Arrest Early Or Risk Potential Terror Attack

It’s a rather big dilemma for law enforcement and national security. At what point does continued surveillance outweigh the risk of  letting a potential terror plot go too far?  It’s a fine line. Move in too soon and you may not have a case. Wait too long and lives, perhaps many lives, could be lost.

A small group of FBI agents huddled outside a Home Depot store in Atlanta in January 2006, watching a young man suspected of being linked to terrorists as he walked out the door with materials that could be used to make a bomb.

They knew Syed Haris Ahmed had researched bomb-making techniques online and shaved his head, as some jihadis have done before an attack. However, they had to make a quick decision faced by other terror investigators across the country: They could swoop in and keep him from potentially building a bomb, which could leave them with a case too weak to win a conviction. Or they could keep building a stronger case – and risk a potential terror attack.

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Five Missing Americans Probed for Terror Links

UPDATE: Five Americans arrested at a house linked to a militant group in eastern Pakistan have told investigators they came to the country to take part in “jihad” or holy war, police said Thursday.

U.S. officials believe the five are men who were reported missing more than a week ago by their families in the Washington, D.C., area. The families asked the FBI for help after finding a farewell video left by the men showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended.

Source

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Five young Americans captured in Pakistan are under investigation for possibly trying to meet up with a terror group, authorities said Wednesday. Two U.S. officials said one of the men left a “farewell” video behind saying Muslims must be defended, and showing images of U.S. casualties.

Frantic relatives and worried FBI agents have been searching for the five college-age men for more than a week, since their disappearance in late November. The missing students have family roots in the northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., area.

Two U.S. officials said one of the group _ they did not say which one _ left behind what investigators believe was a farewell video message, in which he talks about defending Muslims and shows images of U.S. casualties. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

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AirTrans Flight 297 Witness Accounts Continue To Grow

Michael Carl at WND reports that evidence of a possible “dry run’ onboard AirTrans flight 297 is mounting, with analysts hinting at a cover-up because of a reported airline gag order on employees and a number of additional witnesses coming forward with varying accounts of what took place.

A Second Incident?

Carl’s report also details a second similar incident that has been related to WND (presumably on a different airline)  by an airline employee who has asked her company to investigate. She insisted on anonymity until she gets a response.

The employee described how three “Middle Eastern” men boarded a plane and loaded enough carryon luggage into an overhead bin to fill it at Row 4, even though they were sitting in the rear of the craft.

Then they rearranged their seats so they all wound up in an exit row on the jet.

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Authorities Search for 5 Missing D.C. Area Muslim Men

UPDATE:Pakistani sources have confirmed the 5 men are considered to be the same five reported missing from the Washington D.C. area in yesterdays report.

UPDATE: Shortly after we posted this story, Five foreigners believed to be associated with terrorist activities were arrested in Sargodha after a raid on a house. The arrested foreigners include 2 Yeminis, 1 Egyptians, 1 Swedish and 1 US born Pakistani.

The group has taken the house on 30th November and have been living there ever since. DPO Sargodha Dr. Usman Anwar told Geo News that the police raided the house of Khalid Farooqi, an activist of banned outfit Jaish-e-Muhammad, and arrested five foreign nationals from there.

Initial investigations have identified them as Ahmed Abdullah, Waqar Hassan Khan, Eman Hassan, Yasir and Rami Zamzam.

Security agencies have initiated further investigations in this regard.

Source

The Investigative Project on Terrorism reports Federal investigators are searching for a Howard University dental student and four other missing Muslim men reported missing from the Washington, D.C. area. According to the report, there is concern they may have been sent abroad to train for jihad. The five were last seen November 29.

Press ReleaseFederal investigators are searching for a Howard University dental student and four other missing young Muslim men reported missing from the Washington, D.C. area, the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) has learned. There is concern they may have been sent abroad to train for jihad. The five were last seen November 29.

[...]

It is not clear where the men are believed to have gone, but an informed source told the IPT that at least one left behind a farewell video.

[..]

The disappearance comes as U.S. officials are increasingly concerned about the threat of homegrown Islamist extremism.

On the surface, at least, the situation in Washington resembles the case of 20 young Somalis who disappeared from the Minneapolis area a year ago. They are believed to have made their way back to Somalia, where they trained with the Al-Shabaab terrorist group.

At least three of those men have died, including one who became the first known American citizen to carry out a suicide bombing. Fourteen people have been indicted in relation to the Somali recruitment effort.

Source

Press Release

Airtrans Flight 297 Incident Bigger Than AirTran Claims?

Airtrans Flight 297 passenger Brent Brown spoke to WSBTV News today and described what he saw.

For additional info on the Airtrans Flight 297 story read our previopus posts.

• What Happened On AirTran Airways Flight 297
• AirTran Flight 297 Story Continues To Unfold

From WSBTV

Rumors continued to circulate Monday via e-mail and the Internet about what exactly happened on an AirTran flight at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in November.

At the time, AirTran told Channel 2 Action News that an unruly passenger on a cell phone forced the pilot to take the plane back to the gate. Monday, a passenger said the situation went well beyond that.

“It was extremely intense. I’ve never experienced anything like that,” said passenger Brent Brown.

Brown runs a security consultant company and is a frequent flier. But even for him, he said the events of Flight 297 were disturbing and frightening. As the Houston-bound flight taxied to the runway, several in a group of about a dozen men of Middle Eastern descent started walking the aisles and using their cell phones, Brown said.

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David Coleman Headley Charged in Mumbai Terror Attack

David Coleman Headley, a Chicago man suspected of scheming to attack a Danish newspaper is now charged with playing a role in the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks that killed 166 people according to a report on Fox News. Headley, 49, was charged in a 12-count criminal information with six counts of conspiracy to bomb public places in India, to murder and maim people in India and Denmark, to provide material support to foreign terrorist plots and another offenses.

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Was Chicago Terror Suspect Plotting Attack On Jews?

In a story that seems to be unfolding daily, the latest twist involves a book Chicago terror suspect David Coleman Headley carried with him, “How to Pray like a Jew”. Mr. Headley isn’t Jewish. He is an Islamic fundamentalist.

Headley, a Pakistani native whose birth name was Daood Gilani before he changed it, was using the book of Jewish prayer tips as part of an elaborate cover, according to federal authorities.

Now, the reason for the alleged cover may be surfacing.

Headley is under investigation by India’s counterpart to the FBI in connection with a plot to attack Israeli tourists, according to a report Friday in the Times of India newspaper.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is said to be looking at newly obtained leads that the Chicago businessman had conducted surveillance on a popular Israeli tourist site in the city of Pushkar. The Times report states that Headley scouted “the Bed-chabad — the prayer hall of the Jews — where hundreds of them gather every evening for routine prayers.”

More than 200 NIA agents have spread out across the south Asian country attempting to track Headley’s travels the past few years.

Headley and another Chicago businessman, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, are currently facing federal charges in Chicago alleging they were planning to attack a Danish newspaper that employed a controversial cartoonist.

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FBI Arrests Seattle Man For Suspicious Powder Incidents

KING 5 News reports that a 35-year-old Seattle man is under arrest for allegedly sending threatening letters to the Seattle Times. The FBI is also investigating if he was involved in an apparent pipe bomb incident last weekend. No one was injured in the incident, but the events were clearly designed to evoke fear.

In early October, the hazmat team was called to the Seattle Times building in downtown Seattle two days in a row. The newspaper had received threatening letters filled with a mysterious white powder that was later deemed not to be dangerous.

The FBI served a search warrant at the Willows Court Apartments in North Seattle earlier this week in connection to that investigation.

“Eight black SUV’s pull in to our street and then park, and then two police cards block each end of the street,” says Kelsey Wilson, who lives in the same apartment complex. “They were all wearing FBI shirts and their badges and bullet proof vests and they were carrying a battering ram.”

Friday, 35-year-old Jason Steadman, whose last name was found on the apartment directory, was arrested in West Seattle. A woman who answered the phone at his apartment issued a “no comment.”

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FBI Says Former Doctor Admits To Making Devices

The Cuyahoga Falls man accused of possessing an assortment of explosives and firearms, confessed to making the devices during an interview this week with the FBI, according to court documents.

Mark Campano, 56, is incarcerated at an undisclosed facility in northeast Ohio after a court appearance Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Akron. He is charged with possessing unregistered destructive devices. Additional charges could be levied.

Authorities say one of the explosives erupted Monday night inside Campano’s Center Avenue apartment, severely injuring his hand and sending two thunderous booms throughout the complex. Falls police and firefighters evacuated more than two dozen neighbors after discovering more pipe bombs, firearms and ammunition. There were no reports of others being injured.

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Additional – Falls man faces charges after police find arsenal

Inside The Fusion Center, Southern Nevada’s Counterterrorism Center

Open for more than two years, the Las Vegas “fusion” center is battling terrorism and street crime, a dual mission that has affected how local and federal law enforcement agents view each other and their jobs. Take a ‘behind the scenes’ look.

When a tip arrived about a threat of violence at a southern Nevada high school football game, a Clark County School District police officer helped plan a response.

When a Colorado man was arrested on terrorism charges, a Department of Homeland Security analyst probed whether he had Las Vegas ties.

Though the two cases are very different, the officials who worked them were in the same cubicle-filled room at the Southern Nevada Counterterrorism Center.

Open for more than two years, the Las Vegas “fusion” center is battling terrorism and street crime, a dual mission that has affected how local and federal law enforcement agents view each other and their jobs.

The fusion center concept, which was developed by the federal government after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is grounded in the idea that information flow between police agencies is the key to stopping terrorism.

In Las Vegas and elsewhere, the concept has evolved to include a broader “all crimes, all hazards” approach.

A sign that federal law enforcement has embraced this strategy came last month when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder visited Las Vegas and praised the local fusion center as a national model.

The maturation of the facility coincides with Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons’ decision last month to fold the state’s Office of Homeland Security into the Nevada Division of Emergency Management.

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FBI Suspects Terrorists Are Exploring Cyber Attacks

According to a WSJ report today, The FBI is looking at groups suspected of having links to al Qaeda who have shown an interest in mounting an attack on computer systems that control critical U.S. infrastructure.

While there is no evidence that terrorist groups have developed sophisticated cyber-attack capabilities yet, a lack of security protections in U.S. computer software increases the likelihood that terrorists could execute attacks in the future, an official warned.

If terrorists were to amass such capabilities, they would be wielded with “destructive and deadly intent,” Steven Chabinsky, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, told the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday.

“The FBI is aware of and investigating individuals who are affiliated with or sympathetic to al Qaeda who have recognized and discussed the vulnerabilities of the U.S. infrastructure to cyber-attack,” Mr. Chabinsky told the committee, without providing details.

Such infrastructure could include power grids and transportation systems.

The control systems of U.S. infrastructure as well as money transfers are now connected directly or indirectly to the Internet. Hackers have been able to penetrate computer systems running components of the U.S. electric grid as well as divert bank transfers.

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Is American The Missing Link In Mumbai Terror Attack?

With the passport of David Headley now apparently confirming his nine visits to India, investigators are now focusing on whether he is the missing answer to last year’s Mumbai terror attacks. Headley was placed under arrest in Chicago last week by the FBI for allegedly conspiring with Lashkar-e-Toiba to launch terrorist attacks in India. Lashkar-e-Toiba is the group blamed for the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last year.

News sources reported on Sunday that Headley was a guest at several of the hotels targeted in the the Mumbai attack and also reportedly pretended to be Jewish, staying at the Chabad center prior to the deadly attack. These reports have not yet been confirmed by U.S. authorities.

The American and Indian authorities are questioning an American citizen of Pakistani descent on suspicion of involvement in last year’s Mumbai terror attacks. Indian media reported on Sunday that the suspect pretended to be Jewish, stayed at the Chabad center and prepared the ground for the lethal attack.

David Coleman Headly (49) was arrested last month at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport while on his way to Philadelphia, and from there to Pakistan. The American Federal Bureau of Investigations suspected he was involved in a plot to carry out an attack in Denmark following the publication of the controversial Prophet Muhammad caricatures.

A deeper look, however, revealed that he was also involved in the Mumbai attacks in November 2008, in which at least 173 people were killed.

Since Headley’s arrest, the US has been investigating his actions along with the Indian authorities. Over the weekend Headley’s role became clear: Indian security sources reported that he was the one who scanned the Chabad center for the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is believed to be responsible for the attacks.

Source

From IBN

CNN-IBN has learnt this after accessing Headley’s passport, which he acquired in March 2006 after allegedly joining the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the group blamed for the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last year.

The passport shows that Headley visited New Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi, Pune, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Agra between 2006-2009–trips investigators suspect were recces for terrorist attack conspiracies.

Headley, while visiting Mumbai in March 2006, listed Hotel Trident as a place of residence. He stayed at guesthouse near the CST Railway Terminus and he booked a room at the Taj Hotel. The Trident, the Taj, and the CST terminus were three main targets of terrorists during the November 2008 attacks.

Headley visited New Delhi in March 2009 and stayed in two hotels in Paharganj, close to the railway station in the national capital’s historic area. Records show he stayed at Anand Hotel and De Holiday International for three days.

via Source.

India Warns of Possible Terror Attacks In 5 Cities

News sources in India report of an alarming terror threat possibly being planned to take place simultaneously in 5 cities.

Intelligence sources have warned that there could be multiple and simultaneous attacks in five cities that American terror suspect, David Headley, visited. Headley is believed to have had links with the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).

Part of the latest assessment is based on FBI leads. The rest is based on human intelligence and electronic surveillance by Indian agencies. Security authorities suggest that there could be perhaps 50 to 60 attackers involved.

The government had last week issued a nationwide alert that another Mumbai-type attack was imminent. The Home Ministry had said there were fresh inputs warning of a similar terror attack. So what is the government doing about it?

For starters, it is retracing Headley’s movements. It is clear now that he visited Delhi during April-May last year. Police in Mumbai have already begun tracking down all the places he went to and the people he met.

In addition, authorities are trying to track down sleeper cells in several cities.

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Additional

FBI To Investigate Alleged Threat Against Congressman

UPDATE: The FBI said Tuesday it has closed its investigation of an alleged death threat against U.S. Rep. Brian Baird after concluding that the message left on Baird’s Washington, D.C., office phone in August did not constitute a serious threat.

“The information I received from our agents was that upon investigation, our special agents did not feel that the caller posed any threat and did not intend to conduct any act of terrorism,” said Lindsay Godwin, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Washington, D.C., field office. “The investigation is now closed.”

Godwin offered no details on how the caller was tracked down except to say, “We’re very good at what we do. We’re able to work with law enforcement entities here and around the country. We’re a force multiplier.”

Original Post

The Columbian is reporting that the FBI is investigating an alleged death threat made against U.S. Rep. Brian Baird last summer during the height of the Tea Parties and Townhalls.

U.S. Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider confirmed Monday that the FBI has taken over the investigation, which does not happen in every case. “Not every case do they jump in,” she said.

Schneider said cases can remain open for years, so a three-month investigation by Capitol Police is not unusual.

Lindsay Godwin, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s field office in Washington, D.C., declined to confirm or deny that the matter was under investigation. “If so, I can’t share anything,” she said.

She added, “We share information through our task force officers on a regular basis with the local police. We work hand-in-hand with local law enforcement.”

Baird’s office declined comment.

“Capitol Police told our office that they wouldn’t be making any comment related to the death threat and nor should we,” said Kelly Love, Baird’s district manager in Vancouver. “We will follow that advice.”

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