Foiling the Next 9/11 and Not Even Knowing It

The United States may have narrowly missed a repeat of the 9/11 attacks in June and, apparently, even the FBI doesn’t realize it.

On June 4, a 24-year-old Muslim man named Raed Abdhul-Rahman Alsaif was arrested for trying to bring a seven-inch knife on board a U.S. Airways flight at Tampa International Airport, destined for Phoenix.

The blade was seen by a screener and Alsaif was caught before he could get onto the airliner. Of course, he says he is innocent, as some forgetful friend gave him the luggage bag and failed to mention that a knife was embedded inside the material, which the criminal complaint states was “artfully” concealed in such a way as to allow for it to be retrieved once the flight took off.

Alsaif graduated from the Islamic Saudi Academy in Virginia in 2003. For those that don’t remember, this school has been embroiled in a little bit of controversy the past two years. In October 2007, the U.S. Commission on International Religion Freedom requested that the State Department close the school, citing the use of textbooks filled with extremism

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Private investigator Bill Warner notes that when Alsaif was booked and photographed by police in October on his second arrest on drug charges, he had a beard — a beard that was shaven off before he attempted to board the U.S. Airways flight. For those that think this is all attributable to coincidence, there’s another key element to consider.

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Planned Racial Violence Spurs Lockdown By Sherriff Arpaio

Ten thousand inmates in Maricopa County jails were placed on lockdown after authorities got word of a planned race riot.

The lockdown means visitation, phone calls and nonessential movement will be restricted and SWAT teams will be on standby, according to Lt. Brian Lee, sheriff’s spokesman.

Inmates will be allowed out of their cells for court appearances only.

Lee said in a press release that the planned riot was spurred by the inmates’ dislike of sharing cells with people of other races.

The lockdown will continue until tensions subside.

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Arizona Police Seize 2,118 lbs. of Marijuana from Cloned UPS Truck

We’ve mentioned the dangers of cloned vehicles and their potential for being used in a terror attack numerous times on this site. ( see Security Officials On The Lookout For Cloned Emergency Vehicles ). Although this truck was used for drug smuggling, it could just as easily been used for even more nefarious purposes. For this reason, we continue to encourage you to immediately report any type of suspicious activity regardless of how ‘authentic’ the vehicles, uniforms, people, etc… appear.

Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) Detectives assigned to the Pima County Counter Narcotics Alliance (CNA) conducted an investigation which resulted in the seizure of about 2,118 pounds of marijuana from a cloned United Parcel Service (UPS) truck.

When a DPS officer and narcotics canine attempted to stop the truck, a suspect fled from the vehicle. A search of the truck found bundles of marijuana which were attached to burlap straps that human drug carriers known as “mules” use to carry the loads through the desert.

The suspects painted the truck to look similar to a UPS vehicle and attached reflective yellow decals as an authorized UPS truck would appear. The truck displayed a homemade Arizona license plate and the number was assigned to an actual UPS truck in Phoenix that services the Tucson area.

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Smoke Bomb Goes Off in Phoenix Hotel – Weapons Found

This is an incident report and there is no information indicating that it is terrorism related. Additional details will be provided as they become available.

Update: Reports indicate the smoke bomb was military grade. Very little other information is being released.

Guests were evacuated Sunday night when a smoke bomb went off on the fourth floor of the Hilton Garden Inn, 1940 W. Pinnacle Peak Road in northwest Phoenix.

Officials found other weapons in the room where the bomb detonated, including guns and bullets, said Frank Salomon, deputy chief of public affairs for the Phoenix Fire Department.

Officials are still investigating who if anyone was in the room. The hotel evacuated about 35 rooms, containing roughly 60 people including guests and staff, said Salomon.

Phoenix Fire Department crews were on the scene. The call came in at about 7 p.m.

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Recent Arizona Incidents Get FBI’s Attention

The FBI has sharpened its scrutiny of some Phoenix-area Muslim leaders because of their links to two controversial incidents and a federal probe into the financing of terrorist groups.

No Arizonan has been accused of supporting terrorist groups or actions. However, a Mesa man was charged with lying to the FBI during the financing investigation.

The events that triggered the stepped-up scrutiny were the federal probe into a Muslim charity accused of funneling money to the Palestinian group Hamas; a target-shooting episode in Phoenix this year involving a large group of Muslim men and boys firing hundreds of rounds from AK-47s and other guns; and the high-profile removal in 2006 of six Arizona-bound imams from a jetliner after passengers and crew complained of their behavior.

Shooting Incident

Shortly before noon on a sunny Sunday in March, two Toyota SUVs rolled to a stop along a dirt road in north Phoenix.

About 20 young Muslim males climbed out, armed with assault rifles, a shotgun, a sniper rifle and handguns. The location near Happy Valley Road and 51st Avenue is a desert recreation site for off-road motorists, hikers and bikers, dozens of whom were enjoying the spring-like weather.

For more than an hour, the shooters blasted away at a granite rock and empty cans in front of a hill.

Officials estimate the fusillade totaled 500 to 1,000 rounds. Some shooters left before police arrived and detained 10 adults and five boys, including an 11-year-old.

The young men and boys told officers the weapons belonged to their parents. They said they were not aware it was illegal to use firearms in the residential area.

Six were arrested and charged with felony weapons violations in Maricopa County Superior Court. Among them were the 20- and 21-year-old sons of two imams at Phoenix-area mosques, as well as the 20-year-old son of Abdallah.

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The Abdallah case

The FBI’s scrutiny of Abdallah came to light in January 2007, when agents raided his Mesa house and loaded what a neighbor said was two vans full of evidence.

Court records show that Abdallah, a 54-year-old Palestinian, denied during interrogation that he had been a fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation during the 1990s, when the Islamic charity could still legally receive donations.

At the time of the raid, federal investigators were pursuing a criminal case against the foundation based on allegations that it had channeled money to Palestinian terrorists. The organization had been banned after the 9/11 attacks.

The Abdallah case points to the FBI’s continued interest in Arizonans who have raised money for any charity suspected of supporting militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

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