(S) ACTION REQUEST: KUWAITI HAMID AL-ALI

S E C R E T STATE 001756

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/05/2019
TAGS: PTER PREL ECON NL
SUBJECT: (S) ACTION REQUEST: KUWAITI HAMID AL-ALI

Classified By: EUR/WE Pamela Spratlen for reasons 1.4 (b and d)


1. (U) Action request in paragraph 3.


2. (U) Summary: In January 2007, the United Nations Security
Council 1267 Committee designated Kuwaiti individual Hamid
Al-Ali for providing
financial support for al-Qaida affiliated groups seeking to
commit acts of terrorism in Kuwait, Iraq and elsewhere. In
addition to financial support and
recruiting services, Al-Ali also provided opportunities for
potential recruits to obtain explosives training in 2004. He
also used his website to provide
technical advice for making explosives, chemical, and
biological weapons. Information available to the USG
suggests that Al-Ali currently maintains his
official websites, www.h-alali.cc and www.h-alali.org,
located at ISP address 89.248.172.59 through the Dutch server
Altushost.com. End Summary.



3. (S/REL GON) Action request: Department requests post to
encourage the GON to take the necessary steps to ensure that
Altushost.com and other Dutch servers do not provide
financial resources, including internet hosting or related
services, to www.h-alali.cc and www.h-alali.org.

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Background: AML/CTF
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4. (U) Al-Ali is a Kuwait-based terrorist facilitator who
has provided financial support for al-Qaida-affiliated groups
seeking to commit acts of terrorism in Kuwait, Iraq, and
elsewhere. In December 2006, Hamid Al-Ali was designated by
the USG, pursuant to E.O. 13224 (support for terrorism.) He
was subsequently designated by the UN Security Council's 1267
Committee in January 2008. All UN Member States are
therefore required to freeze assets on their territories that
are owned or controlled by Al-Ali, as well as ensure that no
financial resources are provided to him by persons within
their territories. In paragraph 20 of resolution 1735
(2006),the Security Council confirmed that these sanctions
apply to "all forms of financial resources, including but not
limited to those used for provision of Internet hosting or
related services, used for the support of Al-Qaida, Usama bin
Laden, the Taliban and other individuals, groups, entities
and undertakings associated with them."


5. (U) Evidence shows that Al-Ali,s efforts include
providing support for terrorist organizations, including
those in Iraq. Al-Ali recruits jihadists in Kuwait for
terrorist activity including for al-Qaida in Iraq. Al-Ali
has provided financial support for recruits, including paying
for their travel expenses to Iraq.


6. (U) Al-Ali was a religious leader and financier for a
Kuwait-based terrorist cell that plotted to attack U.S. and
Kuwait targets in early 2005. This al-Qaida associated
terrorist cell appears to have been under his supervision
during that period. Al-Ali reportedly visited the group's
terrorist camps in Kuwait, providing funds supporting acts of
terrorism.


7. (U) Separate from the financial and other services in
support of terrorist groups for which Al-Ali was designated,
he has issued fatwas legitimizing suicide operations. One
such fatwa sanctions "the permissiveness, and sometimes
necessity, of suicide operations, on the condition of
crushing the enemy, or causing moral defeat to the enemy, to
obtain victory." According to this fatwa, "in modern time(s)
this can be accomplished through the modern means of bombing
or by bringing down an airplane on an important sire that
causes the enemy great casualties."

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Point of contact
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8. (U) Please contact Treasury/TFFC - Danny Harris at
(202-622-6914, harrisda@tsdn.sgov.gov, or
Daniel.Harris@do.treas.gov) for any further information on
this subject.
RICE