Sunday, September 29, 2013
The United States considers the Westgate attack a direct threat
to its security and has sent dozens of investigators to Kenya, according
to the New York Times.
The Obama Administration fears
that the Somalia-based al-Shabaab, which has claimed responsibility for
the Nairobi siege that left at least 67 people dead, may plot similar
attacks on US soil and against its citizens in East Africa.
“We
are in this fight together,” Robert F. Godec, the American ambassador
to Kenya told the newspaper. “The more we know about the planning that
went into this, the way it was conducted, what was used, the people
involved, the better we can protect America, too.”
The
US Government is also closely monitoring reports that terror attacks
could be planned on its home soil, following reports that
Somali-Americans, thought to have been recruited from Minnesota, were
among the Westgate terrorists.
“One of the
misconceptions is that we can let al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups
stay abroad and not fight them there, and that we would be safe at
home,” said Katherine Zimmerman, senior analyst at the Critical Threats
Project of the American Enterprise Institute. “That’s really proven not
to be the case.”
At least 20 Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) agents are involved in collecting samples from
Westgate Mall. Evidence Response Team and the New York Joint Terrorism
Task Force squad that specialises on the Horn of Africa are also
expected in Nairobi.
The newspaper reports that the
agents will be “collecting DNA, fingerprints and other biometric
information, poring through surveillance footage and examining guns,
laptops, cameras and computers — anything to gain insights into how the
attack was carried out and the hierarchy, planning and structures behind
the group, especially if they have any ties back to the United States”.
Sunday
Nation has also learnt that US investigators have been given access to
Kenya’s electronic communication records to look for clues in e-mail and
phone communications used by the terrorists and their associates.
However,
a security official who spoke to the Sunday Nation on condition of
anonymity says not much “chatter” (electronic communication) was
intercepted before the attack, signalling that the terrorists might have
been a small, tightly-knit group that was careful about how it
communicated.
The British Foreign Office has also confirmed that forensic experts from the Metropolitan Police were sent to Nairobi.
The BBC reported that their work was to help the British High Commission in Nairobi to identify UK citizens who had died.
Karen
Squibb-Williams, director of communication and in-house counsel for the
Forensic Science Society, told BBC: “The experts who have been sent to
Kenya will most probably be crime scene managers who are used to
attending scenes of major homicides on a regular basis.
In
the wake of the experience of 9/11, and to some extent as a result of
the 7/7 bombing in London, the UK has developed considerable skills in
assisting with violent incidents.”
Interpol has also deployed an Incident Response Team headed by Executive Director of Police Services, Jean-Michel Louboutin.
“The
team includes disaster victim identification and data specialists who
will carry out real-time comparisons against Interpol’s global databases
on DNA and fingerprints and other evidence gathered from the crime
scene,” said Interpol in a statement.
It added that its network of 190 countries will be crucial in checking the details of any foreign suspects.