US puts Osama bin Laden’s son on terror blacklist
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| © Al-Jazeera via APTN/AP In this image made from video broadcast by the Qatari-based satellite television station Al-Jazeera Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2001, a young boy, left, identified as Hamza bin Laden |
The State and Treasury departments said they had designated Hamza bin Laden and Ibrahim al-Banna as global terrorists. Bin Laden, a son of the deceased al Qaeda leader, has been declared a member of the group by senior leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, according to the State Department.
Bruce Reidel, an analyst with the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, has called Hamza bin Laden the "new face for al Qaeda" and "an articulate and dangerous enemy."
Al-Banna is a senior member of AQAP who has served as the group's security chief and has provided military and security advice to AQAP leaders, the State Department said.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control added Bin Laden and al-Banna to its list of specially designated nationals, a counterterrorism blacklist. The State Department said the two had been identified as specially designated global terrorists.
Any property owned by the two men and subject to U.S. jurisdiction may be frozen and U.S. citizens are prohibited from engaging in any transactions with them, the State Department said. The designation is viewed as a powerful tool to deny them access to the U.S. financial system.
Bin Laden, who was born in Saudi Arabia, has called for acts of terrorism in western capitals and threatened to take revenge against the United States for his father's killing, the State Department said.
He has threatened to target Americans abroad and urged Saudi tribes to unite with AQAP in Yemen to fight against Saudi Arabia, it said.
Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces who raided his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May 2011. Hamza bin Laden was thought to be under house arrest in Iran at the time, and documents recovered from the compound indicated that aides had been trying to reunite him with his father.
Al-Banna, who was born in Egypt, has described al Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington as "virtuous" and threatened to target Americans in the United States and abroad, the State Department said.
Before joining AQAP, he was a leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad in Yemen, it said.
Hamza bin Laden, Osama bin Laden's son, hit with U.S. sanctions
The Obama administration imposed sanctions Thursday on a son of Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, saying the younger bin Laden poses a risk to U.S. national security.
The State Department said Hamza bin Laden has been added to its Specially Designated Global Terrorist list after he was “determined to have committed, or pose a serious risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security.”
Hamza bin Laden was officially named an al Qaeda member in 2014 by his father’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
The State Department says the younger Laden - in a 2015 audio message - called for acts of terrorism in Western capitals. In an audio message last year, he threatened revenge against the U.S. and warned Americans they would be targeted at home and abroad.
Hamza bin Laden also has called for lone wolf, or solo-operative, attacks against U.S., French, and Israeli interests in Washington, Paris and Tel Aviv.
“Hamza bin Laden is actively engaged in terrorism,” the State Department said, adding that terrorism designations deny individuals access to the U.S. financial system and “can assist or complement the law enforcement actions of other U.S. agencies and other governments.”
Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces in Pakistan in 2011.
The State Department also announced penalties against Ibrahim al-Banna, a senior member of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He served as that group’s security chief and provided military and security guidance to its leadership.
Al-Banna wrote a 2010 article in AQAP’s English-language magazine, Inspire, hailing the Sept. 11 attacks as virtuous, according to the State Department, and threatened to target Americans both domestically and abroad.
U.S. adds Osama bin Laden's son to global terrorist list
The Obama administration imposed sanctions Thursday on Hamza bin Laden, a son of Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, saying he poses a risk to national security in the United States.
The State Department said in a statement that the younger bin Laden was added to its Specially Designated Global Terrorist list after he was “determined to have committed, or pose a serious risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security.”
The sanctions will deny him access to the U.S. financial system, the State Department said.
Hamza bin Laden was officially named an al-Qaeda member in 2014 by his father’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
In an audio message in 2016, Hamza bin Laden threatened revenge against the U.S. and warned Americans they would be targeted at home and abroad. In a 2015 audio message from al-Zawahiri, Hamza bin Laden called for acts of terrorism in Western capitals, according to the State Department.
Hamza bin Laden also has called for lone wolf attacks against the United States, France and Israel.
"Hamza bin Laden is actively engaged in terrorism," the State Department said.
The sanctions, in addition to denying access to the U.S. financial system, "can assist or complement the law enforcement actions of other U.S. agencies or other governments," the State Department said.
Hamza bin Laden was projected to be a future al-Qaeda leader but had not shown the operational or intellectual acumen to replace al-Zawahiri, SITE Intelligence group co-founder Rita Katz told The Independent, a British newspaper, in May.
Osama bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda, was killed in 2011 in Pakistan after a raid by U.S. special forces on his compound. His death came 10 years after he masterminded the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
While Hamza bin Laden was “labeled a crown prince” after surviving the raid that killed his father and older brother Khlaed, he was “not a key figure within al-Qaeda,” Andreas Krieg, an analyst at King’s College in London told The Independent in 2016.
The State Department also imposed penalties Thursday against Ibrahim al-Banna, a senior member of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Banna served as that group’s security chief and provided military and security guidance to its leadership.
He wrote a 2010 article in the militant group's English-language magazine, Inspire, hailing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as virtuous and threatening to target Americans both domestically and abroad, according to the State Department.
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