Feds Investigate Failed Attempt To Rent Truck In NY Terror Probe
September 19, 2009 by national
Filed under Incident Reports
The New York Daily News reports today that investigators are looking into a failed attempt to rent a truck at a Queens truck rental, for ties to a possible Al Qaeda bomb plot.
The New York end of the expanding federal probe centered on seven Afghan men who tried to rent the biggest truck at a Queens U-Haul on Sept. 9, sources told the Daily News.The size of the vehicle involved, a 26-foot-long truck, suggested the conspirators may have wanted to pack it with explosives, sources said.
[..]
The truck rental bid failed when none of the men could produce a valid credit card. All refused to surrender the identification needed to pay cash, the manager of the Flushing U-Haul said.
A team of FBI agents spent 10 hours Thursday combing through the Queens truck rental business. “We all feel very lucky right now,” U-Haul manager Robert Larson told The News.
[...]
“None of them looked suspicious,” Larson said. “They looked like laborers. Not clean-cut guys, but your average Joe’s.”
Read Full Article at new York Daily Times
FBI Raids Travel Agency to Investigate Missing Somalis
August 9, 2009 by national
Filed under Incident Reports
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation searched the office of a Minnesota travel agency this week for clues to the disappearance of 20 Somali-American men believed to be fighting in Somalia’s civil war.
Omar Jamal, spokesman for the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, says the owner of Amana Travel was approached several months ago by two young men who wanted to travel to Somalia. Jamal says the owner, Ali Mohamud, refused to book the tickets when he learned the young men’s parents were unaware of their plans.
But about 20 Somali-American men from the Minnesota area, including those two young men, have disappeared in the last two years. They are believed to be in Somalia fighting with the Islamist militant group al-Shabab against the Somali government and its allies.
The U.S. considers al-Shabab a terrorist group.
