WarSclerotic

Paris: NATO-Arab Syria intervention imminent.

DEBKAfile Special Report December 7, 2012, 3:09 PM (GMT+02:00)

Joint British-French Albanian Lion Exercise

Sources close to the French Defense Ministry reported Friday, Dec. 7, that a Western-Arab military intervention against the Assad regime is due to begin shortly with the participation of the US, France, Britain, Turkey, Jordan and other anti-Assad Arab nations. debkafile: The reference is to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar’s special forces.

Our military sources add that the French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle carrying a complement of marines is deployed in the Mediterranean, having joined the USS Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group and at least five British warships which are also carrying a large marine force.

In the second and third weeks of November, British and French naval forces, plus 2,600 special ops combatants from both nations, performed landing-and-capture exercises against fortified locations on the coast and mountains of Albania as practice for potential operations against similar terrain in Syria, where the Alawite Mountains loom over the coastal towns of Latakia and Tartus.

The troops landing there would head for the Alawite Mts. to prevent Assad and his loyal units from retreating to his mountain stronghold and fighting on from there – as he plans to do if he is forced to flee Damascus.
French sources told Le Point magazine that the NATO mission for Syria, including the UK and the US, would be modeled on the Western intervention in Libya in 2011. It would combine an aerial blitz with ground action by special forces for destroying Assad’s chemical weapons stocks, his air force and his air defense systems.

Syrian opposition chief implores international community to act, not talk against Assad | The Times of Israel.

George Sabra says Assad’s use of chemical weapons would be an unforgivable crime

George Sabra, the new head of the main Syrian opposition bloc in exile, the Syrian National Council, speaks to reporters during a press conference on the sidelines of the General Assembly of the Syrian National Council meeting in Doha, Qatar, Saturday, Nov. 10, 2012 (photo credit: AP/Osama Faisal)

Syrian opposition leader George Sabra on Friday urged the international community to act against Bashar Assad’s regime before it inflicts a chemical weapon disaster on its people.

Assad would not “hesitate to commit such atrocities as he approaches his inevitable end unless he faces firm and unequivocal international opposition,” Sabra said.

“We ask the countries of the world to act before disaster hits not after,” the Syrian National Council president said, insisting on actions, not words.

Speaking reporters in Paris, he said his organization and the Syrian people deplore the use of weapons of mass destruction, and ”will neither forget nor forgive anyone who orders the use of weapons of mass destruction, or anyone who is complicit in the crime, or anyone who moves only after the crime is committed.”

“The danger does not only threaten just Syria and its neighbors, but will also have a negative impact on global security,” Sabra said.

The opposition chief implored soldiers in the employ of Syrian President Bashar Assad to defect to the rebellion and disobey orders. “We call on troops and members of the security forces, and tell them that Syria, the country and its people, are more important than anything else.”

Sabra denounced Syria’s possible use of chemical weapons the same day that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke out against the Assad regime, saying that any use of chemical weapons would amount to an “outrageous crime in the name of humanity.”

Putting differences aside, US, Russia to help negotiate end to Syrian civil war | The Times of Israel.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says transition must involve removal of Assad from power

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Vladivostok, Russia, in September. (photo credit: Jim Watson/AP)

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that the United States and Russia are committed to trying again to get President Bashar Assad’s regime and the rebel opposition to talk about a political transition in Syria, setting aside a year and a half of US-Russian disagreements that have paralyzed the international community.

Clinton stressed, however, that the US would insist once again that Assad’s departure be a key part of that transition.

In her first comments on the surprise three-way diplomatic talks held Thursday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and UN peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, Clinton said Washington and Moscow agreed to support a new mediation effort Brahimi would lead. She called Thursday’s discussions “constructive,” while adding that much work remained and suggesting that neither side shifted its fundamental position.

“We reviewed the very dangerous developments inside Syria,” Clinton said in Northern Ireland. “And both Minister Lavrov and I committed to supporting a new push by Brahimi and his team to work with all the stakeholders in Syria to begin a political transition.”

“It was an important meeting, but just the beginning,” she added. “I don’t think anyone believes there was some great breakthrough. No one should have any illusions about how hard this remains, but all of us with any influence on the process, with any influence on the regime or the opposition, need to be engaged.”

Neither Assad nor any opposition group has agreed to a cease-fire and talks. Both sides believe they can resolve the conflict militarily. Even if the U.S. and Russia reach a broader agreement on a path forward, bringing most of the world with them, it is unclear if that will have any effect on the fighting in Syria.

The 40-minute meeting with Lavrov and Brahimi immediately seemed to ease some of the tensions between the US and Russia over how best to address Syria’s bloody, 21-month civil war. Through much of the conflict, the former Cold War foes have argued bitterly. The US has criticized Russia for shielding its closest Arab ally. Moscow has accused Washington of meddling by demanding Assad’s downfall.

Clinton said nothing that suggested either government had changed its position. But with rebels fighting government forces on the outskirts of Syria’s capital and Western governments warning about possible chemical weapons deployment by the Assad regime, Clinton emphasized the importance of taking another shot at a peaceful transition deal.

Diplomatic efforts are needed to gauge “what is possible in face of the advancing developments on the ground which are increasingly dangerous not only to Syrians, but to their neighbors,” Clinton said, in an apparent reference to Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, which has become the focus of Western nervousness about the civil war.

Brahimi said after the talks that he would put together a peace process based on a political transition strategy the US and Russia agreed on in Geneva in June. At that time, the process quickly became bogged down over how the international community might enforce its conditions.

But instead of addressing the plan’s shortcomings, Clinton stressed its continued value, saying it would commit any future Syrian authority to democratic principles and international human rights standards.

Clinton also said the strategy would have to mean the end of the four-decade Assad regime — a contentious point with Moscow, which has insisted that Syria’s leadership is not for the United States or any other outside party to decide on.

“The United States stands with the Syrian people in insisting that any transition process result in a unified, democratic Syria in which all citizens are represented — Sunni, Alawi, Christians, Kurds, Druze, men, women. Every Syrian must be included,” Clinton told reporters. “And a future of this kind cannot possibly include Assad.”

The plan Brahimi is hoping to resuscitate was crafted earlier this year by his predecessor as the Syria peace envoy, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Annan’s plan never got off the ground, and he resigned his post in frustration.

It starts with several demands on the Assad regime to de-escalate tensions and end the violence that activists say has killed more than 40,000 people since March 2011. It then requires Syria’s opposition and the regime to put forward candidates for a transitional government, with each side having the right to veto nominees proposed by the other.

If anything resembling Annan’s plan takes hold, it would surely mean the end of Assad’s presidency. The opposition has demanded his departure and has rejected any talk of him staying in power. Yet it also would grant regime representatives the opportunity to block Sunni extremists and others in the opposition that they reject.

The United States blamed the collapse of the process last summer on Russia for vetoing a third resolution at the UN Security Council that would have applied world sanctions against Assad’s government for failing to live by its provisions.

Russia insisted that the Americans couldn’t demand Assad’s departure. It also worried about opening the door to military action, even as Washington offered to include language in any UN resolution that would have expressly forbidden outside armed intervention.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

Jerusalem Post – Breaking News.

Egypt’s opposition formally refuses dialogue with Mursi.

Friday, 07 December 2012

An Anti-Mursi protester shouts slogans and holds a placard (R) that reads “Leave” in front of members of the Republican Guard blocking a road leading to the presidential palace in Cairo December 6, 2012. (Reuters)

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Report: Iran has 170 Missiles Aimed at Tel Aviv, Some Equipped With Biological Warheads | Jewish & Israel News Algemeiner.com.

(Happy Hanukkah ! – JW )

WND reported that Iran has 170 ballistic missiles aimed at Israel, some equipped with biological warheads.

The source cited by the website, who served in Iran’s Intelligence Ministry and who recently defected, told WND that the missiles are placed in underground silos.

Iran has prepared for the total destruction of Israel as well as attacks on European capitals, the source said.

In August, a report in the Washington Times cited Mashregh, the media outlet of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, as saying that Israel will be obliterated by chemical, microbial and nuclear bombs,  and that those weapons of mass destruction will be used first on Tel Aviv by Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.

As WND noted, the CIA has long warned of Iran’s growing missile threat. In 2010, Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Congress of Iran’s capability of launching a salvo of missiles at Israel, and possibly European capitals.

The source told WND  that Iran has made significant advances on several fronts including chemical, biological, nuclear and electronic warfare – and that the regime is looking at the deterioration in Syria and the possibility of an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities as an excuse to set the “region on fire.”

In a speech last week, a close adviser to Ayatollah Khamenei, Alireza Panahian, said, “Based on the recent events and the expansion of the Islamic movement in the region … and based on logical calculation, the coming is upon us and in the coming years everything will be finished,” adding that the coming of the last Islamic Messiah, the Shiites’ 12th Imam, is soon to happen. Shiites believe Mahdi’s coming will be preceded by Armageddon.

US, Russia signal possible cooperation as Syrian war mutates | The Times of Israel.

Clinton, Lavrov and UN peace envoy Brahimi meet in Dublin to discuss solutions to 21-month conflict

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pauses during a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, December 5. (photo credit: AP/Kevin Lamarque, Pool)

DUBLIN (AP) — Diplomatic efforts to end Syria’s civil war moved forward Thursday with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton joining Russia’s foreign minister and the UN peace envoy to the Arab country for extraordinary three-way talks that suggested Washington and Moscow might finally unite behind a strategy as the Assad regime weakens.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said intelligence reports raise fears that an increasingly desperate Syrian President Bashar Assad is considering using his chemical weapons arsenal — which the US and Russia agree is unacceptable. It was unclear whether he might target rebels within Syria or bordering countries, but growing concern over such a scenario was clearly adding urgency to discussions an ocean away in Ireland’s capital.

On the sidelines of a human rights conference, Clinton gathered with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and mediator Lakhdar Brahimi to look for a strategy the international community could rally around to end Syria’s 21-month civil war. The former Cold War foes have fought bitterly over how to address the conflict, but Clinton stressed before the meeting that they shared a common goal.

“We have been trying hard to work with Russia to try to stop the bloodshed in Syria and start a political transition for a post-Assad Syrian future,” Clinton told reporters in Dublin.

“Events on the ground in Syria are accelerating and we see that in many different ways,” she said. “The pressure against the regime in and around Damascus seems to be increasing. We’ve made it very clear what our position is with respect to chemical weapons, and I think we will discuss that and many other aspects of what is needed to end the violence.”

Earlier Thursday, Clinton and Lavrov met separately for about 25 minutes. They agreed to hear Brahimi out on a path forward, a senior US official said. The two also discussed issues ranging from Egypt to North Korea, as well as new congressional action aimed at Russian officials accused of complicity in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

Washington and Moscow have more often publicly chastised each other than cooperated on an international strategy for Syria. The US has criticized Russia for shielding its Arab ally. The Russians have accused the US of meddling by demanding Assad’s downfall and ultimately seeking an armed intervention such as the one last year against the late Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

But the gathering of the three key international figures suggests possible compromise in the offing. At a minimum, it confirms what officials describe as an easing of some of the acrimony that has raged between Moscow and Washington over the future of Syria, an ethnically diverse nation whose stability is critical given its geographic position in between powder kegs Iraq, Lebanon and Israel.

Panetta said Thursday that the US fears Syria is thinking of using its chemical weapons.

“The intelligence that we have raises serious concern that this is being considered,” he told reporters. Other administration officials in recent days have spoken about Syrians preparing weapon components of sarin gas. The new activity, coupled with fears that rebel advances are making Assad more desperate, have led to the fear that he is deploying the weapons.

On Thursday, Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad accused the United States and Europe of using the issue of chemical weapons to justify a future military intervention against Syria. He warned that any such intervention would be “catastrophic.”

It’s unclear what new approach Brahimi may outline. One possibility would involve resuscitating, with U.S. and Russian support, the political transition strategy both countries agreed on in Geneva in June.

That plan demanded several steps by the Assad regime to de-escalate tensions and end the violence that activists say has killed more than 40,000 people since March 2011. It would then have required Syria’s opposition and the regime to put forward candidates for a transitional government, with each side having the right to veto nominees proposed by the other.

If employed, the strategy would surely mean the end of more than four decades of an Assad family member at Syria’s helm. The opposition has demanded Assad’s departure and has rejected any talk of him staying in power. Yet it also would grant regime representatives the opportunity to block Sunni extremists and others in the opposition that they reject.

The transition plan never got off the ground this summer, partly because no pressure was applied to see it succeed by a deeply divided international community. Brahimi’s predecessor, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who drafted the plan, then resigned his post in frustration.

The United States blamed the collapse on Russia for vetoing a third resolution at the UN Security Council that would have applied world sanctions against Assad’s government for failing to live by the deal’s provisions.

Russia insisted that the Americans unfairly sought Assad’s departure as a precondition and worried about opening the door to military action, even as Washington offered to include language in any UN resolution that would have expressly forbade outside armed intervention.

Should a plan similar to that one be proposed, the Obama administration is likely to insist anew that it be internationally enforceable — a step Moscow may still be reluctant to commit to.

In any case, the US insists the tide of the war is turning definitively against Assad.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

Egyptians reportedly postpone Hamas political chief’s Gaza visit | The Times of Israel.

Egypt unable to provide adequate security for Khaled Mashaal due to situation in Cairo, reports Al-Hayat; Israel says it has no control over who enters Strip from Egypt

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal addresses the crowd during a rally at the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus, Syria, on Friday Nov. 5, 2010. (photo credit: Bassem Tellawi/AP)

The supreme Hamas leader’s first-ever visit to the Gaza Strip this weekend was reportedly postponed by the Egyptian government due to the deteriorating situation in Cairo.

Egyptian authorities said they were unable to provide adequate security for Khaled Mashaal in Gaza, according to London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat.

Clashes between Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s opponents and supporters continued in Egypt’s capital on Friday, after Morsi vowed Thursday to push ahead with a referendum on the country’s new controversial constitution.

The planned visit by Mashaal, who heads the Hamas terrorist organization’s political bureau, had signaled a growing regional acceptance of the Islamic terrorist group in charge of the once isolated territory and grudging acquiescence by Israel.

Mashaal was supposed to arrive in the Strip on Friday afternoon for a three-day tour, with Hamas’ 25th anniversary rally on Saturday set as the centerpiece. He planned to visit the homes of two Hamas icons assassinated by Israel, military chief Ahmed Jabari and spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin.

The landmark visit was scheduled to take place just two weeks after the bloodiest round of Israel-Gaza fighting in four years, in which Hamas pounded Israeli cities with some 1,500 rockets and missiles.

Hamas has portrayed itself as the victor because Israel agreed to an Egyptian-brokered truce after eight days, instead of sending ground troops into Gaza, as it initially threatened.

On Thursday, workers set up the stage for the anniversary rally, including a 13-meter-high (43-foot-high) replica of an M-75, a missile Hamas has fired deep into Israel. “Made in Gaza,” was written on the rocket.

Mashaal, whose family left the West Bank when he was a child, grew up in Kuwait and moved to Qatar this year after abandoning his longtime base in Syria.

His visit was meant to coincide with the last stretch of secret internal Hamas elections that began seven months ago.

Mashaal, who has headed Hamas’ decision-making political bureau since 1996, said earlier this year he is not seeking re-election, but some suggested his Gaza visit could signal a change of heart and an attempt to mollify Gaza Hamas hardliners with whom he clashed months ago.

Palestinian analyst Hani al-Masri said he believes the main purpose of the trip was an attempt supported by Egypt, Turkey and Qatar to get Mashaal re-elected. “Egypt, Qatar and Turkey want Khaled Mashaal, simply because he is a moderate and can get things done between the West and the Islamists,” said al-Masri.

Israel, meanwhile, appears to be looking the other way.

Israel considers Hamas a terror organization, refuses to deal with it directly and imposed a Gaza border blockade after the Hamas takeover of the territory in 2007. However, since its Gaza offensive last month, Israel has conducted indirect talks with Hamas, through Egypt, on a truce and a further easing of the Gaza border restrictions, already relaxed somewhat in recent years.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Thursday that Israel has no say over who enters Gaza from Egypt. “We have no position on different individuals within Hamas,” he said when asked about the Mashaal trip. “Hamas is Hamas is Hamas.”

Fifteen years ago, Mashaal came close to being assassinated by Israel. In 1997, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then in his first term, ordered Mashaal killed in retaliation for Hamas suicide bombings in Israel. Israeli agents grabbed Mashaal in the streets of the Jordanian capital of Amman and injected him with poison, but were caught, forcing Netanyahu to send an antidote that saved Mashaal’s life. Netanyahu also had to release Yassin, the Hamas spiritual leader, to bring the agents back home.

While Israel has not publicly challenged Mashaal’s Gaza trip, Hamas’ smaller sister group Islamic Jihad said Thursday that Israel is trying to prevent its exiled leaders from joining the Hamas chief on his journey. Two members of Islamic Jihad said Israel relayed warnings through Egypt that it would consider the Gaza truce over if Islamic Jihad’s top two leaders in exile attempted to enter Gaza.

Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have received money and weapons from Iran, Israel’s arch-enemy. During last month’s cross-border fighting, Hamas fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, including Iranian-made Fajr-5 rockets that landed close to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in Israel’s heartland. After the ceasefire, Mashaal thanked Iran for its military support of Gaza.

At the same time, Hamas under Mashaal has been drifting away from the Iranian-Syrian camp, particularly after Hamas’ break with Syrian President Bashar Assad this year over his brutal crackdown at home.

Mashaal has been trying to move Hamas closer to its parent movement, the region-wide Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni group. The Brotherhood, a rival of Shiite Muslim-led Iran, rose to power in Egypt and Tunisia after last year’s Arab Spring uprisings. Mashaal also has close ties with Turkey and Qatar.

Both Egypt and Qatar have tried to broker a reconciliation deal between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, from whom Hamas seized Gaza more than five years ago. The most recent deal was signed this year by Abbas and Mashaal in the Qatari capital of Doha, but Mashaal couldn’t move forward because of an uproar by Hamas hardliners in Gaza.

Senior figures in Gaza, including Hamas strongman Mahmoud Zahar, complained at the time that they hadn’t been consulted. But mainly they balked at the idea of restoring some of Abbas’ authority in Gaza ahead of new elections — as envisioned by the Doha deal.

Saeb Erekat, an Abbas aide in the West Bank, said Thursday that the Mashaal visit to Gaza might help a unity deal. “This would give a chance to everyone in Gaza to hear what the agreement in Doha was about,” he said.

However, the Mashaal visit and Hamas’ successful dare of Israel — firing rockets toward Tel Aviv without triggering an Israeli ground offensive — also signaled that the Gaza branch of Hamas is becoming increasingly influential at the expense of the exiles.

In the past, the exile-based political bureau was the main decision-maker and conduit for funds. In running Gaza, Hamas leaders there are increasingly making fateful decisions for the movement.

With Hamas basking in its self-declared victory over Israel, the group might be even less willing than before to compromise with Abbas for the sake of a unity deal. At the same time, reconciliation faces a host of other obstacles, including opposition from Abbas’ Fatah movement and lack of a clear path forward, including how to merge rival security forces.

Hamas leaders in Gaza portrayed the Mashaal visit as part of an extended celebration of what they see as their military triumph. “Mashaal is coming at a time when we are celebrating victory in the war,” said Salah Bardawil, a local Hamas leader. “A Hamas leader should come and celebrate with his people.”

Assad is already using chemical weapons, Syrian opposition claims | The Times of Israel.

Sarin and mustard gas used tactically in battle, says defecting Syrian officer; last week’s internet blackout used as cover for transport of arms to Damascus, according to opposition

Israeli firemen wear gas masks as they take part in a drill simulating a chemical missile attack in the industrial zone of the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Malachi in 2009 (photo credit: Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)

As fears grow that Syrian President Bashar Assad may use chemical weapons in a desperate move to quell a 22-month uprising, members of the opposition claimed Friday that the regime is already using internationally-banned chemical agents in the war.

The Local Coordination Committees, an opposition group active inside Syria, reported that on Thursday the military “threw toxic gases” in Daraya, southwest of Damascus, and attacked the towns of Mohasan and Buomar with phosphorus bombs.

A senior opposition member told told A-Sharq Al-Awsat, a Saudi-owned daily with close ties to the Syrian opposition, that Assad cut internet and mobile communications to Syria last week in order to prepare and transport chemical weapons for use in Damascus, expecting a crucial battle with the Free Syrian Army in the capital.

He eventually did not use the weapons when the opposition decided to attack Damascus airport rather than the city itself. However, the regime’s use of cluster bombs and exploding barrels has been well-documented by international human rights groups.

Despite reports, Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma and an expert on Syria, said Assad was unlikely to fully utilize his chemical weapons capabilities at this time.

“He must know that as soon as he uses them, he will have written his death warrant,” Landis told The Times of Israel. “I do not think he is suicidal or about to pursue a ‘Samson option’ as some have suggested.”

According to Western intelligence agencies, Syria owns one of the largest stockpiles of chemical weapons in the world, intended originally as a strategic deterrent against Israel.

Captain Abdul Salam Abdul Razaq, who defected from Syria’s chemical warfare unit, told A-Sharq Al-Awsat that sarin and mustard gas are the two nerve agents primarily used by the Syrian army in combat.

He said that since the colorless, odorless sarin gas evaporates withing half an hour, the Syrian army uses it “before entering any area.” Abdul Razaq also pleaded for international assistance in taking control of chemical weapon sites, which he claimed defectors have accurate intelligence about.

On Thursday, Syrian deputy foreign minister Faysal Mekdad said that “if Syria owned chemical weapons, it would not use them against its people,” adding that the entire issue was invented by the West as a pretext to invade the country.

“Syria does not want to commit suicide,” Mekdad added.

Man pleads guilty in Seattle terror plot – Israel News, Ynetnews.

( Radical Islam is almost everywhere on the planet and is always violent. – JW )

Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif planned to gun down servicemen and women at Military Entrance Processing Station as revenge for US ‘atrocities’ in Afghanistan; agrees to prison sentence between 17 and 19 years

Associated Press

A man pleaded guilty Thursday to plotting an attack on a Seattle military complex with machine guns and grenades.

Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, 35, agreed to a prison sentence between 17 and 19 years, the US attorney’s office in Seattle said. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder US officers and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and is scheduled to be sentenced in March.

Abdul-Latif was arrested June 22, 2011, along with an acquaintance from Los Angeles, when authorities said they arrived at a Seattle warehouse garage to pick up machine guns and grenades to use in the attack. Investigators had set up the buy after a confidential informant alerted authorities of the men’s plan.

In conversations the FBI recorded with the help of the informant, Abdul-Latif and his co-defendant, Walli Mujahidh, discussed how they wanted to gun down people in the Military Entrance Processing Station in south Seattle as revenge for atrocities by US soldiers in Afghanistan, prosecutors said. The military complex houses a federal daycare center.

Mujahidh, 33, pleaded guilty in the case in December 2011.

“This defendant plotted to kill American servicemen and women, and other innocent people in furtherance of his extremist views,” US Attorney Jenny A. Durkan said of Abdul-Latif in a statement. “The continued vigilance of the community and the work of law enforcement ensured that we were able to successfully disrupt his deadly plan and bring Mr. Abdul-Latif to justice.”

Emails to Abdul-Latif’s defense attorneys were not immediately returned.

In June, the defense lawyers filed motions seeking to get some of the prosecution’s evidence thrown out, saying the government should not have been able to obtain a secret warrant because there was no indication Abdul-Latif was involved in international terrorism. That motion was denied by a federal judge, who said investigators followed proper procedures.

That filing also showed that Abdul-Latif was being monitored by the FBI long before an acquaintance was recruited to take part in the plot reported it to investigators. In late January 2011, an agent ran a records search on Abdul-Latif and his wife, and by the following month, agents were watching Abdul-Latif while he worked as a janitor and while he attended a mosque with his wife and son.

The FBI monitoring occurred just a few months after Abdul-Latif began posting YouTube videos in which he expressed support for Islamist fighters.

Federal authorities and Seattle police have credited the informant with bringing the plot to light. The informant, a repeat felon and convicted sex offender, was paid $90,400 for his cooperation.