Terrorism here in the US

[vector7]

Domestic Terror Threat Growing, Senate Committee Warns

Submitted by national on Wednesday, 11 March 2009
If this is your first time visiting National Terror Alert you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. The National terror Alert feed features breaking news, alerts and bulletins on demand and it's free of charge..
You will only see this message on your first visit to the site. Thanks for visiting!



There is an increasing threat of homegrown terror stemming from segments of a deeply isolated and alienated Somali-American community, a U.S. Senate committee hearing concluded Wednesday.

The hearing, conducted by the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee, focused on the attempted recruitment of young Somali-American men by al-Shabaab, “a violent and brutal extremist (Somali) group” with significant ties to al Qaeda, according to the U.S. State Department.

“Over the last two years, individuals from the Somali community in the United States, including American citizens, have left for Somalia to support and in some cases fight on behalf of al-Shabaab,” noted the committee’s chairman, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Connecticut.

Al-Shabaab — also known as the Mujahedeen Youth Movement — was officially designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government in March 2008.

The hearing highlighted the case of Shirwa Ahmed, a 27-year-old Somali-American who had been radicalized by al-Shabaab in his adopted home state of Minnesota before traveling to Somalia and blowing up himself and 29 others in October.

The idea that Ahmed was radicalized in the United States raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community. The incident — the first suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen — was the “most significant case of homegrown American terrorism recruiting based on violent Islamist ideology,” Lieberman said.

“The dangers brought to light by these revelations is clear: radicalized individuals trained in terrorist tactics and in possession of American passports can clearly pose a threat to the security of our country,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
via Domestic terror threat growing, Senate committee warns - CNN.com.

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/u...mmittee-warns/

[vector7]

Homegrown Jihad: The Terrorist Camps Around the U.S.

Posted by Gabrielle Cusumano on Sunday, February 22, 2009 12:52:39 PM
"(Gilani)... he personally engages in terrorist training, from killing guards to hijacking vehicles to setting off explosives. On this tape, he says that those seeking to “join one of the most advanced training courses in Islamic military warfare” can contact any of his “Muslims of America” compounds in the United States, almost all of which still operate today. [...]"

Homegrown Jihad: The Terrorist Camps Around the U.S. (See Maps At Near Bottom Of This Page)

Submitted by national on Sunday, 8 February 2009 Excerpted from: http://www.nationalterroralert.com/u...around-the-us/




On February 11, 2009, at 7:30 pm. The Christian Action Network will premiere a new documentary, Homegrown Jihad, at the Landmark Theater in Washington, DC. There is no charge to attend the viewing.

According to the press release, “The American public was never supposed to know. The 2006 Justice Department document that exposes 35 terrorist training compounds in the U.S. was marked “Dissemination Restricted to Law Enforcement.” All the copies of Sheik Muburak Gilani’s terrorist training video, “Soldiers of Allah,” had been confiscated and sealed, all of them, that is, except one that Christian Action Network now reveals in the documentary Homegrown Jihad: The Terrorist Camps Around the U.S.”
Frontpage Magazine

Ryan Mauro founder of WorldThreats.com and a national security researcher for the Christian Action Network was recently interviewed by Frontpage Magazine and discussed the documentary.
FP: Ryan Mauro, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
Mauro: Thank you Jamie.
FP: We’re here today to discuss “Homegrown Jihad: Terrorist Camps Around U.S.,” the new documentary being released by the Christian Action Network. Tell us about it.
Mauro: This documentary is premiering at Washington D.C.’s Landmark Theater on February 11, at 7:30 PM. It is free to attend and I strongly encourage everyone in the area to come, and those out of the area to go to ChristianAction.org and order a copy. The Christian Action Network (CAN) is a non-profit organization and I personally will not see a penny from the sales. This documentary is simply too important; the threat too severe; and the public too unaware for me to not promote this is any way possible and call myself a patriotic American.

“Homegrown Jihad” documents the networks of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, a terrorist group run by a radical Muslim leader in Lahore, Pakistan named Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, an individual who, as I said in my last interview, does us the favor of not hiding his true colors. While he casts himself as a peace-loving Muslim, his actions and the actions of his network are anything but. In the documentary, we show a secret videotape, one which Gilani strictly instructs his followers to keep hidden, where he personally engages in terrorist training, from killing guards to hijacking vehicles to setting off explosives. On this tape, he says that those seeking to “join one of the most advanced training courses in Islamic military warfare” can contact any of his “Muslims of America” compounds in the United States, almost all of which still operate today. [...]

Read Full Interview
Christian Action Network Press Release

[vector7]

Homegrown Jihad

[vector7]

As long as he doesn't pull off the wig and turn out to be somebody closer to home

Taliban Leader's Washington Threat Is Credible, Analysts Say

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
By Joshua Rhett Miller


Baitullah Mehsud
The United States has put a $5 million bounty on his head, and he says militants under his control are planning a terrorist attack in Washington that "will amaze everyone in the world."

And he isn't Usama bin Laden.

Baitullah Mehsud, commander of the Taliban in Pakistan, told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that his group was responsible for Monday's attack on a police academy in his country that killed seven police officers and injured more than 90 others.

He also said, chillingly:
"Soon we will launch an attack in Washington that will amaze everyone in the world."

In an interview with local Dewa Radio, which was obtained by The Associated Press, Mehsud identified the White House as one of the targets.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko told FOXNews.com that the bureau is not aware of a specific or imminent threat to the United States. He added, without elaborating, that Mehsud has made similar threats to the U.S..

But terrorism experts call Mehsud a "rising young star" who is linked both to the December 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the bombing last September that killed 54 people in the Marriott hotel in Islamabad -- and they say his threat to carry out an attack in Washington should not be discounted.
"It should be taken seriously because [Mehsud] has ordered the deaths of many Pakistanis and Afghans and has a close alliance with Al Qaeda," said James Phillips, a terrorism expert and senior research fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Heritage Foundation.

"It's not too much of a stretch to think he might be involved in an attack on the U.S. if he's able to get his followers inside the United States. He's a militant extremist whose threats cannot be ignored."
Mehsud, 35, is the senior leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban, or the Taliban Movement of Pakistan, and is a key Al Qaeda facilitator in the tribal areas of South Waziristan in Pakistan, according to the U.S. State Department. A $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction was announced just last week.

"He has conducted cross-border attacks against U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and poses a clear threat to American persons and interests in the region," the State Department wrote in a March 25 release.

Phillips said Mehsud is less of a direct threat to the U.S. than bin Laden in an ideological sense, but his influence in Pakistan could allow him to tap into existing networks within Al Qaeda or among Afghan Taliban militants to achieve his goals.

"The U.S. government and other allied governments cannot afford to ignore this threat because [Mehsud] has acted on targets in the past," Phillips said. "Because he has a relatively secure base of operations in South Waziristan, he has been able to extend his influence throughout the border region and even into Pakistani cities."

Steve Emerson, executive director of The Investigative Project on Terrorism, said that of the many terrorists who have issued "blustery threats" in recent years, Meshud is considered a "rising young star" among militants.

"He's a dangerous guy," Emerson told FOXNews.com. "It just reaffirms the fact that Washington is a major target.

"He seems to be a pretty bloody, bold guy who is not afraid to have a marker on himself and knows how to exact publicity ... The real issue is what U.S. intelligence knows."

Malou Innocent, a foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute, said Mehsud's attacks have "significantly altered" the political dynamics in Pakistan and provide a major test for President Asif Ali Zardari. But any direct threat Mehsud poses to the United States will be through his link with Al Qaeda, she said.

"If he did have the reach, it would be because of Al Qaeda," she said. "This is more posturing on his behalf."

Mehsud, who denies involvement in Bhutto's assassination and the Marriott Hotel bombing, is a diabetic who was reportedly called a "good Taliban" in 2007, when the Pakistani army struck a peace agreement with him that was later aborted.

Mehsud has said he's not concerned with the bounty on his head, telling The Associated Press, "I wish to die and embrace martyrdom."

"That shows that he is adamantly committed to his extremist goals and is unlikely to be brought to justice by law enforcement actions," Phillips said. 'It will take a war to defeat him in South Waziristan, and I think that shows that the term War on Terrorism remains applicable there."

A State Department spokeswoman, Megan Mattson, declined to comment on Mehsud's threat.

[MinutemanCO]

Is it me, or if you look at the picture of the man does he have the facial features of a "Western" person? I don't mean to imply any sort of conspiracy deal at all. Just making an observation.

[vector7]

FBI's newest 'Most Wanted' terrorist is American

Posted 5h 40m ago | Comments 100 | Recommend 17

Daniel Andreas San Diego is the newest member of the FBI's "Most Wanted" terrorist list.
He is seen here in an undated file photo

WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time, an accused domestic terrorist is being added to the FBI's list of "Most Wanted" terror suspects.
Daniel Andreas San Diego, a 31-year-old computer specialist from Berkeley, Calif., is wanted for the 2003 bombings of two corporate offices in California.

Authorities describe San Diego as an animal rights activist who turned to bomb attacks. They say wears a tattoo that reads: "It only takes a spark."

A law enforcement official said the FBI was to announce Tuesday that San Diego was being added to the "Most Wanted" terrorist list. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the announcement ahead of time.

San Diego would be the 24th person on the list, and the only domestic terror suspect.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko declined to comment on the pending announcement.

The move to add a domestic, left-wing terrorist to the list comes only days after the Obama administration was criticized for internal reports suggesting some military veterans could be susceptible to right-wing extremist recruiters or commit lone acts of violence. That prompted angry reactions from some lawmakers and veterans groups.

An arrest warrant was issued for San Diego after the 2003 bombings in northern California of the corporate offices of Chiron Corp., a biotechnology firm, and at Shaklee Corp., a nutrition and cosmetics company. The explosions caused minor damages and no injuries.

A group calling itself "Revolutionary Cells" took responsibility for the blasts, telling followers in a series of e-mails that Chiron and Shaklee had been targeted for their ties to a research company that conducted drug and chemical experiments on animals.

Officials have offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to San Diego's capture, five times the reward amounts offered for other so-called eco-terrorists wanted in the U.S.

In February, the FBI announced San Diego may be living in Costa Rica, possibly working with Americans or people who speak English in the Central American country.

Law enforcement officials describe San Diego as a strict vegan who possesses a 9mm handgun. On his abdomen, he has images of burning and collapsing buildings.

The FBI's "Most Wanted" terrorist list is distinct from the much longer-running "Ten Most Wanted" list. Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is on both.

There is another American already on the list, but he is wanted for his work overseas for al-Qaeda. Adam Yahiye Gadahn grew up in California but moved to Pakistan and works as a translator and consultant to al-Qaeda.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[vector7]

FBI begins 3-month long hiring blitz in 21 States, DC & Puerto Rico

Kim McDaniel
SoCal Martial Law Alerts
April 16, 2009

As part of their unprecedented hiring blitz, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will be participating in 47 career fair events across 21 States, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico from now until mid-July 2009, according to the FBI's Careers website: FBIJobs.gov.

Twenty-three of the 47 career fairs specifically target: Arab and Black Americans, engineers, Hispanic and Latino Americans, military, Native Americans and women.

The FBI has numerous positions available along three specific career paths: Special Agent (100s of positions available through the FBI's 56 metropolitan Field Offices), Professional Staff (100s of support positions ranging from Auditor to Technical Information Specialist) and Contract Linguists (on-going part-time positions available nationwide).

FBI CAREER FAIR LISTINGS AND LOCATION BY STATE

[vector7]

Deadly Pathogens May Have Gone Missing at Fort Detrick

By Nelson Hernandez and Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 22, 2009; 5:34 PM

Fort Detrick's infectious disease laboratory in Frederick, Md., is under investigation by the Army's Criminal Investigation Command for the possible disappearance of some of its stock of deadly pathogens, officials for the Army and the lab said today.

The investigation of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases is "in the final stages of its mandatory review process before being closed," said Christopher Grey, a spokesman for the criminal investigation division. The command "has found no evidence to date of any criminality related to the unaccounted-for items," he said.

Since last year, the investigators have been trying to discover what happened to three small vials of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus that were unaccounted for, according to Caree Vander Linden, a spokeswoman for the lab.

While the quantity of the missing virus sample was small, the investigation shows how seriously military authorities are taking a possible security breach at the Army's laboratory responsible for developing countermeasures to such potential biological agents as anthrax and Ebola.

The virus that causes Venezuelan equine encephalitis is mosquito-borne and usually causes a mild flu-like illness, but it can also cause brain inflammation and death. It has potential for use as a biological weapon but is far less lethal than some other agents that the lab works with.

Vander Linden said that when one scientist left the institute several years ago, he left his materials behind to a second scientist who left three years later. Last year, a successor took a thorough inventory of the samples and found three vials missing, triggering an investigation, she said. The vials were probably missing due to the failure of a freezer in which they were kept, which caused the batch to be destroyed, she said.

Vander Linden declined to name the scientists involved.

While one lead scientist has responsibility for a stock of biological material, many lab workers on that scientist's staff may have access to it, so Army investigators have questioned numerous people who worked at the lab over the years.

"We'll probably never know exactly what happened. It could be the freezer malfunction. It could be they never existed," said an Army official, referring to the three missing vials of Venezuelan equine encephalitis.

Army investigators talked to "literally hundreds of people" in their probe but apparently found no "criminality involved," the official said. The pathogens are used for medical research, not weapons research, the official said.

Alan Schmaljohn, a longtime scientist at the lab who is now a professor at the University of Maryland, said he had also been questioned two or three months ago as someone who once had access to the virus. The Frederick News-Post, which first reported the investigation, also cited two support staff members who said they had been questioned about missing samples of the virus.

"They caught me on my cellphone on the road, and I stopped and talked to them for quite a long time," Schmaljohn said in an interview. "She was just going down this whole list of questions, including, 'Did you take it?'"

Schmaljohn said he hadn't. He said the quantity of missing material was relatively small and easy to lose especially if one of the freezers fails, requiring a rearrangement of the vials.

"The number of vials is utterly meaningless," Schmaljohn said. "Three vials missing is no indication of any evildoing. . . . It's almost equivalent to saying you're missing 3 cents out of the national budget. . . .
"From the scientist's point of view, it is inconsequential, but from the regulator's point of view, it is an indication of sloppiness, and they are finally going to take rugged action."

The Fort Detrick lab has been under heavy pressure to tighten security since the 2001 anthrax attacks, which killed five people and sickened 17 others. FBI investigators believe the anthrax strain used in the attacks originated at the Army lab, and its prime suspect in the investigation, Bruce E. Ivins, researched anthrax there. Ivins committed suicide last year amid a probe into his activities.

The stricter security measures imposed since the anthrax attacks have been challenged by some scientists who say they slow down research and are ultimately ineffective.

The new rules force scientists to keep closer tabs on the quantity of biological materials than in past years, but keeping an inventory is harder than keeping track of nuclear or chemical materials because viruses and bacteria are constantly replicating and dying.

In February, a separate problem accounting for Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus triggered the suspension of most research at the lab. A spot check in January found 20 samples of the virus in a box of vials instead of the 16 that had been listed in the institute's database, Vander Linden said.

Most work was stopped until the institute could take an inventory of their entire stock of viruses and bacteria. She said the inventory was almost complete, and said some labs that had finished their checks had

[vector7]

Fort Detrick disease samples may be missing

Originally published April 22, 2009
By Justin M. Palk

News-Post Staff

Army criminal investigators are looking into the possibility that disease samples are missing from biolabs at Fort Detrick.As first reported in today's edition of The Frederick News-Post by columnist Katherine Heerbrandt, the investigators are from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division unit at Fort Meade.

Chad Jones, spokesman for Fort Meade, said CID is investigating the possibility of missing virus samples from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.

He said the only other detail he could provide is that the investigation is ongoing.

Fort Detrick does not have its own CID office, Jones said, which is why Fort Meade's CID was brought in.

Jones said he could not comment on when the investigation started.

CID is responsible for investigating crimes where the Army is, or may be, a party of interest, according to the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command website.

USAMRIID is the Army's top biodefense lab, where researchers study pathogens including Ebola, anthrax and plague.

In February, USAMRIID halted all its research into these and other diseases, known as "select agents" following the discovery of virus samples that weren't listed in its inventory.

The institute's commander, Col. John Skvorak, ordered research halted while workers conducted a complete inventory of the institute's select agents.

That inventory is nearly completed, though the exact end date isn't known yet, said Caree Vander Linden, USAMRIID spokeswoman.

Vander Linden said she didn't know about the CID investigation and referred questions to the CID's head public affairs office.

There is no indication whether the CID investigation is connected to USAMRIID's re-inventorying of its select agent stocks.

[vector7]

Army: 3 vials of virus samples missing from Maryland facility

From Larry Shaughnessy
CNN Pentagon Producer


Fort Detrick is the home of the Army's top biological research facility.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Missing vials of a potentially dangerous virus have prompted an Army investigation into the disappearance from a lab in Maryland.

The Army's Criminal Investigation Command agents have been visiting Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, to investigate the disappearance of the vials. Christopher Grey, spokesman for the command, said this latest investigation has found "no evidence of criminal activity."

The vials contained samples of Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis, a virus that sickens horses and can be spread to humans by mosquitoes. In 97 percent of cases, humans with the virus suffer flu-like symptoms, but it can be deadly in about 1 out of 100 cases, according to Caree Vander Linden, a spokeswoman for the Army's Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. There is an effective vaccine for the disease and there hasn't been an outbreak in the United States since 1971.

The vials had been at the research institute's facility at Fort Detrick, home of the Army's top biological research facility, for more than a decade. The three missing vials were among thousands of vials that were under the control of a senior scientist who retired in 2004. When another Fort Detrick scientist recently inventoried the retired scientist's biological samples, he discovered that the three vials of the virus were missing. The original scientist's records about his vials dated back to the days of paper-and-pen inventories.

During the investigation, the retired scientist and another former Fort Detrick researcher cooperated with investigating agents and, according to Vander Linden, they came back to the facility to help look for the vials.

Vander Linden said the investigators know that several years ago an entire freezer full of biological samples broke down and all the samples had to be safely destroyed. But a complete inventory of what was in the freezer was not done before the samples were destroyed. Vander Linden said there's a "strong possibility" the vials were in that freezer and destroyed, but that isn't known for sure.

This investigation comes two months after all research at the research institute facility at Fort Detrick was halted for a complete computer-based inventory of all disease samples at the fort. That inventory is expected to be complete before summer and may help solve the mystery of the three missing vials, officials said.

The Army investigation is in its final stages and is expected to be closed soon.

[Beetle]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/poli...anamo_bay.html

Exclusive
Several Guantanamo Bay detainees to be released in Washington, D.C., suburbs, say sources

By James Gordon Meek
Daily News WASHINGTON BUREAU
Updated Thursday, May 7th 2009, 4:04 PM


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/05/07/2009-05-07_several_guantanamo_bay.html#ixzz0EwHNCMP6&B

A large federal security operation is in place to keep tabs on several Guantanamo Bay inmates who may soon be released in Virginia, the Daily News has learned.
A half-dozen ethnic Chinese detainees known as Uyghurs will be flown by marshals from the U.S. naval base in Cuba to live in the Washington suburbs if lingering legal, logistical and political problems are ironed out, government officials said Thursday.
Some lawmakers and counter-terror officials worry about terrorists living next door. Northern Virginia was chosen because it has an Uyghur Muslim community that could help the ex-prisoners adjust.
"The potential release into the U.S. ... takes us into uncharted waters," a counterterror official told The News.
The Uyghurs were trained at an Afghan camp before 9/11, though the "widespread belief" is they were focused on fighting the Communist Chinese, not attacking America, the official said.
"That said, when you're dealing with people who trained in and participated in violent activities - people who've associated with Al Qaeda - security is obviously a concern and something the government is looking at carefully," the U.S. official added.
Most of the Uyghurs cleared for release, though considered the "least dangerous" of 17 still at Gitmo, were suspected operatives of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. The Treasury Department lists its leader, Abdul Haq, as a member of Osama Bin Laden's Shura Council - Al Qaeda's board of directors.
"It's unsettling," said a second counterterror official.
The alleged Al Qaeda ties - which the Uyghurs' lawyers dispute - have alarmed GOP Reps. Frank Wolf, who represents the Virginia district where the Uyghurs will likely be resettled, and Pete King of Long Island, a Homeland Security Committee member.
Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said the government "has no announcements" about any Gitmo detainees.
A "comprehensive" surveillance watch by FBI and Homeland Security agents will be activated once the Uyghurs arrive, four officials confirmed.
There is no set release date, but agencies are prepared to begin monitoring the Uyghurs any time President Obama green-lights their transfer, sources said.
jmeek@nydailynews.com

[Jag]

http://www.wral.com/news/national_wo...story/5742951/


6 suspects in NC terror case moved to Va. jail


Posted: Today at 2:22 p.m.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Six of the seven North Carolina terrorism suspects have been transferred to a jail in Virginia.

Federal authorities said Thursday that the six are now being held at a jail in Farmville, Va. Deputy U.S. Marshal Bryan Konig wouldn't say when or why they were transferred.

He says the Marshal's Service has a contract with the jail to house federal prisoners.

U.S. Magistrate Judge William Webb had ordered the six to remain in custody until their trial, saying they are flight risks because they had contacts in foreign countries. But he also questioned the strength of the prosecutors' case.

The detention hearing for the seventh suspect will be held Monday. The men were charged last week with plotting attacks in a foreign country.

Jag

[vector7]

U.S. police alerted about bomb makers after NY raids

Tue Sep 15, 2009 5:50pm EDT

By Edith Honan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal anti-terrorism officials alerted local police departments around the United States about how to track evidence of bomb-making after authorities raided New York homes on Monday in an apparent search for homemade explosives.

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security advised the police to look for burn marks typically found on suspects of a particular kind of bomb-making. The note was issued following searches of at least three apartments where a man suspected of sympathizing with al Qaeda had visited.

A U.S. Justice Department spokesman said on Tuesday the advisory was a direct result of Monday's raids, carried out by a joint anti-terrorism task force that included New York police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Authorities declined to say whether anyone was arrested.

The raids rattled people in Queens, the ethnically diverse borough across the East River from Manhattan, and reminded New Yorkers their city remains a target eight years after the September 11 attacks.

"We believe it is prudent to share information with our state and local partners about the variety of domestically available materials that could be used to create homemade explosives," the federal agencies said in a statement.

New York police and the FBI have provided few details about the raids. Witnesses described an operation in which dozens of heavily armed FBI agents arrived in a phalanx of unmarked vehicles and stormed the building in the early morning.

A federal law enforcement official said three search warrants had been executed.

Members of Congress briefed by the FBI said there was no imminent danger. Charles Schumer, a U.S. Senator from New York who was among those briefed, said the action was "preventive."

"In the absence of any information, it is understandable that people are anxious," New York City Councilman John Liu, who represents the neighborhood where the raids took place, said in a statement. "People are fully cooperating with the authorities."

(Editing by Daniel Trotta and Philip Barbara)

[Beetle]

Exclusive: FBI Raids Denver Home of Terror Suspect

FBI agents have raided the suburban Denver home of the man authorities say is at the center of an alleged al Qaeda plot to carry out attacks in New York.

The agents arrived at the home of 24-year old Najibullah Zazi late this afternoon. One of the agents told ABC News the squad was carrying out a search warrant but declined to comment further.
ABC News has learned that FBI agents in Denver served a search warrant at a second home this afternoon, also located in the suburb of Aurora.
Records show that the home is occupied by Rabia Zazi, the aunt of Najibullah Zazi. FBI Special Agent Kathy Wright would not comment on details of the investigation, but confirmed that the two locations were the only ones searched today."
Watch Brian Ross' report tonight on "World News with Charles Gibson" at 6:30pm.
Zazi's travels to New York last weekend triggered a round of highly publicized raids in the New York area. Authorities told members of Congress the raids had helped to disrupt a plot to carry out a major attack on New York.

Law enforcement officials tell ABC News that agents discovered 14 brand new black backpacks in the New York raids, leading to concern the men may have been planning to use the backpacks to carry suicide bombs.
The men responsible for the attacks on the London subways and the Madrid commuter rail system used backpacks to carry their homemade explosives.
Authorities say Zazi brought with him instructions on how to build a bomb using household chemicals.
Zazi denied to ABC News Tuesday that he had any connections to al Qaeda and said the FBI "got it wrong."

"I have nothing to do with al Qaeda," Najibullah Zazi told ABC News' Denver affiliate. "Any link or anything with al Qaeda."

His attorney, Arthur Folsom, said he planned to take Zazi to the FBI office in Denver today or tomorrow "to remove this dark cloud hanging over him."
Zazi, an Afghan emigree who has lived legally in the United States since 1999, emerged at the center of the case Monday after FBI agents and New York police carried out raids on three apartments in New York where Zazi visited over the weekend.
No charges have been filed, but law enforcement officials told members of Congress they suspected Zazi and the plot were directly connected to al Qaeda, and that Zazi had frequently traveled to Pakistan.


http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/allege...ory?id=8591476

[MinutemanCO]

That's interesting. I work in Aurora, Colorado... for what it's worth. Seems strange to me, and maybe I don't fully understand asymetric warfare, but why would they plan a NYC terrorist attack from Denver? Wouldn't realtime data be important to their op? Is it possible the target might be in the Denver metro area? About a mile from my office is Buckley AFB, home of Space Command, satellites and such.

I guess I'll keep my eyes peeled.

[vector7]

Obama-Netanyahu meeting starts on backdrop of terror alert in New York

Published: 09.22.09, 18:12 / Israel News

The meeting between US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under way at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Following this meeting, Obama will meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. In another hour, a trilateral meeting will be held between the three leaders.

Media in the US have reported that there has been an alert for a potential terrorist attack aimed at the UN General Assembly. (Roni Sofer in New York and Yitzhak Benhorin in Washington)

[vector7]

Britain, America and Canada: Immigration Has Created Home-Grown Islamist Terrorists

The weekend arrests of a Mumbai terror attack suspect who hid in Britain, three Afghan ‘refugees’ in America, and the guilty plea of yet another Islamist in Canada, have highlighted the growing security problem which mass Third World immigration poses to all First World nations. In the first of the three dramatic arrests over the past three days, Birmingham-based Mumbai terror suspect Raheel Shaikh was finally found by police after initially having gone to ground amongst that city’s large Muslim population. Shaikh was able to hide amongst his co-religionists in Birmingham until December last year, when he apparently managed to slip out of the country and travel to India.

Police say he was instrumental in helping plot the massacre in Mumbai where Islamist terrorists attacked tourist hotels. Before the attack, in which 170 people were killed, the Islamists were told to specifically “target white people,” the only surviving gunman told police interrogators.

Shaikh, who has also been to a 2006 train bombing in India that killed 209 people, has now finally been arrested in India. The worrying aspect is that he was able to hide so long in Birmingham, where, it would be presumed, policing and surveillance methods would be higher than in India.

In America, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested three ‘refugees’ from Afghanistan in connection with a terrorist investigation. Federal authorities in Colorado arrested Najibullah Zazi, 24, and his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, the Justice Department said. The third man, Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, was apprehended in New York.

The FBI is investigating other individuals in the US, Pakistan and elsewhere relating to a plot “to detonate improvised explosive devices” in the US, according to affidavits.

The younger Zazi was found to have a mobile phone video of Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Federal agents searched Najibullah Zazi’s rental car on 11 September near a residence in Flushing, New York, and found a laptop computer containing an image of nine pages of handwritten notes.

The notes “contain formulations and instructions regarding the manufacture and handling of initiating explosives, main explosives charges, explosives detonators and components of a fusing system,” according to an FBI affidavit filed in connection with Najibullah Zazi’s arrest. He later admitted to authorities that during a trip to Pakistan last year he received training in the use of weapons and explosives at an al-Qaeda facility.

* Meanwhile, in Canada, another suspect in the “Toronto 18″ terrorism case yesterday pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge.

Islamist Ali Dirie pleaded guilty to one count of participating in a terrorist group after he was charged with being a peripheral player in a plot that targeted southern Ontario landmarks.

Dirie had been arrested and convicted of a gunrunning charge before the training camp and bomb plot in which other suspects are accused of participating. He still faces a charge involving smuggling a handgun across the Canada–US border.

Dirie is the second adult to plead guilty in as many months in the Toronto terrorism conspiracy that sparked the high-profile arrests of Islamists across the city.

After a surprise guilty plea last month, confessed bomb-plotter Saad Khalid was sentenced early this month to 14 years in prison after admitting he was part of a scheme to explode truck bombs in downtown Toronto. Khalid was caught unloading boxes marked “ammonium nitrate” from the back of a truck.

In what was considered the first successful conviction on Canada’s 2001 anti-terrorism laws, another Islamist was found guilty a year ago of attending a makeshift terrorism training camp north of Toronto. A further eight adults arrested in the case will face trial in the new year.

The only way the worldwide Islamist terrorist threat can be combated is by halting and reversing Third World immigration. The Islamist threat will remain present as long as the West allows Islamists to immigrate into European nations.

[American Patriot]

That's interesting. I work in Aurora, Colorado... for what it's worth. Seems strange to me, and maybe I don't fully understand asymetric warfare, but why would they plan a NYC terrorist attack from Denver? Wouldn't realtime data be important to their op? Is it possible the target might be in the Denver metro area? About a mile from my office is Buckley AFB, home of Space Command, satellites and such.

I guess I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Why have the "leader" sitting close to the target site? After all, he will want to be available LATER to tell folks how things went, and to plan another, better, bigger, more media-visible attack.

No comment on the rest of that stuff.

[Beetle]

Guantanamo court "a headless chicken": lawyer

By Jane Sutton

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - The Guantanamo war crimes court has become "a headless chicken" that still operates under the old rules even as the Obama administration issues new ones, the lawyer for an accused Saudi boat-bomb plotter said on Wednesday.
U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged to shut down the Guantanamo detention camp for terrorism suspects by January 22, and his administration has said it will decide by November 16 whether to move the 10 pending prosecutions into the regular U.S. courts or try them in revised tribunals.

The Obama administration also is pushing legislation in Congress that would stop the military tribunals from using evidence obtained through brutality.

But a military judge in Guantanamo refused on Wednesday to drop the charges against Saudi prisoner Ahmed al Darbi, a case that defense lawyer Ramzi Kassem said was built on confessions obtained through torture.
"Either the Obama administration is duplicitously saying one thing to the public and the media and doing another here or, you know, Guantanamo and the military commissions are like a headless chicken that just keeps on moving after it's been decapitated," Kassem told journalists after the hearing.

The chief prosecutor, Navy Captain John Murphy, called the comparison unfair and said, "Our mission is to operate under the current law."
Torture-derived evidence is banned but the current law permits the use of coerced statements in some cases. The judge, Army Colonel Jim Pohl, scheduled a January hearing to decide whether 119 statements al Darbi gave interrogators can be used at his trial -- if his trial goes forward.
Obama first asked the military to freeze the Guantanamo trials in January, then his administration sought further delays through mid-November to decide whether and how to continue with the prosecutions.

Despite the freeze, military judges have convened three tribunal sessions to try to resolve pretrial motions, and more are planned in October. They say that does not violate Obama's order since they are not holding trials or filing new charges.

DEFENSE ALLEGES TORTURE

Al Darbi, 34, is charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism, and he faces life in prison if convicted.

The charges allege he bought a boat and global positioning devices and shopped for crewmen as part of an unrealized plot to ram an explosives-laden boat into an unidentified ship in the Strait of Hormuz. He is also accused of teaching at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and meeting Osama bin Laden there.

Al Darbi has said his boat was used only to ferry sheep across the strait. The defense says the case rests on confessions al Darbi gave after U.S. troops strung him up by his arms, beat him, blasted loud music at him, deprived him of sleep and threatened to rape him while he was held at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

Prosecutor Frank Rangoussis said there is ample evidence beyond al Darbi's own words, including corroborating witnesses, but he did not elaborate.

Al Darbi was captured in Azerbaijan in 2002 and has been held at Guantanamo since 2003. Continued...

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNe...BrandChannel=0

[vector7]

FBI: Man Planned to Bomb Dallas Building

Published : Thursday, 24 Sep 2009, 5:32 PM CDT



DALLAS - Dallas FBI agents arrested a Jordanian citizen Thursday afternoon for attempting to bomb a skyscraper in Downtown Dallas.

According to the bureau, 19-year-old Mosam Maher Husein Smadi was arrested and charged for attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Smadi had been under continuous FBI surveillance and was arrested after he allegedly placed an inactive car bomb near Fountain Place, a 60-story glass office tower located at 1445 Ross Avenue, the FBI said.

According to a press release, Smadi is in the United States illegally, living and working in Italy, Texas.

Undercover agents posing as members of an al-Qaida sleeper cell were introduced to him and they said he made clear his intention to serve as a soldier for Osama Bin Ladin and al-Qaida. He told them he came to the country specifically to comit "violent Jihad against those he deemed to be enemies of Islam."

"He has repeatedly espoused his desire to commit violent Jihad and has been the focus of an undercover FBI investigation," the release states.

The arrest is not related to recent events in Colorado, New York or Springfield, according to FBI. Investigations determined he was not associated with other terrorist organizations.

"The highest priority of the FBI and the Department of Justice remains the prevention of another terrorist attack within the United States," said James T. Jacks, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. "In that effort, it is the job of the FBI to locate and identify individuals intent upon carrying out any type of attack upon this country and its citizens/residents."

If convicted, Smadi faces up to life in prison.


Stay tuned to FOX 4 News and myFOXdfw.com for more details about this story as they become available.