By JOHN MAZOR and MURRAY WEISS

BUMMER CAMP: Authorities cite connections between a secretive
upstate camp called Islamberg and Pakistani cleric Mubarak Ali

June 4, 2007 -- A remote Muslim commune nestled in the Catskill Mountains has come under the scrutiny of state and federal authorities for possible ties to terrorism, according to law-enforcement sources.

Officials say Islamberg - a wooded, 70-acre encampment in upstate Tompkins, about three hours north of the city - acts as the headquarters for an outfit called Muslims of the Americas, widely believed to be a front for Jamaat al-Fuqra, founded by radical Pakistani cleric Mubarak Ali Gilani.

Reports of gunfire and military-style physical training at the camp have led some investigators to believe that the group's members are preparing for homegrown jihad.

According to one account, a neighbor said he has seen commune members dressed in Port Authority uniforms.

Al-Fuqra members have been suspects in assassinations and firebombings in the United States, authorities said, and an associate of the group, Rodney Hampton-el, was jailed in 1996 for plotting to bomb New York bridges and tunnels.

Gilani is the extremist who Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was reportedly trying to meet in Pakistan when he was abducted and beheaded.

Gilani started the organization in 1980, when he came to America and began preaching at a Brooklyn mosque.

After Gilani returned to Pakistan, the American group he started entrenched itself in a number of rural outposts, according to authorities.

The feds have alleged that some group members have been sent to Pakistan and Afghanistan to receive terrorist training.

One Islamberg resident denied the charge.

"This is my country," the resident said. "I love this country. I did a year in the bush in Vietnam for this country."

The resident, who wouldn't give his name, was wearing traditional Islamic garb when he intercepted a Post reporter seeking a tour of the camp.

The camp, which sits off a dirt road, appears to be little more than a collection of ramshackle homes and trailers.

The resident admitted that Gilani was the spiritual head of Muslims of the Americas but denied the existence of al-Fuqra.

The resident called Gilani "a reformer."

"But some people don't reform," he said. "They do a lot of foolishness in [Gilani's] name."

Asked whether commune members kept weapons at the camp, the resident said, "We got guns up here just like everyone else got guns. We're American citizens."

john.mazor@nypost.com

All Credit to THE NEW YORK POST at: http://www.nypost.com/seven/06042007/news/regionalnews/catskills_site_eyed_regionalnews_john_mazor_and_murray_weiss.htm

Table 1. Potential Terrorist Events (Combination of Site and Mode of Attack) in Charlotte County Ranked by Terrorist Alert Score Site Mode Terrorist Alert Score Mall Biological 4.12 Festival Suicide bomb 4.11 Festival Vehicle bomb 4.06 Festival Chemical 3.83 Mall Chemical 3.74 Hospital Chemical 3.50 Store—food Biological 3.37 Hospital Biological 3.36 Mall Suicide bomb 3.31 Festival Biological 3.27 Mall Bomb—baggage 3.20 Cultural center Biological 3.12 Hospital Vehicle bomb 3.04 Mall Vehicle bomb 3.00 For any given terrorist event (such as a biological attack at a shopping mall), terrorists could choose to carry it out in dozens of ways. To provide a look into the thinking of terrorists, we developed three scenarios for carrying out some of the 14 events. Scenario 1: Vehicle bomb attack, then chemical attack, at a major festival. Objective: To stage a terrorist attack in Charlotte County, FL, that will kill many and maim many more and thus instill hysteria. Strategy: A truck bomb attack followed immediately by a chemical attack. Plan: At a very popular Charlotte County festival, while the maximum number of people is present, three terrorists drive small pickup trucks, through separate festival entrances, directly into the crowds of people. Simultaneously, each terrorist will detonate a 500-lb. charge. Each explosion is expected to kill more than 50 persons and injure many more. Then, coinciding with the explosions, just as soon as survivors are huddling at a point equally distant from the three explosions, a fourth terrorist will use a fire hose to spray the survivors with anhydrous ammonia. At least 10% of those sprayed with the ammonia are likely to die. Many of those who survive will be blinded or horribly burned. So many burns will occur that the county’s health services will be unable to handle the volume and severity of the injuries. These attacks will be completely unexpected and will result in mass panic, not only in the county but across the state and country as well. The immediate economic impact of these attacks will not be great. Only a few hundred people will be killed, and perhaps a thousand or so will be severely injured. The fear that will be created will far exceed the impact of any economic cost. Scenario 2: Vehicle bomb attack, then a chemical attack at a major shopping mall. Objective: To stage an attack that will convince the American public that government is powerless to protect them. Strategy: A vehicle bomb attack will be used to cover an even more deadly chemical attack. Plan: While crowds are at a maximum, three terrorists will simultaneously, at high speed, drive automobiles into separate entry points of a major shopping mall, directly into the crowds, where each terrorist will detonate 500 pounds of explosives. Each explosion is expected to kill 15 persons and injure another 125. Coinciding with the vehicle detonations, aerosolized sarin (which is more deadly than sarin applied to skin) will be dispensed throughout the mall through the ventilation system. At least 30% of those in the mall remaining alive after the vehicle detonations are likely to die from breathing the gas. There will be many deaths and so many injured that the county’s healthcare system will be sorely taxed. That the attack will have occurred in a quiet, unassuming Florida county will frighten the American public far more than did the deaths and destruction that occurred in New York City on 9/11. According to the 1997 Economic Census,5 49% of Charlotte County’s revenue is attributable to retail sales—a much higher proportion than for the country as a whole. County revenue, then, will be devastated by the economic impact of these attacks. But it will go far beyond Charlotte County. Throughout the country, people will stay away from shopping malls because if such an attack can happen in a county in Florida, it can happen anywhere. The recession from which the country is emerging will return with a vengeance. Scenario 3: Biological attacks in hospitals followed by suicide bomber attacks in a popular shopping mall. Objective: To paralyze the state of Florida and have an impact on the entire United States. Strategy: To surreptitiously attack a key industry—health care—and overtly attack the retail industry. Plan: Three individuals armed with two-ounce hairspray containers filled with a critical solution of smallpox virus in water would enter Charlotte County’s three hospitals approximately 15 minutes before the peak lunch hour. They would proceed to the hospital cafeteria and approach the salad bar, fruit bar, or suitable equivalent. They would carefully spray the solution over the bar, obtain a salad, and go to a nearby table and observe. Afterward they would leave the hospital at a leisurely pace. The process would be repeated before dinner—again in the cafeteria. The same steps would be taken the next day. After 12 days, the infection rate for healthcare workers would be about 80%, while that for hospital patients would probably be around 90%; families of workers and patients would also have a very high rate of exposure that would, in all likelihood, lead to infection. On the 12th day, at dinnertime, all three terrorists would independently proceed to the food court in Charlotte County’s main shopping mall. Sitting separately at key locations, they each would detonate explosive packs of 25 pounds of a nitrate compound. This would kill about 50 people and injure another 100 or so. The casualties would be rushed to hospitals that are severely biologically contaminated. At this point, hospital personnel and others would be at the threshold of showing the pox symptoms. County deaths could easily be in the thousands, and an ultimate financial loss of millions of dollars could be expected. The terrorists would have released a videotape describing their mission and telling Americans to expect more. Across Florida and the United States, the healthcare system would be in panic and the retail industry would crumble. Two-thirds of the U.S. gross national product6 is accounted for by consumer spending. In all probability, the United States would rapidly go into a depression. With all the discussion in the news media about terrorists and the potential for terrorist attacks, rational people might be led to believe that many safeguards have been put into place. Shortly after deaths started occurring from anthrax contamination of the U.S. mail, there was much discussion, for example, about the possibility of terrorists staging smallpox attacks. One might assume that hospitals, at least, would have implemented safeguards. The three scenarios we described are just that—scenarios, not forecasts of doom. All in all, Charlotte County is no doubt a low-probability target for terrorist events. In fact, while a cutoff terrorist alert score of 3.0 may make sense for a given county in identifying what deserves to be safeguarded against, the government of the state in which that county is located should probably not become involved for county terrorist alert scores lower than 5. Likewise, the federal government should probably not become involved for county terrorist alert scores lower than 6. Our intent was to demonstrate how an attack process unfolds and what the targets and modes of attack might be. Most of the counties in Florida (or any other state) could be handled, using the Terrorist Target Selection and Prioritization Model, in a similar way. Larger areas in Florida (such as Miami-Dade County or Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater) would be evaluated somewhat differently. The process shows the overall steps involved in planning an attack. Obviously, defenders cannot plan for all possible contingencies. The procedure is not a replacement for good intelligence data (which are not always available). Using the model allows a structure for attacks, a reduction of possible attack targets and modes, and the ability to view alternatives—facilitating defense planning and allocation of resources. Conclusions Starting with no a priori beliefs as to what terrorists might undertake, we were able to use the mode to cost-effectively identify and prioritize what terrorists might undertake within the county. By knowing what constitutes high-priority potential targets, those responsible for the at-risk entities (hospitals, festivals, etc.) have the opportunity to implement countermeasures designed to avoid (or reduce the severity of) terrorist attacks. Not only political or military entities may become targets of terrorist attacks. Consider Illinois State University, with 22-story twin dormitories in which over 2,000 students reside, and State Farm Insurance Company’s national headquarters a mile or so away. It would make sense for planners in such entities to assess their vulnerabilities to terrorist acts but, unfortunately, they probably aren’t doing so. As Joshua Sinai indicated, as a nation, we don’t suffer from intelligence failures so much as from failures in imagination. Recommendations Because it is both effective and cost-efficient, the Stungis-Schori Terrorist Target Selection and Prioritization Model should be widely used by federal, state, county, and city governments and other entities to assess vulnerabilities to terrorist attacks. If the methodology we used in Charlotte County is faithfully followed in assessing other entities, the resulting terrorist alert scores will be useful in comparing the vulnerabilities in one entity with those in another. In Charlotte County, a terrorist alert score of 3.0 is the point at which one should start developing countermeasures, as opposed to ignoring the threats. Author Contact Information George E. Stungis, Ph.D. Thomas R. Schori, Ph.D. Mark O. Asperilla, M.D. Larry G. Beebe Raymond A. James, D.O. Rufus C. Lazzell David J. Rice, M.D. Wayne P. Salladé References 1. George E. Stungis and Thomas R. Schori, “A Terrorist Target Selection and Prioritization Model,” Journal of Homeland Security, March 2003. 2. Joshua Sinai, “How to Forecast and Preempt al-Qaeda’s Catastrophic Terrorist Warfare,” Journal of Homeland Security, August 2003. 3. Robert Carpenter, Charlotte County, Florida, Statistical Prospectus, 2002-2003 edition, Charlotte County Chamber of Commerce, Punta Gorda, FL. 4. G.A.V. Borg and L. E. Marks, “Twelve Meanings of the Measure Constant in Psychological Power Functions,” Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, vol. 21, pp. 73-75, 1983. 5. 1997 Economic Census, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC. 6. 2002 Statistical Abstract of the United States, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC.

Home < Back To The Top

Since the 11 September attacks, much of the literature on terror has focused on the psychology of terrorism rather than on identifying attacks that may occur. While the psychology of terrorists is important, it doesn’t do much to help those responsible for defending against terrorist acts. One thing should be remembered: terrorists, whoever they may be (Middle Eastern, Asian, European, or domestic), will use whatever tools are most suitable that they’re trained to use and are available.

In “A Terrorist Target Selection and Prioritization Model” (2003),1 the senior authors described a mathematical model they believed to be of the type used by al-Qaeda planners in selecting targets. By using this model, those responsible for safeguarding against acts of terrorism would have a heads-up as to which targets terrorists are likely to attack. To demonstrate the model, a terrorist assessment team of eight specialists played the role of terrorists in an action where the target was a Florida county with no obvious strategic sites. Using the model in a process of several steps, they identified 99 terrorist events, then determined the impact and likelihood for each event. The product of a given event’s impact and likelihood constitutes that event’s “expected value.” By ordering the 99 events according to their expected value, those responsible for providing safeguards reduce to a relatively small number the events for which to prepare.

Next, the assessment team developed three scenarios (involving six terrorist events). Using one scenario (involving two events), they easily carried out a simulated terrorist attack.

In 2003, Joshua Sinai2 concluded that the failure to anticipate 9/11 was not an intelligence failure but that 9/11 was simply beyond the imagination of those responsible for intelligence and law enforcement. He also emphasized the necessity to “adopt proactive measures to anticipate, defend against, and preempt new types of terrorist threats” and that “terrorists, especially al-Qaeda planners, always seek to exploit new vulnerabilities and new and innovative modes of warfare in order to evade detection and inflict maximum damage.” Firmly agreeing with Sinai’s conclusions, we believe that we must think like terrorists, determine what they are likely to undertake, and develop appropriate countermeasures.

Since 11 September, much has been done to bolster defenses in the United States. These steps have focused on such sites as airports, tunnels, and bridges. Consequently, these types of sites have become hard targets, a fact of which terrorists are well aware. Even so, the question is whether those focusing on these hard targets are focusing on the areas in which we truly are vulnerable.

In dealing with terrorists, particularly al-Qaeda, we cannot rely on historical trends with regard to sites and attack modes. Instead, we must anticipate unconventional methods, techniques, and targets—which means that we simply must think like terrorists. Furthermore, it would be a another failure in imagination if we as a nation focused exclusively, or nearly exclusively, on geographic areas with many potential hard targets. We should also consider areas where hard targets are scarce, where little thought has been given to the possibility of terrorist attacks.

Methodology

We came to the conclusion that to meaningfully identify potential domestic terrorist attacks, we would need to look at relatively small geographic areas (for example, county by county) rather than at the nation. For this reason we selected Charlotte County, FL, for testing the effectiveness of our Terrorist Target Selection and Prioritization Model. The county is devoid of strategic targets. People who live there, like those in many other areas of the United States, go about their business every day without being particularly concerned about terrorist attacks. Charlotte County3 has approximately 150,000 residents; 35% are age 65 or older. County government and medical and health providers are the leading employment segments, along with the varied retail industry. The county has another interesting and distinguishing feature: it accommodated several of the 11 September terrorists. Mohammed Atta visited restaurants, facilitated overseas cash transfers, and sought aid in a local hospital there. It is reasonable to assume that the county is well known to al-Qaeda planners.

To identify potential terrorist attacks in Charlotte County, we created a team of eight “terror planners” (the authors of this article) with backgrounds in physics-math, psychology, infectious disease, radiation oncology, emergency room medicine, emergency management, environmental health planning, and senior levels of the U.S. military.

Using the equations described in Stungis and Schori’s 2003 article on the Terrorist Target Selection and Prioritization Model, our team, thinking like terrorists, identified 99 possible terrorist events (target sites and modes of attack) that might take place in Charlotte County. The planning team judged the likelihood of success (from a terrorist perspective) for each event. Then the team made judgments, using the Stevens Power Function,4 of the impact that each event would have on three terrorist objectives (publicity, with a weight of 0.2; casualty count, with a weight of 0.3; and economic impact, with a weight of 0.5). Cross-impact matrices were also constructed. The product of the likelihood rating and the overall weighted impact associated with each terrorist event constitutes the expected value to the terrorists. Since the likelihood scores are probabilities and the impact scores can range from 0 (no impact on the terrorist objectives) to 8 (maximum on each terrorist objective), the resulting terrorist alert scores can range from 0 to 8.

Results

We believed that it would not be necessary to further consider potential terrorist events that had terrorist alert scores less than 3.0. The terrorist alert scores themselves can be thought of as a type of desirability index (from a terrorist perspective) and as a terrorist alert index (from the perspective of those responsible for safeguarding against terrorist attacks). Thus, we have been able to logically reduce the number of events so that countermeasures can be implemented (see Table 1).

The most attractive event (from a terrorist vantage point) would be a biological attack at a shopping mall in Charlotte County, followed by a suicide bomber attack at a major festival in the county.

Radical Muslim paramilitary compounds flourishing across the United States

Islamberg not the only radical Muslim compound flourishing in North America

By Judi McLeod

Monday, May 21, 2007

The two FBI types breaking bread with the enemy in the photo above at "Islamberg" look right at home to Canada Free Press (CFP). Notice the weapons these dudes are wearing at the dinner table?

Islamberg is just one of what is thought to be a half dozen radical Muslim paramilitary compounds flourishing across the United States, this one nestled in dense forest at the foothills of the Catskill Mountains on the outskirts of Hancock, New York.

Canada, home to at least one such compound, is no safe ground.

Story: Radical Muslim paramilitary compound flourishes in upper New York state

Now that the photos of the two unidentified FBI types have been published, we will undoubtedly hear that they were merely working undercover. But some sticklers would consider saying cheese from the dinner table of the enemy is over the top.

Hundreds of letters have deluged (CFP) since it published a story with pictures of Springtime in Islamberg, written by The Day of Islam author Dr. Paul Williams with the able assistance of Doug Hagmann, Bill Krayer and Michael Travis.

Many letter writers complain that local authorities are telling them they have never heard of the compound.

Islamberg is an al Fuqra house. "Fuqra has had a disturbing U.S. presence for more than 20 years." (The weekly Standard, March 18, 2002). "Today, half a dozen Fuqra residential compounds in rural hamlets across the country shelter hundreds of members, some of whom, according to intelligence sources, have been trained in the use of weapons and explosives in Pakistan."

In a world where authorities make like terrorism doesn't exist, Fuqra's founder and bossman, Sheikh Mubarik Ali Hasmi Shah Gilani, is not only alive and well--he has a road "Sheikh Gilani Lane" named after him. This road is not in faraway Pakistan, but right in Charlotte County, Virginia.

Charlotte County is a rural farming community in Central Virginia near the North Carolina border.

Like its counterpart in Hancock, New York, it is inhabited by proud Americans many whose sons and daughters are fighting for our freedom in Iraq.

"This is not only an embarrassment to the citizens of Charlotte County it is a disgrace to the entire country and an insult to the victims of 9/11 and those fighting overseas in the war against terrorism," wrote Martin Mawyer, president of the Christian Action Network.

"Sheikh Gilani has rubbed shoulders at international terrorist confabs with gunslingers from Hamas and Hezbollah, their mullah backers, and Osama bin Laden. And he has trained fighters for the battlefields of Kashmir, Chechnya and Bosnia." (the weekly Standard).

Dropping in on radical Muslim paramilitary compounds isn't good for your health. Two bloggers who posted the plucky Williams' Islamberg story had their lives threatened.

Most infidels, including even the local undertaker, are denied access to compounds such as Islamberg.

Indeed, the very undertaker denied access wrote a letter telling the author/journalist he was surprised he made it off the compound with his life intact.

The undertaker says he has delivered bodies to the complex but has yet to be granted entrance. "They come and take the bodies from my hearse," he told Williams. "They won't allow me to get past the sentry post. They say that they want to prepare the bodies for burial. But I never get the bodies back. I don't know what's going on there but I don't think it's legal."

As far as is known, Gilani launched his first U.S. operation without interference from any authority back in 1980.

By the 1990s, Fuqra's communes were being touted as havens where Muslim converts--many of them inner-city blacks, sometimes recruited in prison--could find new direction for their lives.

Why aren't people reading about these flourishing compounds in their hometown newspapers?

Does it require too much work for the mainstream media, or do politically correct times keep the topic taboo?

You'd think that these compounds would be a priority for Homeland Security, but they aren't.

One of the letters to Williams via CFP was from a member of Homeland Security asking for more information!

It seems to be politically incorrect to write about radical Muslim paramilitary compounds flourishing on American soil and politically incorrect to talk about terrorism.

For some American and Canadian citizens, it's welcome to life with a deadly enemy living right next door.  All Credit to Judy McLeod at http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=189971

Radical Muslim paramilitary compound

Blogger who posted CFP Islamberg story had life threatened

By Judi McLeod

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

"Dear Robert, Brigette and Paul (Williams),

"Were any of you threatened in any way, specifically for carrying the Islamberg story?" asked a blogger, who copied Canada Free Press (CFP) last night.

Robert is Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch, a project of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and author of two New York Times bestsellers on Islamic Jihad.

Brigette is Brigette Gabriel, a Lebanese Christian and Middle East correspondent, who is Director of American Congress.

Update on story: May 21, 2007 Islamberg not the only radical Muslim compound flourishing in North America

Paul Williams, prolific writer and author of the newly released Day of Islam, wrote a CFP cover story published May 11, detailing a radical Muslim paramilitary compound that flourishes in upper New York State.

The story, posted by Michael Savage and carried by dozens of blogs, including www.littlegreenfootballs.com, was virtually ignored by the mainstream media.

Someone didn't like the story and that someone threatened the life of U.S. war veteran and blogger Scott Grayban.

Grayban publishes blog.borgnet.us. in Spokane, Washington.

CFP receives thousands of emails from readers. The one from Grayban's blogger friend caught our immediate attention.

The blogger, whose name is being withheld by CFP, hoped flagging the Internet might protect Grayban's physical safety if someone publicized the two threats made on his life over the telephone.

That is the reason for this story.

Grayban received two phone calls on Sunday night from a foreigner, threatening his life.

"The caller used a hacked phone (or internet line) to disguise the location from which he was calling. (Please see jpeg of record/caller ID attached at bottom of page).

"The caller told Scott the precise street on which he lives, that he lives across from an auto shop, that he has a solar panel in his apartment window and the make of the car he drove to the mall on Saturday."

As the blogger pointed out, "These aren't details anyone could obtain from Google Earth."

Someone is following Scott Grayban in Washington State. Yet the local FBI office told him to call the police. The local police told him to call the FBI and his phone carrier (Vonage) said there's no way to trace the call.

There might be a way to trace the call with a court order, but it's unlikely that Grayban could ever get one.

Cold comfort for a man who's being stalked and threatened.

The blogger made the decision to "publicize this threat has occurred" and sent out an email to ask if anyone else who carried this story has also been threatened.

No one at CFP, who originally ran the Williams' story, has been threatened. The writer of this article was unable to reach Paul Williams at his Pennsylvania home at press time and is convinced that she would have heard from the author if he had been threatened.

Williams and Northeast Intelligence Director and private investigator Doug Hagmann, scouted out a Jihadist camp dubbed Islamberg, at the foothills of the Catskill Mountains on the outskirts of Hancock, New York, last summer.

"Islamberg is not an ideal place for a summer vacation unless, of course, you are an exponent of the Jihad or a fan of Osama bin Laden," Williams wrote in CFP on May 11, 2007.

Very few visitors come to Islamberg, where a sentry post has been established at the base of the hill.

"Islamberg is a branch of Muslims of the Americas Inc., a tax-exempt organization formed in 1980 by Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, who refers to himself as "the sixth Sultan Ul Faqr". Gilani has been directly linked by court documents to Jamaat u-Fuqra or "community of the impoverished", an organization that seeks to "purify" Islam through violence.

"Islamberg is not as benign as a Buddhist monastery or a Carmelite convent. Nearly every weekend, neighbors hear sounds of gunfire. Some, including a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, have heard the bang of small explosives. None of the neighbors wished to be identified for fear of "retaliation". "We don't even dare to slow down when we drive by", one resident said. "They own the mountain and they know it and there is nothing we can do about it but move, and we can't even do that. Who wants to buy a property near that?"

"Even though Jamaat ul-Fuqra has been involved in terror attacks and sundry criminal activities, recruited thousands of members from federal and state penal systems, and appears to be operating paramilitary facilities for militant Muslims, it remains to be placed on the official US Terror Watch List. On the contrary, it continues to operate, flourish and expand as a legitimate nonprofit, tax-deductible charity."

It seems that Williams and company raised a hornet's nest in their visit to Islamberg and some of the hornets went buzzing all the way to Spokane, Washington.

Meanwhile the blogger who tipped off CFP about the threats to Scott Grayban, emailed to say a report was finally taken by Spokane Washington police. The SPD report number is 07-132-368.

Let's hope that Grayban remains safe from harm.

All Credit to Judy McLeod at http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/cover051507.htm
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JIHAD AMONG JUNIPERS AND MINT JULEPS.  RADICAL ISLAM COMES TO FULL BLOOM IN SOUTHERN VIRGINIA
by Paul L. Williams, Ph.D. (author of The Day of Islam)
with the able assistance of Shawn Michaels, Jamal Babour and Dr. Hugh Cort

"Entrance to the Jamaat ul-Fuqra Compound at Red House Va.

The Islamic practice of taqiyya, meaning "deception" or "concealment," has been refined into an art-form at a jihad training compound for African American converts near the small town of Red House in Charlotte County, Virginia.

The fifty-acre compound is easy to find since the main road leading to it has been named Sheikh Gilani Lane in honor of the guru and founder of a terrorist organization with close ties to Osama bin Laden. The Board of Supervisors of Charlotte County are either oblivious to the threat of radical Islam on American soil or clandestine advocates of the great jihad.

At the end Sheikh Gilani Lane is a sign - - barely visible through the overgrown brush - - that reads, "The Muslims of the Americas." The sign serves to make the place appear as an innocuous religious settlement, until one realizes that The Muslims of the Americas is, in reality, an outgrowth of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, an alleged sister agency to al-Qaeda.

Several weeks before 9/11, a guard house and a gate had been erected at the entrance to the Red House compound.

But the guard house and the gate are now gone, and no sentries - - armed or otherwise - - are in sight, that is until you get well inside the complex of old trailers and pre-fab shanties. The only person to be seen in the the compound is an African American crone in a full black burqa sans the face cover known as a hijab. The day is hot and humid and the burqa serves to give the wizened old woman the appearance of a wayside witch from a Grimm's fairy tale.

"The men are all gone," the crone says from a park bench. "No one is here."

The Red House compound certainly appears deserted. A few mobile homes, several rusty old trailers, and a few mounds of debris among waist-high weeds remain along an old dirt road that runs through the Islamic village, but there appears to be little of interest, let alone concern.

As soon as the investigators park their car and trek into compound, the old woman removes a mobile phone from a sachet and dials a number.

In a matter of minutes, a pick-up truck appears at the entranceway. Two young African Americans dressed in skull caps and jalabiyahs emerge from the vehicle. "What are you doing here?" they ask.

Jamal, an Egyptian journalist, says in Arabic, "I'm here to see the Imam. Where does he live?"

One of the young men, whose Arabic name translates as "Slave of God", indicates that the Imam is not in and he should knock on the door of a ramshackle blue structure where he was told "Ahmed", one of the Elders may be found.

Jamal proceeds to the structure and rings the bell, but no one answers. Another member of our investigative team knocks at the doors of the trailers and mobile homes but there is no response. Some of the windows to the homes have been holed up with bricks save for openings that are ideal for assault rifles.

The young African Americans, who have shown up on the scene, are becoming agitated. They begin to make calls on their cell phones.

Then something miraculous happens.

At the Imam's residence, Muslim men begin to emerge in droves from a small storage shed attached to the house. It seems like a scene from a Marx Brothers movie in which dozens of people pour out of a closet. The investigators are suddenly surrounded by forty or fifty members of the complex in Islamic gowns and white skullcaps.

"What brings you here?" they ask.

"We heard about the village," Jamal says, "and wanted to pay a visit. I thought I could stop by for evening prayers."

"The evening prayers are over," says one of the newly materialized men, who could be a professional body builder.

In the blink of an eye, another wondrous thing occurs.

Hundreds of more African Americans in Islamic garb materialize from the dense forests, the high grass of the open meadows, and the rusty trailers that just seconds ago appeared to be deserted.

A covey of late model cars and SUV's converge on the compound from a network of dirt roads. The Muslims who emerge from the vehicles appear more affluent than the others. The men wear white halabiyahs with matching head coverings. The women are dressed in colorful caftans and flowing abayas. They seem to be models from the Crescent Moon boutique.

"Are you the police?" a female villager asks through the shaded window of the Imam's residence.

"No," Jamal answers. "We just stopped by to join in prayer."

"This is not a place for tourists," screeches the woman in the Imam's house, "and we don't like you taking pictures of our houses and automobiles."

By this time, the Red House compound is swarming with hundreds of Muslim men, women, and children - - and several appear to be deeply agitated by the intruders.

Jamal produces a card from a radical imam he had met the day before at the radical Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church. It serves as a ticket out of the place.


What is taking place in the Red House complex? Is the complex amidst the rolling hills of southern Virginia a peaceful Islamic village where devout Muslims have gathered to retreat from the hustle and bustle of contemporary American life in order to pray, meditate, and to live in strict accordance with the traditions of their faith? Or is it something more sinister - - something that should alarm every American who is concerned about the threat of radical Islam?

These factors are clear:

(1). There is an underground bunker at the complex that may be used for paramilitary training and possibly to harbor deadly weapons for use in the great jihad against Christians and Jews. Twenty-four members of this Jamaat ul-Fuqra complex already have been arrested for trafficking in illegal firearms, including the ammunition for AK-47s.

(2). Members of the compound have been sent to Pakistan and Afghanistan for specialized training in guerilla warfare - - a fact confirmed by Thomas P. Gallagher, a Special Agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

(3). The Red House compound regularly receives visits from suspicious guests from Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.

(4). The Red House cell of ul-Fuqra has metastasized so that similar Islamic compounds have popped up in neighboring Prince George and Campbell Counties. The 25 acre facility in Prince George County is situated on Mahareen Road, a name selected by the Muslim newcomers and duly approved by the local ordinance officials. Mahareen is the plural of the Arabic mahar, meaning "clever one." The facility in Campbell County is considerably larger, occupying more than 100 acres. An additional compound reportedly has materialized in Bedford County near the city of Roanoke.

(5). Several Virginia compounds appear to possess obstacle courses, and firing ranges.

(6). Members of the compounds have been known to refer to themselves as "soldiers of Allah" and "Mohammad's commandos."

(7) What happens in the Red House compound stays in the Red House compound. The members of the radical Islamic community rarely appear in the nearby town; conduct little business with local merchants; and stay to themselves.

The Muslims of the Americas, the tax-exempt corporation which owns and operates the Red House compound, was formed in 1980 by Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani. It is, according to an official report, a "front organization" for terrorist activities. A 2005 Homeland Security report predicts that the Muslims of the Americas will sponsor a major terrorist attack on American soil.

The parent organization of The Muslims of the Americas is Jamaat ul-Fuqra or "community of the impoverished" which retains headquarters in Lahore, Pakistan. The purpose of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, as established by Sheikh Gilani, is not to serve some beneficent good for the cause of the impoverished but rather to "purify" Islam through violence.

A quack practitioner of something called "Quranic psychiatry, Sheikh Gilani refers to himself as "the sixth Sultan ul Faqr." The Sheikh claims to have supernatural powers and to receive regular visits from "non-human beings." In 1979, Gilani came to believe that he could begin the processing of purifying Islam through violence with the aid of socially disgruntled and economically disenfranchised blacks within the inner cities of New York and New Jersey. The basis of this belief was Gilani conviction that a sizeable number of African Americans fostered an innate hatred of the United States and could be easily convinced to further the cause of global jihad. Many may have viewed Gilano's mission as a cockamamie scheme that smacked of racism, but it worked like a hypnotic charm from Scheherazade.

At the al-Farouq mosque in Brooklyn, a dingy establishment at 554 Atlantic Avenue, Gilani, sporting ammunition belts, spoke of Islam as the cure for all societal ills and called upon the young men in attendance to take up arms in the holy war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Hundreds answered the call and headed off to a training camp in Abbotabad, Pakistan that had been established by Osama bin Laden and other members of the mujahadeen.

Knowing the need for new recruits, Gilani turned to the penal system and focused his attention on converting incarcerated blacks to his radical Islamic doctrine. Imams and religious instructors were dispatched to local, state, and federal prison facilities to accomplish this objective. The results were mind-boggling. Thousands converted on a weekly basis, drawn to the offers of protection, special meals, and release from work detail for daily prayers and the entire month of Ramadan.

Gilani soon came to the realization that it would be financially advantageous to train new recruits for the holy war on American soil rather than to pay the freight of sending them to Pakistan, and the sites of his other training camps throughout the world. And so, Islamberg in Hancock, New York came into being. Soon other hamaats were established in such places as Hyattsville, Maryland; Falls Church, Virginia; Macon, Georgia; York, South Carolina; Dover, Tennessee; Buena Vista, Colorado; Talihina, Oklahoma; Tulane Country, California; Commerce, California; and Onalaska, Washington. The Red House compound cropped up in 1993. Others are under construction, including an expansive facility in Sherman, Pennsylvania. How many hamaats are now in place throughout the United States is anyone's guess. A low-ball figure is 38.

Before becoming a citizen of the Red House compound or any of the other Fuqra communities, the recruits - - primarily inner city black men who became converts in prison - - are compelled to sign an oath that reads: "I shall always hear and obey, and whenever given the command, I shall readily fight for Allah's sake." They are also obliged to contribute 70% of their welfare checks and other sources of income to Muslims of the Americas, Inc.

Mission accomplished among the African Americans, Sheikh Gilani returned to his native Lahore circa 1990. In December 1993, he was an honored guest at an international gathering of jihadis at the residence of Hassan al-Turabi in Khartoum. At the gathering, attended by members of al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular and Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine, Sheikh Gilani, Osama bin Laden, and other prominent terrorist leaders were caught on film chanting, "Down, down with the USA!" "Down, down with the CIA," and "Death to the Jews."

Over the years, numerous members of Jamaat ul-Fuqra have been convicted in US courts of such crimes as conspiracy to commit murder, firebombing, gun smuggling, and workers' compensation fraud. Others remain leading suspects in criminal cases throughout the country, including ten unsolved assassinations and seventeen fire-bombings between 1979 and 1990. Associates of the group were also instrumental in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

The criminal charges against the group and the criminal convictions are not things of the past. In 2001, a 19 year-old former resident of the Red House compound was charged with the first-degree murder in the shooting of a sheriff's deputy in California. By 2004 federal investigators uncovered evidence that linked both the DC "sniper killer" John Allen Muhammed and "Shoe Bomber" Richard Reid to the group and reports surfaced that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was captured and beheaded in the process of attempting to obtain an interview with Sheikh Gilani in Pakistan.

Even though Jamaat ul-Fuqra has been involved in bloody bombings and sundry criminal activities, recruited thousands of members from federal and state penal systems, and appears to be operating paramilitary facilities for militant Muslims, the terror organization remains to be placed on the official US Terror Watch List, and The Muslims of the Americas continue to operate, flourish, and expand as a legitimate nonprofit, tax-deductible charity.

Meanwhile, the hills of rural Virginia are alive with the sound of jihad.

But few are listening."


___________________________________________________________________________

Joshua Sinai may be reached at joshua.sinai@anser.org
Article is from: http://www.homelandsecurity.org/newjournal/articles/sinaiforecast.htm

Outraged shareholders of InfoUSA filed a lawsuit last year claiming Gupta wasted company money to ingratiate himself with celebrities like the Clintons. This is the same company that had sold call lists of senior citizens stricken by cancer or Alzheimer's disease to telemarketing criminals who used it to steal money from the elderly.

Hillary Gupta

Suspected terrorists in JFK Airport plot tried to forge connection with Jamaat al-Muslimeen

By Judi McLeod

Monday, June 4, 2007

Saturday's foiled plot to attack New York's John F. Kennedy Airport underscores the danger of allowing radical Islam paramilitary compounds like "Islamberg" on the outskirts of Hancock, New York to flourish below radar.

Compounds run by a Sheikh Mubarek Gilani-led Jamaat ul Fuqra actively recruit in penal institutions and convert new members by the thousands for their fanatical cause.

Update on story: May 22, 2007"Islamberg" founder Sheikh Gilani blames Doug Hagmann for CFP story

Update on story: May 21, 2007 Islamberg not the only radical Muslim compound flourishing in North America

Update on story: Blogger who posted CFP Islamberg story had life threatened

The face of international terrorism has changed from foreigners to homegrown converts since it last captured world attention on 9/11.

Terrorism is alive and well under the cover of a legitimate, non-profit charity identified as Jamaat ul Fuqra, and it works tirelessly right on American soil.

"The authorities said the would-be bombers had tried to forge a connection with Jamaat al-Muslimeen, a group of converts to Islam which staged a violent coup attempt in Trinidad & Tobago in 1990." (Timesonline, June 3, 2007).

This time there was even a warning just four days before the foiled JFK plot.

"An American member of Al-Qaeda warned in an internet video that US President George W. Bush should withdraw all his troops from Muslim land or face attacks worse than September 11".

The new breed of terrorist, the convert to Islam, issued the warning.

"Adam Gadahn, a convert to Islam who has been indicted for treason by a U.S. jury, issued a list of demands and warned they were not up for negotiation."

"`Your failure to heed our demands means that you and your peopleÉwill experience things that will make you forget all about the horrors of September 11, Afghanistan and Iraq, and Virginia Tech,'" he said in the video posted last Tuesday.

Just two weeks after members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and partners of the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team arrested 12 adults--all Canadian residents, and some Canadian born--and charged them under Section 83 of the Criminal Code of Canada in a foiled terrorist attack in Toronto on June 2, 2006 Northeast Intelligence Director Doug Hagmann infiltrated and reported on Islamberg in upper state New York.

His work had a ripple halfway across the world when Jamaat ul Fuqra chief Sheikh Mubarek Gilani, one-time suspect n the abduction and murder of Daniel Pearl, posted a lengthy diatribe against Hagmann on his Pakistan-based website. (See Gilani's enraged rant against Hagmann here.)

When author Paul Williams' findings at Islamberg were posted to Canada Free Press (CFP) on May 11, a second threat, this one by telephone was issued to Hagmann and two bloggers who picked up Williams' CFP story were issued threats.

The foiled attack at JFK Airport was already being downplayed the day after authorities moved on it.

"One law enforcement source told The New York Times that the alleged plotters had neither explosives nor money and described Russell Defreitas, 63, who was arrested in Brooklyn as "a sad sack"," (Timesonline, June 3, 2007).

One day after the foiled Toronto attack, the plot to bomb Ontario targets was already being downplayed.

"In the Toronto Star's report that Mississauga brothers-in-law Ahmad Ghany and Zakaria Amra being charged in connection with plots to attack Canadian targets, criticism is already being leveled at police." (CFP, June 3, 2007).

"However, shocked neighbours and family members say they don't believe the allegations," (Torstar Network, June 3, 2006). "I think they have it wrong. Those guys have nothing to do with (terrorism)," said Scarborough Imam Aly Hindy, a high profile critic of the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). He has accused the federal agency of targeting Muslims who criticize the foreign policies of Western governments.

"Because they are young people, and they are Muslims, they are saying it's terrorism," Hindy told the Star.

Trinidadian newspapers have reported that the two men arrested there in connection with the JFK plot, Kareem Ibrahim and Abdul Kadir, were imams of Shia mosques in Trinidad and Guyana.

Abdul Nur, also charged by the U.S. but still at large, is also a Guyanese.

Is it really any surprise that the ever-allusive Adnan G. El-Shukrijumah, a Saudi-born al-Qaeda operative, is believed to be holed up in the same region?

Described in Paul Williams' book The Day of Islam, el Shukrijumah "possesses the uncanny ability to blend into a crowd, to alter his looks, and to assume a multitude of identities --the "proverbial Mr. Cellophane".

A $5-million reward, offered for information leading to el Shukrijumah's capture, has gone uncollected.

El Shukrijumah lived undetected in the United States for 15 years and trained as a pilot from which he takes his nickname, "Jafar the pilot". According to the FBI, he speaks perfect English and has a Guyanese passport but may try to enter the US with Saudi, Canadian or Trinidadian documents (emphasis CFP's).

Meanwhile, it's the converted Islamist wearing the cunning new face of international terrorism, and thousands of them are busy training in radical Islam paramilitary compounds on North American soil.

Don't believe that compounds like Islamberg are getting a free ride below radar?

Just report on them like Doug Hagmann and wait for the rant from one Sheikh Mubarek Gilani.

All Credit to:Canada Free Press founding editor Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck and The Rant. Judi can be reached at: letters@canadafreepress.com.

Friday 1 Jun 2007 The New York Times on Flight 327 By Annie Jacobsen in category Dry Runs and Probes, U.S. Homeland Security Who says you can't appear in The New York Times and on FOX News in the same week? Finally, both left and right agree on what I've been saying about Flight 327 all along. From The New York Times (subscription required): The New York Times It’s Not Paranoia If They’re Really Out to Get You May 30, 2007 In June 2004, Annie Jacobson and her family were flying from Detroit to Los Angeles when she observed suspicious behavior on the part of several Muslim-looking passengers and warned the crew. The article she wrote about it for WomensWallStreet.com caused a minor sensation, with conservatives saying it proved that the government was falling down on the job of protecting air travelers, and liberals telling her to take a “chill pill.” (Disclosure: in what seems another lifetime, Jacobson was a college acquaintance.) Now the Department of Homeland Security has released its report on the incident (you can find it on Jacobson’s site, here) and, in the opinion of Ed Morrissey at Captain’s Quarters, it “confirms that Annie Jacobsen accurately recounted suspicious activities on a Northwest flight from Detroit to Los Angeles in the summer of 2004, and that a number of Syrians attempted a dry run for a terror attack. Eight of the 12 had already been flagged for criminal or suspicious behavior, and the apparent leader was involved in a similar incident later as well.” — Tobin Harshaw For more details, you can read the 51-page declassified DHS report (USG, 2007) or read my book on the subject, "Terror in The Skies, Why 9/11 Could Happen Again" (Spence Publishing, 2005).  Share This Article   Friday 1 Jun 2007 Air Marshal Who Testified For Congress Speaks Out By Annie Jacobsen in category Dry Runs and Probes Patterico's Pontifications is running an excellent piece today entitled, Federal Air Marshal Goes on The Record Stating His Opinion That Flight 327 Was A Dry Run. Patterico tracked down current Federal Air Marshal, P. Jeffrey Black, quoted in the Washington Times article, Security Flaws Confirmed on Flight 327, and publishes a fascinating letter by Air Marshal Black. Here's an excerpt:  Do I personally believe flight 327 was a terrorist probe or dry run? In my opinion, and based upon my experience flying hundreds of missions since 9/11, my answer is, yes it was. Do I know 100% for sure? No, of course not. Short of obtaining signed confessions from all 13 Syrian “musicians” involved, only they know for sure what their true intentions were for acting so “suspicious” during the flight. And this is exactly why the Inspector General’s report doesn’t conclude, without a doubt, that their actions were positively construed as a probe or dry run. The only people who know this for sure were allowed to freely leave the country and fly back to Syria without ever being thoroughly interrogated. And remember, a third of the Inspector General’s report is still highly redacted. Nevertheless, many air marshal colleagues I have spoken with concur with my conclusion, but don’t expect them to go public any time soon. Every air marshal that has whistleblown publicly so far has been summarily terminated one way or another. It is just a matter of time before I receive my retaliatory pink slip. I am sure there are TSA/FAMS management bureaucrats in a basement somewhere at this very moment, scheming and drawing up battle plans to attack my character and veracity. I wouldn’t expect anything less from the Transportation Security Administration. Share This Article   Wednesday 30 May 2007 TSA “Spins” Out of Control - Says Flight Not a Threat By WebMaster in category Dry Runs and Probes This morning, Annie Jacobsen appeared on Fox & Friends and was interviewed regarding her experience on Northwest Flight 327.  The interview was followed by a TSA spokeswoman attempting to carry out political damage control, and she tried unsuccessfully to discredit the current and former Federal Air Marshals who publicly came forward to expose agency management incompetence and inaction.   Share This Article   Monday 28 May 2007 DHS Report on Northwest Flight 327 (download pdf) By Annie Jacobsen in category Dry Runs and Probes      Click here to download the complete DHS Report   Confirmed: SSI = CYA  Share This Article   Sunday 27 May 2007 DHS Declassifies Northwest Flight 327 Report By Annie Jacobsen in category Federal Air Marshals, Dry Runs and Probes The Department of Homeland Security has declassified the Inspector General's report on Northwest Flight 327 — a flight which I was a passenger on back in June of 2004. It took the US government two years and eleven months to confirm what I have been writing since the flight landed — in my 28-part series for WomensWallStreet.com and in Terror in The Skies, Why 9/11 Could Happen Again (Spence 2005) i.e: The flight was a dry run for a future terrorist attack involving planes.    The Federal Air Marshal Service grossly mishandled what happened during the flight.    The Syrians terrified flight crew and passengers.    The Federal Air Marshal Service grossly mismanaged what happened after the flight landed in Los Angeles. The Federal Air Marshal Service attempted to cover up their egregious incompetence by issuing false statements and misleading the public about the severity of what happened on the flight. Audrey Hudson of The Washington Times has a Page One article today, Sunday, "More Details on Flight 327 Released." According to the paper, Hudson will report further on the DHS declassified investigation on Wednesday. The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) obtained a copy of the fifty-one page report through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) which you can download from their website. Ironic note: DHS now refers to the group as a "band" (in quotes) because the Syrians were not a band — that was their cover. The declassified DHS report also confirms what I reported last month: that the Syrians from Flight 327 were involved in an earlier dry run — on January 28, 2004. The FBI had flagged this dry run into their incident base six months before Northwest 327 took flight.  The Washington Times: Blogs a buzz over Flight 327. Share This Article   Monday 21 May 2007 Former FAA Special Agent Questions TSA By Annie Jacobsen in category Airport Security & Screening, Opinions and Editorials Former FAA Special Agent Brian Sullivan raises an abundance of fascinating questions in his widely-circulated opinion piece, "What's Going on at the TSA?" "What is going on at the TSA?" is a question that citizens, Senators, little old ladies and children ask every day. We're still waiting for answers. Until then, Sullivan's questions raise more questions. As Vonnegut said, so it goes.  Do you remember Carla Martin? She was the TSA attorney who almost derailed the prosecution’s case in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial in March ‘06. Judge Leonie Brinkema said that Martin sent an e-mail message to seven Federal Aviation Administration officials outlining the prosecution’s opening statement and provided commentary on government witnesses from the first day of testimony in violation of her pretrial order. In addition to “coaching witnesses”, Martin’s contacts with lawyers for American and United Airlines were detailed in a legal brief. Lawyers representing the victims’ families in the ongoing 9/11 litigation raised concerns that her efforts were intended to assist the airlines by altering prospective witness testimony. They called the relationship between the TSA and the airlines “incestuous and inappropriate.” The 9/11 families have since sued Carla Martin alleging that the attorney “colluded” with the airlines.  Sure sounds that way. Sullivan goes on to explain that the Judge finally decided to share documents with the victims' families. And yet, in the spirit of anti-transparency, the TSA blocked that path. Sullivan asks another million dollar question: Whose side is the TSA on anyway? If the children can't answer that, the little old ladies can explain: the TSA is on its own side. In the meantime, the battle marches on with Sullivan explaining that the FBI is moving toward releasing these TSA-protected state secrets (ie: the contents of Atta's suitcase et al.). But here's where Sullivan's article gets really interesting: Inside sources report that Ms. Martin wasn’t fired by the TSA until early February this year. Those same sources say that Francine Kerner, the TSA’s Chief Counsel, allegedly “circled the wagons” in defense of Carla when the furor of her “tainting witnesses” first arose during the Moussauoi trial. According to them, Francine even at one point referred to Ms. Martin as an “American patriot.” Certainly a strange attribution for someone who almost single handedly derailed the prosecution’s case in the Moussauoi trial.Ms. Kerner would have to be considered quite knowledgeable in this context as she too was once accused of taking actions which might have encouraged witnesses to “tailor their testimony.” A November 8, 1995 article in the New York Times states, "Although, Ms. Kerner was supposed to avoid discussing the case with her colleagues in the counsel’s office, the committee presented evidence today that she provided significant details to those under investigation….” Sullivan gives us the final, million dollar question: Did Carla learn from a master? The bottom line is whether Carla Martin was acting alone or whether her actions reflected a commitment by the TSA’s leadership to protect the airlines in the 9/11 civil suit. Carla had a supervisor – Francine Kerner, the TSA’s Chief Counsel. Did she know of, approve and condone Carla’s actions or did she just do a poor job of supervising a “loose cannon.?” The public and, at the very least, the 9/11 victims’ families have a right to know. Inside sources say that Carla Martin is appealing the decision to fire her. It certainly will be interesting to see if that process, and the ongoing civil suit against her, surfaces information which points to a wider involvement within the TSA’s Office of Chief Counsel than heretofore revealed.One former TSA attorney has said that he had never seen a level of micro-management such as was the order of the day in Ms. Kerner’s office. Thus, it is difficult to believe that Ms. Martin was operating “wholly under the radar.” This assessment begs the question… Sullivan ends his piece by tailoring his original, million dollar question to reflect what could be the most important question affecting us all. “What is going on at the TSA, particularly in the Office of the Chief Counsel?” Share This Article   Monday 14 May 2007 Fort Dix Terror Suspect was Airport Cabbie By Annie Jacobsen in category The Al-Qaeda Threat Fort Dix terror suspect Mohamed Ibrahim Shnewer was arrested in his taxi cab at the Philadelphia airport. From various reports that have surfaced about the plot, it's clear that these terrorists were not the sharpest tacks in the pencil box. But one wonders how long was it going to take airport cabbie Mohamed Shnewer to figure out he had access to secure areas of the airport "big enough to drive a truck through."  CNN reports on what Mohamed Shnewer had in mind when discussing how many soldiers he wanted to kill at Fort Dix — with an FBI informant taping the conversation: "My intent is to hit a heavy concentration of soldiers. … This is exactly what we are looking for. You hit four, five or six Humvees and light the whole place [up] and retreat completely without any losses."  You can read details of Mohamed Shnewer discussing how to conduct surveillance on military bases in a complaint filed by the US Department of Justice here. Share This Article   — Next Page » http://www.theaviationnation.com/ ___________________________________________________________Part Part I: Terror in the Skies, Again? This is Part I of the ongoing series entitled, “Terror in the Skies, Again?” WWS Exclusive By Annie Jacobsen 7/13/2004

Note from the E-ditors: You are about to read an account of what happened during a domestic flight that one of our writers, Annie Jacobsen, took from Detroit to Los Angeles. The WWS Editorial Team debated long and hard about how to handle this information and ultimately we decided it was something that should be shared. What does it have to do with finances? Nothing, and everything. Here is Annie's story.  On June 29, 2004, at 12:28 p.m., I flew on Northwest Airlines flight #327 from Detroit to Los Angeles with my husband and our young son.  Also on our flight were 14 Middle Eastern men between the ages of approximately 20 and 50 years old.  What I experienced during that flight has caused me to question whether the United States of America can realistically uphold the civil liberties of every individual, even non-citizens, and protect its citizens from terrorist threats. On that Tuesday, our journey began uneventfully. Starting out that morning in Providence, Rhode Island, we went through security screening, flew to Detroit, and passed the time waiting for our connecting flight to Los Angeles by shopping at the airport stores and eating lunch at an airport diner. With no second security check required in Detroit we headed to our gate and waited for the pre-boarding announcement. Standing near us, also waiting to pre-board, was a group of six Middle Eastern men. They were carrying blue passports with Arabic writing. Two men wore tracksuits with Arabic writing across the back. Two carried musical instrument cases - thin, flat, 18" long. One wore a yellow T-shirt and held a McDonald's bag. And the sixth man had a bad leg -- he wore an orthopedic shoe and limped.  When the pre-boarding announcement was made, we handed our tickets to the Northwest Airlines agent, and walked down the jetway with the group of men directly behind us. My four-year-old son was determined to wheel his carry-on bag himself, so I turned to the men behind me and said, "You go ahead, this could be awhile." "No, you go ahead," one of the men replied. He smiled pleasantly and extended his arm for me to pass. He was young, maybe late 20's and had a goatee.   I thanked him and we boarded the plane. Once on the plane, we took our seats in coach (seats 17A, 17B and 17C). The man with the yellow shirt and the McDonald's bag sat across the aisle from us (in seat 17E). The pleasant man with the goatee sat a few rows back and across the aisle from us (in seat 21E).  The rest of the men were seated throughout the plane, and several made their way to the back.   As we sat waiting for the plane to finish boarding, we noticed another large group of Middle Eastern men boarding.  The first man wore a dark suit and sunglasses. He sat in first class in seat 1A, the seat second-closest to the cockpit door.  The other seven men walked into the coach cabin.  As "aware" Americans, my husband and I exchanged glances, and then continued to get comfortable.  I noticed some of the other passengers paying attention to the situation as well.  As boarding continued, we watched as, one by one, most of the Middle Eastern men made eye contact with each other.  They continued to look at each other and nod, as if they were all in agreement about something. I could tell that my husband was beginning to feel "anxious." The take-off was uneventful.  But once we were in the air and the seatbelt sign was turned off, the unusual activity began. The man in the yellow T-shirt got out of his seat and went to the lavatory at the front of coach -- taking his full McDonald's bag with him.  When he came out of the lavatory he still had the McDonald's bag, but it was now almost empty. He walked down the aisle to the back of the plane, still holding the bag.  When he passed two of the men sitting mid-cabin, he gave a thumbs-up sign.  When he returned to his seat, he no longer had the McDonald's bag. Then another man from the group stood up and took something from his carry-on in the overhead bin. It was about a foot long and was rolled in cloth.  He headed toward the back of the cabin with the object.  Five minutes later, several more of the Middle Eastern men began using the forward lavatory consecutively. In the back, several of the men stood up and used the back lavatory consecutively as well. For the next hour, the men congregated in groups of two and three at the back of the plane for varying periods of time. Meanwhile, in the first class cabin, just a foot or so from the cockpit door, the man with the dark suit - still wearing sunglasses - was also standing.  Not one of the flight crew members suggested that any of these men take their seats. Watching all of this, my husband was now beyond "anxious."  I decided to try to reassure my husband (and maybe myself) by walking to the back bathroom.  I knew the goateed-man I had exchanged friendly words with as we boarded the plane was seated only a few rows back, so  I thought I would say hello to the man to get some reassurance that everything was fine. As I stood up and turned around, I glanced in his direction and we made eye contact.  I threw out my friendliest "remember-me-we-had-a-nice-exchange-just-a-short-time-ago" smile. The man did not  smile back. His face did not move. In fact, the cold, defiant look he gave me sent shivers down my spine. When I returned to my seat I was unable to assure my husband that all was well. My husband immediately walked to the first class section to talk with the flight attendant.  "I might be overreacting, but I've been watching some really suspicious things..."  Before he could finish his statement, the flight attendant pulled him into the galley. In a quiet voice she explained that they were all concerned about what was going on. The captain was aware. The flight attendants were passing notes to each other. She said that there were people on board "higher up than you and me watching the men." My husband returned to his seat and relayed this information to me. He was feeling slightly better. I was feeling much worse. We were now two hours into a four-and-a-half hour flight. Approximately 10 minutes later, that same flight attendant came by with the drinks cart. She leaned over and quietly told my husband there were federal air marshals sitting all around us. She asked him not to tell anyone and explained that she could be in trouble for giving out that information. She then continued serving drinks. About 20 minutes later the same flight attendant returned. Leaning over and whispering, she asked my husband to write a description of the yellow-shirted man sitting across from us. She explained it would look too suspicious if she wrote the information. She asked my husband to slip the note to her when he was done.  After seeing 14 Middle Eastern men board separately (six together, eight individually) and then act as a group, watching their unusual glances, observing their bizarre bathroom activities, watching them congregate in small groups, knowing that the flight attendants and the pilots were seriously concerned, and now knowing that federal air marshals were on board, I was officially terrified. Before I'm labeled a racial profiler or -- worse yet -- a racist, let me add this. A month ago I traveled to India to research a magazine article I was writing. My husband and I flew on a jumbo jet carrying more than 300 Hindu and Muslim men and women on board.  We traveled throughout the country and stayed in a Muslim village 10 miles outside Pakistan. I never once felt fearful. I never once felt unsafe. I never once had the feeling that anyone wanted to hurt me.  This time was different. Finally, the captain announced that the plane was cleared for landing. It had been four hours since we left Detroit. The fasten seat belt light came on and I could see downtown Los Angeles. The flight attendants made one final sweep of the cabin and strapped themselves in for landing. I began to relax. Home was in sight. Suddenly, seven of the men stood up -- in unison -- and walked to the front and back lavatories. One by one, they went into the two lavatories, each spending about four minutes inside. Right in front of us, two men stood up against the emergency exit door, waiting for the lavatory to become available. The men spoke in Arabic among themselves and to the man in the yellow shirt sitting nearby. One of the men took his camera into the lavatory. Another took his cell phone. Again, no one approached the men. Not one of the flight attendants asked them to sit down.  I watched as the man in the yellow shirt, still in his seat, reached inside his shirt and pulled out a small red book. He read a few pages, then put the book back inside his shirt.  He pulled the book out again, read a page or two more, and put it back.  He continued to do this several more times. I looked around to see if any other passengers were watching. I immediately spotted a distraught couple seated two rows back. The woman was crying into the man's shoulder.  He was holding her hand.  I heard him say to her, "You've got to calm down." Behind them sat the once pleasant-smiling, goatee-wearing man.   I grabbed my son, I held my husband's hand and, despite the fact that I am not a particularly religious person, I prayed. The last man came out of the bathroom, and as he passed the man in the yellow shirt he ran his forefinger across his neck and mouthed the word "No."  The plane landed. My husband and I gathered our bags and quickly, very quickly, walked up the jetway. As we exited the jetway and entered the airport, we saw many, many men in dark suits.  A few yards further out into the terminal, LAPD agents ran past us, heading for the gate.  I have since learned that the representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the Federal Air Marshals (FAM), and the Transportation Security Association (TSA) met our plane as it landed.  Several men -- who I presume were the federal air marshals on board -- hurried off the plane and directed the 14 men over to the side. Knowing what we knew, and seeing what we'd seen, my husband and I decided to talk to the authorities. For several hours my husband and I were interrogated by the FBI. We gave sworn statement after sworn statement.  We wrote down every detail of our account. The interrogators seemed especially interested in the McDonald's bag, so we repeated in detail what we knew about the McDonald's bag. A law enforcement official stood near us, holding 14 Syrian passports in his hand. We answered more questions. And finally we went home.  Home Sweet Home The next day, I began searching online for news about the incident.  There was nothing.  I asked a friend who is a local news correspondent if there were any arrests at LAX that day.  There weren't.  I called Northwest Airlines' customer service. They said write a letter.  I wrote a letter, then followed up with a call to their public relations department.  They said they were aware of the situation (sorry that happened!) but legally they have 30 days to reply. I shared my story with a few colleagues. One mentioned she'd been on a flight with a group of foreign men who were acting strangely -- they turned out to be diamond traders.  Another had heard a story on National Public Radio (NPR) shortly after 9/11 about a group of Arab musicians who were having a hard time traveling on airplanes throughout the U.S. and couldn't get seats together.  I took note of these two stories and continued my research. Here are excerpts from an article written by Jason Burke, Chief Reporter, and published in The Observer (a British newspaper based in London) on February 8, 2004: Terrorist bid to build bombs in mid-flight: Intelligence reveals dry runs of new threat to blow up airliners "Islamic militants have conducted dry runs of a devastating new style of bombing on aircraft flying to Europe, intelligence sources believe. The tactics, which aim to evade aviation security systems by placing only components of explosive devices on passenger jets, allowing militants to assemble them in the air, have been tried out on planes flying between the Middle East, North Africa and Western Europe, security sources say. ...The... Transportation Security Administration issued an urgent memo detailing new threats to aviation and warning that terrorists in teams of five might be planning suicide missions to hijack commercial airliners, possibly using common items...such as cameras, modified as weapons. ...Components of IEDs [improvised explosive devices] can be smuggled on to an aircraft, concealed in either clothing or personal carry-on items... and assembled on board. In many cases of suspicious passenger activity, incidents have taken place in the aircraft's forward lavatory." So here's my question: Since the FBI issued a warning to the airline industry to be wary of groups of five men on a plane who might be trying to build bombs in the bathroom, shouldn't a group of  14 Middle Eastern men be screened before boarding a flight?  Apparently not. Due to our rules against discrimination, it can't be done. During the 9/11 hearings last April, 9/11 Commissioner John Lehman stated that "...it was the policy (before 9/11) and I believe remains the policy today to fine airlines if they have more than two young Arab males in secondary questioning because that's discriminatory."  So even if Northwest Airlines searched two of the men on board my Northwest flight, they couldn't search the other 12 because they would have already filled a government-imposed quota. I continued my research by reading an article entitled Arab Hijackers Now Eligible For Pre-Boarding from Ann Coulter (www.anncoulter.com):  "On September 21, as the remains of thousands of Americans lay smoldering at Ground Zero, [Secretary of Transportation Norman] Mineta fired off a letter to all U.S. airlines forbidding them from implementing the one security measure that could have prevented 9/11: subjecting Middle Eastern passengers to an added degree of pre-flight scrutiny. He sternly reminded the airlines that it was illegal to discriminate against passengers based on their race, color, national or ethnic origin or religion."  Coulter also writes that a few months later, at Mr. Mineta's behest, the Department of Transportation (DOT) filed complaints against United Airlines and American Airlines (who, combined, had lost 8 pilots, 25 flight attendants and 213 passengers on 9/11 - not counting the 19 Arab hijackers).  In November 2003, United Airlines settled their case with the DOT for $1.5 million. In March 2004, American Airlines settled their case with the DOT for $1.5 million. The DOT also charged Continental Airlines with discriminating against passengers who appeared to be Arab, Middle Eastern or Muslim. Continental Airlines settled their complaint with the DOT in April of 2004 for $.5 million.   From what I witnessed, Northwest Airlines doesn't have to worry about Norman Mineta filing a complaint against them for discriminatory, secondary screening of Arab men. No one checked the passports of the Syrian men. No one inspected the contents of the two instrument cases or the McDonald's bag. And no one checked the limping man's orthopedic shoe. In fact, according to the TSA regulations, passengers wearing an orthopedic shoe won't be asked to take it off.  As their site states, "Advise the screener if you're wearing orthopedic shoes...screeners should not be asking you to remove your orthopedic shoes at any time during the screening process. "  (Click here to read the TSA website policy on orthopedic shoes and other medical devices.) I placed a call to the TSA and talked to Joe Dove, a Customer Service Supervisor. I told him how we'd eaten with metal utensils moments in an airport diner before boarding the flight and how no one checked our luggage or the instrument cases being carried by the Middle Eastern men. Dove's response was, "Restaurants in secured areas -- that's an ongoing problem. We get that complaint often. TSA gets that complaint all the time and they haven't worked that out with the FAA. They're aware of it. You've got a good question. There may not be a reasonable answer at this time, I'm not going to BS you." At the Detroit airport no one checked our IDs. No one checked the folds in my newspaper or the contents of my son's backpack.  No one asked us what we'd done during our layover, if we bought anything, or if anyone gave us anything while we were in the airport. We were asked all of these questions (and many others ) three weeks earlier when we'd traveled in Europe -- where passengers with airport layovers are rigorously questioned and screened before boarding any and every flight. In Detroit no one checked who we were or what we carried on board a 757 jetliner bound for America's largest metropolis. Two days after my experience on Northwest Airlines flight #327 came this notice from SBS TV, The World News, July 1, 2004:  "The U.S. Transportation and Security Administration has issued a new directive which demands pilots make a pre-flight announcement banning passengers from congregating in aisles and outside the plane's toilets. The directive also orders flight attendants to check the toilets every two hours for suspicious packages." Through a series of events, The Washington Post heard about my story. I talked briefly about my experience with a representative from the newspaper. Within a few hours I received a call from Dave Adams, the Federal Air Marshal Services (FAM) Head of Public Affairs. Adams told me what he knew:  There were 14 Syrians on NWA flight #327. They were questioned at length by FAM, the FBI and the TSA upon landing in Los Angeles. The 14 Syrians had been hired as musicians to play at a casino in the desert. Adams said they were "scrubbed." None had arrest records (in America, I presume), none showed up on the FBI's "no fly" list or the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists List. The men checked out and they were let go. According to Adams, the 14 men traveled on Northwest Airlines flight #327 using one-way tickets. Two days later they were scheduled to fly back on jetBlue from Long Beach, California to New York -- also using one-way tickets. I asked Adams why, based on the FBI's credible information that terrorists may try to assemble bombs on planes, the air marshals or the flight attendants didn't do anything about the bizarre behavior and frequent trips to the lavatory.  "Our FAM agents have to have an event to arrest somebody. Our agents aren't going to deploy until there is an actual event," Adams explained. He said he could not speak for the policies of Northwest Airlines. So the question is... Do I think these men were musicians? I'll let you decide. But I wonder, if 19 terrorists can learn to fly airplanes into buildings, couldn't 14 terrorists learn to play instruments? All Credit to Women On Wall Street at:

Washington Times reporter on Flight 327 & continued government denials

Posted By: News
Date: 3, January 05, at 7:07 p.m.

By Carol J. Williams, Times Staff Writer

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago — For as long as pastel rum drinks and hedonistic pre-Lenten celebrations have been in fashion, fun-seekers have flocked to this tropical duet of lush islands to sunbathe, sway to calypso and savor the exotic flavors of its multicultural cuisine.

But an ugly social ill threatens the perpetual party atmosphere: kidnapping, a crime so epidemic that Trinidad ranks second in the world behind Colombia for its rate of abductions.

Victims and police point to a home-grown radical Muslim gang that sought to topple the government in 1990 and has since built a lucrative criminal empire. U.S. intelligence operatives are believed to be watching the militants of Jamaat al Muslimeen for signs that they are linked to global terrorist networks such as Al Qaeda.

Abductions targeting the prosperous and politically influential have evoked comparison to the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, whose kidnappings in the Philippines and Malaysia have chilled business at island resorts in those Pacific countries. They have also instilled fear in this country, the Caribbean's most dynamic economy, that visitors and foreign investors could begin looking elsewhere.

The relatively small and obscure Jamaat al Muslimeen sparked the kidnapping wave that flared up about two years ago, but authorities see an even more troubling copycat phenomenon. Amateur crooks and street kids are getting into the act, inspired by the ransom paid by relatives who may fear the police as much as the abductors.

Kidnapping has been on the rise throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, but it has soared in Trinidad. In 2001, this country of 1.2 million had fewer than 10 kidnappings. In 2002, the number was 29. In the last couple of years, the figure has been about 150.

Police say most kidnappings are instances of gangland score-settling or drug dealings gone wrong, an explanation that serves to defuse public anger and convince honest citizens that they run little risk of becoming targets.

The victims are primarily Indians, who make up 40% of the population and tend to be more affluent than blacks, who compose a similar proportion. They contend that the kidnappings are being fueled by police corruption, government complicity, racism and an attitude that most victims had it coming.

Still missing six months after his June 21 abduction, 11-year-old Vijay Persad has become a symbol for the plight of ordinary Trinis caught up in the violence. "People say they're after us. The black community doesn't give us support. They are scared of these people," Ragkumar Persad, 38, says of his neighbors' indifference to his family tragedy and Jamaat al Muslimeen.

Saran Kissoondan, whose family paid $167,000 to free him last year, accuses the police of being in league with organized crime.

"The criminals were getting information from the police. I could hear their conversations," Kissoondan recalled of the 18 days he spent handcuffed and blindfolded in a dirt-floor shack, listening to his captors talking on their cellphones. "The police officer handling my matter was advising the criminals not to let me go [for a lesser ransom]. The police were telling them my family could pay more."

Kissoondan, owner of a car dealership and brother of one of the country's most successful restaurateurs, identified two of his captors, who were arrested shortly after his release. One of the men, a member of Jamaat al Muslimeen, agreed to testify against the crime masterminds of the group and was put under police protection. Before he could testify, however, the witness' body was found in a lake, shot, wrapped in plastic and weighted with rocks. All charges were dropped against the rest of the suspects.

"Since the PNM came to power, kidnapping of Indian people has come alive," Kissoondan said, referring to the ruling People's National Movement and Prime Minister Patrick Manning. "There's nothing and nobody to stop it. The police know who the main kidnappers in Trinidad are, but they are their associates so they will do nothing."

A senior police source, who spoke on condition that he not be identified, confirmed that authorities knew that members of Jamaat al Muslimeen had been involved in the kidnappings. After a failed 1990 coup, the group's leaders were freed on a legal technicality and have since run drugs, smuggled arms and carried out other criminal activities with impunity from a mosque complex in the south.

"The group isn't really religious anymore. The leader has been picking up hardened criminals and getting them into his fold," the official said. Police don't move against them "because both the present government and the past government rub shoulders with that group to win votes."

Jamaat al Muslimeen members are seldom denied bail, even on murder charges, which enhances suspicion in the business community that the government, courts and security forces are not to be trusted.

"Ninety percent of the time, relatives are not willing to go along with the police. They think the police are dragging their feet, or worse. I'm not saying there is not corruption," the official said. "Their main concern is to get back their loved ones."

Police insist that the kidnapping threat is exaggerated.

"There have been problems, but we are getting on top of the situation," said Supt. Adam Joseph, head of the anti-kidnapping squad within the National Police Service. "Very few innocent people are killed. Most murders involve gangs. They are killing each other off. Still, it's not good for society to be without law and order."

Of the wealthy and influential people who are increasingly among the victims, Joseph turned philosophical. "Criminals will always be inclined to go after people with money," he said. "There will always be an element of society motivated by greed and envy. But by and large it is a very small element."

Joseph acknowledged that Jamaat al Muslimeen was suspected in much of the crime wave and noted that the group's leader, Yasin Abu Bakr, and three other kingpins face charges of conspiracy to murder stemming from the assassination of the state's witness in the Kissoondan case. The defendants are free on bail.

Asked whether U.S. intelligence or security officials had expressed concern about the group or any ties it might have with global terrorist organizations, Joseph said he wasn't privy to talks at that level.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Port of Spain wouldn't comment on whether there was concern in Washington that Jamaat al Muslimeen posed any threat beyond Trinidad's borders.

But Hamid Ghany, dean of the social sciences faculty at the University of the West Indies, said he thought the extremists probably had ties to an international network such as Al Qaeda. "My suspicion is that they are not operating in isolation," he said.

The Trinidad & Tobago Express newspaper has covered the kidnapping wave and Jamaat al Muslimeen's leading role, drawing veiled threats against reporters and editors transmitted through a radio station with close ties to the group.

Reporter Richard Charan said he's been told by senior police officers that they know Jamaat al Muslimeen controls the kidnapping rings but believe they are powerless to stop them. He also worries that the targeting of Indians by the predominantly black gang members threatens to expose racism "that is never spoken about but is just below the surface."

Average Trinis echo the official line that upright citizens have nothing to fear from the kidnapping wave or the concurrent string of killings.

"It's just criminals knocking off criminals," tour guide Balkissoon Narine said. "There's a lot of drug business in the country, but they keep themselves to themselves."

Early this year, calypso artist Weston Rawlins, who goes by the stage name Cro Cro, brought the simmering racial issue to the surface with the song "Face Reality," in which he appeared to condone kidnapping as a tool for social justice.

"Dey dress with jacket and ties. Dey thief and living a lie. Dey better pay back all the wrong things they do, or the bandits coming for you," Cro Cro rapped to appreciative audiences.

News commentators, opposition politicians and Indian community leaders denounced the song as inciting violent crime.

Joseph, the leader of the anti-kidnapping squad, brushed off the controversy as political posturing by the opposition.

"If one listens to the lyrics of the song, it was tongue in cheek," he said.

http://www.latimes.com/

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Four Charged With Plotting To Blow Up U.S. Airport

June 3, 2007 -- U.S. authorities have charged four people in connection with an alleged Islamic terrorist plot to blow up John F. Kennedy airport in New York.

Officials say the plot allegedly involved blowing up the airport's jet-fuel tanks and part of a pipeline from New Jersey.

Three of the suspects have been arrested, including a former airline cargo worker at the airport and a former member of parliament in the Caribbean nation of Guyana.

Russell Defreitas, a Guyanese native and naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested in New York while the arrest of the two others, Guyanese citizen Abdul Kadir and Trinidadian Kareem Ibrahim, occurred in Trinidad.

One of the suspects remains a fugitive. He has been identified as Abdel Nur, also a Guyanese national.

Authorities said Kadir and Nur were longtime associates of a Trinidadian radical Muslim group, Jamaat al-Muslimeen, which launched an unsuccessful coup attempt in Trinidad in 1990.

'Threat Fully Contained'

U.S. justice officials say the men were plotting to blow up buildings, fuel tanks, and a jet-fuel pipeline that runs through several residential neighborhoods. Authorities say the alleged plot was foiled well before it could be carried out.

The plot was brought to light when former airport employee Defreitas recruited an FBI informant to help him in the plan. They say the informant taped some of the conversations he had with Defreitas.

The suspects had reportedly conducted surveillance of the airport, and obtained satellite images of it from the Internet.

Mark Mershon, assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York field office, said the alleged plot never got beyond the planning stages and there was no threat to air safety or to the public.

"One clear signature of this cell was its persistence," Mershon said. "They consistently worked to refine their plot; they took extensive measures to seek expert advice, finances, and explosives. The bottom line is that we believe that this threat has been fully contained."

U.S. officials say the men were driven by their hatred toward the United States. In an indictment charging the four men, one of them is quoted as saying the foiled plot would "cause greater destruction than in the September 11 attacks."

Bigger Than 9/11?

U.S. attorney Roslynn Mauskopf described the plot as "one of the most chilling imaginable." She said that had the plot been carried out, it would have resulted in immeasurable deaths and destruction.

"I think one particularly telling insight into the motive for these people are some of the words out of the mouth of Russell Defreitas," Mauskopf said. "In talking about the plot, he says: 'Any time you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States. To hit John F. Kennedy, wow...they love John F. Kennedy like he's the man...if you hit that, this whole country will be mourning. It's like you can kill the man twice."

Several experts interviewed by "The New York Times" have suggested that the plot was probably not feasible.

The case is the latest in a series of alleged plots believed to have been thwarted in the United States since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Six were arrested last month on charges of plotting to attack Fort Dix, a U.S. Army training center in New Jersey.

Last year, seven men were arrested and charged in an alleged plot to destroy the Sears Tower in Chicago, which is the tallest building in the United States.

(compiled from agency reports)

All Credit to: RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org

"During this time, he managed to get passports from Guyana, Trinidad, Saudi Arabia, Canada and the United States, according to Williams. He also began to adopt a number of aliases, incuding Abu Arifi, Jafar al-Tayyar, Jaafar At Yayyar, Ja'far al-Tayar, and Mohammed Sher Mohammed Khan (the name that appeared on his official FBI file). He traveled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, where he met with Ramzi Binalshibh, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and other members of the al-Qaida high command. He also spent considerable time within al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, where he received training in explosives and special operations.

Following 9/11, el-Shukrijumah was reportedly singled out by bin Laden and al-Zawahiri to spearhead the next great attack on America. One plan was for a nuclear attack that would take place simultaneously in seven U.S. cities, leaving millions dead and the richest and most powerful nation on earth in ashes. "  WorldNetDaily.Com
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Abu Dawood told Hamid Mir, a reporter who has covered al-Qaida and met with Osama bin Laden, the attack is being coordinated by Adnan el-Shukrijumah and suggests it may involve some form of weapon of mass destruction smuggled across the Mexican border.

"Our brothers are ready to attack inside America. We will breach their security again," he is quoted as saying. "There is no timeframe for our attack inside America; we can do it any time."

As WND has previously reported, el-Shukrijumah is a trained nuclear technician and accomplished pilot who has been singled out by bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to serve as the field commander for the next terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

The terrorist was last seen in Mexico, where, on Nov. 1, 2004, he allegedly hijacked a Piper PA Pawnee cropduster from Ejido Queretaro near Mexicali to transport a nuclear weapon and nuclear equipment into the U.S., according to Paul Williams, a former FBI consultant and author of "The Dunces of Doomsday."

"He is an American and a friend of Muhammad Atta, who led 9/11 attacks five years ago," said Dawood. "We call him 'Jaffer al Tayyar' (Jafer the Pilot); he is very brave and intelligent. (President) Bush is aware that brother Adnan has smuggled deadly materials inside America from the Mexican border. Bush is silent about him, because he doesn’t want to panic his people. Sheikh Osama bin Laden has completed his cycle of warnings. You know, he is man of his words, he is not a politician; he always does what he says. If he said it many times that Americans will see new attacks, they will definitely see new attacks. He is a real mujahid. Americans will not win this war, which they have started against Muslims. Americans are the biggest supporters of the biggest terrorist in the world, which is Israel."

Mir reportedly interviewed Dawood Sept. 12 at the tomb of Sultan Mehmud Ghaznawi on the outskirts of Kabul. Dawood and the al-Qaida leaders who accompanied him were clean-shaven and dressed as Western reporters. The al-Qaida commander had contacted Mir by cell phone to arrange the meeting.

El-Shukrijumah was born in Guyana Aug. 4, 1975 – the firstborn of Gulshair el-Shukrijumah, a 44-year-old radical Muslim cleric, and his 16-year-old wife. In 1985, Gulshair migrated to the United States, where he assumed duties as the imam of the Farouq Mosque in Brooklyn.

The mosque, located at 554 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, has served as a hive for terrorist activities. It has raised millions for the jihad and has served as a recruiting station for al-Qaida. Many of the planners of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, including blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, were prominent members of this notorious "house of worship."

In 1995, the Shukrijumah family relocated to Miramar, Fla., where Gulshair became the spiritual leader of the radical Masjid al-Hijah Mosque, and where Adnan became friends with Jose Padilla, who planned to detonate a radiological bomb in midtown Manhattan; Mandhai Jokhan, who was convicted of attempting to blow up nuclear power plants in southern Florida; and a group of other homegrown terrorists.

Adnan Shukrijumah attended flight schools in Florida and Norman, Oklahoma, along with Mohammad Atta and the other 9/11 operatives, and he became a highly skilled commercial jet pilot, although he, like Atta and the other terrorists, never applied for a license with the Federal Aviation Commission.

In April 2001, Shukrijumah spent 10 days in Panama, where he reportedly met with al-Qaida officials to assist in the planning of 9/11. He also traveled to Trinidad and Guyana, where virulent al-Qaida cells have been established. The following month, he obtained an associate's degree in computer engineering from Broward Community College.

During this time, he managed to get passports from Guyana, Trinidad, Saudi Arabia, Canada and the United States, according to Williams. He also began to adopt a number of aliases, including Abu Arifi, Jafar al-Tayyar, Jaafar At Yayyar, Ja'far al-Tayar, and Mohammed Sher Mohammed Khan (the name that appeared on his official FBI file). He traveled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, where he met with Ramzi Binalshibh, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and other members of the al-Qaida high command. He also spent considerable time within al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, where he received training in explosives and special operations.

Following 9/11, el-Shukrijumah was reportedly singled out by bin Laden and al-Zawahiri to spearhead the next great attack on America. One plan was for a nuclear attack that would take place simultaneously in seven U.S. cities, leaving millions dead and the richest and most powerful nation on earth in ashes.

"Muslims should leave America," said Dawood. "We cannot stop our attack just because of the American Muslims; they must realize that American forces are killing innocent Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq; we have the right to respond back, in the same manner, in the enemy's homeland. The American Muslims are like a human shield for our enemy; they must leave New York and Washington."

Mir, the journalist, has reported previously that al-Qaida has smuggled nuclear weapons and uranium into the U.S.

From:HOMELAND INSECURITY
2nd warning for Muslims to leave U.S. before attack
'Because Allah's punishment would fall on America in the month of Ramadan' Posted: October 16, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
 2006 WorldNetDaily.com http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52460
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jamaat ul-Fuqra on Brit Hume

by Baron Bodissey

Fox News aired a longer news story this evening on the Jamaat ul-Fuqra compound in Red House. This time it was on Special Report, with Jim Angle filling in for Brit Hume.

Once again, Martin’s and CP’s hard has been work validated in a national news outlet.

I still don’t have any video for these reports, but D.K. Shideler has made another transcript for us of tonight’s story:

Anchor:		…A peaceful existence at their compound in southwest Virginia, but federal authorities tell Fox News that the group is on their radar after a major counterfeiting bust earlier this year. National Correspondent Catherine Herridge paid a visit to the compound, and filed this story.
Catherine Herridge:		About 12 miles south of Appomattox, where General Lee surrendered to General Grant in 1865, lies the town of Red House, Virginia. It’s a small place by any standard, just over 300 people, not a traffic light for miles, its also home to this 44 acre compound run by the Muslims of America.
Thomas Jones:		The land was purchased, and they said they thought it was a good area for them to come into. They liked the area, it was secluded.
Catherine Herridge:		For more than 2 decades Thomas Jones has been Sheriff of Charlotte County, which includes Red House. He has known the group since the early 90s.
Thomas Jones:		We’ve had domestic disputes, and a some civil processes and all. They’ve always complied with our needs. The gate is always open, you know, we drive in. You know [Garbled]…
Catherine Herridge:		This federal law enforcement fact sheet obtained by Fox News links the Muslims of America with a group called Jamaat ul-Fuqra. The document states that its leader, Sheikh Gilani, who lives in Pakistan, began preaching against the west back in 1981, at a mosque in Brooklyn. Jamaat ul-Fuqra, the fact sheet states, has more than 35 suspected communes, and more than 3000 members spread across the United States, all in support of one goal, the purification of Islam through violence. The document states that shoe bomber Richard Reed, DC Sniper John Allen Muhammad may be linked to the group. In 2002, Jamaat ul-Fuqra got a lot of attention after the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was apparently trying to see Gilani. Gilani denied in Pearl’s kidnapping. When Fox News went to the compound we were met by [unclear] Wasi, who says he’s the mayor of the community.
Wasi:		A lot of people come here, a lot of people have questions, about what is your philosophy. Our philosophy is that we’re Muslim.
Catherine Herridge:		Wasi would not give Fox a formal interview, but off camera he claimed that the group is non-violent and that there is no link to Jamaat ul-Fuqra. Wasi took Fox on a tour of the compound but would not allow cameras. The living conditions appeared to be Spartan and run down. Fox was told that most of the Muslims who live here are African Americans, others come from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Europe.
Thomas Jones:		They stay awhile, and its kind of a wayside for some of them. Traveling through from, I guess, one Muslim compound, or village, to the other.
Catherine Herridge:		In March, 8 men were arrested in 4 states, part of a federal investigation into a multi-million dollar counterfeit goods ring. Federal law enforcement sources say there was a link to Muslims of America. Wasi confirmed at least one of the suspects once lived at the compound, but he claimed that the man was asked to leave for quote, “anti-social behavior”. Wasi also said they had guns, quote, “it’s America, its perfectly legal.”

- - - - - - - - - -

Thomas Jones:		Well if they use them to hunt, I don’t know. But they’ve admitted they use them for target practicing. And they are semi-automatic.
Catherine Herridge:		Fox News went to the compound a second time, to shoot more video from the public highway. The reception was less welcoming.
Video:		Who are you guys? You live up on the compound?
Catherine Herridge:		At one point the truck tailed our camera crew until Fox left Red House. Wasi apologized for the incident, saying he didn’t know if the men lived in the compound, or in town. In Red House, Virginia, Catherine Herridge, Fox News.

Update: Thanks to commenter iknitifrogiknitagain, we have corrected the spelling of the Fox correspondent’s last name. That’s what we get for relying on audio!

Read further...

Friday, June 01, 2007

Jamaat ul-Fuqra on Brit Hume

by Baron Bodissey

Fox News aired a longer news story this evening on the Jamaat ul-Fuqra compound in Red House. This time it was on Special Report, with Jim Angle filling in for Brit Hume.

Once again, Martin’s and CP’s hard has been work validated in a national news outlet.

I still don’t have any video for these reports, but D.K. Shideler has made another transcript for us of tonight’s story:

Anchor:		…A peaceful existence at their compound in southwest Virginia, but federal authorities tell Fox News that the group is on their radar after a major counterfeiting bust earlier this year. National Correspondent Catherine Herridge paid a visit to the compound, and filed this story.
Catherine Herridge:		About 12 miles south of Appomattox, where General Lee surrendered to General Grant in 1865, lies the town of Red House, Virginia. It’s a small place by any standard, just over 300 people, not a traffic light for miles, its also home to this 44 acre compound run by the Muslims of America.
Thomas Jones:		The land was purchased, and they said they thought it was a good area for them to come into. They liked the area, it was secluded.
Catherine Herridge:		For more than 2 decades Thomas Jones has been Sheriff of Charlotte County, which includes Red House. He has known the group since the early 90s.
Thomas Jones:		We’ve had domestic disputes, and a some civil processes and all. They’ve always complied with our needs. The gate is always open, you know, we drive in. You know [Garbled]…
Catherine Herridge:		This federal law enforcement fact sheet obtained by Fox News links the Muslims of America with a group called Jamaat ul-Fuqra. The document states that its leader, Sheikh Gilani, who lives in Pakistan, began preaching against the west back in 1981, at a mosque in Brooklyn. Jamaat ul-Fuqra, the fact sheet states, has more than 35 suspected communes, and more than 3000 members spread across the United States, all in support of one goal, the purification of Islam through violence. The document states that shoe bomber Richard Reed, DC Sniper John Allen Muhammad may be linked to the group. In 2002, Jamaat ul-Fuqra got a lot of attention after the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was apparently trying to see Gilani. Gilani denied in Pearl’s kidnapping. When Fox News went to the compound we were met by [unclear] Wasi, who says he’s the mayor of the community.
Wasi:		A lot of people come here, a lot of people have questions, about what is your philosophy. Our philosophy is that we’re Muslim.
Catherine Herridge:		Wasi would not give Fox a formal interview, but off camera he claimed that the group is non-violent and that there is no link to Jamaat ul-Fuqra. Wasi took Fox on a tour of the compound but would not allow cameras. The living conditions appeared to be Spartan and run down. Fox was told that most of the Muslims who live here are African Americans, others come from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Europe.
Thomas Jones:		They stay awhile, and its kind of a wayside for some of them. Traveling through from, I guess, one Muslim compound, or village, to the other.
Catherine Herridge:		In March, 8 men were arrested in 4 states, part of a federal investigation into a multi-million dollar counterfeit goods ring. Federal law enforcement sources say there was a link to Muslims of America. Wasi confirmed at least one of the suspects once lived at the compound, but he claimed that the man was asked to leave for quote, “anti-social behavior”. Wasi also said they had guns, quote, “it’s America, its perfectly legal.”

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Thomas Jones:		Well if they use them to hunt, I don’t know. But they’ve admitted they use them for target practicing. And they are semi-automatic.
Catherine Herridge:		Fox News went to the compound a second time, to shoot more video from the public highway. The reception was less welcoming.
Video:		Who are you guys? You live up on the compound?
Catherine Herridge:		At one point the truck tailed our camera crew until Fox left Red House. Wasi apologized for the incident, saying he didn’t know if the men lived in the compound, or in town. In Red House, Virginia, Catherine Herridge, Fox News.

Update: Thanks to commenter iknitifrogiknitagain, we have corrected the spelling of the Fox correspondent’s last name. That’s what we get for relying on audio.

All Credit to Originally Fox News and then to Gates of Vienna and Baron Bodissey

at:http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2007/06/jamaat-ul-fuqra-on-brit-hume.html

Update: 1:15PM EDST 6-2-07      3 arrested in JFK Airport terror plot

By ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago

Three people were arrested and one other was being sought Saturday in connection to a plan to set off explosives in a fuel line that feeds John F. Kennedy International Airport and runs through residential neighborhoods, officials close to the investigation said.

The plot, which never got past the planning stages, did not involve airplanes or passenger terminals, according to the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the arrests had not yet been announced.

The plot posed no threat to air safety or the public, the FBI said Saturday.

Details were to be given out at a 1 p.m. news conference.

The pipeline takes fuel from a facility in Linden, N.J., to the airport. Other lines service LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport.

A third law enforcement official said the suspects include a Guyanese man who used to work at the airport and was arrested in New York City on Friday night. Two other suspects were apprehended in Trinidad.

Investigators were seeking a fourth suspect in Trinidad.

The official said the plotters had conducted surveillance on giant jet fuel tanks at JFK and the pipeline. They had taken surveillance video of the targets and took it to Trinidad to review the tape, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the arrests were not yet announced.

The official said investigators first found out about the plot in January 2006. After that, an informant infiltrated the group.

"This was the ultimate hand-and-glove operation between NYPD and FBI," said U.S. Rep. Peter King, a Republican from Long Island.

The arrests mark the latest in a series of alleged homegrown terrorism plots targeting high-profile American landmarks.

A year ago, seven men were arrested in what officials called the early stages of a plot to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and destroy FBI offices and other buildings.

A month later, authorities broke up a plot to bomb underwater New York City train tunnels to flood lower Manhattan.

And six people were arrested a month ago in an alleged plot to unleash a bloody rampage on Fort Dix in New Jersey.

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Associated Press Writer Tom Hays and Pat Milton contributed to this report. All Credit to Associated Press Via Yahoo News.Com at:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070602/ap_on_re_us/terrorism_plot&printer=1;_ylt=AmgM0evzpIuEnPeUXxvRZYtH2ocA
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Fox News: Alleged Terror Plot Foiled at JFK Airport

Saturday, June 02, 2007