P 171127Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY BAKU
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0513
INFO CIS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS BAKU 001176 
 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR S/CT (RHONDA SHORE) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PTER PREL AJ
SUBJECT: AZERBAIJAN: 2008 COUNTRY REPORTS ON TERRORISM 
 
REF: STATE 120019 
 
Summary:  Cooperation between Azerbaijan and the United 
States on counterterrorism predates the September 11, 2001 
attacks and the first waiver of Section 907 of the FREEDOM 
Support Act in January 2002.  For the last several years, the 
GOAJ has increased its efforts to combat terrorist financing, 
and has aggressively apprehended and tried members of 
suspected terrorist groups.  It has rendered numerous 
terrorists and persons suspected of having ties to 
terrorists.  It has also closed organizations operating in 
Azerbaijan that were suspected of supporting terrorist 
groups.  End Summary. 
 
 
Proposed report for Azerbaijan in 2008 Patterns of Global 
Terrorism Report to Congress. 
 
 
Azerbaijan and the United States have a very good record of 
cooperation on counterterrorism issues that predates the 
September 11, 2001 attacks. Azerbaijan assisted in the 
investigation of the 1998 East Africa Embassy bombings and 
has cooperated with the U.S. Embassy in Baku to counter 
terrorist threats against the Mission. After the September 11 
attacks, the Government of Azerbaijan expressed unqualified 
support for the United States and offered invaluable 
assistance to the U.S.-led counterterrorism coalition. 
Azerbaijan has granted blanket overflight clearance, engaged 
in information sharing and law-enforcement cooperation, and 
has approved numerous landings and refueling operations at 
Baku's civilian airport in support of U.S. and Coalition 
military operations in Afghanistan. Azerbaijan supported 
peacekeeping operations in Iraq from August 2003 to November 
2008 with an infantry company of approximately 150 soldiers 
stationed at the Haditha dam. A platoon of Azerbaijani 
soldiers has been working with the Turkish peacekeeping 
contingent in Afghanistan since November 2002, and Azerbaijan 
is preparing to increase its contingent to 90 personnel, 
including medical and civil affairs specialists. Azerbaijani 
forces also contributed for several years to peacekeeping 
operations in Kosovo, serving alongside Turkish units. 
 
Azerbaijan has also provided unstinting political support to 
the United States in the Global War on Terrorism. With its 
2005 ratification of the International Convention for the 
Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, Azerbaijan has 
acceded to all 13 United Nations Conventions on Terrorism. It 
has also joined 11 European conventions on combating 
terrorism. In 2003, Azerbaijan implemented UN Security 
Council resolutions 1368, 1373 and 1377. In May 2005, it 
joined the Convention of the Council of Europe on terrorism 
prevention. The government also approved changes to the 
criminal code that increased the maximum penalty for acts of 
terrorism from 15 years to life imprisonment and added a 
provision making the financing of terrorist activities a 
crime under Azerbaijani law. 
 
While Azerbaijan is a logical route for international 
mujahedin with ties to terrorist organizations seeking to 
move people, money, and materiel through the Caucasus, the 
country actively opposes them.  Azerbaijan has stepped up its 
efforts and has had some success in reducing their presence 
and hampering their activities. Azerbaijan has taken steps to 
combat terrorist financing and identify possible 
terrorist-related funding by distributing lists of suspected 
terrorist groups and individuals to local banks. In May 2003, 
Azerbaijan established an inter-ministerial experts group 
responsible for drafting anti-money laundering and 
counterterrorist finance legislation. In December 2006, the 
experts group, through the President's office, provided its 
most recent draft to the U.S. Department of Justice and the 
Council of Europe; the Department of Justice provided 
comments on the law and discussed it with Azerbaijani 
officials. The Government's draft law on money laundering is 
in an advanced stage of the legislative process, and is 
expected to result in the creation of a Financial 
Intelligence Unit.  In anticipation of future adoption of 
this law, the U.S. Government has continued to train 
prosecutors, investigators and judges on implementing 
anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing law 
enforcement techniques. 
 
In February 2007, the Ministry of National Security (MNS) 
rounded up 15 Azerbaijani citizens who were members of the 
"Northern Mahdi Army," a jihadist organization the government 
linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. 
 
In November 2007, 11 Azerbaijani citizens were arrested over 
a number of days throughout Azerbaijan in connection with a 
late October 2007 threat against the U.S. Embassy in Baku 
which resulted in the Embassy suspending public services for 
two days. The group consisted of Azerbaijani citizens led by 
a renegade radicalized Azerbaijani army officer, Kamran 
Asadov.  He went absent without leave from his unit with four 
assault rifles, a machine gun, 20 grenades and a large amount 
of cartridges on 24 October. The group carried out a lethal 
attack on a Lukoil gas station in Baku on October 30, likely 
to fund their operations. According to press reports, members 
of the groups told the MNS that they planned to attack the 
U.S. Embassy. All the weapons and at-large members of the 
group have been seized and prosecutions are ongoing at the 
time of this report. 
 
On August 17, an unknown assailant or assailants attacked 
Baku's main Sunni mosque, known as Abu Bakr, with grenades, 
killing three and wounding eight. The government closed the 
mosque after the attack.  In late October, a Baku court 
ordered the mosque reopened, but soon reversed itself.  The 
mosque remains closed and the investigation into the attack 
is ongoing. The government detained thirteen suspects in late 
August and early September in connection with the attack.  In 
its public statement on the attack September 2, the MNS 
alleged that Ilgar Mollachiyev, an Azerbaijani citizen 
associated with extremist activities in Russian Dagestan, and 
his brother-in-law Samir Mehtiyev had masterminded the 
attack.  Mollachiyev was killed by Russian security forces in 
Dagestan in September. 
 
There is no evidence in 2008 that terrorists find safe haven 
in Azerbaijan or that there is any terrorist group operating 
in Azerbaijan which meets the guidelines defined for this 
report. 
 
EMBASSY POINT OF CONTACT: 
 
POLITICAL OFFICER PETER ANDREOLI 
EMAIL: ANDREOLIPD@STATE.GOV 
INTERNATIONAL LINE: 994124980335 
TIE LINE: 841-4230 
INTERNATIONAL FAX: 994124656671 
TIE LINE FAX: 841-4289 
LU