US sanctions al-Qaida affiliate, leaders in Yemen; designation made before Christmas attack

US slaps sanctions on al-Qaida Yemen affiliate

WASHINGTON — Eleven days before the failed Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, the Obama administration decided to target the Yemen-based al-Qaida affiliate with financial sanctions, according to documents released Tuesday.

On Dec. 14, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton signed papers designating al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula — or AQAP — as a “foreign terrorist organization.”

The move placed the group’s two top leaders on a list of terror suspects subject to travel and financial penalties in U.S. jurisdictions, the State Department said.

The designations of AQAP and its chiefs, Nasir al-Wahishi and Said al-Shihri, and the imposition of sanctions against them formally took effect on Tuesday when the information was published in the Federal Register, State Department officials said.

“These actions prohibit provision of material support and arms to AQAP and also include immigration related restrictions that will help stem the flow of finances to AQAP and give the Department of Justice the tools it needs to prosecute AQAP members,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in a statement.

“The actions taken today against AQAP support the U.S. effort to degrade the capabilities of this group. We are determined to eliminate AQAP’s ability to execute violent attacks and to disrupt, dismantle and defeat their networks,” he said.

At the same time, the Treasury Department announced similar moves against the group and its two leaders.

AQAP has taken responsibility for the abortive Dec. 25 attack on a Northwest Airlines flight by a young Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (OO’-mahr fah-ROOK’ ahb-DOOL’-moo-TAH’-lahb), whose explosives failed to detonate. It is also blamed for a March 2009 suicide bombing against South Korean tourists in Yemen and an August 2009 attempt to assassinate Saudi Prince Muhammad bin Nayif.

Officials said the designations and the sanctions are the first against AQAP, which was formed in January 2009, and its leadership and that they will be seeking similar action from the United Nations.

They said an exhaustive review of the group’s activities and potential threat to the United States began early in 2009 and that the vetting process did not finish until shortly before Clinton made her determination on Dec. 14. The officials said the designation was not related to any intelligence related to the Dec. 25 attack.

Crowley said the sanctions against al-Wahishi, the group’s leader, relate to his alleged responsibility for “approving targets, recruiting new members, allocating resources to training and attack planning and tasking others to carry out attacks.”

His deputy, al-Shihri, is accused of abetting terror attacks through the same means as well as “assisting with training and attack planning,” Crowley said.