The Other McCain

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Kenya Massacre: Still No Confirmation of ‘White Widow’ Samantha Lewthwaite

Posted on | September 25, 2013 | 28 Comments

Fake passport identifies Samantha Lewthwaite as ‘Natalie Faye Webb.’

Since Monday, we have awaited official confirmation of press reports that Britain’s notorious “White Widow” Samantha Lewthwaite was among the Muslim terrorists who perpetrated the massacre at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya.

There is still no such confirmation, but the speculation has become so intense that the New York Times was obliged to acknowledge it:

Much speculation has swirled around the question of whether any of the heavily armed militants were women.
Kenyan officials initially asserted that there had been no women among the shooters, but on Tuesday Mr. Kenyatta seemed to revive the possibility that one of the assailants was a British woman.
Several intelligence analysts in Nairobi speculated that the woman was Samantha Lewthwaite, a Muslim convert who had been married to one of the four suicide bombers who struck the London transit system on July 7, 2005, killing 52 people and themselves.
Kenyan authorities suspected that Ms. Lewthwaite had risen up through the ranks of extremist groups and was leading a terrorism cell on the Kenyan coast; though they almost swooped in on her in 2011, she escaped. In Kenya and in Britain, she is now known as “the white widow.”

Officials believe Lewthwaite entered Kenya in 2011 on a fake South African passport under the alias of “Natalie Faye Webb.”

Donald Douglas at American Power has been following the story — there is a sort of “White Widow” frenzy in the British press — and links this account from The Australian:

A SHOP worker has described how a woman resembling the ‘White Widow’ sprayed bullets in her direction during the terrorist attack on a Kenyan mall.
The witness says she was cowering under boxes when an AK-37-wielding, pale-skinned woman with long dark hair locked eyes with her.
She then opened fire from a balcony.
The witness, named only as Caroline, told the Daily Mail she managed to escape unharmed as the terrorists advanced through the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi.
“She was high up but not far from me, close enough that I saw her looking along the floor where I was until she saw me,” Caroline said.
“She stopped and aimed at me and then opened fire.”
The shop assistant said the woman was wearing a baggy black top and had long black hair.
“I can’t remember very much, but I remember she had pale skin,” she said.
This witness account is but one of several reporting a white female among terrorists who attacked the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi at the weekend, killing 61 civilians and six security forces.

Amid the confused aftermath of the siege in Kenya, where investigators are just now beginning to sift through the evidence, this kind of speculation is understandable, but we still have no official confirmation that Lewthwaite was involved. Stay tuned.

 

Category: Kenya, Terrorism

Comments

28 Responses to “Kenya Massacre: Still No Confirmation of ‘White Widow’ Samantha Lewthwaite”

  1. rsmccain
    September 25th, 2013 @ 12:03 pm

    Kenya Massacre: Still No Confirmation of ‘White Widow’ Samantha Lewthwaite http://t.co/M9o4Qsq9iP Hat-tip @AmPowerBlog #Westgate #tcot

  2. Lockestep1776
    September 25th, 2013 @ 12:03 pm

    Kenya Massacre: Still No Confirmation of ‘White Widow’ Samantha Lewthwaite: Fake passport identifies Samantha … http://t.co/WUONmQIMtv

  3. CHideout
    September 25th, 2013 @ 12:03 pm

    Kenya Massacre: Still No Confirmation of ‘White Widow’ Samantha Lewthwaite: Fake passport identifies Samantha … http://t.co/Dm0SPX5j11

  4. Citzcom
    September 25th, 2013 @ 12:03 pm

    Kenya Massacre: Still No Confirmation of ‘White Widow’ Samantha Lewthwaite: Fake passport identifies Samantha … http://t.co/hWXrJpajWd

  5. jwbrown1969
    September 25th, 2013 @ 12:03 pm

    Kenya Massacre: Still No Confirmation of ‘White Widow’ Samantha Lewthwaite: Fake passport identifies Samantha … http://t.co/ZqK1Xuw4xQ

  6. OmarShabbi
    September 25th, 2013 @ 12:07 pm

    RT @jwbrown1969: Kenya Massacre: Still No Confirmation of ‘White Widow’ Samantha Lewthwaite: Fake passport identifies Samantha … http://t…

  7. AmPowerBlog
    September 25th, 2013 @ 12:58 pm

    RT @rsmccain: Kenya Massacre: Still No Confirmation of ‘White Widow’ Samantha Lewthwaite http://t.co/M9o4Qsq9iP Hat-tip @AmPowerBlog #Westg…

  8. PaulHair1
    September 25th, 2013 @ 1:20 pm

    I’ve been wondering about this; good on @rsmccain for following this: http://t.co/jcnITKzz3J #Intelligence #Kenya

  9. paulS
    September 25th, 2013 @ 1:33 pm

    says the man with the webpage that advertises “meet 2000 Chinese women looking for love”

  10. Dianna Deeley
    September 25th, 2013 @ 2:07 pm

    How does one open fire with a bicycle repair kit?!

    I hate reporters when they try to talk about firearms. Someone should slap their fingers with ruler. Grrr.

  11. rsmccain
    September 25th, 2013 @ 2:45 pm

    RT @commonpatriot: via @rsmccain: Kenya Massacre: Still No Confirmation of ‘White Widow’ Samantha Lewthwaite http://t.co/KblkJ6LH6J #tcot

  12. Unix-Jedi
    September 25th, 2013 @ 3:05 pm

    Well, that’s probably a simple typo. As far as firearms reporting goes, it’s low in egregiousness.

  13. Unix-Jedi
    September 25th, 2013 @ 3:07 pm

    The witness says she was cowering under boxes when an AK-37 (I presume they mean, or are quoting the witness, meaning – -47) -wielding,
    pale-skinned woman with long dark hair locked eyes with her.

    She (This is a worse error. “She” – referring to the subject, the “witness”? The one just referred to as “her”? Or the object of the testimony, the pale-skinned woman?) then opened fire from a balcony.

    The witness, named only as Caroline, told the Daily Mail she managed to escape unharmed

    I thought AK-“37s” and other deadly assault rifles sprayed bullets like hoses spray water, were super-deadly, and no one could escape if they were fired in the direction of?

    I think the press is forgetting on Wednesday what they said on Monday. Not too surprising.

  14. rmnixondeceased
    September 25th, 2013 @ 3:14 pm

    Or a 4×4 cluebat …

  15. Unix-Jedi
    September 25th, 2013 @ 3:17 pm

    http://blog.robballen.com/Post/3717/because-im-nothing-if-not-helpful

  16. thatMrGguy
    September 25th, 2013 @ 3:17 pm

    Kenya Massacre: Still No Confirmation of ‘White Widow’ Samantha Lewthwaite http://t.co/mZnzUilzor

  17. sshibad
    September 25th, 2013 @ 3:19 pm

    RT @thatMrGguy: Kenya Massacre: Still No Confirmation of ‘White Widow’ Samantha Lewthwaite http://t.co/mZnzUilzor

  18. Ted Cruz Pulls All-Nighter, but the Important Thing is Peter King | Regular Right Guy
    September 25th, 2013 @ 3:37 pm

    […] Kenya Massacre: Still No Confirmation of ‘White Widow’ Samantha Lewthwaite […]

  19. rmnixondeceased
    September 25th, 2013 @ 5:26 pm

    ?? ???? ?? ????? ?? ????? ?? ???

  20. M. Thompson
    September 25th, 2013 @ 6:05 pm

    I hope she meet Mohammed in Hell. She seems to be his sort of follower, violent.

  21. Finrod Felagund
    September 25th, 2013 @ 7:59 pm

    Your ads are often based on the websites you’ve been to recently– which makes me wonder what’s in your browser history.

  22. Dianna Deeley
    September 25th, 2013 @ 8:21 pm

    Even major papers no longer have copy editors. Still!

  23. Quartermaster
    September 25th, 2013 @ 8:26 pm

    I prefer the 4×4. Those skulls are powerful thick.

  24. Fareedi al Laayla al Qakhaul
    September 25th, 2013 @ 9:11 pm

    My new favourite word for these types: “Qur’animals”…

  25. Fareedi al Laayla al Qakhaul
    September 25th, 2013 @ 11:02 pm

    I’ve noticed a number of advertisements for intimate personal hygiene products on my screen this evening…

  26. Good Stuff
    September 26th, 2013 @ 3:51 am

    LOL
    May you die in a fire your camel scrotum

  27. Good Stuff
    September 26th, 2013 @ 4:21 am

    White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite ‘Not Involved’ In Nairobi Mall Terror Attack

    Some of the attackers who massacred shoppers in a Nairobi mall were men dressed as women, according to reports.

    A Kenyan minister said all of the militants, thought to belong to the al-Shabaab group, were men – scotching rumours that the notorious ‘White Widow’, a 29-year-old British woman, was involved.

    source – http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/09/23/white-widow-samantha-lewthwaite_n_3975349.html

  28. M. Thompson
    September 26th, 2013 @ 2:56 pm

    Clue-by-Four!
    Clue-by-Four!
    Clue-by-Four!