Here’s a story you might not have heard: Some of the vehicles used in car bombings that have killed US soldiers and Iraqi civilians in Iraq were stolen from Americans in the United States.
The FBI's counterterrorism unit is looking into US-based theft rings after discovering that some of the vehicles came from the US, says the Boston Globe, quoting unnamed US officials.
So far, there is no evidence that the cars were stolen specifically to be used as bombs but there is a lot of evidence that a broad criminal network, that includes terrorists and Iraqi insurgents, is responsible.
The inquiry began after coalition troops raided a bomb-making factory in Fallujah, Iraq last November. Inside they found an SUV registered in Texas that was being prepared for a bombing mission.
Investigators said they are comparing several other cases where vehicles stolen in the United States wound up in Syria or other Middle East countries and ultimately were transferred into the hands of Iraqi insurgent groups -- including Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian-born Abu Musab Al Zarqawi.
Some of the cars had false VIN’s on them –Vehicle Identification Numbers - re-stamped into the metal of the car’s frames.
Investigators believe the cars were loaded onto ships in the ports of Los Angeles, Seattle, and Houston - ended up in Syria, and then were driven across the border into Iraq and delivered to terrorists.
The car bomb has become the top weapon in the world for carrying out terrorist attacks.
Al Qaeda is suspected in suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia in recent years. The vehicles used in those bombings had been stolen in the United States.
More than 1 million automobiles were stolen from US streets in 2003. The vehicles insurgents used in Iraq were mostly stolen from Virginia, Maryland, Texas, and Florida,
Iraqi insurgents prefer American stolen cars because they tend to be larger, blend in more easily with the convoys of US government and private contractors, and are harder to identify as stolen.
Criminal activities that terrorists use to raise money run the gamut from creating and selling fake documents to cigarette smuggling and insurance fraud.
Taliban and Al Qaeda followers are heavily involved in the expanding heroin trade in Afghanistan, and US-based cigarette smuggling has been tied to Hezbollah in Lebanon.-The subject of Barbara Newman’s popular book-“Lightning out of Lebanon: Hezbollah on American Soil” This book is now used by the FBI in counter-terrorism training classes.
You find terrorists and you often find profit-making criminal activity.
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