* Did Najibullah Zazi send the June/early July 2007 Goldman Sachs threat letters? Indicted with DXer’s candidate for the anthrax mailings Adnan El-Shukrijumah, Zazi’s coffee cart was right below the Goldman Sachs building at 825 Broad near Stone St.
Posted by DXer on May 20, 2013
***
***
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CASE CLOSED ... what really happened in the 2001 anthrax attacks? 
DXer said
Attorney General orders lockdown on Al Qaeda thug in Manhattan jail over possible terrorist attack order
BY JOHN MARZULLI NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Comment: Is the concern that Ferid Imam and Maiwand Yar will attack?
Here is a picture of biochemistry student Ferid Imam. An honours student, he studied biochemistry at the University of Manitoba — he was a close associate of Adnan El-Shukrijumah who I venture was the mailer of the anthrax letters in Fall 2001.
Dugway sent possibly live virulent Ames anthrax to Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Where did Ferid Imam do his coop(s)?
http://www.billwarnerpi.com/2012_06_03_archive.html
Ferid Imam is in his early 30s. What had been his day job?
NYC bomb-plot trial begins
Ex-Winnipegger still on the run is crucial link to terror case
By: Mike McIntyre
Posted: 04/4/2012
He remains one of the world’s most wanted fugitives — but a former Winnipeg man is about to take on a prominent role in a New York courtroom as a major terrorism trial begins.
Ferid Ahmed Imam, 31, is a one-time University of Manitoba biochemistry student accused of extensive Taliban terror training, which included a plan to blow up the New York subway system using suicide bombers, and attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Saturday, June 09, 2012
Wanted Al-Qaeda Fugitives Ferid Imam and Adnan G. el-Shukrijumah Continue to Plan and Recruit for Attack on New York City Subway System.
http://www.billwarnerpi.com/2012_06_03_archive.html
Here is a photo of Maiwand Yar.
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/wanted/maiwand-yar
• Weight: 141 lbs
• Height: 5 ft 8 in
• Wears eyeglasses
• Tattoos: Upper back, “QUAYIUM”
Background:
Texas-Born Al Qaeda Suspect, Muhanad Mahmoud Al Farekh …
Born in Texas, Farekh had become more religious during his time in Canada and had started watching violent Jihadi videos online. In early 2007, he and two co-conspirators, who were fellow students at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, had left the country to reach Pakistan’s tribal areas to target American forces in Afghanistan, authorities said in the statement, according to the Journal. One of the conspirators was identified as Ferid Imam.
Ferid Imam, Canadian Fugitive Charged In NYC Subway Plot
Posted: 03/15/2011 6:01 pm EDT
NEW YORK — A Canadian fugitive helped get terror training for three New Yorkers accused in a failed al-Qaida sanctioned plot to attack the city’s subways, U.S. prosecutors said Tuesday.
An indictment unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn accuses Ferid Imam of supporting Najibullah Zazi, Zarein Ahmedzay and Adis Medunjanin when they traveled to the northern frontier of Pakistan in 2008. The three onetime high school classmates from Queens left the region with orders from al-Qaida to become suicide bombers on American soil.
***
Ahmedzay – who has pleaded guilty to terror charges in the subway plot and is cooperating in an ongoing investigation – identified Imam as one of his trainers, Assistant Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Bill Robinson said Tuesday.
Imam and another Canadian man, Maiwand Yar, 27, also face charges of conspiracy to participate in terrorism and participation in terrorism. Police say Imam and Yar never returned to Canada following their entry into Pakistan in 2007 and their whereabouts are unknown.
http://www.katu.com/news/local/No-exposure-known-health-risk-from-suspect-anthrax-shipped-to-private-Seattle-lab-305954381.html
Patrick Gaebel, a spokesman for Health Canada, said Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, was told by the Pentagon that a test kit sent there in 2006 could possibly contain live anthrax bacterium. Gaebel said the kit was intended for the lab to validate its anthrax detection system. He said they’ve located the testing kit and have confirmed it has not been used for over five years.
DXer said
The PhD whose dissertation was on chimeric viruses who thanks Ferid Imam among the co-op students with whom he worked, also says:
“I would like to thank the members of the Special Pathogens Program at the National Microbiology Lab for all of their help, support, encouragement, input, criticism (only the nice stuff), and interest in my work.”
Where did Ferid Imam do his co-op(s)? What reward is there for Ferid Imam? Is it $5 million?
DXer said
The PhD whose dissertation was on chimeric viruses who thanks Ferid Imam among the co-op students with whom he worked, in 2007, he earned hisPh.D. from the University of Manitoba while performing his research in Canada’s only BSL4 laboratory at the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory.
Is Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory where he worked with co-op student Ferid Imam?
DXer said
Attorney General orders lockdown on Al Qaeda thug in Manhattan jail over possible terrorist attack order
BY JOHN MARZULLI NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, August 27, 2015
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ag-orders-lockdown-al-qaeda-thug-nyc-jail-article-1.2338799
JANE ROSENBERG/AP
Muhanad Mahmoud Al-Farekh (third from left) has been subject special administrative measures in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan since Aug. 19. He’s also banned from group religious services and his contact with the outside world is severely restricted.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch has ordered a near total clampdown on a jailed Al Qaeda goon, citing the “high probability” that he might try to order a terrorist attack from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan.
Muhanad Mahmoud Al-Farekh was indicted last spring in Brooklyn Federal Court on charges of providing material support to a terrorist organization. Al-Farekh, a U.S. citizen, allegedly participated in terrorist attack planning with Al Qaeda officials in Pakistan in 2007, including a plot involving suicide bombers blowing themselves up in the New York City subway system.
DXer said
Ferid Imam just worked on chimeric viruses. Phew.
http://umanitoba.ca/student/admissions/programs/biochemistry.html
Faculty of Science – Biochemistry
Program description
Biochemistry is the study of the chemical composition, activity and constituents of living systems. Both Microbiology and Chemistry share in the teaching and administration of the program. The Honours and cooperative work-study (co-op) programs provide experience in government, private sector and research laboratories.
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Interesting courses and unique opportunities
Within the Biochemistry programs, you can take courses and conduct research in topics ranging from chemistry to microbiology to biology including: cellular signaling and cancer biology, molecular biology, structural biology, biophysics and bioenergetics, genomics and genetics. Many courses include laboratory components to develop skills in scientific techniques.
***’
What is unique about this program at the U of M?
The Biochemistry Program at the University of Manitoba allows students the opportunity to combine two fascinating areas of life sciences. The program offers excellent faculty members from two departments, all who have externally-funded research programs, including one provincial and two national research chair holders. Students will experience hands-on research opportunities, strong links to other programs in Science and Medicine, good preparation for graduate programs and excellent undergraduate laboratories.
Comment:
Thank goodness Dugway wasn’t sending live anthrax to any Universities. That would be pretty messed up.
Ferid Imam, for example, was thanked by the author of this thesis on chimeric viruses. Phew. I was worried he worked with anthrax. But he just worked on chimeric viruses.
Wikipedia:
“Chimera (virus)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A chimera virus is defined by the Center for Veterinary Biologics (part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) as a “new hybrid microorganism created by joining nucleic acid fragments from two or more differentmicroorganisms in which each of at least two of the fragments contain essential genes necessary for replication.”[1] The term chimera already referred to an individual organism whose body contained cell populations from different zygotes or an organism that developed from portions of different embryos. In mythology, a chimera is a creature such as a hippogriff or a gryphon formed from parts of different animals, thus the name for these viruses. Chimeric flaviviruses have been created in an attempt to make novel live attenuated vaccines.[2]”
Source:
Functional Characterization of the Attachment Glycoprotein of Nipah virus:
Role in Fusion, Inhibition of Henipavirus Infection, Generation of Chimeric Proteins, and Assembly of Chimeric Viruses
Bevan Sawatsky
University of Manitoba
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of the University of Manitoba in partial fulfillment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Medical Microbiology University of Manitoba
© 2007 by Bevan Sawatsky
I would also like to thank the co-op students who have worked for me over the years: Andrea Smyrl, Pamela Smith, and Ferid Imam.
DXer said
Manitoba employer recalls terror suspect
http://cnews.canoe.com/CNEWS/Canada/2011/03/17/17649461.html
“(Ferid) was really westernized.”
Ferid worked for about a year for Nikkel in 2000, while Fuad was employed until just after Sept. 11, 2001.
…
Nikkel said he considered Ferid’s brother’s views far more extreme and said Fuad often spoke with fondness about al-Qaida.
“He used to tell us stories about Osama bin Laden and what a handsome man he was,” Nikkel said of Fuad, whom he said is about three years older than Ferid. “We didn’t take it that seriously at the time because it was before 9/11.”
…
Nikkel said he believed Ferid immigrated from east Africa when he was a young child, while Fuad came many years later.
“Every day (with Fuad), it was how he hated Americans and he wanted to kill everyone,” Nikkel said. “He would never spend money and I always asked him what he did with it, and he said he was building a bomb to blow up a satellite.”
Nikkel ended up firing Fuad just after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“A customer we were working for called me into his house and showed me what was happening (on 9/11) and when we came outside (Fuad) was dancing in the yard when he heard about it. At that point we knew for sure something wasn’t right,” Nikkel said.
…
“It blows me away that I see Ferid’s name,” Nikkel said. “If I would have seen Fuad’s name, it wouldn’t have surprised me. I didn’t see any indication that Ferid would be into that, other than his brother being a very strong influence.”
Manitoba RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Line Karpish said members of the public with concerns about national security issues should file a formal report.
“I would strongly encourage anyone who would encounter a situation like this to call the RCMP directly or walk into a detachment, and report it and then it will get to where it needs to go,” Karpish said. “We take these things extremely seriously.”
The RCMP also offers a tip line for people with concerns.
Nikkel said he last spoke to Fuad in the early 2000s when the former employee asked him for a reference.
Fuad Imam, still a resident of Winnipeg, declined to comment when contacted at his apartment Wednesday.
DXer said
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/global-manhunt-for-canadian-students/article4327862/?page=all
Global manhunt for Canadian students
GREG MCARTHUR, PATRICK WHITE, JOE FRIESEN, CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD, MARTEN YOUSSEF, COLIN FREEZE – WINNIPEG, TORONTO, VANCOUVER, OTTAWA
The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Oct. 01, 2010 3:00AM EDT
Last updated Thursday, Apr. 23, 2015 11:37AM EDT
They were three Muslim boys, from different parts of the world, with very different personalities.
Ferid Imam was an honours student from East Africa, an aspiring pharmacist and, according to his high-school soccer coach, “a dream player.” Muhannad al-Farekh hopped from Texas to the United Arab Emirates to Jordan to the Prairies. Miawand Yar, an ethnic Afghani born in Pakistan, was a schoolyard bully who was arrested for selling crack on his 20th birthday.
But in early 2007, instead of finishing their degrees at the University of Manitoba, the three friends boarded a plane bound for Pakistan via Europe.
DXer said
Note that Zazi is going to testify in this trial. Was the FBI able to confirm that the letter-writer was who they claim to be in the second, lengthy letter? Or was it as I once had speculated — that the letter writer had been spooked by intervening events during that week or two and wanted to “call it off”. Either way, I found it very interesting because of the motherlode of potential investigative and forensic clues contained in the second lengthy letter.
I have suggested that as a starting point it would be useful to see a sample of handwriting from Zazi and any US-based colleagues.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/british-agents-testify-al-qaeda-trial-disguise-article-1.2086760
MASTERS OF DISGUISE: British secret agents can testify at Al Qaeda terror trial in wigs and makeup, Brooklyn judge rules
Federal Judge Raymond Dearie approved the disguises designed to protect the six agents’ identities, but cautioned against wearing fake noses and glasses during upcoming trial for Abid Naseer, the terrorist linked to subway bombing plot in Manhattan
BY JOHN MARZULLI NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Wednesday, January 21, 2015, 1:25 PM
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Naseer was dispatched by Al Qaeda officials in Pakistan to bomb a shopping mall in Manchester, England, and shared the same email account and Al Qaeda handler as the three Queens men who were sent to detonate backpack bombs in crowded subway trains in Manhattan.
A now-declassified documentseized by Navy SEALS from Osama bin Laden’s hideoutwhere he was killed, will confirm that Al Qaeda was plotting attacks in England, New York City and Copenhagen where a newspaper office was targeted for publishing a cartoon offensive to Muslims, prosecutors said.
Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay, who pleaded guilty to the subway bombing conspiracy, will testify against Naseer.
DXer said
I understand that Naseer was a former school friend of Zazi, Ahmedzay and Medunjanin. It would be cool to see a yearbook.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/osama-bin-laden-evidence-used-4906996
“Naseer, who is acting as his own lawyer, was offered the opportunity to study the Bin Laden document on Wednesday without taking notes, but he refused.
He is alleged to have shared the same email account as his ex-school friends Najibullah Zazi, Zarein Ahmedzay and Adis Medunjanin.
US authorities allege Medunjanin and his former high school friends Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay travelled to Pakistan in 2008 to seek terror training from al-Qaida.”
DXer said
Defense counsel in this case involving a Syracuse native who urged a friend join him in “AQUSA” refers to the charges as involving the ultimate “thought crime” and urges leniency. Prosecutors seek a 15 year sentence. My favorite restaurant in Syracuse is a Somalia place on Salina with great chicken dumplings and a thick tea.
It’s difficult when political views don’t align with the host country. It’s best to move first — be angry later.
‘Earth is a battlefield’: Feds seek maximum for Alabama men caught in terrorism sting
http://blog.al.com/live/2013/11/earth_is_a_battlefield_feds_se.html
MOBILE, Alabama – …
Randy “Rasheed” Wilson and Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. They face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Bodnar argued in a court filing that neither deserves leniency.
***
The conspiracy took a leap forward following Abukhdair’s arrest in Egypt in November 2010. After Egyptian authorities deported him in January 2011, the Syracuse native returned to the United States. At Wilson’s suggestion, according to court records, he left Ohio at the end of October that year and moved in with the Wilson family. …
At times, Abukhdair and Wilson said they believed FBI agents were monitoring their communications. (They were).
[Hearing of OBL’s death] Said Abukhdair: “It’s like I can’t breathe right. I feel confused.”
In June 2011, Wilson and Abukhdair discussed getting visas online. This was better, Abukhdair said, “because you don’t actually see two terrorists walk in.”
Bodnar wrote that the exchange is important because Abukhdair calls himself a terrorist.
…
During one conversation, according to the sentencing memo, Abukhdair spotted a neighbor in a Coast Guard uniform walking across the street and told the group that he was the first nonbeliever he was going to kill. …
The defendants also stayed vigilant against spying eyes. The sentencing memo states that on the night of Feb. 4, 2012, Wilson and Abukhdair believed they had spotted FBI surveillance vehicles. The men hastily gathered their computers and electronic equipment and threw the items off the Causeway into Mobile Bay.
In the early-morning hours the next day, according to the sentencing memo, they discussed with an undercover agent what they should tell the FBI if arrested. Abukhdair suggested they say they were going to Jordan to his mother and for Wilson and the agent to study Arabic.
The lcoal reporter never developed Abukhdair’s history in Syracuse.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/10/sentencing_scheduled_for_syracuse_native_convicted_of_planning_to_form_al-qaeda.html
According to court documents, Abukhdair said that the purpose of Islam is to conquer the world with violent means. He suggested that he and co-defendant Randy “Rasheed” Wilson could form “AQUSA” — al-Qaeda in the USA. He proposed seizing hostages in the U.S. and demanding the release of convicted terrorists.
One question I had (and if I answered I keep forgetting) was: When in 2007 did Abukhdair leave the United States? Does the lengthy sentencing memo say?
DXer said
He left for Egypt in February 2007 — which was well before the mid-summer Goldman Sachs letters..
Alabama terror case could hinge on relationships – Yahoo News
news.yahoo.com/alabama-terror-case-could-hinge-relationships-152209…
Dec 23, 2012 – … in Alabama for the last year, Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair, are … N.Y., Abukhdair moved to Egypt in February 2007 to study Arabic, …
DXer said
In what I’ll take the liberty of calling the A.Q.U.S.A. case, the Syracuse newspaper today notes, in quoting that 98 page sentencing memo, that the FBI interviewed Abukhdair in a Cairo prison.
Why federal prosecutors believe a Syracuse native should get maximum sentence on terrorism charges
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/11/why_federal_prosecutors_believe_a_syracuse_native_should_get_maximum_sentence_on.html#incart_river_default
I’m loving syracuse.com. Yesterday my cupcake entry in a contest at Manlius Public Library contest was based on “Very Hungry Caterpillar”. Syracuse.com yesterday coincidentally featured the book yesterday and the fact that the author was from here and was looking for a long lost friend. (I hadn’t known he was from here which makes it especially serendipitous).
Author Eric Carle tries to track down Syracuse friend from 1932 with …
“The Syracuse native’s new book “Friends” will be released on Tuesday, Nov. 19.”
see also
http://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/11/eric_carle_very_hungry_caterpillar_art_syracuse.html
If you want to learn the identity of someone’s friend, you go to the last known address (the parent’s address) and respectfully ask around.
“Group sourcing” (where the media publishes a request for information) typically only reaches as far as someone’s shoe leather and computer aided searches of the right database.
I couldn’t stay for the judging of the cupcakes because I had stumbled upon free 3D printing at the Fayetteville library. There’s nothing like a $2200 toy that permits you to print useless pieces of plastic at 5 cents per gram.
DXer said
The Syracuse reporter sought information again this week about Abukhdair’s history in Syracuse. A starting point in understanding the facts relating to Abukhdair is the government’s lengthy sentencing memo. But the sentencing memo mainly chronicles the endless discussion of what country the pair could reach. A 15-year sentence sought strikes me as overly long and the expenditure of law enforcement resources not particularly fruitful. One thing that is revealed is that Abukhdair’s father was viewed as a source of funds only if he thought his son were going to further his education. What if the undercover spouting off at the mosque about 911 instead was promoting interfaith understanding? On a minor point, I believe the memo cluelessly refers to Ayman Zawahiri as a Jordanian doctor. (He was an Egyptian doctor).
The origin of the relationship between Wilson and Abukhdair is unclear although it is known that they both independently attempted to contact Aulaqi.
I once emailed Aulaqi to ask him his opinion on the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings but got not response. I believe it was during the period he was in jail and being questioned about the mailings by the FBI. If you want to understand Amerithrax, keep following develops in the Aulaqi-Al-Timimi relationship.
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
Although a familiar issue in counterintelligence analysis, I would note the discussion of the shaving of beards.
” Do you think it’s possible just to go to Kenya and then find a way, or do you have to have contacts?”
I have heard brothers just using Google maps and walking across the borders, but it’s dangerous. It is thick forest, lions, tigers, etc. plus the authorities of course.
SubhanAllah! Akhi, what about beards? Do you think it’s a problem?
Well in that situation it would be halal15 to shave it. You don’t want to bring any attention to yourself.”
The well-timed shaving of a beard is always a possible red flag.
“Lol, yeah. It would be easier for you and me since we are citizens. You have to blend in completely. Make reservations for hotels popular with tourists, go on a safari or something, etc.
Akhi. I have a problem with shaving my beard man. I feel like I can’t do it. You think if I just wore like kafir16 clothes and went on a safari through Africa and ended up in Kenya, but I didn’t shave my beard lol, you think it would work?
My advice is to shave it or at least trim it. You don’t want something like the beard to hold you back from performing J. Personally, I will trim but not shave. At least make it look like a regular beard and not a “Muslim beard.”
True akhi, true. So what are you planning on doing inshaAllah?”
OTOH, growing a mustache and wearing red flannel pajamas can also be suspicious. Some people are just more suspicious than others.
http://www.syracuse.com/photo-contests/index.ssf/2013/11/theres_still_time_to_upload_marvelous_mustache_photo_contest.html
“On February 2, 2011, Abukhdair told Wilson he is still thinking of ways to get out of the United States, and that he may not be on the No Fly List after all. Later in the conversation, Wilson and Abukhdair discussed the possibility of traveling to Pakistan, using the excuse of a friend’s wedding to mask the true reason for their travel. Wilson explained that they would need to purchase round trip tickets to avoid looking suspicious. He told Abukhdair, “I think if someone could get to Pakistan, it would be easy after that. Just go to Peshwar. Waziristan is like less than an hour away.” Wilson reiterated, “The Earth is large. Many places to go.” ”
To some, anyone going to a wedding is suspicious. Weddings in Coney Island aren’t suspecious. But any travel to Peshawar is certainly noteworthy.
“On February 6, 2011, Wilson and Abukhdair discussed their perception of the lack of true commitment within the Muslim community. Abukhdair noted, “I just keep my mouth shut when it comes to J.”
On February 8, 2011, Wilson and Abukhdair revisited the idea of traveling to Pakistan under the guise of going to a wedding. Specifically, Wilson told Abukhdair that “one of my friends is having a wedding in Pakistan in November. He invited me to bring some friends. Nice vacation. Tourism.” Later in the conversation Wilson explained that he could travel to the wedding with a Pakistani friend and stated, “yeah that will make it easier. You know they always think you’re up to no good because of the terrorists, so traveling with a Pakistani and our families and all, inshaAllah, they will know we have good intentions.”
Here in Syracuse a doctor was planning a wedding for a daughter he didn’t have. Authorities found that suspicious. Defense counsel argued that the coded language was to hide the large transfer of funds from Saddam. I thought the defense on that issue raised reasonable doubt but certainly agree it could be viewed as highly suspicious under all the circumstances.
“The day after Abukhdair and Wilson discussed the possibility of Wilson traveling to Somalia without his family, Wilson engaged in the following conversation with his wife. Wilson told her: “Stephanie, what if I have to leave for you know? . . . I’m worried about you. . . . I want what’s best . . . I don’t know. You understand? I just love you and the kids so much.” She responded, “I don’t want you to because I’m scared too. I don’t know how to be okay with it. My body won’t let me. I get sick when I think about it.” To which Wilson replied, “I know. . . Allah says ‘do you think we will admit you into Jannah before we test you and see who will fight for Allah and who will remain behind’ and also if you give up something for Allah he will replace it with something better . . . I’m scared and I know if you know? That is what is best for you and the kids because I can intercede on your behalf and save you, but I am weak because I love you so much.””
This is a poignant exchange. Folks should stop drinking the Kool-aid — whatever the flavor — and family members need to step up and urge their family members to honor their commitment to the loving family.
“On March 7, 2011, Abukhdair told Wilson that one of his friends was recently visited by the FBI. Wilson responded, “Akhi, trust me. When you get here I will tell you more, but the situation is not easy right now. I’m surprised they knew certain things. . . . But I don’t think they have enough evidence at this point. If they did, they would come visit me.””
Nah. Something like 8 agencies came to be monitoring the doctor speaking alongside Aulaqi and Al-Timimi in July and August 2001. There were 30 extensions of search warrants — to include all phone, fax and email. They had spike mikes in a hotel meeting room. Always always comply with the law unless you want you want to read about it in the local newspaper — and your mom to know.
“You should seek death for the sake of Allah so he forgives you. The Prophet always said, “A person who dies without performing Jihad or having the intention to do so dies a hypocrite.” You’re not screwed. The door of forgiveness is open until the angel of death takes your soul.
😦
Everyone, even good Muslims, will go through the horrors of death and the grave except the Mujahid. When he dies he will only feel like an insect bite and his soul will want to leave his body to meet his wives in Jannah. They will be the first to enter Jannah 50,000 years before everyone else.
What is mujahid?
Someone who fights Jihad. Mujahid = Mujahideen.
And jihad is?
Qital = fighting, akhi, with guns and bombs and the hard stuff. It’s hard and that’s why the reward is the greatest.
Lol. You’re saying this on . . . fool?”
Yazid Sufaat did his daughters a great harm in teaching them to love death. He should have taught them to love and celebrate life.
“Wilson: Someone asked the Prophet, “Is there any deed as great as Jihad?” So the Prophet said “no.” I don’t care bro. This is freedom of speech. I’m not encouraging anyone to kill anyone or how to make a bomb, lol. I’m telling you about your religion.”
Within a couple of days of filing the sentencing memo, the First Circuit decision in the Mehanna case came down in the FIrst Circuit. I have not read the lengthy decision but can appreciate its balancing of national security and First Amendment concerns will be influential both in resolution of the pending motions in the Ali Al-Timimi case and in future cases. I’m still somewhat uncomfortable with the long sentences in these “angry young man” cases. As a society, it seems there should be a way to reach them — in addition to having respected scholars provide alternative explanations of their religious principles. In prison, the men often get precisely the wrong guidance.
“I’m not trying to get arrested. I know I have to be careful with the material I post, but I don’t think there is any harm with speaking about matters which are affecting Muslims, because at the end of the day, it’s better than sitting around like I’m doing now.
This subject is very sensitive. You have to be careful, because you’ve seen what some people are arrested for. Supporting any terrorism against the U.S. can get you arrested.
Ne3am, there is a fine line, but we take the precautions and rely upon Allah, inshaAllah. And if I’m arrested, then it’s a matter of Qadr,22 and like you said, this life is only 60—70 years.
Ne3am, saheeh.
The thing is akhi, I’ve read almost every indictment from the brothers arrested, so I have a pretty good idea what gets you arrested.
Ok, good inshaAllah. As long as you know, then you know yourself what to write and what not to write.
For the most part, unless you are threatening someone or actively planning something, they would rather watch you instead of arresting you. They think they’re smart, so they watch you to learn things, like they did with Samir Khan23 and the “Revolution Muslim”24 brothers.”
More with the beard and its connection to ability to travel.
“Also, I can trim the beard a little. I think it would be ok in this situation, for the passport pics.
Naw akhi, don’t worry. It doesn’t make a difference, trust me. True. Unless you have a huge one, but your beard isn’t that big. Don’t worry. A lot of madkhaless go to Mauri. Akhi, we’re Sufis if they ask. Lol, ya. True. We’re going to sit with Sufi masters. Loool.”
****
“InshaAllah. People are getting convicted of absolutely nothing, so you have to be careful. The common thing between all these people is that they post different material on jihadi forums. Don’t do that. That’s rule number 1.
Ya, I don’t even go on jihadi sites bro, unless . . . is considered one, lol. Lol, it’s borderline, but we should be fine. Lol.
Lol bro. How can we refute the deviant jihadists if we don’t infiltrate them, lol.
Thereafter, the conversation turned to Wilson lamenting the loss of Usama bin Laden. He told Abukhdair how he watched a bin Laden video and that “it made me cry, it really hit me what we lost.” This prompted Abukhdair to recount the following: “Akhi, yesterday or the day before, I was watching the live coverage of 9/11. Allahuakbar bro . . . . Seriously SubhanAllah . . . . I was young when it happened, but I never realized how great a day it was. I mean how big a day it was. Kufs were terrified.”
Lesson 101 to jihadis with Yazid Sufaat Exhibit A. Gloating over 911 may get you thrown in jail. Think of the First Amendment in 2013 as a useful trap to get you to hang yourself. Think of the US government as having made the right to privacy in the US as only of historical interest. The only one gloating about 911 at mosque is very likely an undercover.
“Yeah, and another thing that kills me is that, akhi, people are getting arrested left and right for no reason.
but let me tell you this. The people who are getting arrested are for two reasons. Either they got a big mouth or they are reckless with their online security.
Other than that, no one is getting arrested. Either forum members or people who like to tell everyone their plans.
That’s why I’m finished with forums. And I don’t talk to anyone.
You’re right. It’s better just to leave the forums. Just browse as a guest.
Even the protected forums you can browse the important threads as a guest. But you should still use proper security, TOR,39 etc.”
The Sentencing memo refers to Ayman Zawahiri as a Jordanian doctor. “Ayman Zawahri, a Jordanian doctor by trade, took over the reins of al-Qaeda…”
A Jordanian doctor? Really? Is that the state of the USG intelligence analysis informing analysis in prosecutions such as this one? If so, the FBI is only going to be stirring up angry young men who post online forums and email about jihad. True covert operatives would be trained to follow strict cell security. And they wouldn’t be found emailing instructions as this pair of mokes did:
“Stay offline, low key, maybe delete the youtube, etc.
Ne3am. Good idea. But do you think that would make them more suspicious if I stopped going on sites? Like [specific Islamic web forum] for example, basically the only site I go on?
Na bro, they will get bored watching you with no activity and forget about you sooner or later.
Should I delete the whole thing, or keep the regular videos up? I would just delete it man. Trust me, they will get bored. Like look at
Samir Khan. He stayed offline and made it to Yemen. Ok, mashaAllah. Gonna delete it now. InshAllah. We prepare inshaAllah and leave the rest to Allah.”
Abukhdair was only counting on his father for possible funds to travel if his dad thought the funds were to further his education. “On October 9, 2011, Abukhdair told Wilson that he was now leaning more towards Mauritania, rather than Sudan. His primary reason being that he believed his dad would pay for him to travel to Mauritania if his dad thought it was for further education.”
So the extensive quotes all seem to be two angry young men endlessly discussing what country they might travel to. Personally, I would save long prison sentences to people who have committed violent crimes in the US or covert operatives planning domestic attacks. I’m not sure that a long sentence is deterrence given that the motivation is religious confusion. The problem with religious indoctrination is that some indoctrinate young men to engage in violent behavior.
The best approach would be to continue to work hard to encourage young men to celebrate life and nonviolence.
On balance, undercover operations are justified in that they might stop a domestic attack or catch someone planning one from abroad. But in the terrorism pond this fellow seems a goldfish.
DXer said
Rochester Terror Suspect Expected in Court
• By: TWC News Staff
– See more at: http://rochester.twcnews.com/content/news/802331/rochester-terror-suspect-expected-in-court/#sthash.L4HVPaOU.dpuf
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A court appearance is expected Thursday for the Rochester man accused of aiding the Islamic State terrorist group ISIS.
Mufid Elfgeeh is charged in a seven-count indictment with providing material support and resources to ISIS as well as recruiting for the terrorist organization.
Investigators have spent the past several months translating thousands of pages of Facebook posts and pages of WhatsApp material from Arabic to English. The government is expected to have translated these materials and turn them over to the defense before Elfgeeh’s appearance.
If convicted of all of the charges, he faces a maximum of life in prison. The 30-year-old ran MoJoe’s Pizza and Chicken on North Clinton Avenue.
– See more at: http://rochester.twcnews.com/content/news/802331/rochester-terror-suspect-expected-in-court/#sthash.L4HVPaOU.dpuf
Comment:
I wonder whether the FBI, like the NSA, uses automatic translation tools — given the advances in software. A couple decades ago as part of ECHELON, the NSA would filter the massive amount of intercepts in Europe (basically everything) through country and language-specific “dictionaries” that flagged key words. A book was written and Europe legislators were outraged. Somehow the NSA prevented the book from being published in the US.
Nowadays, I find it hard enough to remember and learn new english words. I’ve even stopped trying to say new english words with four or more syllables. I marvel at all these Americans who can learn a new language and function well in a different country.
The local muslim activists here from out of town doing charitable work abroad and locally kid about FBI surveillance and keep their sense of humor about it. It is my understanding that they dot their “i’s” and “t’s” so as to avoid any misunderstandings or misperceptions. For example, where not a 501(c) they emphasize that to donors.
As a rule of thumb, I estimate that one of out every three activists is an undercover. Being from out-of-town is a big red flag right out of the gate in my experience.
IMO, under any belief system, only being activist on the issue of peace, not jihad, is a winning proposition. Some self-styled “peace activists,” however — like the ones who think the hijackers did not get on the planes — are just really, really confused and need to reason better.
For the most part, they strike me as being anti-American and they are deluding themselves to think otherwise. (I’m mainly think of Barry and Graeme here).
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Phony anthrax: Portland judge finds man guilty of mailing threat to Sen. Barbara Mikulski
on October 29, 2013
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2013/10/phony_anthrax_portland_judge_f.html
About 100 letters: most went to U.S. senators and members of congress.
Comment:
I don’t remember this case offhand so as to remember what the content of the letters.
DXer said
Today’s news:
Sentencing scheduled for Syracuse native convicted of planning to form al-Qaeda branch in U.S.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/10/sentencing_scheduled_for_syracuse_native_convicted_of_planning_to_form_al-qaeda.html#incart_m-rpt-2
According to court documents, Abukhdair said that the purpose of Islam is to conquer the world with violent means. He suggested that he and co-defendant Randy “Rasheed” Wilson could form “AQUSA” — al-Qaeda in the USA. He proposed seizing hostages in the U.S. and demanding the release of convicted terrorists. … [Let me guess: to include Blind Sheik Abdel-Rahman]
Abukhdair was born in Syracuse on Oct. 3, 1987. Court documents do not say how long he lived in the area, but in 2007 he moved from the U.S. to Cairo, Egypt.
Prosecutors did not return calls with requests for more information about how long Abukhdair lived in Syracuse.
Comment:
AQUSA was the name used on the Goldman Sachs letter. When did he leave the U.S. for Cairo again? (If I knew, I’ve forgotten given the time that has passed with no development of the story). I’ll look to see what has already appeared.
Are there samples of his handwriting?
There’s no reward for the Goldman Sachs letters but the best things in life are their own reward.
For example, take one second and click once to vote for “Gourd Rage” even though there is no prize. It’s being beaten up by a wonderfully carved, spot on VW Vanagon. A Vanagon should remain an icon of wonderful things — and the contest is for the most villainous pumpkin.
http://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/10/vote_on_your_favorite_hallowee.html#comments
It’s important to be able to tell the bad guys from the good guys.
DXer said
From an earlier article, I am reminded that in addition to the release of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the angry young man wanted the release of the lovely and pious Aafia Siddiqui.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/08/syracuse_native_pleads_guilty_to_planning_violent_jihad_hoping_to_form_al-qaeda.html#incart_river_default
“Abukhdair wanted to demand the release of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and Aafia Siddiqui. Rahman is the alleged mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Aafia Siddiqui is a Pakistani neuroscientist who reportedly shot at law enforcement agents looking into her bomb-making instructions.”
Aafia, for her part, says that at the request of her second husband, Al-Balucchi, spent 6 months after 911 at the Karachi institute of technology researching biological weapons. Dr. Zawahiri publicly insisted that people about Aafia and so most everything on the blog was taken down pursuant to his request. He is said to be quite the murderous fanatic. But it is oft-said that a prosecutor in another matter said that she had expressed willingness to participate in an anthrax operation.
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
I see now that the Plea Agreement and accompanying Factual Resume is uploaded after the article, on page 14 of the Factual Resume of the Plea Agreement, it gives the transcript of the conversation where he says that they will be AQUSA.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/10/sentencing_scheduled_for_syracuse_native_convicted_of_planning_to_form_al-qaeda.html
Although I am curious about his bio, it doesn’t seem that there’s anywhere to go with just the reference to AQUSA. Maybe it was just the logical name.
He faces up to 15 years. That seems very steep to me given how vague his ideas were. I love seeing Al Qaeda operatives get caught. But it is sad to see angry young men get in trouble when maybe the right job or relationship might have steered them on a different path.
DXer said
From document attached to Plea Agreement:
“On February 3, 2012, Abukhdair suggested conducting a domestic terrorist attack by taking hostages, demanding the release of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and Aafia Siddiqui, and then “we just shoot it out with the police.” If their demands were not met, Abukhdair explained that, “well at the very least we kill them all.” After the UCE and WIlson rejected this idea in favor of continuing on with the original conspiracy, Abukhdair lamented, “I don’t know if you guys understand the greatness of a jihad operation in the United States, man.”
***
[After a reference to al-Qaeda in Iraq, “AQI”] Abukhdair suggested, “We’ll be AQUSA.”
WIlson explained, “The thing is me and and you wherever we going to keep a low key and not put ourselves in position to be arrested inshaAllah.”
Earlier article:
Syracuse native pleads guilty to planning violent jihad, hoping to …
http://www.syracuse.com/…/syracuse_native_pleads_guilty_to_planning_viole…
Aug 10, 2013 – Below is a timeline of some of the events leading to Abukhdair’s arrest. If you have information about Abukhdair’s time in Syracuse, feel free to …
DXer said
As for this Syracuse-born defendant talking about A.Q.U.S.A. in late June 2007, where was he when the A.Q.U.S.A. threat letters were sent?
Do they have any writing of his that uses the acronym? If so, did he use periods?
He signed his plea agreement. Though it is hard to compare a signature with text, nothing jumps up at me as being a match.
When was AQUSA used by anyone? (to refer to Al Qaeda in the United States).
FBI Probing Threat to Goldman Sachs That Says ‘Hundreds Will Die’
Published July 06, 2007Associated Press
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/07/06/fbi-probing-threat-to-goldman-sachs-that-says-hundreds-will-die/
The letters, which were postmarked in late June from the New York boroughs of Queens and the Bronx, were being analyzed by FBI and U.S. Postal inspectors at the FBI crime lab in Washington, D.C., and at the postal service lab in Dulles, Va., said Tom Boyle, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
A second investigator familiar with the case told the AP it may be difficult to isolate the fingerprints of whoever sent the letters because others have touched the envelopes since they were deposited in a neighborhood mailbox.
Investigators also will be looking for DNA evidence that may have been contained in saliva left when the envelopes were sealed. In addition, they will be examining the postal bar codes routinely stamped on letters to pinpoint exactly where the letters entered the mail stream.
The letters were mostly sent to smaller newspapers in Seattle; Boise, Idaho; Corpus Christi, Texas; Fort Wayne, Ind., and Bayonne, N.J. The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. is the largest newspaper to have received one of the letters; theirs was postmarked June 27.
The newspapers notified local law enforcement agencies after receiving the letters and in some cases also alerted Goldman Sachs directly, law enforcement officials said.
Goldman Sachs did not receive any of the threatening letters, Boyle said.
DXer said
In this analysis of “Al Qaeda in the United States” (loosely speaking), it studied Al Qaeda-related terrorism incidents since 1997. 54% were US Citizens, 36% were US-born. 52% had attended college or above. They found that there was not a socio-economic motivation — that it was ideological. “They have passed through the system rather than been marginalized by it.”
“In the report’s foreword, former CIA Director General Michael Hayden writes ‘A study of this scale, of this ambition and of this meticulousness has never before been attempted in the United States and its findings will allow those responsible for our security and our liberty to make judgments based on fact rather than on hyperbole, fear or prejudice.’ ”
700 page report
http://henryjacksonsociety.org/2013/04/17/al-qaeda-in-the-united-states-a-complete-analysis-of-terrorism-offenses-2/
45 minute podcast
[audio src="http://www.fed-soc.org/audiolib/al-qaedaintheus-5-6-13.mp3" /]
DXer said
The letters were mailed in late June 2007 (rather than late July 2007 as I recently stated). Then they were called off about a week or 10 days later. The discussion I had at the mosque about Amerithrax, I think, was about 2 days after the letters were mailed. This article has the letters being mailed from Queens and Manhattan. I realize the huge flow of people on NYC streets but cameras on the streets of Manhattan near the Manhattan mailbox, if the tapes were available, might have been very fruitful.
Ex-workers eyed as suspects in threats against Goldman
Posted 7/10/2007 4:00 PM
NEW YORK (AP) — Investigators are looking at disgruntled former Goldman Sachs workers as possible suspects in their efforts to find the person who mailed dozens of letters threatening the investment firm last month, federal officials said Tuesday.
The letters, handwritten in red ink on lined, loose leaf paper, made a terse threat: “Hundreds will die. We are inside. You cannot stop us,” authorities said.
The warning was signed, “A.Q.U.S.A.”
Investigators have compiled a list of potential suspects, considered “people of interest,” which includes former employees, said Tom Boyle, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
“We are investigating certain individuals either to remove them from the list or to gather more information on them,” Boyle said.
He said that no arrest is imminent.
The FBI is not placing high credibility to the threat, a federal law enforcement official told the Associated Press.
“Investigators are working on the theory that the individual was trying to target negative publicity against Goldman Sachs,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case with the media.
Authorities have pinpointed two postal collection areas where the letters were dropped into sidewalk mailboxes in Queens and Manhattan.
The letters, postmarked late June, were received by 31 newspapers in states nationwide, including Arizona, North Dakota, Texas, Ohio and New Jersey. The newspapers notified the FBI or local law enforcement and several made the incident public by publishing it last week.
The letters are being analyzed at the FBI criminal laboratory in Washington and at the postal service lab in Dulles, Va. Goldman Sachs is continuing to cooperate fully with law enforcement authorities, according to company spokesman Michael DuVally. He declined to comment further on the investigation.
Goldman Sachs, based in New York, has offices in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong and other cities. The firm has 28,000 employees worldwide, including about 3,000 people who work in its 44-story tower in Jersey City
DXer said
Edmonton Journal (Alberta)
August 7, 2007 Tuesday
Early Edition
Terror threats a teen hoax, letter claims; Anonymous missive says perpetrators now ‘scared out of wits’
BYLINE: John Marzulli, New York Daily News
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A4
LENGTH: 434 words
DATELINE: NEW YORK
NEW YORK – In June, some handwritten letters were sent to newspapers around the U.S., stating: “Goldman Sachs. Hundreds will die. We are inside. You cannot stop us” and signed A.Q.U.S.A.
But a new letter, purportedly written by the author of the terrorist threat against the huge investment banking firm, claims the whole thing was a hoax “conceived by three misguided teenagers.”
The four-page letter, hand-printed in red ink on lined paper just like the original batch of 40 letters mailed to media outlets around the country in June, was sent to a New York Daily News reporter last month and immediately turned over to federal investigators.
An FBI spokesman said Sunday that the new letter is still undergoing analysis at the agency’s lab in Quantico, Va., but it appeared to contain similarities to the original threats.
“The investigators believe the latest letter may have been written by the same person, but they’re not convinced the underlying story in the letter is the truth,” said spokesman James Margolin.
The story revealed in the latest missive is nearly as bizarre as the warning sent out in the original letters. It begins: “This letter is being dictated to and written by our daughter so that you can compare her printing to that on the infamous Goldman Sachs letters.
“These letters were not the work of criminals or worse,” it continues. “They were conceived and mailed out by three misguided teenagers, two boys and one girl. … The girl was chosen to print the letters because her printing style was deemed ‘prettier.’ ”
The new letter says that one teen’s parents had a “financial beef” with Goldman and the kids thought it would be “funny and creative” to do the mailing. Those allegedly responsible for the original batch of letters said they didn’t expect that days later there would be terrorist attacks in Britain.
“We are now sitting here, six parents and three kids, scared out of our wits, since this idiotic, childish ‘plot’ unfortunately seems to have coincided with the horrendous events in England and Scotland and a renewal of fears of similar events in the U.S.,” the letter states.
Investigators’ interest was piqued by the claim that the letters were wiped with furniture polish to erase forensic evidence, which was confirmed by tests.
“We are extremely confident that it is only a matter of time until the individual responsible for sending the threat letters is apprehended,” said Joseph Demarest of the FBI’s counterterrorism division in New York.
The new letter says the teens mailed the letters from random locations to newspaper addresses obtained at a public library.
Comment: The Gale Directory of newspapers is likely the reference that the mailer used. It is a multivolume blue set.
DXer said
I think I have continued to confuse the timeline. No matter. My interest remains on seeing handwriting exemplars of the two men recently sentenced.
DXer said
Wesam El-Hanafi, 33, and Sabirhan Hasanoff, 34, are both American citizens who attended New York public schools and Baruch College in New York.
Former Lehman Brothers, PriceWaterhouseCoopers employees charged with terrorism in New York
http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2010/05/06/former-lehman-brothers-pricewaterhousecoopers-employees-charged-with-terrorism-in-new-york/
It would also be interesting to see Wesam El-Hanafi’s handwriting.
DXer said
The writer uses quote marks around words that most people would not — funny, creative, prettier etc. Whoever the writer — and whatever his or her motive — I expect that this is the person’s natural writing and so it seems that the threat letter incident could be resolved.
DXer said
NYC Accountant Gets 18 Years for Aiding al-Qaida
By Associated Press Sept. 30, 2013Add a Comment
(NEW YORK) — A successful New York accountant who admitted supporting al-Qaida with money and supplies has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Sabirhan Hasanoff (suh-BEHR’-han HAHS’-an-awf) was sentenced Monday in federal court.
The sentence is two years less than the maximum he faced after pleading guilty to supporting al-Qaida. The judge says it was necessary to send a deterrent message to others who might embrace violent Islamic ideology.
Hasanoff has apologized for supporting al-Qaida from 2007 to 2010, saying he was wrong.
Prosecutors had portrayed Hasanoff as a new sophisticated breed of homegrown terrorist.
The 37-year-old Hasanoff is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia. He lived in Brooklyn with his two children, graduated from Baruch College in Manhattan and had worked as a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Read more: http://nation.time.com/2013/09/30/nyc-accountant-gets-18-years-for-aiding-al-qaida/#ixzz2gOn7FAsu
Comment:
Where was he at the time of the mailing of the Goldman Sachs letters in 2007? What does his writing look like? He worked as a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Had he ever worked at Goldman Sachs?
DXer said
Slime the Cops, Sell A Book
http://nypost.com/2013/09/07/slime-the-cops-sell-a-book/
Did the NYPD nearly derail the investigation into one of the most serious post-9/11 terrorism plots — a conspiracy to bomb the New York City subway system?
Last year, two Associated Press reporters won a Pulitzer for saying exactly that, amid a series of articles “exposing” the activities of the Police Department’s intelligence unit, which they present as useless at best and guilty of profiling at worst — despite unearthing no evidence of any illegality.
Now the two are back with a book that recycles and re-hypes their old series. The danger is that ordinary New Yorkers who don’t follow this story will be misled by claims that are sensational only when ripped far out of context.
We’ll just deal with the one we mentioned up top. This is the charge that the cops botched the hunt for Najibullah Zazi, an al Qaeda-trained terrorist in Colorado who was heading to New York with explosives to blow up the subways. On his way across the George Washington Bridge, Zazi was stopped by Port Authority police acting on FBI direction. Unfortunately, they didn’t search his trunk. We don’t know why the trunk wasn’t searched, or what direction the Port Authority had from the FBI, but it’s surely not the NYPD’s fault that Zazi got through.
The FBI let the NYPD know Zazi was in New York. So police went to an imam who was an informant, showed him Zazi’s photo and asked if he’d seen him. When the cops left, the imam called Zazi to let him know authorities were looking for him — which is the main basis for the authors’ assertion (which appears encouraged by the FBI) that the NYPD’s intelligence unit is useless or counterproductive or both.
In any event, it turned out Zazi had already grown suspicious that he was under surveillance and had dumped his explosives. He flew back to Colorado, where he was arrested. A grand jury charged him with conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. And New York didn’t suffer a terrorist attack, which it hasn’t during Ray Kelly’s reign as commissioner.
So here’s the question for our AP friends: If you’re the police and you learn a terrorist is in town and planning to blow up your subways, wouldn’t you do all you can to find him? The authors don’t seem to realize the Zazi case is an example of what copsshould be doing, not what they shouldn’t.
Comment:
NYC David Cohen in today’s press is pushing back on this Zazi matter.
I don’t know Mr. Cohen’s view of the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings.
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
The NYPD Intelligence head David Cohen addresses the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings in this Affidavit dated May 17, 2013.
I think Mr. Cohen represents New York City’s and the country’s last best hope to avoid another 911.
Any typos are due to my formatting problems and not in the original.
Click to access declaration_of_david_cohen_with_exhibits_part1.pdf
3. In addressing this matter, I am drawing on my background not only as the NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Intelligenoe for the last eleven years, but also on my forty-seven years as an intelligence officer. ln those forty-seven years, I served for five years of the Central Intelligence Agency’s (“ClA”) Associate Direotor for Intelligence and, as such, was the CIA’s senior professional responsible for the preparation of all finished intelligence analysis provided to the Nation’s national security leadership at the highest levels, inoludíng the President.
4. I also served for ten years in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, including two years as the Deputy Director of Operations, the senior most person responsible for world-wide collection of raw, unevaluated, intelligence. In both positions, I was a full membsr of the CIA’s Executive Committee, which is responsible for developing and implementing policies affecting all aspects of intelligense at thc CIA.
The Continuing Terrorist Threat
6. The on-going and continuous threat to New York City is underscored by a long series of events that make clear that New York City, its citizens snd visitors, warrant an NYPD intelligence oapability that helps protect against this persistent threat. The following events give credence to the need for a vibrant intelligonoe program that uniquely addresses the countsr terrorism seourity equities of New York Cify. Each event inextrioably links New York City and tenorism in the post 11 Septernber 2001 period.
A. The Media Anthrax Case: October 2001 — In the span of a week, employees and visitors of the New York Post, NBC, CBS and ABC News in New York City were viotim to anth¡ax attacks, A woman at another Manhattan location died from inhalation of anthrax through cross contamination of the mail.
DXer said
At page 8 of the September 2013 book ENEMIES WITHIN, the authors refer to a plaque that Special Agent in Charge Borelli has from obtaining a confession of someone working to obtain anthrax for Al Qaeda. Who was that? What did the fellow say in his confession?
Al Qaeda anthrax lab tech Yazid Sufaat, before his recent arrest, did not deny to me that Al Qaeda had obtained virulent Ames. He pled the Fifth Amendment. Although originally detained in December 2001 in Malaysia,Yazid refused to cooperate with interrogators because he was mad at his country. He had refused to tell them that he had been part of a secret Malaysian biological weapons program. (Then a” friend” told his interrogators in March 2002 or so). Thus, the public debate in Amerithrax continued to proceed on the false assumption that Al Qaeda did not have access to know-how or finances. (To the contrary, Yazid had access to both know how and finances.).
On her twitter account, Yazid’s sweet daughter commented that the number practicing islam increased after 911 proving the beauty of the religion. Both Yazid and apparently his daughter think 911 served as effective marketing for islam. The anthrax letters were public relations — striking the theme of the soul of the martyrs going to heaven in the “green birds of paradise.” They were part of a first effort on Zawahiri’s hope that America is bankrupted.
In light of the lack of any rehabilitation of Yazid’s views, I don’t think Yazid Sufaat will ever be released from prison. In contrast, Babar was released and allowed to rejoin his family because of his cooperation and reassessment of his moral values.
His daughter might have tried a different tact in marketing and might do some independent thinking on the subject of her moral values.
Kids are basically brainwashed as to their belief system before they reach the age of reason.
Even while loving and supporting their parents, kids need to do their own moral thinking.
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
The man did not imagine the turn his life was about to take when he reported in his NYPD application that he was fluent in Arabic.
“I had no idea what’s in store for me,” he says.
He had wanted to be a cop since he was a youngster. His great hope was to become a member of the elite Emergency Service Unit (ESU).
“The whole lights and sirens, busting in doors,” he says. “All the stuff on TV.”
But before he entered the academy, he was quietly approached by a member of the NYPD intelligence division who inquired if he would be interested in going undercover.
“At first, to be honest, I told them no,” he recalls. “I wanted to be out there, be on the street.”
He agreed to think about it for a couple of days. He decided to set aside his action fantasies and risk the unknown.
“Let me give it a shot,” he recalls telling himself.
He was warned that he would not be able to tell anyone of his new secret life. He was instructed to inform anybody who knew he had applied to the NYPD that he had changed his mind.
“Lying to your friends and family,” he says.
He steadied himself with a thought that would guide him through all that was to come:
“I’m doing something important.”
***
He was then ready to join part of a larger intelligence and counterterrorism effort that Commissioner Raymond Kelly had initiated in the aftermath of 9/11. The NYPD had learned that it could not count on the federal government to protect the city of New York.
That long and unnerving lesson had begun after the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane of the Jewish Defense League in the ballroom of a Manhattan hotel in 1990. City detectives afterward seized two file cabinets from the Brooklyn apartment of a prime suspect. The detectives transported the evidence to their squad room and stepped out for dinner. They returned to discover that the FBI had taken the cabinets before they could study what was inside. The contents included drawings of the World Trade Center and a paper bearing the words “al Qaeda.”
…
On June 5, 2010, the undercover drove with Alessa and Almonte to John F. Kennedy International Airport. The two were arrested as they prepared to fly off to Somalia. Both pleaded guilty in April 2013 to conspiracy. Alessa, then 23, was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Almonte, 27, got 20 years.
For the undercover, the closing of the case meant the end of five years of living a double life. His superiors said he could now tell his family, and they suggested he start with his sister.
He asked her to meet him at a restaurant so he could tell her something very important about himself. She arrived to find him with Cohen and an NYPD chief. They informed her that her brother was a police officer.
“Oh my God, I thought you were going to tell me you were gay,” the sister exclaimed.
***
The undercover now became a handler. He continued serving in the NYPD intelligence division as it came under harsh criticism by Associated Press reportersMatt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman, first in articles that won a Pulitzer Prize, more recently in the book Enemies Within.
The book centers on the case of Najibullah Zazi, an Afghan-American who brought bomb-making materials to New York from Colorado just before the eighth anniversary of 9/11, intending to join two former high school pals in mounting an attack in the subway. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy in February 2010.
The authors seek to make something of a hero of Don Borelli, the FBI assistant special agent in charge of the Joint Terrorist Task Force in New York, and something of a boob of Cohen. Zazi and his pals were just the kind of people Cohen’s outfit hoped to detect, and the book makes much of the cops’ failure to do so in this instance.
Comment:
I am fascinated by the role of undercovers, their relative value (or not) to law enforcement efforts, whether their conduct violates the United States Constitution etc. But I am not sure this story about the 5 year effort leading to the arrest of two young men going off to Somali is the best case study to use in making NYPD Intelligence case. Personally, while it is sad to have young men to go off and martyr themselves abroad, I am more concerned with the armed bank robberies that occur regularly throughout the country.
While inter-agency bickering should be avoided, if NYPD Intelligence wants to really score points — at the level of history that matters — NYPD Intelligence should work to check the FBI’s work in Amerithrax. Amerithrax was the greatest counterintelligence failure in the history of United States. It will be FBI Director Mueller’s and Special Agent Borelli’s legacy.
It needn’t be David Cohen’s legacy.
I have set forth the analysis here — the graphics ironically done by an undercover.
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
The book at page 8 describes Agent Borelli’s office:
“souvenir rugs commemorate his time in Pakistan. There he interrogated and won a confession from a scientist working to obtain anthrax for the terrorist group al-Qaeda.”
At the time of Agent Borelli’s interview with Rauf Ahmad, a Wall St. Journalist already had obtained Zawahiri’s computer that had the correspondence between Dr. Ayman and Rauf. The 1999 correspondence and documents were very detailed. The journalist, Alan Cullison, had generously given it to the CIA’s “Mike” on a street corner. Mr. Cullison inquired if I would sue the CIA for wiping clean Atef’s computer, which he had also provided. I instead complimented Mr. Cullison for his incredible journalistic coup — which was exceeded only by his patriotism in promptly turning it over to authorities before having time to access contents.
Dr. Rauf Ahmad always asked for money whenever I contacted him by email.
DIA, thanks to the incredible work by JB Petro and the Stanford academic who came to lead the NAS in questioning the FBI’s scientific conclusions, provided me the correspondence between Rauf and Dr.Ayman. The correspondence has been uploaded.
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
Rauf went back to work for the Pakistani government — apparently none the worse from Agent Borelli’s interrogation.
Now as for the FBI’s accomplishment, Rauf was not extradited and the FBI did not interrogate Yazid Sufaat, Rauf’s successor, until November 2002. The 1/2 hour interview in Kuala Lumpur focused on Moussaoui. Judging only by the FBI’s Ivins Theory, the FBI took the ball arising from the brilliant work by journalist Cullison and then fumbled it.
Of course, if the NY Joint Task Force disagrees with the father of Al-Timim’s lawyer, Seikaly, who headed the Amerithrax investigation, it is never too late for a do-over before Dr. Ayman writes the history.
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Who Is Al Qaeda Figure Linked to NYC Bomb Plot? – World Watch …
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20009884-503543.html
Jul 7, 2010 – (Interestingly, a sixth defendant’s name has been redacted from the …
Comment: Even after El-Shukrijumah’s role was finally disclosed, a sixth defendant remained redacted. Who was the sixth defendant indicted?
DXer said
When did this fellow who suggested forming AQUSA — which is how the 2007 Goldman Sachs letters were signed — leave for Cairo? Did he leave before or after the Goldman Sachs letters. Did he leave from NYC?
Syracuse native pleads guilty to planning violent jihad, hoping to form al-Qaeda branch in U.S.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/08/syracuse_native_pleads_guilty_to_planning_violent_jihad_hoping_to_form_al-qaeda.html#incart_river_default
According to court documents, Abukhdair said that the purpose of Islam is to conquer the world with violent means. He suggested that he and Wilson could form “AQUSA” – al-Qaeda in the USA. He proposed seizing hostages in the U.S. and demanding the release of convicted terrorists. …
Abukhdair was born in Syracuse on Oct. 3, 1987. Court documents do not say how long he lived in the area, but in 2007 he moved from the U.S. to Cairo, Egypt.
***
Abukhdair wanted to demand the release of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and Aafia Siddiqui. Rahman is the alleged mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Aafia Siddiqui is a Pakistani neuroscientist who reportedly shot at law enforcement agents looking into her bomb-making instructions.
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
The Complaint alleges he moved to Cairo in February 2007 (with the letters not mailed until July 2007).
Complaint – The Investigative Project on Terrorism
http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/2077.pdf
Dec 11, 2012 – Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair is a United States citizen born in Syracuse … Abukhdair moved to Cairo, Egypt in February 2007 to study.
DXer said
Goldman Sachs Gets Anonymous Threats | NYPress.com – New …
nypress.com/goldman-sachs-gets-anonymous-threats/
Jul 6, 2007 – A.Q.U.S.A.” Reuters hypothesizes that the signature, “A.Q.U.S.A.,” may refer to Al Qaeda. The Associated Press reports that FBI spokesman Bill …
Comment:
Do US authorities have the benefit of the fellow’s computer from Egypt in the first half of 2007? It would seem important to know when he first started using AQUSA. What does he say?
Were they able to recover the computer he threw off the bridge?
When did he first use the phrase AQUSA (besides in his comment to Wilson)?
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/08/syracuse_native_pleads_guilty_to_planning_violent_jihad_hoping_to_form_al-qaeda.html#incart_river_default
Was it before or after the July 2007 mailings and the resulting press?
In connection with the Goldman Sachs letters, an FBI agent once pointed out to me that it seems dubious that the other kids would be motivated to be involved.
It’s nice handwriting and in making comparisons the length of the explanatory note provides a lot to work with IMO. She seemed to agree with me that the recanting letter seemed very fishy. My emphasis was that from the tv show “Law and Order” we know that 9 people — 6 parents and 3 children — is an awful lot to know a secret. Texts, frantic emails… it seemed that if someone were denied a bonus the FBI might be able to get wind of it. (See the lucid and lucrative WHY I LEFT GOLDMAN SACHS to understand the importance of bonuses). I speculated to the agents as to why under an “Al Qaeda theory” it might have been called off with the bizarre second letter. My theory involved someone with a Syracuse connection being spooked — given that I had jumped in the pool and made a big splash about my theory that Dr. Zawahiri, Ali Al-Timimi etc were behind the anthrax mailings. Al-Timimi was the lead speaker for IANA which had its spin-off here. He had spoken alongside Anwar Awlaki in July and August 2001 in Canada and UK. Thus, defense counsel’s claim to the court that the fellow Falls Church imams did not know each other was a total crock. Indeed, FBI Agent Wade Ammerman (who worked on an Amerithrax theory relating to “anthrax weapons suspect” Al-Timimi) quashed the warrant for Awlaki so that the meeting with Al-TImimi would go forward. (The FBI was in position to have that meeting monitored). Al-Timimi suspected something and played dumb.
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
I emailed my theory to the local imam, trying to reach the accomplished mosque President (who I had met over a sumptious Chinese buffet), setting forth my theory. My purpose was just to go respectfully to people who might know something or have insights and guesses or might know people here or in Cairo who might know something.
But I have no idea even if the fellow convicted lived here — rather than just was born here. By July 2007, he apparently (according to the Complaint) was already in Cairo. At some point, I believe he lived in South Carolina and Ohio. As I recall, the Syracuse fundraiser was filmed and it was assumed by the lovely host that there was an undercover in the audience. It was all very transparent and well-done solicitation of money for defense funds from elderly Catholics and others — focused on the argument that there was a denial of civil liberties. In contrast, I always saw “Operation Imminent Horizon” — and the 100 agents who came here at the same hour and minute Al-Timimi’s townhouse was raided — as relating to pressing the Amerithrax / Anwar Awlaki lead. I have noted FWIW that a local Pakistan police officer claimed to a reporter that KSM was captured two weeks before publicly claimed; see Scroggins book on Aafia Siddiqui. If this were true, the Syracuse raid would have occurred AFTER KSM’S capture.
Is there a connection between this fellow in the news and Adnan El-Shukrijumah through a Florida imam? Adnan El-Shukrijumah is now head of Al Qaeda’s external operations and called his mom to tell her he was coming to the US on or about September 13, 2001.
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Published: Tuesday June 18, 2013 MYT 6:38:00 PM
Prosecution wins appeal against Yazid Sufaat’s acquittal over terror charge
By QISHIN TARIQ
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/6/18/nation/20130618184048&sec=nation
DXer said
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2013/06/18/2008-times-square-bombing-may-be-connected-to-previous-blasts/
June 18, 2013, 11:45 AM
2008 Times Square Bombing May Be Connected to Previous Blasts
FBI officials on Tuesday said the Times Square bombing might be related to two other unsolved blasts in New York: one at the British consulate on East 42ndStreet in May 2005 and the other at the Mexican consulate on East 37th Street in October 2007. Both bombs were delivered by a suspect riding a bicycle in the early morning, between 3 and 4 a.m.
[At about 3:40 a.m. on March 6, 2008, the bomb–a military-style device filled with explosive powder and detonated using a time fuse–exploded under Times Squares at the Armed Forces Recruiting Station ; a claim of responsibility was reported on March 6, 2008 by ABC — the lengthy statement about the Iraq war included a picture of the Army Recruiting Center ].
..
Roughly seven minutes worth of security camera footage from multiple locations shows the suspect, wearing a gray sweatshirt, placing the bomb near the Times Square recruiting station and then fleeing the scene on a 10-speed Ross blue bicycle, which was later recovered in a Dumpster near Madison Avenue and East 38th Street. The bomb was built using a type of ammunition found commonly on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, but officials haven’t publicly identified the suspect as having any connection to the U.S. military or a terrorist group.
The 2008 blast was unrelated to a failed 2010 plot to blow up a car bomb in Times Square, which was linked to a Pakistani Taliban group.
The FBI and New York police have also increased the reward leading to the arrest of a suspect to $65,000, up from $12,000; are displaying security camera photos and videos on billboards throughout the Northeast, including Times Square; and are asking for information on Twitter using the hashtag #BikeBomber.
Here is an ABC report from the day of the bombing [March 6, 2008]. Given that a picture of the recruiting center was included, it seems that they have lots of forensics to work with relating to those letters.
Letters Seem to Claim Responsibility for Times Square Blast
By RICHARD ESPOSITO, PIERRE THOMAS (@PierreTABC) and STEPHEN SPLANE
March 6, 2008
Letters saying “We did it” and containing a photo of the U.S. military recruiting station in New York that was the target of a bombing today were sent to as many as 10 members of Congress, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
A House aide said the letters were all received by Democratic members of Congress, and that all the letters were sent through the U.S. Postal Service.
The letters all had a return address in Hollywood, Calif., and authorities there are involved in the investigation, law enforcement sources said.
They contained the phrase, “Happy New Year — we did it,” and a lengthy statement against the Iraq war that could be described as a manifesto, sources said.
The small bomb caused minor damage to the recruiting station before dawn Thursday. Police have been searching for a hooded bicyclist seen on a surveillance video pedaling away.
No one was hurt in the explosion, but officials said the crude device could have “injured or even killed” someone.
However, officials say that because the bomb was detnated in the early morning hours when the recruiting office was empty and Time Square was mostly deserted, it is probable that the bomber did not intend to hurt anyone.
The concern is that the person, who clearly wants attention, might move on to actions in which people are harmed, and the person clearly has enough know how to do that, officials said.
High-level law enforcement sources told ABC News that a border stop in Canada has yielded evidence that may be linked to the case, and that individuals are being sought in connection with the case.
Canadian authorities declined to comment on the matter.
Sources said the border stop took place about a month ago, but today U.S. and Canadian authorities were revisiting the incident because of circumstantial evidence noticed at the time of the stop and the behavior of one of four individuals in the car that was stopped.
At the time of the stop, one young man fled the vehicle on foot, law enforcement sources said.
Evidence gathered during the stop included photographs of Times Square found in a backpack, and the material was given to U.S. authorities at the time, but an investigation at the time did not turn up any evidence of criminal activity, the sources said.
Suspicious Cyclist
The surveillance video, which New York police released today, shows a bicyclist that matches the description provided by a witness who says he saw a suspicious man on a bike approach the recruiting station just before a small blast blew out the glass at the front of the building.
The recruiting office is not seen in the video, which the NYPD said came from a private security camera that was pointing just north of the building. But the camera captured a shadowy figure riding up the street on a bicycle, dismounting and walking across the street, then returning and riding off.
Just after the cyclist disappears, a flash of light and a large cloud of smoke drift into the frame after the explosion.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg vowed today to track down and prosecute those responsible. …
DXer said
Authorities say he rode away south on Broadway after planting the bomb, and police later found a Ross 10-speed bicycle in a Dumpster on East 38th Street that they believe belonged to the bomber.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Times-Square-Bike-Bomber-Army-Recruiting-Station-Video-Reward-Suspect-211968891.html
Comment:
It seems that the FBI is engaged in significant holdback in light of the failure to include a description of the claim of responsibility reported that same day by ABC News postmarked in Hollywood. (Holdback makes sense ; I mean, why publicize a bomber’s cause; the decision to publish the UNABOM “manifesto” proved successful but the decision was not lightly made by any means).
Is there also holdback regarding the Mexican and Britain consulates? In particular, if a bicycle was also used in those bombings, any chance that it was left behind or can be identified in a video? Was it a Ross? Or was it a random bike the bomber was able to pick up cheap. It doesn’t seem that the usual bomber would show brand loyalty over the years. It seems that the FBI would be able to track down where any particular bike was sold based on a serial number.
I don’t have handy a picture of the actual image that was linked yesterday but the name “Ross” was very prominent on the cross-bar and at night would stand out.
Coincidentally, a bike once was stolen from my garage. But it was my daughter’s high-end mountain bike and I seriously doubt it was a Ross or I would have remembered.
As I reported at the time, upon being woke by my wife who heard the garage door open, I took off after the perp. I believe I trapped in a darkened parking lot one of the men who stole it. It was about 1 a.m., I think. He was waiting in a car in the dark right behind my house through the woods. He would have zero reason to be there except for illicit purposes — that did not include IMO eating a cheeseburger as he claimed.
I believe he was waiting with his beat-up station wagon for an accomplice to come through the woods with the loot.
After finding him, I came home for my baseball bat — but he didn’t wait for me to get back to him. My wife hadn’t called the police yet because she “was waiting to see what happened.” (She was understandably concerned for the intruder as she knows I don’t like criminals).
When I came back to the house with my baseball bat and a bloodied forehead (from banging my head on the nightstand in rousing to action), in my rush I forgot to put the car in neutral and it rolled forward into my wife’s beloved 1983 Vanagon that then hit the garage door. She cried out, “Arrest him, officer!”
The officer waiting — by then quick-responding officers had fanned throughout the yards — took my description and asked why I was bleeding.
In any event, the person who I vaguely suspected — without any corroboration beyond what I observed and I’m a terrible eyewitness — tragically died within a couple of weeks. He dropped to the floor with a brain aneurysm apparently. And so I wasn’t able to ask him if I was correct in my theory.
If any one ever thinks that life is dull, they aren’t paying attention.
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Canadian border stop probed in Times Square blast
Officials have ruled out any connection between a letter to dozens of Congress members bearing the words “We did it” and the bombing of an Army recruiting station in New York.
Published on Fri Mar 07 2008
WASHINGTON – Officials have ruled out any connection between a letter to dozens of Congress members bearing the words “We did it” and the bombing of an Army recruiting station in New York.
Law enforcement officials say they have questioned the letter writer in the Los Angeles area and don’t expect to bring any charges against him.
The writer is an anti-war activist who sent as many as 100 letters – including a photograph of a man standing in front of the Times Square office – to Congress members. One law enforcement official says it was just an incredibly unbelievable coincidence.
A U.S.-Canada border stop continues to be investigated in connection with bombing.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2008/03/07/canadian_border_stop_probed_in_times_square_blast.html
DXer said
March 8, 2008
Photo of Times Square bombing suspect released
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/08/times.square.bomb/
A car with three people was halted as it crossed from New York into Canada, a senior U.S. government official told CNN, and the car was searched as a matter of routine, the official said.
Anarchist-type material was found, the official said, and in a backpack, agents found pictures of New York, including ones of Times Square, at least one of which showed the recruiting station.
The people told authorities that they had been visiting New York City for a week. At some point, two of the three — both men — ran off.
The Canadians then forwarded the information to the New York police liaison officer in Canada, who alerted police. However, it was eventually determined by the Canadians and NYPD that the incident posed no threat.
The official said he strongly doubts a connection will be found between the information garnered from that incident and the Times Square bombing.
On Friday, Kelly acknowledged the incident.
“That stop did take place in Canada,” he said. “Some pictures of Times Square, including the recruiting, station were found. Our liaison officer in Montreal was notified.”
… So federal officials are going back to take another look and attempting to speak to Canadian officials about that stop.”
Asked whether the attack could be linked to two other unsolved blasts in New York — one at the British consulate in 2005 and the other at Mexican consulate in 2007, Kelly said, “There is certainly a possibility.”
“The times are very similar,” he said. “All three incidents took place with an individual on a bike, leaving a bomb. So, that’s a possibility.”
Meanwhile, a person who was questioned in Los Angeles about letters that members of Congress received after the explosion in Times Square were “not involved” in the bombing, the law enforcement source told CNN.
“It’s an ugly coincidence,” the source said, referring to the timing of the bombing and the appearance of the letters. “He is not the bomber.”
DXer said
Adnan El-Shukrijumah was recruiting folks to attack the Mexican and Britain embassies in advance of the 2005 bombing. See generally the State Department cable I linked.
Adnan’s mother in Miramar should be ashamed that she didn’t raise him better. Her reasoning that 911 was a wake-up call is morally and intellectually bankrupt.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-08-21-terror-lamerica_x.htm
Posted 8/21/2004 2:03 PM
Latin America on alert for terror
MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — Governments throughout Mexico and Central America are on alert as evidence grows that al-Qaeda members are traveling in the region and looking for recruits to carry out attacks in Latin America — the potential last frontier for international terrorism.
Governments throughout Mexico and Central America are on alert, searching for one top al-Qaeda suspect and any evidence of a planned attack.
Honduras also tightened security at foreign embassies and declared a national terror alert after receiving information that al-Qaeda was trying to recruit Hondurans to attack embassies of the United States, Britain, Spain and El Salvador, a government official said.
The regions could be a perfect staging ground for Osama bin Laden’s militants, with homegrown rebel groups, drug and people smugglers, and corrupt governments. U.S. officials have long feared al-Qaeda could launch an attack from south of the border, and they have been paying closer attention as the number of terror-related incidents has increased since last year.
In July, Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez said a Saudi-born terror suspect sought by U.S. officials was spotted earlier this year at an Internet cafe in the Honduran capital before fleeing the country.
The man, Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, once lived in South Florida and is the subject of an FBI alert issued in 2003. The agency has asked law enforcement agencies and the public to be on the lookout for Shukrijumah on the grounds he may be plotting terrorist attacks against the United States or its interests abroad.
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in May singled out Shukrijumah as one of seven especially dangerous al-Qaeda-linked terror figures wanted by the government, which fears a new al-Qaeda attack. A $5 million reward is posted for information leading to his capture.
DXer said
Maybe the 2005 bomb wasn’t even targeting the British consulate. Nothing jumps out from the press report indicating that it was tied forensically.
In any event, it seems more the work of a malcontent already in NYC. Not sure it would be worth anyone’s trouble to make a special trip to NYC. I’m guessing that they could rule out the folks who crossed the border crossing the previous month — although I haven’t seen a report. Query whether it is a nightowl who then sleeps in.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/may/05/usa.politics
“The makeshift grenades detonated within seconds of each other before dawn, sparking fears of a terror campaign as voters streamed to the polls in the UK.
The unsophisticated devices were planted in a concrete flowerbox directly outside the Manhattan building. They exploded at 3.35am (0835 BST), blowing a chunk of concrete through the front door and shattering a panel of glass. No one was injured.
More than 10 hours after the attack, police said they had still not determined who was responsible or what, if anything, was the motive. The mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, said it should not be assumed that the British offices, occupying the ninth and tenth floors of the building, were the target of the attack.
“There is no reason to jump to the conclusion that any one floor of that building was a target,” he said. “We have no idea who did this or what the motive was but eventually we will find them and apprehend them.”
..
After piecing together pieces of shrapnel, police said the two grenades were unsophisticated, “novelty” devices packed with black powder and a fuse.
One was the shape of a lemon and the other a pineapple, an NYPD spokesman said, adding that similar items could be purchased in toyshops. …
The New York police commissioner, Ray Kelly, said no timing device was used and the “relatively unsophisticated” charges appeared to have been lit by hand.
DXer said
FBI: Surveillance info helped reveal subway, stock exchange bombings
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57589831/fbi-surveillance-info-helped-reveal-subway-stock-exchange-bombings/
“Zazi later confessed to a plot to bomb the New York subway system with backpacks,” according to Joyce.
Another example, according to Joyce, involved a “known extremist in Yemen” that the United States was monitoring.
“This individual was in contact with an individual in the United States named Khalid Ouazzani. Ouazzani and other individuals that we identified through a FISA that the FBI applied for through the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)] were able to detect a nascent plotting to bomb the New York Stock Exchange,” Joyce said. “Ouazzani had been providing information and support to this plot. The FBI disrupted and arrested these individuals.”
DXer said
Comment:
If the FBI and NSA are going to make Zazi the centerpiece of justification for its spying effort , could the Newsday reporter given the yearbook by Zazi’s high school yearbook please see if there is a sample of Zazi’s handwriting? (I have no problem with the idea that anyone El-Shukrijumah recruits for an attack is worth prioritizing)
Or perhaps people can locate other samples of his handwriting. Thanks. While people debate on where the line should be drawn regarding surveillance technology, let’s demonstrate to the FBI the usefulness of low-tech.
NYC bomb plot details settle little in NSA debate
Posted: Jun 11, 2013 3:53 PM EDT
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Obama administration declassified a handful of details Tuesday that credited its PRISM Internet spying program with intercepting a key email that unraveled a 2009 terrorist plot in New York.
The details, declassified by the director of national intelligence, were circulated on Capitol Hill as part of government efforts to tamp down criticism of two recently revealed National Security Agency surveillance programs.
Najibullah Zazi’s foiled plot to bomb the New York subways has become the centerpiece of that effort. It remains the most serious al-Qaida plot inside the United States since the 9/11 terror attacks.
In the rush to defend the surveillance programs, however, government officials have changed their stories and misstated key facts of the Zazi plot. And they’ve left out one important detail: The email that disrupted the plan could easily have been intercepted without PRISM.
***
Zazi, an Afghan-American cab driver living in the Denver suburbs, was an al-Qaida-trained bomber. In September 2009, he sent a coded message to a Yahoo email address in Pakistan. Months earlier, British officials had linked the Yahoo address to a known al-Qaida operative.
“The marriage is ready,” the email said in part.
***
“Within the last few years, this program was used to stop a terrorist attack in the United States,” said Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
A senior intelligence official confirmed soon afterward that Rogers was talking about Zazi, but offered no explanation.
***
Now, in talking points declassified by the administration, the government says that Internet eavesdropping, not archiving phone records, disrupted Zazi’s plans.
The use of PRISM to catch Zazi does little to resolve one of the key questions in the surveillance debate: whether the government needs to take such vast amounts of data, sometimes sweeping up information on American citizens, to keep the country safe.
That’s because, even before the surveillance laws of 2007 and 2008, the FBI had the authority to – and did, regularly – monitor email accounts linked to terrorists. The only difference was, before the laws changed, the government needed a warrant.
To get a warrant, the law requires that the government show that the target is a suspected member of a terrorist group or foreign government, something that had been well established at that point in the Zazi case.
***
DXer said
The NSA Director explaining the use of intercepts to thwart Zazi’s plot is from Syracuse, NY. No one should doubt that the folks trying to strike the right balance between civil liberties and national security are faced with difficult challenges in balancing the competing interests under the rule of law. We should not so blithely assume that we could do better in striking the right balance.
NSA director says surveillance programs disrupted dozens of …
Washington Post-1 hour ago
Keith Alexander, in his first congressional testimony since … two thwarted attacks — Najibullah Zazi’s foiled plot to bomb the New York subways …
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/06/internet_and_phone_surveillanc.html
Four-star general — a Westhill grad — comes home to celebrate …
Oct 30, 2010 … Alexander, a Syracuse native and Westhill High School graduate, has been director of the National Security Agency, the nation’s electronic …
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/10/four-star_general_–_a_westhil.html
Alexander, 58, a mild-mannered man who chooses his words carefully, is clearly in the first camp. “I don’t believe it’s overblown,” he said. “I believe there are serious threats to our infrastructure and to our government. The question is when.”
The general is busy marshaling more personnel and resources to fortify his new command. The Washington Post reported in August that Cybercom consisted of “1,000 elite military hackers and spies under one four-star general.”
“I think they left off suave and good-looking,” the general laughed when asked about that description.
Alexander was born in Syracuse and raised in Manlius, Constantia and Onondaga Hill, where at 14 he was a paper boy for The Post-Standard. After graduating from Westhill, he went to West Point and then earned master’s degrees in business, physics and electronic warfare.
He said he visits Central New York about once a year to visit his mother, who lives along Oneida Lake in Constantia, and his father-in-law and two sisters-in-law on Onondaga Hill. His wife, Debbie, lived two doors down from him on Onondaga Hill …
“I think you’ve seen recent statements by (Homeland Security) Secretary (Janet) Napolitano that we can leverage the National Security Agency to both provide security and ensure the civil liberties and privacy of our people,” he said. “Those are the two things that we have to bring together.”
Another area Alexander is exploring is how aggressive Cybercom can and should be in reacting to foreign threats. According to The Washington Post, Cybercom is developing technologies to go on the offensive and to shut down aggressors who might attack American systems. That raises questions not only of what is technically feasible, but of what is legal under international law.
Comment:
I think the importance of privacy can be overstated when balanced against the importance of protecting innocents from being murdered.
I once deposed corporate security personnel in New Jersey in a case alleging illegal wiretapping and wrongful death. A member of law enforcement eventually went to jail. My client alleged that the 800 line had been illegally wiretapped and the records identifying the whistleblower from law enforcement were deleted, either intentionally or because of a glitch in how the billing worked upon duplication of the call made to an 800 reward line. On an 800 line, upon changing the terminating number, the bill showed all zeros and the whistleblower from the Trooper barracks did not show up on the bill; the whistleblower then was silenced and fired upon being caught with a girl under 18 in the parking lot. Senator Leahy’s campaign manager, Attorney Tetzlaff, was US Attorney. He was very helpful to the client in trying to get at what had happened. The US Attorney explained that unless a Title III warrant crossed his desk, any wiretapping by a rogue detective in Vermont was necessarily illegal because there was no state statute in Vermont authorizing an interception. The authorities ironically eventually got the Trooper on an authorized wiretap — the Trooper went to jail for that different but similar incident.
Those were fun depositions — where the telecom (ATT) corporate security employees in NJ likely felt they had the authority to make false sworn denials about what the telephone company did for law enforcement. For years, wiretapping has been done at the switch and USG has required the capability of intercepting a gazillion of telephone conversations simultaneously. For years, the wiretapping in real time can be done using a laptop and keyboard.
If you want privacy, go out deep in the woods to your secret ham radio shack that not even the NSA and FBI has been able to locate. Old school can be cutting edge. For years, I’ve explained that I don’t have a cellphone because “that’s how the NSA tracks you.” (People just assumed I was kidding). The FBI can just turn on your cellphone and listen into nearby conversations. But you’ve known that for a decade, right? If you are of special interest, you understand that there is a recorded archive of all conversations made within earshot of your cell phone for over 10 years, right? It’s far easier just to straighten up and fly right.
How do the revelations show NSA and FBI doing anything other than their job? We can disagree with particular conclusions or a particular balancing they strike but it’s not like this is not what we pay them to do. And it’s not like we all don’t value protecting innocents from being murdered.
On civil liberties, privacy and the intelligence apparatus, people need to read more. For example, one anthrax blogger recently repeated the common fallacy about the CIA not operating in the US. The CIA has offices throughout the US and this has been explained quite clearly.
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer
KC2VDX
DXer said
I don’t have the article handy but in a different interview available on World News Connection, in discussing the Spring 1999 Albanian Returnees trial, Attorney Montasser Al-Zayat that the defendants wore red to court to symbolize that they were under a death warrant.
(It might be understood instead that those prosecuting them were under a death threat.) If you google “red ink” you will see that in many cultures, that is what red ink symbolizes.
Montasser in April 1999 first explained, along with Mabruk and Al-Najjar, Dr. Zawahiri’s plan to use anthrax to retaliate for the rendering and imprisonment of senior Movement leaders.
I have suggested that we obtain the handwriting of Zazi and his high school classmates (from a yearbook given the Newsday reporter) to see if there is a match. Zazi’s coffee cart was within the shadow of the Goldman Sachs building at the time.
DXer said
Like the Goldman Sachs letters, the recent ricin letters sent to the President, the CIA, the Spokane air base, a federal judge in Spokane, and the Post Office were also in red ink and written by hand. What did the Spokane letters say? Was the content of each the same?
“The FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said all four envelopes were postmarked May 13 in Spokane and are in the possession of law enforcement. Three contained active ricin toxin, and the Air Force base letter continues to undergo testing. Each was addressed by hand in red ink.”
Does the FBI have a theory that connects the arrested maintenance person with these letters containing ricin? Or did he just make the mistake of writing an angry letter to a judge the same week. The charge involved a threatening communication and ricin was not mentioned.
DXer said
Below is an excerpt from an article about on El-Shukrijumah titled “A Mystery Man Who Keeps the FBI Up at Night” by Josh Meyer. The article notes that in 2001 before 9/11, El-Shukrijumah had scouted targets in the US — spending about a week each in New York, Washington, Chicago and Montreal. He had been tasked to do so by KSM, the 911 mastermind.
How was the FBI able to exclude El-Shukrijumah for the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings if they don’t know where he was? He specifically called his mom on or about September 13, 2001 from KSM’s house — where Al Qaeda lab head Yazid Sufaat also lived for 6 days — and told his mom that he was coming to the United States. see KSM’s detainee assessment.
Bruce Ivins, on the other hand, had an alibi. See 302 statements by his family being withheld by the FBI.
Yazid Sufaat does not deny to me Al Qaeda’s responsibility for the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings. Bruce Ivins, on the other hand, did deny responsibility.
Yazid told KSM that he and his assistants were vaccinated and so it was safe to work with the virulent anthrax — which the tests (notwithstanding decontamination efforts) point to as being the Ames strain according to the NAS panel Vice-Chairman David Relman.
For El-Shukrijumah to claim responsibility for the anthrax mailings might get dear old mom and his five siblings in trouble. Al Qaeda also denied responsibility for the 911 attacks until it was beyond dispute. The 1998 embassy bombings too.
By September 17, the plane were flying again. Rather than keeping it secret for 10 years that El-Shukrijumah’s buddy, Jdey, was detained at the same time as Moussaoui, the FBI should have bore down on El-Shukrijumah’s announced plan to return to the US immediately after 911.
FIVE YEARS AFTER
Officials hunting virtually full time for a Florida computer technician see him as the ultimate `sleeper agent’ in the post-9/11 world.
September 03, 2006|Josh Meyer | Times Staff Writer
…
After he started traveling to Pakistan and Afghanistan, however, Shukrijumah began to change, say friends and associates interviewed by the FBI. He would take off for long periods, to places overseas he would not discuss.
“Every time he came back, he was a different person,” the FBI official said. “He was more calm, more cool and more purposeful in his actions.”
By 2001, the FBI was investigating Shukrijumah in connection with two suspected terrorist plots, one of which involved a group apparently using South Florida as a base from which to recruit militants and finance attacks and assassinations in the Middle East.
But agents were never able to connect him to either plot. They later came to believe that he had been deliberately keeping his distance because, as one agent put it, “it was felt in the [Al Qaeda] community that he was in for bigger and better things.”
After the Sept. 11 attacks, federal agents swarmed South Florida looking for clues and connections they might have missed. As many as 15 of the hijackers had spent their last months there, training for and planning the suicide mission.
The FBI ultimately took several of Shukrijumah’s acquaintances into custody on terrorism or immigration charges.
Agents also went looking for Shukrijumah. But by then, he was gone and had left few clues.
‘He Could Be Anywhere’
When Shukrijumah reemerged in the FBI’s consciousness in March 2003, Pasquale “Pat” D’Amuro, then the FBI’s senior counter-terrorism official and a veteran Al Qaeda tracker, felt an acute sense of dread.
“We thought he was a grave danger to the security of the United States,” D’Amuro recalled recently. “We thought he could be anywhere.”
On March 20, 2003, the same day the U.S. began bombing Iraq, the FBI went public. With TV news crews on their heels, more than 50 federal agents and local police officers descended on Shukrijumah’s neighborhood.
Armed with a warrant for his arrest as a material witness, FBI agents knocked on doors, showing photographs and asking whether he had been seen in Florida recently.
They scoured his mail, credit cards, bank records and phone bills.
By then, however, Shukrijumah had been away from his family home for almost two years.
In the months before Sept. 11, he had traveled widely through the United States and Canada, scouting potential terrorist targets, say FBI officials, who believe he spent about a week each in New York, Washington, Chicago and Montreal.
Since the attacks, her son had called just once, to check in, Zuhrah Abdu Ahmed told the agents.
DXer said
The matter is ongoing upon the extradition of yet another defendant from abroad. The press release from January 2013 read:
“Alleged al Qaeda Operative Extradited to United States for Role in International Terrorism Plot Targeting New York City, United Kingdom, and Scandinavia
U.S. Attorney’s Office
January 03, 2013
Eastern District of New York
BROOKLYN—,*** three friends from New York City, to conduct a suicide bombing attack in New York City.
The al Qaeda leaders, including Adnan El-Shukrijumah … communicated with Zazi about the plot through an al Qaeda facilitator named “Ahmad” in Peshawar, Pakistan. In early September 2009, after Medunjanin, Zazi, and Ahmedzay had selected the New York City subway system as their target, Zazi e-mailed with “Ahmad” in Pakistan about the proper ingredients for the main charge explosive, which included flour and oil. …”
A letter this week requests an adjournment of 30 days so that the parties can have time to review voluminous discovery materials. Perhaps handwriting exemplars will be disclosed in the ongoing prosecution that will bear on these anonymous threat letters.
Reading through a long affidavit by an AUSA giving his explanation of the code he believes Zazi used with the fellow recently extradited, the government again suggests a timeline where Zazi appears to have first met Adnan El-Shukrijumah in 2008. There is no suggestion he met Adnan the year before on his earlier travel to Pakistan to marry his cousin.
There is a cooperating witness, another jihadist from the US over there in Afghanistan. His name is Bryant Neal Vinas. He traveled to Waziristan, Pakistan in 2007
The cooperating American jihad supporter Vinas lived on Long Island, with his parents and his sister, Lina
In September 2007, he quit his job and abruptly left his father’s home, saying he wanted to study Islam and Arabic.
I sure wish handwriting exemplars were easier to come by.
What does Mr. Vinas’ handwriting look like?
DXer said
Vinas informed U.S. officials of an Al Qaeda plot to blow up a Long Island Rail Road commuter train in New York’s Penn Station, saying that he had provided them with details of the New York transit system. This revelation lead authorities to issue a Nov. 25 2008 terror alert.
His handwriting in the yearbooks of his high school friends can be compared to these Goldman Sachs letters. He graduated from Longwood High School in Middle Island, New York in June 2001. It a simple matter to contact his classmates to ask if he signed their yearbook.
His sister, Lina, for example, would recognize his handwriting. As would his mom and dad.
Doesn’t it make sense to check the handwriting of someone described by Time Magazine “An American in Al Qaeda” with respect to anonymous threat letters shortly before his departure from the US — where the threat letter is signed A.Q.U.S.A.?
Just saying…
Bryant Neal Vinas: An American in Al Qaeda
By Claire Suddath Friday, July 24, 2009
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1912512,00.html#ixzz2TwoWDEve
DXer said
In 2010, a classmate of Vines, Matt Kies, in a comment to YouTube complained that he had given his yearbook to Newsday but not got it back. Newsday could check that yearbook. A Newsday journalist was part of a group of journalists who sought the unsealing of the indictment of the recent extradition.
DXer said
Online magazine sues FBI over snooping
Bob Egelko
Published 4:35 pm, Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Online-magazine-sues-FBI-over-snooping-4536372.php#ixzz2U2QrZkgF
The controversy over government surveillance of the media reached a San Francisco federal court Tuesday when editors of an online antiwar magazine released documents showing the FBI started monitoring their website nearly a decade ago.
Hire DDoS attack service ‘legal’ and connected to FBI
Summary: A service which boots websites offline for payment is legitimate, says the owner. But why a backdoor monitored by the FBI?
http://www.zdnet.com/hire-ddos-attack-service-legal-and-connected-to-fbi-7000015598/
Comment:
All this computer stuff is over my head … but the FBI uses a proxy server, I believe, to gain a backdoor to a website so they can monitor who visits etc. in real time.
Notice the Russians or Chinese visiting at all hours for no understandable reason? Well, the game’s afoot and maybe nothing is what it seems.
Some websites are designed by the FBI as honey pots such as the one Vince Cannistraro set up for Amerithrax with a couple of his Maryland buddies in 2002. (He was on the Saudi payroll and urging to the FBI an unstable lone America such as the Quantico profilers in their naivete had profiled). But no one visited the website. (Pssst. Hey, Vince, it is a conflict of interest to advise the FBI on Amerithrax while being paid by the Saudis. Given your work with the Blind Sheik you should have known your theory was crock).
For example, the FBI gamed the same approach with the recent overblown announcement in the Gardner art heist matter. The FBI announced that they had solved the case and there would be a press conference in a few hours. They said they had identified the robbers. Please just click this link.
But it is easier to take an ongoing website and arrange things so they know who visits on a real-time basis — one way or the other. For example, in the case of this blog, it was an actual federal undercover who did the graphics. And I think he did a damn good job.
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
As for what Section 1983 and the First Amendment finds acceptable, that’s for the federal courts to determine under the rule of law.
DXer said
The extensive CNN feature “American Al Qaeda: The Story of Bryant Neal Vinas” explains that Vinas recited Shahada, the Muslim profession of faith at a mosque in Queens, a few doors down from where he was born. Vinas would go to New York City with his colleagues spreading the faith. His childhood friend, Alex Acevedo, who did not share his religious views, would know what Vinas’ handwriting looks like.
On the eve of the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 — September 10, 2007 — a few months after the Goldman Sachs threat letters –Bryant Neal Vinas boarded a flight from New York to Lahore, Pakistan.
… investigators suspect two of Vinas’ friends at the Islamic Thinkers Society, a pro-al Qaeda extremist organization in New York, knew what he was up to.
Did Vinas send the letters purporting to be from A.Q.U.S.A.?
American Al Qaeda: The Story of Bryant Neal Vinas
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/bryant.neal.vinas/
The radicalization of an all-American kid
By Paul Cruickshank, Nic Robertson and Ken Shiffman, CNN
May 15, 2010 11:39 a.m. EDT
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/13/bryant.neal.vinas.part1/index.html
From Long Island to Lahore: The plot to bomb New York
By Paul Cruickshank, Nic Robertson and Ken Shiffman, CNN
May 21, 2010 6:09 a.m. EDT
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/14/bryant.neal.vinas.part2/index.html
DXer said
But it is worth noting senders who had access to the Gale Directory of Publications with all the addresses of the newspapers. (There may be other directories but that is one that comes to mind; the specific directory, if there is more than one, might be discerned from slight differences in the address that appears). What public library did Vinas use? Zazi? Is there a directory of newspaper addresses there?
The radicalization of an all-American kid – CNN.com
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/13/bryant.neal.vinas.part1/index.html
•
May 15, 2010 – “Bryant Neal Vinas is almost a poster child for the process, the …. the Selden mosque was sitting next to Vinas in the public library and saw that …
•
DXer said
On the subject of Yearbooks as sources of handwriting samples, note that Zazi was conspiring with two classmates from high school. So you can get as many three samples with the right yearbook.
In November 2012, his high school classmate Adis Medunjarin was sentenced to life in prison.
“NEW YORK — A New York City man was sentenced Friday to life in prison for conspiring to form a three-man terror cell with two of his former high school classmates and spread death on the subways as suicide bombers – a foiled plot that authorities called one of the closest calls since the 9/11 attacks.
Adis Medunjanin, a 28-year-old U.S. citizen from Bosnia, was convicted this year of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, attempting to commit an act of terrorism and other terrorism charges.
In court papers, prosecutors had argued for a life term for Medunjanin, saying he “committed a host of heinous crimes aimed at killing and maiming his fellow American citizens in order to alter and take revenge for American foreign policy.”
At trial, defense attorneys had admitted that Medunjanin wanted to fight for the Taliban, but they insisted he never agreed to spread death and destruction in the city where his family put down roots.
Medunjanin went overseas to fulfill a “romantic version of jihad. … His plan and intent was to join the Taliban and stand up for what he believes in,” attorney Robert Gottlieb said in his closing. “That was his purpose.”
The trial ending in May was mostly notable because it featured the first-ever testimony from admitted homegrown terrorists about al-Qaida’s determination to strike America on its home turf.
The former classmates at a Queens high school, Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay, testified that the three men sought terror training after falling under the influence of inflammatory recordings of U.S.-born extremist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki that they downloaded and listened to on their iPods.”
DXer said
So there were 3 plotters from the mosque at Queens working with Adnan El-Shukrijumah. And Shukrijumah was living with KSM on 9/13/2001 when he called his mom to tell her he was coming to the US. And Yazid Sufaat, who also stayed with KSM, does not deny to me AQ’s responsibility for the anthrax mailings. Yazid was ordered released yesterday but the prosecutor may be chomping on the bit to arrest him again given his failure to cooperate,
The three NYC subway plotters were three former high school classmates from Queens.
There’s a reason for my special interest in the Goldman Sachs letters.
I emailed a mosque about anthrax as a followup to a conversation I had in late June 2007 with a prominent fellow from Queens who was in finance. The USG IC might call it “shaking the tree.” But I was just putting into writing what I had straightforwardly explained over excellent Chinese buffet at the mosque to a very charming and distinguished man of few words. I always try to go to the source and put things in written form so there is a record that can be read by anyone trying to connect the dots. His wife at a Dhafir fundraiser had asked why 100 agents came to Syracuse — and I meant to explain what I thought it was about. (The imam I then sent my long analysis of Amerithrax then left town but I am not privy to the details of his leaving; I did not know him or know of him but merely sent it to him because I did not have an email for the highly respected Queens finance person who was President of the mosque here.).
Then the next week the Goldman Sachs letters were “called off.” I called the FBI about it — finding it all very odd timing and the recanting letter nothing short of bizarre. The beautiful long-legged blond FBI agent, a JD, said it didn’t seem credible that two friends would help the one teen — they would have no reason to be involved. I also pointed out that 9 people — counting 6 parents — were way too many to be in on a secret. We know that from watching “Law and Order,” I said. The dozens of newspapers also seemed to involve way too much work — the mailer must have been highly motivated. The Queens finance person I was writing to about anthrax that week — to gain his insiights — was the confidante of the Awlaki and Al-Timimi confidante, the beloved and respected Dr. Dhafir. Dhafir had spoken alongside Awlaki and Al-Timimi in July and August 2001 in Canada and England. These three losers from Queens who had been high school classmates were highly influenced by Awlaki. They would share buds listening to his sermons on their IPOD.
By way of background, in late February 2003, Syracuse was the subject of a raid here of 100 agents — when 150 people were questioned simultaneously. It was nearly coincident with KSM’s arrest — with the best intel indicating that KSM was actually captured somewhat before the date of March 1, 2003 that they claimed. (Source: previously named journalist relying on policeman involved in the bust.) See Scroggings book on Aafia Siddiqui. The timing was obfuscated because authorities had wanted to get the drop on accomplices. The family of the bacteriologist where KSM and Al-Hawsawi were supposedly arrested denied that KSM had been there at the time of the arrest. It was at that home that Al-Hawsawi’s laptop with anthrax spraydrying documents was found. You will call Adnan El-Shukrijumah then lived with Al-Hawsawi in February 2002- April 2002 in Karachi.
Now we are told that El-Shukrijumah was tasked by KSM with scoping target in 2001, spending a week each in NYC, DC and Montreal. (see Josh Meyer’s important article about El-Shukrijumah). see also detainee assessments. He travelled by train. Was it coincident with Al-Timimi and Awlaki’s talk in Canada? Did El-Shukrijumah meet them there? Did he meet Jdey in Montreal? The CiA’s top person after leaving for Harvard says that Jdey was detained as the same time as Moussaoui but then released. Moussaoui had the cropdusting manuals and Jdey had the biology textbooks. (That’s very dedicated of Jdey to be carrying biology textbooks in the summer time while travelling and on a mission for Al Qaeda as part of KSM’s 911 operation.
Turning back to Queens, one of Zazi’s classmates drove a yellow cab. The other high school classmate was named Adis Medunjanin. This article below which discusses Adnan El-Shukrijumah’s recruitment of the men says the FBI has been hunting Adnan since March 2003 — when KSM was detained and immediately spilled about El-Shukrijumah.. But those following the story closely know that the FBI has been looking for Adnan since before 9/11. I started blogging precisely to help connect the dots — compartmentalization of information interferes with the best analysis. I wrote the CIA in December 2001 to tell them they should never underestimate the importance of Brooklyn, the Blind Sheik, or WTC 1993. Here, Adnan El-Shukrijumah’s father was the imam at the mosque there at Brooklyn and the FBI was already investigating his son in Florida — his son had been paling around with Atta.
The handwriting of all 3of the Queens should be checked. A.Q.U.S.A. on its face refers to a group. Rather than a young woman and her two friends, is it more likely sent by these three?
It’s never too late to be right.
FBI Director Mueller can either get it right — or not.
Either way, it is going to be his legacy.
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
FBI: Al Qaeda Leader Has Brooklyn Ties
Posted: Aug 06, 2010 6:57 PM EDT
Al Qaeda has a new top leader — a man who once lived in Brooklyn, had a green card, now reports directly to Osama Bin Laden, and is in charge of plotting attacks in the United States, federal authorities alleged.
Adnan Shukrijumah, 35, now has the job once held by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the FBI told the Associated Press. Prosecutors said he was involved with the failed plot to bomb New York subways in 2009.
The FBI has been searching for Shukrijumah since 2003. He is thought to be the only al-Qaida leader to have once held permanent U.S. resident status, the AP reported.
He has several ties to New York. First he lived in Brooklyn when his family came to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia.
The second tie is the Nazibullah Zazi connection. Federal prosecutors in an indictment claim he recruited Zazi and others to become suicide bombers. Zazi, a former coffee cart vender who grew up in Queens, pleaded guilty to traveling to Waziristan to train with the Taliban. He admitted that he plotted with others to blow up the subways on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks in 2009.
Authorities said that Shukrijumah recruited Zazi and another man, Adis Medunjanin, who entered a not guilty plea in federal court in Brooklyn on Friday.
Shukrijumah also lived in Miramar, Florida, with his mother until he disappeared. The FBI has been searching for him since 2003. Investigators believe that his knowledge of the U.S. makes him potentially very dangerous.
Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/story/17436614/fbi-al-qaeda-leader-has-brooklyn-ties#ixzz2TxkjA67a
DXer said
I’m not sure I understand Justin Raimondo’s complaint but I’ll keep reading. Antiwar.com is represented by ACLU which of course does good work and is highly experienced and respected on such issues.
But my initial reaction is : Where is the FBI’s actual, proximately caused interference with prospective business relations. More broadly, if you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. Justin, is the thought that you can write about the FBI publicly but that they cannot read what you write and comment on it internally? What cognizable damages are there? Are you really suggesting that you are chilled? Instead, aren’t you the one seeking to chill routine investigative reporting — reporting that was all done internally and pursuant to FISA? No one would have known about it until you chose to seek and publish the documents. For starters, come back to me when you can show financial damage that is in fact proximately caused by the FBI’s actions rather than your actions in publicizing documents. You went out of your way to obtain and publicize the internal documents. The beauty of exercising our right to free expression is that it has consequences — often of our making.
“The lawsuit also stated that major donors to Antiwar.com withdrew financial support after learning the FBI was monitoring the site, fearing they too could come under surveillance. As a result, the site lost about $75,000 per year.”
Justin, your donors learned about it because YOU chose to publish about in 2011, after obtaining documents under FOIA. The “chilling” was self-inflicted. Don’t walk into a refrigerator — find the door locks behind you — and blame the fellow who installed the refrigerator.
“The federal agency recommended that agents should “further monitor the postings on website http://www.antiwar.com” in 2004.
Well, gosh. Isn’t that a good thing? Don’t you want agents to read what you write?
I’m a big believer in Section 1983, the vehicle for enforcing constitutional rights. I have spent years in litigation under it — to include surveillance not authorized by Section III involving the alleged murder of the client’s brother.
But I would hate to see the FBI’s investigative activity chilled by every journalist or blogger who finds themselves mentioned in passing in investigative reports. Are you and the ACLU just trying to piggy-back on the recent publicity of the scrutiny journalist Rosen received upon his State Department visits? Or the obtaining records by the US Attorney in DC of NYT telephone records? Your suit is going to have to succeed or fail on its own merits — and already there is a big issue on proximate cause of the damages you claim.
Besides, FBI agents are uniformly polite — and they have the coolest job I know. (Sometimes they shoot you but that’s another story). They share my personal interest in true crime and mysteries. You should welcome the opportunity to have them read your essays.
Over the years, in his coverage of Amerithrax, I especially liked Justin’s early and repeated focus on Dr. Assaad. Dr. Assaad thinks the Ivins Theory is part of a vicious plot against Dr. Ivins. A Coptic Christian, there is an unsolved question worthy of answering: Who wrote the anonymous letter regarding Dr. Assaad? Someone with a bona fide lead will not conceal their identity. He went to Cairo Medical. Who knew him there? (Writing from his usual consistently political perspective, Justin wanted to use the Assaad letter to tar a deep, dark governmental zionist conspiracy, without appreciating that the Blind Sheik’s beef with the Coptic Christians is as big as with the nonbelieving infidels in America.
DXer said
After unsealing the indictment against Zazi and El-Shukrijumah, the Justice Department warned Goldman Sachs and other financial institutions about a possible anthrax attack, connected to Al Qaeda’s Awlaki.
What intelligence led to the warning to Goldman Sachs and other financial institutions and the specific mention of anthrax?
U.S. Intel Officials Warn Wall Street Execs of Al Qaeda Plot … including potential anthrax attack
Posted by Lew Weinstein on February 1, 2011
Awlaki was the fellow who inspired Zazi.
Awlaki was coordinating with Ali Al-Timimi who shared a suite with the leading Ames anthrax researchers.
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
Al Qaeda’s head of external operations — although this no doubt is classified — was a leading candidate for mailing the Fall 2001 anthrax letters.
Most of the Department of Justice’s Al Qaeda anthrax analysis relating to Al-Timimi and El-Shukrijumah and Awlaki should be declassified — it is now of a historic nature — so that GAO can intelligently review the conclusions reached in Amerithrax by the people who hid the information about Dr. Ivins work killing the 52 rabbits that first week in October 2001.
DXer said
The FBI has lots of exemplars of Zazi’s handwriting to include 9 handwritten pages on creating a fuse that he scanned abroad and emailed himself.
FBI: Bomb-making notes in Zazi’s handwriting
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/32927090/ns/us_news-security/t/fbi-bomb-making-notes-zazis-handwriting/
DXer said
There is an affidavit that says the handwriting on the bombmaking notes appeared to be Zazi’s. I haven’t seen the Affidavit or more than a snippet from the notes.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,552881,00.html
The FBI said it found images of handwritten notes on a laptop containing formulas and instructions for making a bomb, detonators and a fuse. Zazi told the FBI that he must have unintentionally downloaded the notes as part of a religious book and that he deleted the book “after realizing that its contents discussed jihad.”
An affidavit says the handwriting on the notes appeared to be Zazi’s.
DXer said
The so-called “Goldman Sachs” letters were sent to newspapers from Queens and the Bronx. They were not anthrax hoax letters as such — they were just “threat” letters. Rather ridiculously done at that. Threat and hoax letters are the ultimate stupid crime. Each year there are numerous white powder letters. But were there any related threat letters where white powder was sent? If so, was that white powder flour? Flour was an ingredient to the bombs the plotters planned on using in the NYC subway plot.
Standard & Poors appears to have received flour in August 2007 — it is a block or two on the opposite side of the old Goldman Sach’s building from Zazi’s coffee cart. (But the white powder incidents involving financial institutions that summer appear to have been in midtown.)
Zazi was already going to and fro Pakistan in 2007 when the June 2007 threat letters were sent. What was his experience there in 2007? When did he actually swear the al bayat (oath)? It seems that the author purporting to be “A.Q.U.S.A.” if really Al Qaeda would have sworn the bayat.
Here is the Justice Department’s press release:
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department today announced charges against five members of an al-Qaeda plot to attack targets in the United States and United Kingdom. The charges reveal that the plot against New York’s subway system uncovered in September 2009 involving Colorado resident Najibullah Zazi was directed by senior al-Qaeda leadership in Pakistan, and was also directly related to a scheme by al-Qaeda plotters in Pakistan to use Western operatives to attack a target in the United Kingdom.
The superseding indictment, which was returned and unsealed today in the Eastern District of New York, charges the following defendants each with several terrorism violations: Adnan El Shukrijumah, also known as “Hamad;” Adis Medunjanin, also known as “Mohammad;” Abid Naseer; Tariq Ur Rehman; and a fifth defendant known as “Ahmad,” “Sohaib” or “Zahid.” Each of the defendants faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
According to the indictment, court filings and plea proceedings in the case, the plot involving Zazi was organized by Saleh al-Somali, Rashid Rauf, and El Shukrijumah, who were then-leaders of al-Qaeda’s “external operations” program dedicated to terrorist attacks in the United States and other Western countries.
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/July/10-nsd-781.html
Police Seek Source of Suspicious Packages
By CHRISTOPHER FAHERTY
Special to the Sun
August 22, 2007
Police are working to trace the source of several suspicious packages sent to financial institutions over the past two days, police officials said.
The packages, which contained ziplock bags that in some cases were filled with flour or cornstarch, were sent to companies in three Midtown buildings, police said.
“None of the material tested so far has tested positive for any dangerous substance,” the police department’s head spokesman, Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, said in a statement.
The packages sent to the financial institutions, whose names were not released by police officials, arrived in envelopes postmarked Hartford, Conn. Along with the powder-filled plastic bags, the envelopes contained greeting cards with no threats or messages of any kind, Mr. Browne said.
Investigators are still testing the powder, which the companies handed over to police by the companies, but it appears the threat was a hoax. If so, it would mark the second time in two months that financial institutions have received false terrorist threats.
In June, several newspapers in the New York area received letters threatening the lives of employees at the investment bank Goldman Sachs from an anonymous sender who claimed to have infiltrated the company. The Federal Bureau of Investigation later determined the letters were a hoax.
The suspicious packages began arriving on Monday at 1345 Sixth Ave., 787 Seventh Ave., and 505 Fifth Ave., home to a number of financial companies. Investigators were not informed about the packages until yesterday, police said.
The New York Post
WALL STREET ‘THRAX SCARE
ANTHRAX SCARE IN WALL ST. MAILROOM
By LEONARDO BLAIR and PHILIP MESSING
September 12, 2007 — An eerily timed anthrax scare hit lower Manhattan yesterday, rekindling fears of terrorism on 9/11.
Eight people were evacuated from the basement of 55 Water St. when a mailroom worker opened an envelope that contained a suspicious white powder, officials said.
The envelope, which had no address, was discovered shortly before noon in the mailroom of bond-rating firm Standard and Poor’s.
The worker who noticed the powder tried to smell it. People in the area began to feel nauseated, and Fire Department and hazmat crews were called, officials said.
Eight people were treated at the scene. Officials believe the letter could’ve been a hoax.
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEWednesday, July 7, 2010
Charges Unsealed Against Five Alleged Members of Al-Qaeda Plot to Attack the United States and United Kingdom
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department today announced charges against five members of an al-Qaeda plot to attack targets in the United States and United Kingdom. The charges reveal that the plot against New York’s subway system uncovered in September 2009 involving Colorado resident Najibullah Zazi was directed by senior al-Qaeda leadership in Pakistan, and was also directly related to a scheme by al-Qaeda plotters in Pakistan to use Western operatives to attack a target in the United Kingdom.
The superseding indictment, which was returned and unsealed today in the Eastern District of New York, charges the following defendants each with several terrorism violations: Adnan El Shukrijumah, also known as “Hamad;” Adis Medunjanin, also known as “Mohammad;” Abid Naseer; Tariq Ur Rehman; and a fifth defendant known as “Ahmad,” “Sohaib” or “Zahid.” Each of the defendants faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
According to the indictment, court filings and plea proceedings in the case, the plot involving Zazi was organized by Saleh al-Somali, Rashid Rauf, and El Shukrijumah, who were then-leaders of al-Qaeda’s “external operations” program dedicated to terrorist attacks in the United States and other Western countries.
Between September and December 2008, Saleh and El Shukrijumah recruited Zazi and Zazi’s co-conspirators, Zarein Ahmedzay and Medunjanin, to conduct suicide bombings in New York City using improvised explosive devices made from supplies such as hydrogen peroxide, acetone, flour and oil.
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In early September 2009, after Zazi constructed the detonator explosives for the attack, he emailed with “Ahmad” in Pakistan about the proper ingredients for the flour-based main charge explosive.
richard rowley said
I agree that the printer is the same one as the printer of the Amerithrax letters, but:
1) these are done in the author’s normal printing style.
2) the inclusion of a line from the Daschle/Leahy letter is mocking the authorities;
“You cannot stop us.”
3) the localization is suchp (NY/NJ) that the author probably used the same mailing acomplice (ie the guy who mailed the
Amerithrax letters in Princeton).
DXer said
The printing is nowhere near the printing of the Amerithrax letters. I never said it was. Your friend Lake just has poor reading comprehension.
DXer said
Zazi’s coffee cart was a block up from Goldman Sachs at Stone St. at Whitehall & Stone. Goldman’s old building at 85 Broad dominates the view on the one-block Stone St. because it is what you see when you look down Stone. To prove the Goldman Sachs hypothesis, obtain Zazi’s handwriting exemplars (printing capital letters). I don’t recall any formal reward offer but I expect you will be rewarded handsomely.
To review today’s proposed clue solutions that could put money in your pocket.
1. In the $10,000 treasure hunt sponsored by Discovery Channel, in wihch the $10,000 in gold coins will be found within 3 days, go to 48 WALL ST. tonight at 6 p.m. -10 p.m. for next clue. Take a picture of Whitehall & Stone while you are there.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/17/odyssey-treasure-exhibit-shipwreck-contest_n_3294027.html
2. a. For the $500 million in Gardner paintings ($5 million award), trace the storage unit where Carl and Sylvia Benjamin stored their things in Florida. It’s air-conditioned. Go to Florida and await instruction. See article in Hartford Courant yesterday. The journalist does not explain the Florida connection but it was Carl Benjamin that Robert Guarente would have been going to see.
b. Alternatively, if FBI or acting with consent of landowner, move this concrete slap pictured in the upper right up in Maine.
http://photos.syracuse.com/yourphotos/2013/03/isabella_gardner_art_heist.html
c. Finally, or bring ground penetrating radar to the lot across the interchange from the Hartford Truck Rental in South Windsor, CT down from Stardust restaurant. They bulldozed it last year. (Given the trail of bodies, the mob knows the paintings are best forgotten).
3. For the anthrax mailer who sent Fall 2001, capture Adnan El-Shukrijumah. 5’4″, asthmatic, momma’s boy, and KSM’s errand boy. He told his mom he was coming the week before while living with KSM on 9/13/2001. $5 million under Rewards For Justice. His brother Nabil and sister Aidah can confirm he came to the US that week over his mom’s protests. Yazid Sufaat does not deny to me AQ’s responsibility for the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings. He was released today upon dismissal of his charges.
4. Dutch Schultz’s missing millions. I now like under the paved intersection in Yonkers. Dutch’s secret residence was en route from Bridgeport, CT and the Syracuse income tax evasion trial he faced in Syracuse. He and his bodyguard should have made better time than they did. Network to public works crew or borrow some ground penetrating radar.
• Dutch Schultz in Fairfield County, Connecticut in 1935 : his horses, his hiding places, and his missing millions | Ross Getman and Grace Getman
• July 16, 2010 (freely available on line)
• http://www.blurb.com/b/1475537-dutch-schultz-in-fairfield-county-connecticut-in-1
5. Forrest Fenn’s cache: I like Firehole River area of Yellowstone National Park.
You likely will die suddenly of a heart attack and so you best grab some pirate booty while you can.
DXer said
Oops.
Edmund Mahony, who had a substantial piece on the subject yesterday that was well-received by the experts, says he meant Philadelphia when he emailed me it looks like we go south.
Based on the FBI’s recent press, they would not disagree with that suggestion. The FBI thinks it made it at least as far as Connecticut if not Philadelphia circa 2003.
It’s far easier to lay hands on handwriting exemplars for El-Shukrijumah and Zazi that on the Isabella Gardner paintings.
Robert Gentile’s connections with Robert Guarante, a bank robber… (William Rye / The Boston…)
May 18, 2013|By EDMUND H. MAHONY, emahony@courant.com,The Hartford Courant
http://articles.courant.com/2013-05-18/news/hc-gardner-gentile-0513-20130518_1_robert-guarente-robert-gentile-gentile-claims
DXer said
The beautiful pirate at 48 Wall St tonight gave a clue that points to a location at 80 Maiden Lane. The historic clue pointed to HOLLOWAY POTS. The beautiful pirate can be expected to be there tomorrow at 6 p.m. sharp. If I were looking to explore during lunch hour, I would go to Hanover and Pearl, where Captain Kidd’s old home was. I’ve been reading on him some tonight and he seems to have been misunderstood and treated unfairly. He attended Trinity Church regularly — which is down the street. A single Double Eagle from the SS Republic tends to be worth about $1,000 and so (given I don’t believe they have specified the form of the treasure), I would look for a satchel (for example, under a concrete bench in a pocket park).
Background:
. In the $10,000 treasure hunt sponsored by Discovery Channel, in wihch the $10,000 in gold coins will be found within 3 days, go to 48 WALL ST. tonight at 6 p.m. -10 p.m. for next clue. Take a picture of Whitehall & Stone while you are there.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/17/odyssey-treasure-exhibit-shipwreck-contest_n_3294027.html
DXer said
The final clue did indeed point to Trinity Church. The pirate will arrive there shortly with the treasure chest containing civil war era gold Double Eagle coins and artifacts from the S.S. Republic.
Trinity Church is at 79 Broadway, Lower Manhattan, It is at the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway, in New York.
Solving a mystery before all the clues are in is a true test of good intel.
The beautiful pirate likely will be leaving TSX Operating Company, LLC C/O Running Subway 70 West 40th Street, 9th Fl. New York, New York 10018, accompanied by a Brinks guard or two.
After you register, you will be eligible to receive the treasure chest.
She won’t turn over the chest until her cab reaches Trinity Church but your friend and phone ahead with her cab number.