Charges Against Others Due in NYC Terror Case

In his guilty plea to conspiracy charges, Najibullah Zazi often referred to other unnamed people in their plan to set off explosives on the New York subway system. Yet thus far, federal authorities have revealed virtually nothing about who, exactly, Mr. Zazi was conspiring with.

That may change on Thursday, when two former high school classmates of Mr. Zazi’s are scheduled to appear in United States District Court in Brooklyn.

The two classmates, Adis Medunjanin, 25, and Zarein Ahmedzay, 24, face charges related to traveling with Mr. Zazi to Pakistan, where Mr. Zazi received training from Al Qaeda. In a court filing, prosecutors wrote that Mr. Medunjanin’s case “involved the same specific conduct” as Mr. Zazi’s. Prosecutors in the case have said in court that additional charges are likely, and Mr. Zazi’s cooperation as part of his sealed plea agreement practically ensures that his co-conspirators will face more serious charges.

Read Full Article – NYTimes.com.

News Outlets Request Terror Plea Agreement Be Unsealed

The Associated Press and Newsday are asking a federal judge to make public a plea agreement between prosecutors and a man who says he was plotting to attack New York subways.

The news organizations argued in court papers that the public has a right to see the documents unless there’s an overriding reason to seal them.

Najibullah Zazi pled guilty earlier this week to terrorism charges and admitted plotting to bomb the New York City subways.

Source

White House Considers Moving 9/11 Terror Trial

In a surprising turn of events, The New York Daily News reports The White House has ordered the Justice Department Thursday night to consider other places to try the 9/11 terror suspects after a wave of opposition to holding the trial in lower Manhattan.

The dramatic turnabout came hours after Mayor Bloomberg said he would “prefer that they did it elsewhere” and then spoke to Attorney General Eric Holder.

“It would be an inconvenience at the least, and probably that's too mild a word for people that live in the neighborhood and businesses in the neighborhood,” Bloomberg told reporters.

“There are places that would be less expensive for the taxpayers and less disruptive for New York City.”

State and city leaders have increasingly railed against a plan to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Manhattan federal court since Holder proposed it last month.

Sen. Chuck Schumer said he was “pleased” that the administration is reconsidering the location of the trial.

via White House asks Justice Department to look for other places to hold 9/11 terror trial.

Where America Stands, Terrorism – CBS News

In its “Where America Stands” series, CBS News looks at a broad spectrum of issues facing this country in the new decade.

For more than a decade, Americans have been living in what’s being called the Age of Terror.

From Africa in 1998, to New York and Washington in 2001, to the skies over Detroit in 2009 – the report card is grim.
CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan reports between 1998 and 2001, al Qaeda struck U.S. and western targets just four times. Three countries were hit. A total of 248 were killed.

Then came 9/11, and those figures skyrocketed: 144 attacks in 8 years by al Qaeda or its affiliates. Twenty-four countries were hit. Including the World Trade Center, more than 4,300 people were killed.

Al Qaeda’s main area of operations has expanded beyond Afghanistan. It now has substantial bases in Yemen, Iraq, Algeria, Somalia, and Kenya.

Homegrown terrorism is also on the rise. From Boston to Dallas, to New York City, 44 plots have been uncovered in the U.S. since 9/11. Twelve of those in the last year alone.

The problem for the U.S. is personified in radical recruiters like Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed. He’s the spiritual leader of an extremist group that’s just been banned in the U.K – notorious for glorifying 9/11 and sending their members to militant training camps in Afghanistan. Bakri fled the U.K. in 2005, and CBS News found him in northern Lebanon, still glamorizing terror and glorifying Osama Bin Laden.

Read Full Article – Watch Video.

Two Held With Fake Papers At Airport, One Flees

India In a story we’ll be keeping an eye on The Times of India reports that hours before Indian intelligence agencies put all flights operating from India on a high alert against possible hijack attempts, two Sri Lankan nationals one flying to New York and the other to London were arrested by immigration officials at the Kochi airport on Thursday for carrying forged Indian passports and travel documents.

The two Sri Lankan nationals were being assisted by two employees of a private multinational ground-handling company. One of the employees fled the scene when the passengers were caught according to the report.

via Source.

Would You Want al Qaeda In Your Backyard?

Interesting questions. Would you want Khalid Sheikh Mohammed living in your backyard? How about the accused mastermind of 9/11 and his four alleged cohorts spending their time just yards from your back door?

That, essentially, is what the residents of the New York City apartment building Chatham Towers face. Their 240 apartments are just yards from the Federal Courthouse in lower Manhattan where the Obama administration plans to try the terror suspects in civilian court. In fact, by my measurement, the corner of the courthouse at one point is a mere 30 feet from the corner of the apartment complex. The buildings are so close, you can look right into the windows of the courthouse “and see them eating lunch,” as one resident put it.

The people who live here are outraged at the White House decision and are urging the administration to move the trials.

“People’s lives are going to be altered, this is going to be a federal armed camp,” resident Jeanie Chin told Fox News. “I hope that President Obama will reconsider when he understands that densely packed residential buildings surround the court.”

Fox News visited a couple of apartments and we could clearly see the goings on inside the courthouse with the naked eye. The windows are so close, that we could view whom we presumed to be Assistant United States Attorneys going about their work on federal criminal cases, administrative assistants using the copying machine, and people working on their desktop computers and drinking coffee. We could also view lawyers and others in what appears to be a federal courtroom. At one point, people inside a courthouse office even waved back.

via Read Full Article.

JFK Terminal Being Evacuated After Security Breach

WCBSTV reports officials are evacuating a terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City because of a security breach.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman Steve Coleman says travelers at Kennedy’s Terminal 8 are being asked to leave and will be re-screened. Coleman didn’t describe the breach.

The breach appears to be an unauthorized entrance, though there has not yet been any speculation on any criminality involved.

Terminal 8 is primarily an American Airlines terminal.

via JFK Terminal Being Evacuated After Security Breach – Source.

Lady Al Qaeda Aafia Siddiqui Removed From Courtroom

A jury was chosen Thursday in the “Lady Al Qaeda” trial, but not before the defendant interrupted the process with more outbursts and was tossed from the courtroom.

A day after she demanded Jews be excluded from the jury, Aafia Siddiqui went to deliver more rants about Jews and the 9/11 terror attacks.

“I have nothing to do with 9/11,” she said when a potential juror who cited her personal experience on Sept. 11 was dismissed.

Siddiqui is on trial in Manhattan federal court for attempted murder.

She was arrested by Afghan police after being caught in July 2008 with two pounds of sodium cyanide, a list of New York targets, and instructions for chemical and biological weapons, prosecutors say.

When an American team tried to question her, she allegedly grabbed an unsecured M-4 rifle and opened fire.

Siddiqui has repeatedly said she is boycotting her own trial and has attempted to make her case directly to prospective jurors and the judge.

via ‘Lady Al Qaeda’ trial: Suspected terrorist Aafia Siddiqui tossed from courtroom after outburst.

6.5 Earthquake Off Coast of Northern California

A 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck off the Northern coast of California, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Watch “Live” news stream via our Intellispace Twitterfeed or Listen via Emergency Scanner Feed

The quake hit at 4:27 p.m. and occurred about 15 miles southwest of Eureka.

The quake prompted power outages, and there were some injuries and damage, but no reports of fatalities so far. Local hospitals are creating a triage to treat the most injured victims.

According to Eureka Fire Chief Eric Smith, one home collapsed off its foundation and there were multiple water main breaks. Smith said even though there are many quakes in this area, this one was more traumatic because of the effects.

Power is out in at least one neighborhood in the Eureka area.

The depth was 10.2 miles.

The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said there is no risk of a tsunami.

Developing…

Source

Associate of Terror Suspect Crashes Car While Followed by FBI

NBCNews New York reports on it’s website that an associate of terror suspect Najibullah Zazi crashed his car Thursday while being followed by the FBI.

Earlier in the day, the FBI again searched the residence of Bosnian immigrant Adis Medunjanin in connection with the ongoing investigation.

Law enforcement sources said that after the search Medunjanin drove off in a car on the Whitestone Expressway and got into an accident with the FBI following close behind.

Prior to the crash, sources say, Medunjanin had called 911 and made a rambling statement.

Read full article  via NBC New York.

According to the new York Times, the FBI had seized Medunjanin’s passport shortly before the accident.

F.B.I. agents on Thursday seized the passport of a Queens man who came under intense scrutiny last year during the investigation of an airport shuttle bus driver who was charged in a Qaeda bomb plot, law enforcement officials and the man’s lawyer said.

About an hour later, a bizarre tableau unfolded as the man, Adis Medunjanin, 25, who was under surveillance by the F.B.I., was involved in a traffic accident while driving near the Whitestone Bridge, perhaps flustered by the surveillance or in an attempt to avoid it, one law enforcement official said. He tried to flee the scene, several people briefed on the matter said, but was captured by the investigators who were following him and later treated for minor injuries at a Queens hospital.

Read Full Article

FBI: Man Detained After Firecracker Found On Plane

A passenger who flew into LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night was questioned by FBI agents after allegedly boarding the flight with an explosive device in his possession, CBS 2 has learned.

Officials confirmed Monday that a crew member on board Piedmont Airlines flight 4126 was cleaning the plane after it landed in New York around 7:30 p.m. when he found a large firecracker-like device wedged between two seats. Port Authority officials contacted FBI agents, and the passenger from that seat location, identified as 67-year-old Thomas Ouelette, of Bonita Springs, Fla., was tracked down and taken into custody.

Ouelette was planning on taking a connecting flight to Fort Myers, Fla. from New York.

Authorities did not release details on the kind of device discovered other than saying it was a 4-inch-long, three-quarter-inch-wide explosive pyrotechnic.

Read Full Article

Islamberg – Town in N.Y. Founded by Alleged Terrorist

If you didn’t know where to look, you’d probably never find Islamberg, a private Muslim community in the woods of the western Catskills, 150 miles northwest of New York City.

The town, sitting on a quiet dirt road past a gate marked with No Trespassing signs, is home to an estimated 100 residents. There are small houses and other buildings visible from the outside, but it is what can’t be seen from beyond the gate that has some watchers worried.

Islamberg was founded in 1980 by Sheikh Syed Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani, a Pakistani cleric who purchased a 70-acre plot and invited followers, mostly Muslim converts living in New York City, to settle there.

The town has its own mosque, grocery store and schoolhouse. It also reportedly has a firing range where residents take regular target practice. Gilani established similar rural enclaves across the country — at least six, including the Red House community in southern Virginia — though some believe there are dozens of them, all operating under the umbrella of the “Muslims of the Americas” group founded by Gilani.

Federal authorities say Gilani was also one of the founders of Jamaat al-Fuqra, a terrorist organization believed responsible for dozens of bombings and murders across the U.S. and abroad. The group was linked to the planning of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and 10 years earlier a member was arrested and later convicted for bombing a hotel in Portland, Ore.

Read Full Article

Suspect In Alleged NY Terror Plot Released In Lebanon

A Lebanese man arrested three years ago on terrorism charges for allegedly plotting to blow up New York City commuter tunnels has been released on bail, Lebanese officials said Tuesday.

The case was said to have been an al-Qaida plot involving Assem Hammoud and seven other people.

Hammoud was arrested in April 2006 in Lebanon. The FBI said the plotters planned to bomb and flood Hudson River train tunnels that carry tens of thousands of commuters between New York and New Jersey.

U.S. federal officials said the eight suspects — including Hammoud and two others in custody elsewhere — had hoped to pull off the attack in October or November 2006.

After Hammoud’s arrest, Lebanese authorities said they found maps and bombing plans on his personal computer, that he confessed to the plot and swore allegiance to al-Qaida.

Following a trial before the military court last year Hammoud was released on a bail of 1 million Lebanese pounds ($667) pending a verdict, the judiciary officials said.

via Source

Terrorist in New York City Bombing Plot Released

A Black September terrorist who served only about half his 30-year sentence for planting three car bombs in New York City in 1973 was deported Thursday, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

It was unclear which country had agreed to accept the 63-year-old Khalid Al-Jawary. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the deportation, didn’t immediately know where Al-Jawary was going.

Al-Jawary was convicted in federal court of placing the bombs in 1973 that could have killed and injured hundreds if they had detonated. They were timed to coincide with the arrival of then-Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.

Al-Jawary was captured in 1991 and sentenced in 1993 to 30 years but received credit for good behavior and time served.

He was released last week from the Supermax maximum-security prison in Florence, Colo., and was held by immigration officials in Denver until his deportation.

Source

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