up on a tip-off from Interpol last Thursday and arrested six men in four provinces for possession of child porn.
The accused were arrested in Lichtenburg, Bloemfontein, White River, Douglasdale, Florida, and Potchefstroom.
They were a teacher, a retired school principal, a headmaster, a lawyer, a dermatologist, and a businessman.
Since the arrests, they had appeared in various South African courts separately and had their cases postponed.
Makgale said police were trying to obtain the remaining 20 search warrants.
He could not confirm a report in The Times that among the alleged paedophiles were top executives of banks, insurance firms, legal practices, and IT companies.
On Wednesday, the newspaper reported the case had links to Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Western Europe, and Australasia.
It reported that children as young as five were believed to have been groomed to have sex with each other and adults. – Sapa
Maggie Laubser Cat and Japonicas, 1936 oil on board 560 x 610mm
An official hinted on Monday that growing international demand for South African artwork might be the reason for a brazen robbery at the Pretoria Art Museum where art worth about R17.5m was stolen.
Five pieces were stolen from the museum’s permanent collection on Sunday when thieves posing as art students staged a daring arm robbery.
“Three men, under the pretence of being students and their art lecturer, asked to view specific pieces. After they were shown the paintings, they then tied up the museum official at gunpoint and took off with six paintings,” mayoral spokesperson Pieter de Necker said.
“They left one painting [by] Irma Stern behind. Presumably because it was too big to fit into their [getaway] car.”
The thieves left as private security guards at the museum drew close to them, he said.
According to museum staff, the thieves arrived with a “shopping list” of what they wanted, and demanded to be given specific paintings, Sapa reported.
After holding staff member Dawood Khan at gunpoint, they took out their list, and demanded to know where the paintings were.
De Necker said he and others believe the thieves were commissioned to go after those specific pieces because of their behaviour at the museum, according to AP.
“We’re very, very surprised. It is very uncommon,” he said.
“We have realised also that over the last few years … the overseas market has grown into wanting South African art.”
The robbers favoured oil paintings in their theft, grabbing a 1931 painting by artist Irma Stern of brightly coloured fishing boats waiting against a pier (Fishing Boats), a gouache drawing of an eland and bird (Eland And Bird – 1961) by landscape artist JH Pierneef, a pastel-toned street scene (Street Scene) by Gerard Sekoto, a thick-stroked oil painting of a chief (Hottentot Chief) by Hugo Naude and a 1936 picture of a cat near a vase full of petunias (Cat And Petunias) by Maggie Laubser.
Lucrative crime
Art theft is the third most lucrative crime in the world, after drugs and illicit arms sales, according to Interpol and the FBI.
However, actually selling famous works remains difficult for criminals either locally where the theft happened or abroad, authorities say.
Despite the challenges, estimates suggest there are billions of dollars made in stolen art sales annually across the world.
De Necker said national and international art organisations had been notified about the robbery and had been forwarded details of the paintings.
Police spokesperson Katlego Mogale said authorities had been alerted in case the thieves tried to take the art work outside of the country.
“The investigation is continuing,” Mogale said. “Every measure is being put in place.”
The museum has closed provisionally and will re-open on on 20 November.
“The art museum has taken precautionary steps by removing other valuable pieces until the police have completed their investigation,” De Necker said.
He said that the city would also tighten security at the museum.
Three private security guards were on duty when the robbery took place, and security cameras were out of order.
“It is unfortunate the CCTV cameras were not working this weekend. A fault was reported on Thursday and has been fixed today,” said De Necker.
He said the brazen robbery was a wake-up call that security needed to be tightened at museums across South Africa.
“Security at museums should be improved. This incident calls for extra measures to be implemented,” he said. – Sapa/AP
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