The CIA, licensed to kill
The agency has been involved in planning assassinations since at least 1954.
By David Wise | July 22, 2009
Back in 1960, the CIA hatched a plan to kill Patrice Lumumba by infecting his toothbrush with a deadly disease. The Congolese leader would brush his teeth and, presto, in a few days or weeks he would be gone.
Around the same time, the CIA's Health Alteration Committee -- who thought that name up? -- sent a monogrammed, poisoned handkerchief to Gen. Abdul Karim Kassem, the leader of Iraq.
And the CIA's "executive action" unit plotted for years to murder Fidel Castro. It hired the Mafia to poison his food and tried to give him a diving suit contaminated with Madura foot, a rare tropical disease that starts in the foot and moves upward, slowly destroying the body. The CIA also considered offing the Cuban leader with an exploding cigar, a poison pen and a seashell that would blow up underwater when he touched it.
Not one of the plots was successful. Lumumba and Kassem were executed by their foes, and Castro is still alive. But the plots make clear that the CIA has been licensed to kill for decades.
Congress -- especially congressional Democrats -- was outraged earlier this month when it was disclosed that, apparently on orders from Vice President Dick Cheney, the CIA for eight years concealed from Congress a program to assassinate the leaders of Al Qaeda, starting with Osama bin Laden. But they shouldn't have been surprised that such a plan was being hatched.
The CIA's involvement in planning assassinations goes back at least to 1954, when it prepared a manual for killings as part of a U.S.-run coup against the leftist government of Guatemala. The 19-page manual, which was declassified in 1997, makes chilling reading. "The essential point of assassination is the death of the subject," it declares, noting that while it "is possible to kill a man with the bare hands ... the simplest local tools are often much the most efficient means of assassination. A hammer, ax, wrench, screwdriver, fire poker, kitchen knife, lamp stand or anything hard, heavy and handy will suffice."
The agency's manual recommends "the contrived accident" as the best way to dispose of someone. "The most efficient accident ... is a fall of 75 feet or more onto a hard surface. Elevator shafts, stairwells, unscreened windows and bridges will serve." The manual suggests grabbing the victim by the ankles and "tipping the subject over the edge. ... Falls before trains or subway cars are usually effective, but require exact timing."
The manual goes on to discuss "blunt weapons," noting that "a hammer can be picked up almost anywhere in the world" and that baseball bats are also excellent. The manual explains the best place in the body to stab people or how to bash their skulls in and the pros and cons of rifles, pistols, submachine guns and other weapons.
During the Cold War years, the CIA plotted against eight foreign leaders, five of whom died violently. The agency's role varied in each case.
After the plots were publicized by a Senate committee, President Ford issued an executive order in 1976 barring political assassination. President Reagan broadened the ban, dropping the word "political" and extending the prohibition to include contract killers as well as government employees.
Although the ban remains in effect, it has largely been ignored on the premise that it does not apply in a military setting. Consider the following:
In 1986, Reagan ordered the bombing of Libya in retaliation for a terrorist attack on a Berlin disco that killed three people, including two U.S. servicemen, and wounded more than 200 others. In the airstrike, Libya's leader, Moammar Kadafi, a target of the raid, escaped unharmed, but his 2-year-old adopted daughter was killed.
During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, when the first Bush administration bombed Baghdad, Robert M. Gates, the former CIA director and current Defense secretary, said White House officials hoped that "Saddam Hussein would be killed in a bunker." At an air base in Saudi Arabia that year, Cheney, then secretary of Defense, and Gen. Colin L. Powell signed a 2,000-pound laser-guided bomb destined for Iraq. "To Saddam with affection," Cheney wrote.
In 1998, President Clinton ordered a cruise missile strike on Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan after the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa. The White House was clearly disappointed when the strike failed to kill Bin Laden, who reportedly left one of the camps shortly before the attack.
A year later, again during the Clinton administration, NATO bombed Belgrade after Serbia forced ethnic Albanians to flee from Kosovo. A cruise missile was lobbed right into the bedroom of Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader and Yugoslav president, but he was not sleeping there and escaped injury.
In Yemen in 2002, a CIA Predator drone fired a Hellfire missile that destroyed a car in which a top Al Qaeda leader, Qaed Sinan Harithi, was riding.
The problem with assassination, morality aside, is that the U.S. is not very good at it, as the CIA's farcical efforts to murder Castro demonstrate. It seems unlikely that the CIA will kill Bin Laden with a baseball bat. And there is the real possibility of retaliation for a state-sponsored assassination. President Kennedy was quoted as saying, "We can't get into that kind of thing or we would all be targets." Perhaps CIA Director Leon Panetta had that in mind when he canceled the assassination program.
David Wise writes frequently about intelligence. He is the author of "Nightmover: How Aldrich Ames Sold the CIA to the KGB for $4.6 Million" and "Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America."
Long War Journal : Analysis: Pakistani claims on Baitullah’s death, shura clash, are suspect
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Analysis: Pakistani claims on Baitullah’s death, shura clash, are suspect
By Bill Roggio | August 9, 2009
After several senior Taliban leaders went on the record to deny the reports that Baitullah was killed in a US airstrike in South Waziristan, the Pakistani government's claim that Baitullah is dead is now in doubt. Similarly, Pakistani government claims of infighting between potential successors to Baitullah also have to be looked upon with skepticism. Given the Pakistani government's poor track record when claiming senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders have been killed, the reports of Baitullah's death are now suspect.
Taliban leaders Hakeemullah Mehsud and Qari Hussain Mehsud, spokesman Maulvi Omar, and aide Qari Hidayatullah spoke forcefully today insisting that reports of Baitullah's death were false and said that Baitullah would be issuing proof he was indeed alive.
Despite the Taliban's denial that Baitullah was killed, Rehman Malik, Pakistan's Interior Minister, is insisting Baitullah was killed and upped the ante by claiming two potential successors battled over leadership of the Pakistani Taliban.
Malik, who admitted to the BBC that he has no hard evidence Baitullah was killed, said Hakeemullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman Mehsud had a shootout at a shura meeting sometime on Friday in the Ladha region in South Waziristan. The meeting was purportedly held to choose a successor to Baitullah. The report was rebroadcast on Pakistani state television. Malik claimed that Hakeemullah and possibly Waliur were killed during the clash.
"Obviously, it is not a story made up by us," Malik told the BBC "This fight must have happened because of the succession."
"They [Hakeemullah and Waliur] had been fighting in the past and we have information that there has been enmity between Waliur and Hakeemullah since they were fighting together in Kurram valley," he said. "Hakeemullah was replaced by Baitullah Mehsud with Waliur."
But a Taliban leader from the Ladha region denied a clash ever took place and claimed to have spoken to Waliur since the incident was said to have taken place.
"There was no fighting in the Shura," a local Taliban commander named Noor Sayed told the media. "Both Waliur Rehman and Hakeemullah are safe and sound."
Hakeemullah confirmed he was alive when he spoke to the media one day after Malik claimed he was killed.
Malik is now insisting the Taliban provide evidence they are alive rather than offering proof that they are dead.
"If Baitullah Mehsud is alive, or Hakeemullah is alive, why don't they bring out a video," Malik said to the BBC. "Every telephone has a camera on it. They can just get one out and show people that they are alive. I challenge them."
Recent history favors the Taliban's account
While it is still unknown if Baitullah survived the strike or perished, the Pakistani government's track record accurately reporting on the death of senior Taliban and al Qaeda leaders is poor [see the list below]. The Taliban, on the other hand, have been honest about the death of their senior leaders. Each time they refuted a claim of a leader being killed, they have been able to prove the commander is alive.
Since 2006, the Pakistani government has inaccurately reported on the death of 10 senior al Qaeda leaders. Some of these leaders were reported killed multiple times, only to resurface. Also during that timeframe, the Pakistani government wrongly claimed eight senior Taliban leader were killed. Again, these reports were disproved.
Most recently, Malik claimed Swat Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah was killed or seriously wounded during fighting against the Pakistani military. Multiple Taliban leaders denied the claim and Fazlullah later broadcast on his illegal FM radio station in Swat despite the ongoing offensive.
The Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda have been accurate about the death of their senior leaders, and have issued martyrdom statements or eulogies for those killed. These extremist groups view the death of their leaders and fighters while waging jihad to be an honor, and the deaths are used as propaganda for recruitment. Accurately reporting the status of the senior commanders is also crucial to maintain command and control among the rank and file.
For as long as The Long War Journal has tracked the reports of deaths of senior al Qaeda and Taliban commanders, there is not one single instance where these groups practiced deception when it came to official reports on the death of leaders.
Given these facts, the likelihood is that Baitullah Mehsud survived the strike, as reported first here at The Long War Journal, on Aug. 6. And, if Baitullah survived the strike, there would be no need for the Taliban shura to hold a meeting to select a successor to Baitullah.
It may be possible the Taliban shura was held to discuss other issues, and Hakeemullah and Waliur did indeed clash, but this is also out of character for the Taliban. There is not a single recorded instance of such a shootout or armed clash at a Pakistani Taliban shura meeting.
Contentious meeting have been held between rivals such as Baitullah and Mullah Nazir, and yet these meetings have ended successfully. Also, any meeting to select Baitullah's replacement would likely be attended by senior most Taliban and al Qaeda leaders, such as Siraj Haqqani and Abu Yahya al Libi. Lower level Taliban commanders would place themselves, their families, and tribes at great risk if they endangered the lives the likes of Siraj and Yahya.
The Taliban typically carry out their vendettas via a war of assassins or by armed clashes or raids. One such recent example is the feud between Baitullah and Zainuddin Mehsud. There forces clashed regularly in South Waziristan, Tank, and Dera Ismail Khan. Baitullah ultimately had a bodyguard assassinate Zainuddin.
False reports:
The following al Qaeda and Taliban leaders were reported kill by Pakistani intelligence sources. These leaders later appeared in the media or on propaganda tapes.
Al Qaeda leaders reported killed who later resurfaced:
Ayman al Zawahiri: Several large news outlets reported that al Qaeda's second in command was killed or seriously wounded in the May 14, 2008, airstrike in South Waziristan that killed al Qaeda WMD chief Abu Khabab al Masri. The Long War Journal was highly critical that Zawahiri was killed at the time. Zawahiri appeared on a videotape a week later urging Pakistanis to fight the government.
Mustafa Abu Yazid: The Pakistani military claimed Mustafa Abu Yazid, al Qaeda's senior commander in Afghanistan, was killed in a battle in the Bajaur tribal agency in August 2008. The Long War Journal was highly critical of the reports of Yazid's death. Al Qaeda never confirmed Yazid's death, and the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies never presented evidence he was killed. Yazid has since appeared on multiple videotapes, including the Oct. 4 release that featured Adam Gadahn. The Pakistani military, who refer to Yazid as Abu Saeed al Masri, claimed Yazid was dead as recently as Sept. 26.
Abu Khabab al Masri, Khalid Habib, Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, Abd Rahman al Masri al Maghribi, Abu Obaidah al Masri, and Marwan al Suri
Pakistani intelligence reported that six senior al Qaeda operatives killed in a US airstrike in Damadola in January 2006. The six operatives reported killed were: Abu Khabab al Masri, the WMD committee chief and senior bomb maker; Khalid Habib, a senior military commander in eastern Afghanistan who later became chief of al Qaeda's paramilitary Shadow Army; Abd Rahman al Masri al Maghribi, Zawahiri's son-in-law and a military commander; Abu Obaidah al Masri, al Qaeda's external operations chief and commander in Afghanistan's Kunar province; Marwan al Suri, the Waziristan operations chief; and Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, the external operations chief who also served as a commander in southwestern Afghanistan.
Nineteen month later, The Washington Post reported that all of the al Qaeda commanders survived the strike.
Four of the six later were killed, captured, or died of natural causes. Abd al Hadi al Iraqi was captured while attempting to enter Iraqi in late 2006. Abu Obaidah al Masri died of natural causes sometime in late 2007 or early 2008. Abu Khabab al Masri was killed in an airstrike in July 2008. Khalid Habib was killed in an airstrike in October 2008.
Adam Gadahn: Numerous Pakistani sources told multiple major news outlets that Gadahn was killed in the Jan. 28, 2008, airstrike in North Waziristan that killed senior al Qaeda leader Abu Laith al Libi. The Long War Journal was highly critical of the reports of Gadahn's death. Speculation grew after Gadahn failed to appear on al Qaeda propaganda tapes, As Sahab stopped producing English translations for the tapes, and some problems were reported with the release of videos and audio. Gadahn later appeared on a tape on Oct. 4, along with Yazid. Gadahn is the American al Qaeda spokesman who is wanted by the US for treason.
Rashid Rauf: US intelligence, based on reports from Pakistani intelligence, claimed that Rashid Rauf, an al Qaeda leader who is in charge of al Qaeda's external operations branch responsible for attacks in Europe, was killed during the November 2008 Predator strike in North Waziristan that was also thought to have killed Abu Zubair al Masri and two other al Qaeda operatives. He was later reported to have trained European al Qaeda operatives to conduct attacks in Belgium, France, Holland, and England.
The Long War Journal was skeptical of the claims that Rauf had been killed. US military and intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal that Rauf's death was never confirmed and that reports that he was killed in the November strike in South Waziristan were premature. Shortly after the November strike, Rauf's family and his lawyer claimed his was still alive. Taliban fighters close to Rauf also said he was alive.
Taliban leaders reported killed who later resurfaced:
Baitullah Mehsud: On Sept. 30, 2008, several major news sources reported that Pakistani Taliban leader and South Waziristan warlord Baitullah Mehsud died of natural causes related to kidney problems. The Long War Journal was highly critical that Baitullah was dead, and intelligence sources said he was alive. On Oct. 1, the Taliban denied the report. Baitullah was seen visiting villages in South Waziristan to celebrate Eid-al-Fitr on Oct. 4. Baitullah was also thought to have been killed in an airstrike earlier in 2009.
Mullah Sangeen Zadran: Pakistani intelligence sources claimed that Sangeen, the right hand man of Haqqani Network military commander Siraj, was killed along with Baitullah and Qari Hussain during an airstrike at the funeral of one of Baitullah's commanders. The Taliban quickly debunked these claims.
Faqir Mohammed: The Pakistani military claimed Faqir Mohammed, the deputy commander of the Pakistani Taliban and the group's leader in the Bajaur tribal agency, was killed in a battle in Bajaur in August 2008. A Taliban spokesman immediately denied the report and Faqir appeared in front to the media a day later to dispute the claim of his death. The Pakistani military also claimed Faqir's son, Abdullah Mohammed, was killed, although no proof of his death has been offered.
Mullah Fazlullah: The Pakistani military and the interior ministry claimed Mullah Fazlullah was killed several times during the military operation during the 2009 offensive in Swat. Fazlullah's aides denied the reports, and in July 2009, Fazlullah was later heard giving a speech on the radio.
Omar Khalid: The military said Omar Khalid, the commander of Taliban forces in the Mohmand tribal agency, was killed during operations in the region in January 2009. Taliban commanders denied the claims, and Khalid later spoke to the media.
Ibn Amin: The Pakistani military and the interior ministry claimed Ibn Amin, the leader of al Qaeda's paramilitary brigade in Swat, was killed in May 2009 during the Swat offensive. Amin later resurfaced and took control of the Taliban forces in Swat after Shah Doran, Fazlullah's deputy and Swat's military commander, was killed. Doran is the only senior Swat Taliban leader killed during the three-month battle.
Qari Hussain: The Pakistani military claimed Qari Hussain, a senior lieutenant to Baitullah Mehsud who ran a suicide bomber nursery in South Waziristan, was killed during operations in January 2008. Hussain held a press conference in South Waziristan on May 23, 2008, and mocked the Pakistani military. "I am alive, don't you see me?" Hussain said.
Maulvi Omar: The Pakistani military claimed Omar, who is the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, was killed during an October 2008 airstrike in the Badano region in Taliban-controlled Bajaur. Omar later appeared on television. The Long War Journal was skeptical of the reports of Omar's death.
By Bill Roggio | August 9, 2009
After several senior Taliban leaders went on the record to deny the reports that Baitullah was killed in a US airstrike in South Waziristan, the Pakistani government's claim that Baitullah is dead is now in doubt. Similarly, Pakistani government claims of infighting between potential successors to Baitullah also have to be looked upon with skepticism. Given the Pakistani government's poor track record when claiming senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders have been killed, the reports of Baitullah's death are now suspect.
Taliban leaders Hakeemullah Mehsud and Qari Hussain Mehsud, spokesman Maulvi Omar, and aide Qari Hidayatullah spoke forcefully today insisting that reports of Baitullah's death were false and said that Baitullah would be issuing proof he was indeed alive.
Despite the Taliban's denial that Baitullah was killed, Rehman Malik, Pakistan's Interior Minister, is insisting Baitullah was killed and upped the ante by claiming two potential successors battled over leadership of the Pakistani Taliban.
Malik, who admitted to the BBC that he has no hard evidence Baitullah was killed, said Hakeemullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman Mehsud had a shootout at a shura meeting sometime on Friday in the Ladha region in South Waziristan. The meeting was purportedly held to choose a successor to Baitullah. The report was rebroadcast on Pakistani state television. Malik claimed that Hakeemullah and possibly Waliur were killed during the clash.
"Obviously, it is not a story made up by us," Malik told the BBC "This fight must have happened because of the succession."
"They [Hakeemullah and Waliur] had been fighting in the past and we have information that there has been enmity between Waliur and Hakeemullah since they were fighting together in Kurram valley," he said. "Hakeemullah was replaced by Baitullah Mehsud with Waliur."
But a Taliban leader from the Ladha region denied a clash ever took place and claimed to have spoken to Waliur since the incident was said to have taken place.
"There was no fighting in the Shura," a local Taliban commander named Noor Sayed told the media. "Both Waliur Rehman and Hakeemullah are safe and sound."
Hakeemullah confirmed he was alive when he spoke to the media one day after Malik claimed he was killed.
Malik is now insisting the Taliban provide evidence they are alive rather than offering proof that they are dead.
"If Baitullah Mehsud is alive, or Hakeemullah is alive, why don't they bring out a video," Malik said to the BBC. "Every telephone has a camera on it. They can just get one out and show people that they are alive. I challenge them."
Recent history favors the Taliban's account
While it is still unknown if Baitullah survived the strike or perished, the Pakistani government's track record accurately reporting on the death of senior Taliban and al Qaeda leaders is poor [see the list below]. The Taliban, on the other hand, have been honest about the death of their senior leaders. Each time they refuted a claim of a leader being killed, they have been able to prove the commander is alive.
Since 2006, the Pakistani government has inaccurately reported on the death of 10 senior al Qaeda leaders. Some of these leaders were reported killed multiple times, only to resurface. Also during that timeframe, the Pakistani government wrongly claimed eight senior Taliban leader were killed. Again, these reports were disproved.
Most recently, Malik claimed Swat Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah was killed or seriously wounded during fighting against the Pakistani military. Multiple Taliban leaders denied the claim and Fazlullah later broadcast on his illegal FM radio station in Swat despite the ongoing offensive.
The Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda have been accurate about the death of their senior leaders, and have issued martyrdom statements or eulogies for those killed. These extremist groups view the death of their leaders and fighters while waging jihad to be an honor, and the deaths are used as propaganda for recruitment. Accurately reporting the status of the senior commanders is also crucial to maintain command and control among the rank and file.
For as long as The Long War Journal has tracked the reports of deaths of senior al Qaeda and Taliban commanders, there is not one single instance where these groups practiced deception when it came to official reports on the death of leaders.
Given these facts, the likelihood is that Baitullah Mehsud survived the strike, as reported first here at The Long War Journal, on Aug. 6. And, if Baitullah survived the strike, there would be no need for the Taliban shura to hold a meeting to select a successor to Baitullah.
It may be possible the Taliban shura was held to discuss other issues, and Hakeemullah and Waliur did indeed clash, but this is also out of character for the Taliban. There is not a single recorded instance of such a shootout or armed clash at a Pakistani Taliban shura meeting.
Contentious meeting have been held between rivals such as Baitullah and Mullah Nazir, and yet these meetings have ended successfully. Also, any meeting to select Baitullah's replacement would likely be attended by senior most Taliban and al Qaeda leaders, such as Siraj Haqqani and Abu Yahya al Libi. Lower level Taliban commanders would place themselves, their families, and tribes at great risk if they endangered the lives the likes of Siraj and Yahya.
The Taliban typically carry out their vendettas via a war of assassins or by armed clashes or raids. One such recent example is the feud between Baitullah and Zainuddin Mehsud. There forces clashed regularly in South Waziristan, Tank, and Dera Ismail Khan. Baitullah ultimately had a bodyguard assassinate Zainuddin.
False reports:
The following al Qaeda and Taliban leaders were reported kill by Pakistani intelligence sources. These leaders later appeared in the media or on propaganda tapes.
Al Qaeda leaders reported killed who later resurfaced:
Ayman al Zawahiri: Several large news outlets reported that al Qaeda's second in command was killed or seriously wounded in the May 14, 2008, airstrike in South Waziristan that killed al Qaeda WMD chief Abu Khabab al Masri. The Long War Journal was highly critical that Zawahiri was killed at the time. Zawahiri appeared on a videotape a week later urging Pakistanis to fight the government.
Mustafa Abu Yazid: The Pakistani military claimed Mustafa Abu Yazid, al Qaeda's senior commander in Afghanistan, was killed in a battle in the Bajaur tribal agency in August 2008. The Long War Journal was highly critical of the reports of Yazid's death. Al Qaeda never confirmed Yazid's death, and the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies never presented evidence he was killed. Yazid has since appeared on multiple videotapes, including the Oct. 4 release that featured Adam Gadahn. The Pakistani military, who refer to Yazid as Abu Saeed al Masri, claimed Yazid was dead as recently as Sept. 26.
Abu Khabab al Masri, Khalid Habib, Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, Abd Rahman al Masri al Maghribi, Abu Obaidah al Masri, and Marwan al Suri
Pakistani intelligence reported that six senior al Qaeda operatives killed in a US airstrike in Damadola in January 2006. The six operatives reported killed were: Abu Khabab al Masri, the WMD committee chief and senior bomb maker; Khalid Habib, a senior military commander in eastern Afghanistan who later became chief of al Qaeda's paramilitary Shadow Army; Abd Rahman al Masri al Maghribi, Zawahiri's son-in-law and a military commander; Abu Obaidah al Masri, al Qaeda's external operations chief and commander in Afghanistan's Kunar province; Marwan al Suri, the Waziristan operations chief; and Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, the external operations chief who also served as a commander in southwestern Afghanistan.
Nineteen month later, The Washington Post reported that all of the al Qaeda commanders survived the strike.
Four of the six later were killed, captured, or died of natural causes. Abd al Hadi al Iraqi was captured while attempting to enter Iraqi in late 2006. Abu Obaidah al Masri died of natural causes sometime in late 2007 or early 2008. Abu Khabab al Masri was killed in an airstrike in July 2008. Khalid Habib was killed in an airstrike in October 2008.
Adam Gadahn: Numerous Pakistani sources told multiple major news outlets that Gadahn was killed in the Jan. 28, 2008, airstrike in North Waziristan that killed senior al Qaeda leader Abu Laith al Libi. The Long War Journal was highly critical of the reports of Gadahn's death. Speculation grew after Gadahn failed to appear on al Qaeda propaganda tapes, As Sahab stopped producing English translations for the tapes, and some problems were reported with the release of videos and audio. Gadahn later appeared on a tape on Oct. 4, along with Yazid. Gadahn is the American al Qaeda spokesman who is wanted by the US for treason.
Rashid Rauf: US intelligence, based on reports from Pakistani intelligence, claimed that Rashid Rauf, an al Qaeda leader who is in charge of al Qaeda's external operations branch responsible for attacks in Europe, was killed during the November 2008 Predator strike in North Waziristan that was also thought to have killed Abu Zubair al Masri and two other al Qaeda operatives. He was later reported to have trained European al Qaeda operatives to conduct attacks in Belgium, France, Holland, and England.
The Long War Journal was skeptical of the claims that Rauf had been killed. US military and intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal that Rauf's death was never confirmed and that reports that he was killed in the November strike in South Waziristan were premature. Shortly after the November strike, Rauf's family and his lawyer claimed his was still alive. Taliban fighters close to Rauf also said he was alive.
Taliban leaders reported killed who later resurfaced:
Baitullah Mehsud: On Sept. 30, 2008, several major news sources reported that Pakistani Taliban leader and South Waziristan warlord Baitullah Mehsud died of natural causes related to kidney problems. The Long War Journal was highly critical that Baitullah was dead, and intelligence sources said he was alive. On Oct. 1, the Taliban denied the report. Baitullah was seen visiting villages in South Waziristan to celebrate Eid-al-Fitr on Oct. 4. Baitullah was also thought to have been killed in an airstrike earlier in 2009.
Mullah Sangeen Zadran: Pakistani intelligence sources claimed that Sangeen, the right hand man of Haqqani Network military commander Siraj, was killed along with Baitullah and Qari Hussain during an airstrike at the funeral of one of Baitullah's commanders. The Taliban quickly debunked these claims.
Faqir Mohammed: The Pakistani military claimed Faqir Mohammed, the deputy commander of the Pakistani Taliban and the group's leader in the Bajaur tribal agency, was killed in a battle in Bajaur in August 2008. A Taliban spokesman immediately denied the report and Faqir appeared in front to the media a day later to dispute the claim of his death. The Pakistani military also claimed Faqir's son, Abdullah Mohammed, was killed, although no proof of his death has been offered.
Mullah Fazlullah: The Pakistani military and the interior ministry claimed Mullah Fazlullah was killed several times during the military operation during the 2009 offensive in Swat. Fazlullah's aides denied the reports, and in July 2009, Fazlullah was later heard giving a speech on the radio.
Omar Khalid: The military said Omar Khalid, the commander of Taliban forces in the Mohmand tribal agency, was killed during operations in the region in January 2009. Taliban commanders denied the claims, and Khalid later spoke to the media.
Ibn Amin: The Pakistani military and the interior ministry claimed Ibn Amin, the leader of al Qaeda's paramilitary brigade in Swat, was killed in May 2009 during the Swat offensive. Amin later resurfaced and took control of the Taliban forces in Swat after Shah Doran, Fazlullah's deputy and Swat's military commander, was killed. Doran is the only senior Swat Taliban leader killed during the three-month battle.
Qari Hussain: The Pakistani military claimed Qari Hussain, a senior lieutenant to Baitullah Mehsud who ran a suicide bomber nursery in South Waziristan, was killed during operations in January 2008. Hussain held a press conference in South Waziristan on May 23, 2008, and mocked the Pakistani military. "I am alive, don't you see me?" Hussain said.
Maulvi Omar: The Pakistani military claimed Omar, who is the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, was killed during an October 2008 airstrike in the Badano region in Taliban-controlled Bajaur. Omar later appeared on television. The Long War Journal was skeptical of the reports of Omar's death.
Filed under
Adam Gadahn,
Ayman al Zawahri,
Baitullah Mehsud,
Ibn Amin,
Maulana Fazlullah,
Omar Khalid,
Rashid Rauf
by Winter Patriot
on Sunday, August 09, 2009
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Brilliant : Obama’s Pakistan Campaign
Saturday, August 08, 2009
brilliant media: Un blog utilisant Le Blogue du Québec
Winter Patriot: Obama’s Pakistan Campaign: Brilliant President Plus Smart Bombs Equal Humanitarian Success
I note with proud stupefaction a modern article from Dubai’s Gulfnews place com, describing the non-stop striving of bombing attacks during unmanned planes against Pakistan (which the American lead and media resolve not mostly talk impenetrable to — officially — but which are largely arranged to be undertaken during the CIA at the aiming of the president). Unofficial lead sources beget been weighing in lately, all unequivocally in favor of continuing the attacks. For in the event, a July 14 commandant in the Wall Street Journal says that Far from being “beyond the right side up,” drones beget made war-fighting more humane. as a lead This aspect of aspect may look as if a share in extraordinary, genuineness that the “success” claimed on behalf of the drones has been degree acned. In bumf, according to Pakistani lead sources, as of April 8 of this year, US attacks on Pakistan had killed 14 al Q’aeda terrorists and 687 civilians. Rashid Rauf was reportedly killed in a drone attack in November of 2008, but his assembly has not lower than drunk any condition been produced and his family’s bring to light due to the fact that the consideration of his remains was ignored during the Pakistani government; Rauf’s forebears and his attorney bring to light he may be ready to drop crazy, but they velitation the call due to the fact that that he was killed then and in that conduct.
The star correlation — with simulated terrorists accounting due to the fact that approximately one-fiftieth of the people killed — may beget been measure over-estimated in this lead relate, since individual of the “high-value targets” allegedly killed in these attacks (and included focus of the 14) is Rashid Rauf, the simulated commandant of (or at least an simulated latchkey commandant in) the theoretically iffy transatlantic-airline liquid-bombing patch (which I beget discussed at capacious expanse fully in the gone: due to the fact that a mechanical overview of the patch, make up one’s mind “Ludicrouser And Ludicrouser: The Alleged Liquid Bombing Plot, Revisited Again”; due to the fact that an stimulus of what this means, make up one’s mind “Inadequate Deception: The Impossible Plots Of The Terror War”). You don’t beget to be a lunatic moonbat Gothick novel philosopher or a Pakistani terrorist-sympathizer to call due to the fact that that Rashid Rauf perhaps wasn’t killed in a drone attack. Long War Journal hotel-keeper Bill Roggio, who mostly gets basically bumf course of action back the marginally-less-complicit-but-still-criminal mainstream gathering, declared with no holds barred in April that Rashid Rauf is calm spry and iffy and plotting against us all. If that’s true-blue, then the numbers would be more like: 13 bomber leaders ready to drop crazy, and 688 untainted people.
As Bill Roggio wrote exactly a two days ago, Reports of older al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in Pakistan beget been praisefully untrustworthy. And that’s giving the earnest statistician the aid of every distrust. In the gone, al Qaeda leaders Ayman al Zawahiri, Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, Abu Obaidullah Al Masri, Adam Gadahn, Ibn Amin, and Rashid Rauf beget been reported killed in strikes, but these men later resurfaced.
Similarly, Sa’ad bin Laden was recently reported killed, but he is every now remembrances to be spry. And Abu Khabab al Masri was reported ready to drop crazy a few times course of action back he surely was killed in a July 2008 whack. But that’s a sandbank assessment, because after a insecure start we did start doing a best allot, as you as a lead can make up one’s mind when I hang on to the statistics down chronologically. as a lead Given all the billions we assign on intelligence aggregation, and all the billions we assign on developing adept weapons, you puissance think about we should be doing a best allot of death terrorists and stingy innocents. According to the relate from Pakistan which I mentioned heavens, Two strikes carried crazy in 2006 had killed 98 civilians while three attacks conducted in 2007 had slain 66 Pakistanis due to the fact that a thorough of 164 civilian deaths — and no terrorists were focus of the ready to drop crazy in either 2006 or 2007!By distinguish, according to the done relate, 385 people gone their lives in 2008 and 152 people were slain in the basic 99 days of 2009 (between January 1 and April 8) due to the fact that a thorough of 537 untainted civilians killed, along with the “14 wanted al-Qaeda operatives”. It may not look as if like much, but insomuch as the inauguration configuration of this striving, these reports merrymaking a double-dose of star. The thorough of “wanted al-Qaeda operatives” allegedly killed has ballooned from 0 in 2006-7 all the course of action to 14 in 2008-9, and at the done shilly-shally the thorough of innocents killed per bomber has dropped from 164:0 (an innumerable ratio) to on the other hand 38 — provided of unmistakably that Rashid Rauf and all the other terrorists described as ready to drop crazy are surely ready to drop crazy, and were surely terrorists.
As we distinguish, anything is admissible due to the fact that can-do Americans, and as the newest relate from Dubai indicates, we beget enhanced our exhibit significantly since the Pakistani relate was compiled in April. Some people may beget felt these improvements were edible masses, but audibly Barack Obama was not focus of them. Here’s the most terrific have the je sais quoi of: According to Gulfnews, the thorough of Pakistani civilians killed since the inception of 2008 is every now on the other hand 480! That’s down during 57 since the thorough was 537 in April!So think about impenetrable to this: In the at four months, we beget continued bombing Pakistan, death (or at least claiming to beget killed) more and more “high-value targets”, such as Osama bin Laden’s son Sa’ad (who may not beget had anything to do with terrorism at all, other than being sired during an private CIA operative), and Baitullah Mehsud (who has apropos been the CIA’s most intense weapon in South Asia by any chance since Osama bin Laden died in 2001).
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Cet article a été publié le Samedi 8 août 2009 à 15:40 et est classé dans Non classé. Vous pouvez en suivre les commentaires par le biais du flux RSS 2.0. Les commentaires sont fermés, mais vous pouvez faire un trackback depuis votre propre site.
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Winter Patriot: Obama’s Pakistan Campaign: Brilliant President Plus Smart Bombs Equal Humanitarian Success
I note with proud stupefaction a modern article from Dubai’s Gulfnews place com, describing the non-stop striving of bombing attacks during unmanned planes against Pakistan (which the American lead and media resolve not mostly talk impenetrable to — officially — but which are largely arranged to be undertaken during the CIA at the aiming of the president). Unofficial lead sources beget been weighing in lately, all unequivocally in favor of continuing the attacks. For in the event, a July 14 commandant in the Wall Street Journal says that Far from being “beyond the right side up,” drones beget made war-fighting more humane. as a lead This aspect of aspect may look as if a share in extraordinary, genuineness that the “success” claimed on behalf of the drones has been degree acned. In bumf, according to Pakistani lead sources, as of April 8 of this year, US attacks on Pakistan had killed 14 al Q’aeda terrorists and 687 civilians. Rashid Rauf was reportedly killed in a drone attack in November of 2008, but his assembly has not lower than drunk any condition been produced and his family’s bring to light due to the fact that the consideration of his remains was ignored during the Pakistani government; Rauf’s forebears and his attorney bring to light he may be ready to drop crazy, but they velitation the call due to the fact that that he was killed then and in that conduct.
The star correlation — with simulated terrorists accounting due to the fact that approximately one-fiftieth of the people killed — may beget been measure over-estimated in this lead relate, since individual of the “high-value targets” allegedly killed in these attacks (and included focus of the 14) is Rashid Rauf, the simulated commandant of (or at least an simulated latchkey commandant in) the theoretically iffy transatlantic-airline liquid-bombing patch (which I beget discussed at capacious expanse fully in the gone: due to the fact that a mechanical overview of the patch, make up one’s mind “Ludicrouser And Ludicrouser: The Alleged Liquid Bombing Plot, Revisited Again”; due to the fact that an stimulus of what this means, make up one’s mind “Inadequate Deception: The Impossible Plots Of The Terror War”). You don’t beget to be a lunatic moonbat Gothick novel philosopher or a Pakistani terrorist-sympathizer to call due to the fact that that Rashid Rauf perhaps wasn’t killed in a drone attack. Long War Journal hotel-keeper Bill Roggio, who mostly gets basically bumf course of action back the marginally-less-complicit-but-still-criminal mainstream gathering, declared with no holds barred in April that Rashid Rauf is calm spry and iffy and plotting against us all. If that’s true-blue, then the numbers would be more like: 13 bomber leaders ready to drop crazy, and 688 untainted people.
As Bill Roggio wrote exactly a two days ago, Reports of older al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in Pakistan beget been praisefully untrustworthy. And that’s giving the earnest statistician the aid of every distrust. In the gone, al Qaeda leaders Ayman al Zawahiri, Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, Abu Obaidullah Al Masri, Adam Gadahn, Ibn Amin, and Rashid Rauf beget been reported killed in strikes, but these men later resurfaced.
Similarly, Sa’ad bin Laden was recently reported killed, but he is every now remembrances to be spry. And Abu Khabab al Masri was reported ready to drop crazy a few times course of action back he surely was killed in a July 2008 whack. But that’s a sandbank assessment, because after a insecure start we did start doing a best allot, as you as a lead can make up one’s mind when I hang on to the statistics down chronologically. as a lead Given all the billions we assign on intelligence aggregation, and all the billions we assign on developing adept weapons, you puissance think about we should be doing a best allot of death terrorists and stingy innocents. According to the relate from Pakistan which I mentioned heavens, Two strikes carried crazy in 2006 had killed 98 civilians while three attacks conducted in 2007 had slain 66 Pakistanis due to the fact that a thorough of 164 civilian deaths — and no terrorists were focus of the ready to drop crazy in either 2006 or 2007!By distinguish, according to the done relate, 385 people gone their lives in 2008 and 152 people were slain in the basic 99 days of 2009 (between January 1 and April 8) due to the fact that a thorough of 537 untainted civilians killed, along with the “14 wanted al-Qaeda operatives”. It may not look as if like much, but insomuch as the inauguration configuration of this striving, these reports merrymaking a double-dose of star. The thorough of “wanted al-Qaeda operatives” allegedly killed has ballooned from 0 in 2006-7 all the course of action to 14 in 2008-9, and at the done shilly-shally the thorough of innocents killed per bomber has dropped from 164:0 (an innumerable ratio) to on the other hand 38 — provided of unmistakably that Rashid Rauf and all the other terrorists described as ready to drop crazy are surely ready to drop crazy, and were surely terrorists.
As we distinguish, anything is admissible due to the fact that can-do Americans, and as the newest relate from Dubai indicates, we beget enhanced our exhibit significantly since the Pakistani relate was compiled in April. Some people may beget felt these improvements were edible masses, but audibly Barack Obama was not focus of them. Here’s the most terrific have the je sais quoi of: According to Gulfnews, the thorough of Pakistani civilians killed since the inception of 2008 is every now on the other hand 480! That’s down during 57 since the thorough was 537 in April!So think about impenetrable to this: In the at four months, we beget continued bombing Pakistan, death (or at least claiming to beget killed) more and more “high-value targets”, such as Osama bin Laden’s son Sa’ad (who may not beget had anything to do with terrorism at all, other than being sired during an private CIA operative), and Baitullah Mehsud (who has apropos been the CIA’s most intense weapon in South Asia by any chance since Osama bin Laden died in 2001).
Partager ce billet
Cet article a été publié le Samedi 8 août 2009 à 15:40 et est classé dans Non classé. Vous pouvez en suivre les commentaires par le biais du flux RSS 2.0. Les commentaires sont fermés, mais vous pouvez faire un trackback depuis votre propre site.
Les commentaires sont fermés.
WaPo : Congress and the CIA: Time to Move On
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Congress and the CIA: Time to Move On
By Leon Panetta | August 2, 2009
Last month, at a meeting overseas of intelligence service chiefs, one of my counterparts from a major Western ally pulled me aside. Why, he asked, is Washington so consumed with what the CIA did in the past, when the most pressing national security concerns are in the present? It was a very good question. In fact, I've become increasingly concerned that the focus on the past, especially in Congress, threatens to distract the CIA from its crucial core missions: intelligence collection, analysis and covert action.
In our democracy, effective congressional oversight of intelligence is important, but it depends as much on consensus as it does on secrecy. We need broad agreement between the executive and legislative branches on what our intelligence organizations do and why. For much of our history, we have had that. Over the past eight years, on specific issues -- including the detention and interrogation of terrorists -- the consensus deteriorated. That contributed to an atmosphere of declining trust, growing frustration and more frequent leaks of properly classified information.
In its earliest days, the Obama administration made policy changes in intelligence that ended some controversial practices. The CIA no longer operates black sites and no longer employs "enhanced" interrogation techniques. It is worth remembering that the CIA implements presidential decisions; we do not make them. Yet my agency continues to pay a price for enduring disputes over policies that no longer exist. Those conflicts fuel a climate of suspicion and partisanship on Capitol Hill that our intelligence officers -- and our country -- would be better off without. My goal as director is to do everything I can to build the kind of dialogue and trust with Congress that is essential to our intelligence mission.
ad_icon
In that spirit, on June 24, I briefed the intelligence oversight committees of Congress on a highly classified program that had been brought to my attention the day before. Never fully operational, the program had not, in seven years, taken a single terrorist off the street, and information about it had not been shared appropriately with Congress. For me, this was more than just a simple question of law or legal requirements. Rather, it was a reflection of my firm belief that a straightforward and honest partnership with Congress can build support for intelligence. That's what I want, and I am convinced it's what our nation needs.
Unfortunately, rather than providing an opportunity to start a new chapter in CIA-congressional relations, the meeting sparked a fresh round of recriminations about the past. I recognize that there will always be tension in oversight relationships, but there are also shared responsibilities. Those include protecting the classified information that shapes our conversations. Together, the CIA and Congress must find a balance between appropriate oversight and a recognition that the security of the United States depends on a CIA that is totally focused on the job of defending America.
The time has come for both Democrats and Republicans to take a deep breath and recognize the reality of what happened after Sept. 11, 2001. The question is not the sincerity or the patriotism of those who were dealing with the aftermath of Sept. 11. The country was frightened, and political leaders were trying to respond as best they could. Judgments were made. Some of them were wrong. But that should not taint those public servants who did their duty pursuant to the legal guidance provided. The last election made clear that the public wanted to move in a new direction.
Intelligence can be a valuable weapon, but it is not one we should use on each other. As the president has said, this is not a time for retribution. Debates over who knew what when -- or what happened seven years ago -- miss a larger, more important point: We are a nation at war in a dangerous world, and good intelligence is vital to us all. That is where our focus should be. The CIA has plenty of tools to fight al-Qaeda and its allies. Unlike the effort I canceled in June, our present tools are effective, we use them aggressively to go after our enemies, and Congress has been briefed on them.
When President Obama visited the CIA in April, he told agency officers, "I am going to need you more than ever." The men and women of the CIA truly are America's first line of defense. They must run risks and make sacrifices to acquire the intelligence our country needs for its safety and security. Having spent 16 years in the House, I know that Congress can get the facts it needs to do its job without undue strife or name-calling. I also know that we can learn lessons from the past without getting stuck there. That is what the American people expect. The CIA is ready to do its part. The nation deserves no less.
The writer is director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
By Leon Panetta | August 2, 2009
Last month, at a meeting overseas of intelligence service chiefs, one of my counterparts from a major Western ally pulled me aside. Why, he asked, is Washington so consumed with what the CIA did in the past, when the most pressing national security concerns are in the present? It was a very good question. In fact, I've become increasingly concerned that the focus on the past, especially in Congress, threatens to distract the CIA from its crucial core missions: intelligence collection, analysis and covert action.
In our democracy, effective congressional oversight of intelligence is important, but it depends as much on consensus as it does on secrecy. We need broad agreement between the executive and legislative branches on what our intelligence organizations do and why. For much of our history, we have had that. Over the past eight years, on specific issues -- including the detention and interrogation of terrorists -- the consensus deteriorated. That contributed to an atmosphere of declining trust, growing frustration and more frequent leaks of properly classified information.
In its earliest days, the Obama administration made policy changes in intelligence that ended some controversial practices. The CIA no longer operates black sites and no longer employs "enhanced" interrogation techniques. It is worth remembering that the CIA implements presidential decisions; we do not make them. Yet my agency continues to pay a price for enduring disputes over policies that no longer exist. Those conflicts fuel a climate of suspicion and partisanship on Capitol Hill that our intelligence officers -- and our country -- would be better off without. My goal as director is to do everything I can to build the kind of dialogue and trust with Congress that is essential to our intelligence mission.
ad_icon
In that spirit, on June 24, I briefed the intelligence oversight committees of Congress on a highly classified program that had been brought to my attention the day before. Never fully operational, the program had not, in seven years, taken a single terrorist off the street, and information about it had not been shared appropriately with Congress. For me, this was more than just a simple question of law or legal requirements. Rather, it was a reflection of my firm belief that a straightforward and honest partnership with Congress can build support for intelligence. That's what I want, and I am convinced it's what our nation needs.
Unfortunately, rather than providing an opportunity to start a new chapter in CIA-congressional relations, the meeting sparked a fresh round of recriminations about the past. I recognize that there will always be tension in oversight relationships, but there are also shared responsibilities. Those include protecting the classified information that shapes our conversations. Together, the CIA and Congress must find a balance between appropriate oversight and a recognition that the security of the United States depends on a CIA that is totally focused on the job of defending America.
The time has come for both Democrats and Republicans to take a deep breath and recognize the reality of what happened after Sept. 11, 2001. The question is not the sincerity or the patriotism of those who were dealing with the aftermath of Sept. 11. The country was frightened, and political leaders were trying to respond as best they could. Judgments were made. Some of them were wrong. But that should not taint those public servants who did their duty pursuant to the legal guidance provided. The last election made clear that the public wanted to move in a new direction.
Intelligence can be a valuable weapon, but it is not one we should use on each other. As the president has said, this is not a time for retribution. Debates over who knew what when -- or what happened seven years ago -- miss a larger, more important point: We are a nation at war in a dangerous world, and good intelligence is vital to us all. That is where our focus should be. The CIA has plenty of tools to fight al-Qaeda and its allies. Unlike the effort I canceled in June, our present tools are effective, we use them aggressively to go after our enemies, and Congress has been briefed on them.
When President Obama visited the CIA in April, he told agency officers, "I am going to need you more than ever." The men and women of the CIA truly are America's first line of defense. They must run risks and make sacrifices to acquire the intelligence our country needs for its safety and security. Having spent 16 years in the House, I know that Congress can get the facts it needs to do its job without undue strife or name-calling. I also know that we can learn lessons from the past without getting stuck there. That is what the American people expect. The CIA is ready to do its part. The nation deserves no less.
The writer is director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
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on Tuesday, August 04, 2009
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South Coast Today : Military says linguists can't keep up in Afghanistan
Monday, August 03, 2009
Military says linguists can't keep up in Afghanistan
By JASON STRAZIUSO | Associated Press writer | July 26, 2009
NAWA, Afghanistan — Josh Habib lay in a dirt field, gasping for air. Two days of hiking with Marines through southern Afghanistan's 115-degree heat had exhausted him. This was not what he signed up for.
Habib is not a Marine. He is a 53-year-old engineer from California who was hired by a contracting company as a military translator. When he applied for the lucrative linguist job, Habib said his recruiter gave no hint that he would join a ground assault in Taliban land. He carried 40 pounds of food, water and gear on his back, and kept pace — barely — with Marines half his age.
U.S. troops say companies that recruit military translators are sending linguists to southern Afghanistan who are unprepared to serve in combat, even as hundreds more are needed to support the growing number of troops.
Some translators are in their 60s and 70s and in poor physical condition, and some don't even speak the right language.
"I've met guys off the planes and have immediately sent them back because they weren't in the proper physical shape," said Gunnery Sgt. James Spangler, who is in charge of linguists at Camp Leatherneck, the largest U.S. base in Helmand province.
"They were too old. They couldn't breathe. They complained about heart problems," he said. "We almost made a joke of it. We're almost receiving people on oxygen tanks and colostomy bags; it's almost getting to that point."
And that is not the worst of it.
Troops say low-skilled and disgruntled translators are putting U.S. forces at risk.
"Intelligence can save Marines' lives and give us the advantage on the battlefield," said Cpl. William Woodall, 26, of Dallas, who works closely with translators. "Instead of looking for quality, the companies are just pushing bodies out here, and once they're out the door, it's not their problem anymore."
Spangler, 36, of Lecanto, Fla., emphasized that translators must be physically fit.
"When we have convoys that are out days or weeks at a time and you have someone that's 60 or 70 years old, I have to put the directive in: I need someone younger, can get out of a vehicle quickly, can run for short periods if needed, anything that's required for combat operations with Marines," Spangler said.
The company that recruits most U.S. citizen translators, Columbus, Ohio-based Mission Essential Personnel, says it is difficult to meet the increased demand for linguists to aid the 15,000 U.S. forces being sent to southern, Pashto-speaking provinces this year as part of President Barack Obama's increased focus on Afghanistan. Only 7,700 Pashto speakers live in the U.S., according to the 2000 census.
Mission Essential Senior Vice President Marc Peltier told The Associated Press that the linguists the company deploys to Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries meet government standards. The military sets no age or weight requirements.
"I really wish everyone we send over was a 21-year-old who can pass the Marine Corps physical fitness exam. They're not," he said.
"It's been a shock to some of them. You can't really acclimate them. We don't have centers to run scenarios out in the heat. It is a surprise to many of them and it's very, very hard work, especially with a lot of the new Marines that are going into Helmand province," he said.
How translators come to believe they will not face danger could originate with recruiters.
"They're going to tell you whatever it is to get you hired," Spangler said.
Khalid Nazary, an Afghan-American citizen living in Kabul, called Mission Essential about a job and let an AP reporter listen.
He asked whether he would go to "dangerous places."
"Oh, no, no, no. You're not a soldier. You're not a soldier. Not at all," said the recruiter, Tekelia Barnett. "You're not on the battlefield."
The Afghan-American asked repeatedly whether he would be sent on battlefield missions. Barnett said he would translate for soldiers at schools, mosques or hospitals. After being pressed on the point, Barnett said the linguist would be subject to "any" assignment, and if he did not want the task he could quit.
Peltier later told AP it was indeed possible that translators would be on the battlefield. He said he would talk to Barnett to make sure she made that more clear. Peltier also said the first phone call was "introductory" and that recruits go through two weeks of training "and get a very clear picture of what they're going to do."
Others disagreed.
"They say you'll get a shower once a day, have access to Internet and TV, call home six times a week," Woodall said. "And when the guys get out, they're completely shell-shocked. They've been lied to."
Habib, the translator who spoke to the AP while carrying a heavy pack in the stifling heat, said a Mission Essential recruiter originally told him that if he passed his language test, he would work out of the main U.S. base at Bagram about 30 miles north of the Afghan capital, Kabul.
"That's what she promised me over the phone. That was attractive to me, and it was safe," Habib said.
Once in Afghanistan, he says he was told he would lose his job if he didn't go with the Marines to Helmand.
"It's been very hard, very hard, physically," said Habib, a Pashto-speaking U.S. citizen born in Pakistan who says he signed up because he wanted to serve his country.
Troops and translators say they suspect recruiting companies try to send as many interpreters as possible to Afghanistan to collect fees.
Millions of dollars are involved. Known as Category II translators — U.S. citizens who obtain a security clearance — such linguists earn a salary that starts at $210,000 a year.
Mission Essential Personnel recruits and hires most Category II linguists in Afghanistan. Peltier said the company was founded by two former Army Special Forces reservists who sought to improve the quality of translators after seeing them "pushed out the door and being mistreated."
The military gave Mission Essential performance bonuses in each quarter last year, Peltier said. When the company took over the Afghanistan language contract in late 2007, only
41 percent of linguists' jobs were filled. Today 97 percent of the jobs are taken, he said.
At Camp Leatherneck, four U.S.-citizen interpreters spoke with AP but none gave his name for fear of losing his job.
The translators said dozens of linguists quit soon after arriving in Afghanistan in recent weeks. Spangler declined to provide numbers but said "quite a bit" resigned or were fired because they were too old, unfit or couldn't speak Pashto.
Army Sgt. Will Gamez, 26, of Los Angeles, said he recently worked with a linguist who spoke only the Afghan language of Dari, instead of Pashto.
One translator alleged that most of his colleagues cannot speak Pashto, and that some recruits in the U.S. were bypassing the language test administered for Mission Essential by having a skilled Pashto speaker take it over the phone. The company does not require the initial test be taken in person but later gives in-person tests.
Spangler said the military is working its way through dozens of newly arrived interpreters and that the system will weed out the weaker ones by September.
But Gamez said soldiers need translators now, and that some feign sickness to avoid work.
"If he doesn't go out, I can't do my job," Gamez said. "If locals come up to us, we can't tell what they're saying. They might be warning us about a minefield. They might be warning us about an ambush."
By JASON STRAZIUSO | Associated Press writer | July 26, 2009
NAWA, Afghanistan — Josh Habib lay in a dirt field, gasping for air. Two days of hiking with Marines through southern Afghanistan's 115-degree heat had exhausted him. This was not what he signed up for.
Habib is not a Marine. He is a 53-year-old engineer from California who was hired by a contracting company as a military translator. When he applied for the lucrative linguist job, Habib said his recruiter gave no hint that he would join a ground assault in Taliban land. He carried 40 pounds of food, water and gear on his back, and kept pace — barely — with Marines half his age.
U.S. troops say companies that recruit military translators are sending linguists to southern Afghanistan who are unprepared to serve in combat, even as hundreds more are needed to support the growing number of troops.
Some translators are in their 60s and 70s and in poor physical condition, and some don't even speak the right language.
"I've met guys off the planes and have immediately sent them back because they weren't in the proper physical shape," said Gunnery Sgt. James Spangler, who is in charge of linguists at Camp Leatherneck, the largest U.S. base in Helmand province.
"They were too old. They couldn't breathe. They complained about heart problems," he said. "We almost made a joke of it. We're almost receiving people on oxygen tanks and colostomy bags; it's almost getting to that point."
And that is not the worst of it.
Troops say low-skilled and disgruntled translators are putting U.S. forces at risk.
"Intelligence can save Marines' lives and give us the advantage on the battlefield," said Cpl. William Woodall, 26, of Dallas, who works closely with translators. "Instead of looking for quality, the companies are just pushing bodies out here, and once they're out the door, it's not their problem anymore."
Spangler, 36, of Lecanto, Fla., emphasized that translators must be physically fit.
"When we have convoys that are out days or weeks at a time and you have someone that's 60 or 70 years old, I have to put the directive in: I need someone younger, can get out of a vehicle quickly, can run for short periods if needed, anything that's required for combat operations with Marines," Spangler said.
The company that recruits most U.S. citizen translators, Columbus, Ohio-based Mission Essential Personnel, says it is difficult to meet the increased demand for linguists to aid the 15,000 U.S. forces being sent to southern, Pashto-speaking provinces this year as part of President Barack Obama's increased focus on Afghanistan. Only 7,700 Pashto speakers live in the U.S., according to the 2000 census.
Mission Essential Senior Vice President Marc Peltier told The Associated Press that the linguists the company deploys to Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries meet government standards. The military sets no age or weight requirements.
"I really wish everyone we send over was a 21-year-old who can pass the Marine Corps physical fitness exam. They're not," he said.
"It's been a shock to some of them. You can't really acclimate them. We don't have centers to run scenarios out in the heat. It is a surprise to many of them and it's very, very hard work, especially with a lot of the new Marines that are going into Helmand province," he said.
How translators come to believe they will not face danger could originate with recruiters.
"They're going to tell you whatever it is to get you hired," Spangler said.
Khalid Nazary, an Afghan-American citizen living in Kabul, called Mission Essential about a job and let an AP reporter listen.
He asked whether he would go to "dangerous places."
"Oh, no, no, no. You're not a soldier. You're not a soldier. Not at all," said the recruiter, Tekelia Barnett. "You're not on the battlefield."
The Afghan-American asked repeatedly whether he would be sent on battlefield missions. Barnett said he would translate for soldiers at schools, mosques or hospitals. After being pressed on the point, Barnett said the linguist would be subject to "any" assignment, and if he did not want the task he could quit.
Peltier later told AP it was indeed possible that translators would be on the battlefield. He said he would talk to Barnett to make sure she made that more clear. Peltier also said the first phone call was "introductory" and that recruits go through two weeks of training "and get a very clear picture of what they're going to do."
Others disagreed.
"They say you'll get a shower once a day, have access to Internet and TV, call home six times a week," Woodall said. "And when the guys get out, they're completely shell-shocked. They've been lied to."
Habib, the translator who spoke to the AP while carrying a heavy pack in the stifling heat, said a Mission Essential recruiter originally told him that if he passed his language test, he would work out of the main U.S. base at Bagram about 30 miles north of the Afghan capital, Kabul.
"That's what she promised me over the phone. That was attractive to me, and it was safe," Habib said.
Once in Afghanistan, he says he was told he would lose his job if he didn't go with the Marines to Helmand.
"It's been very hard, very hard, physically," said Habib, a Pashto-speaking U.S. citizen born in Pakistan who says he signed up because he wanted to serve his country.
Troops and translators say they suspect recruiting companies try to send as many interpreters as possible to Afghanistan to collect fees.
Millions of dollars are involved. Known as Category II translators — U.S. citizens who obtain a security clearance — such linguists earn a salary that starts at $210,000 a year.
Mission Essential Personnel recruits and hires most Category II linguists in Afghanistan. Peltier said the company was founded by two former Army Special Forces reservists who sought to improve the quality of translators after seeing them "pushed out the door and being mistreated."
The military gave Mission Essential performance bonuses in each quarter last year, Peltier said. When the company took over the Afghanistan language contract in late 2007, only
41 percent of linguists' jobs were filled. Today 97 percent of the jobs are taken, he said.
At Camp Leatherneck, four U.S.-citizen interpreters spoke with AP but none gave his name for fear of losing his job.
The translators said dozens of linguists quit soon after arriving in Afghanistan in recent weeks. Spangler declined to provide numbers but said "quite a bit" resigned or were fired because they were too old, unfit or couldn't speak Pashto.
Army Sgt. Will Gamez, 26, of Los Angeles, said he recently worked with a linguist who spoke only the Afghan language of Dari, instead of Pashto.
One translator alleged that most of his colleagues cannot speak Pashto, and that some recruits in the U.S. were bypassing the language test administered for Mission Essential by having a skilled Pashto speaker take it over the phone. The company does not require the initial test be taken in person but later gives in-person tests.
Spangler said the military is working its way through dozens of newly arrived interpreters and that the system will weed out the weaker ones by September.
But Gamez said soldiers need translators now, and that some feign sickness to avoid work.
"If he doesn't go out, I can't do my job," Gamez said. "If locals come up to us, we can't tell what they're saying. They might be warning us about a minefield. They might be warning us about an ambush."
Filed under
Afghanistan,
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by Winter Patriot
on Monday, August 03, 2009
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CNN : Recruits reveal al Qaeda's sprawling web
Friday, July 31, 2009
Recruits reveal al Qaeda's sprawling web
* Interviews with accused al Qaeda members reveal how it is adapting
* Accounts show it's suffering from U.S. attacks; possible funding problems
* Now running smaller operations along Pakistan border, still planning major attacks
By CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson and Paul Cruickshank | July 31, 2009
Editor's note: This story is based on interrogation reports that form part of the prosecution case in the forthcoming trial of six Belgian citizens charged with participation in a terrorist group. Versions of those documents were obtained by CNN from the defense attorney of one of those suspects. The statement by Bryant Vinas was compiled from an interview he gave Belgian prosecutors in March 2009 in New York, and was confirmed by U.S. prosecutors as authentic. The statement by Walid Othmani was given to French investigators, and was authenticated by Belgian prosecutors.
(CNN) -- When Bryant Neal Vinas spoke at length with Belgian prosecutors last March, he provided a fascinating and sometimes frightening insight into al Qaeda's training -- and its agenda.
Vinas is a young American who was arrested in Pakistan late in 2008 after allegedly training with al Qaeda in the Afghan/Pakistan border area.
He was repatriated to the United States and in January pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and receiving military-type training from a foreign terrorist organization.
In notes made by FBI agents of interviews with Vinas, he admits he went to Pakistan to join al Qaeda and kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan. But the terror group appeared to have other ideas for him. He volunteered to become a suicide bomber but was dissuaded at every turn. On Thanksgiving weekend last year, shortly after his arrest, much of the New York mass transit system was put on high alert, including Penn Station. According to the Belgian prosecutor's document, Vinas had told al Qaeda's command everything he knew about the system.
Vinas's account of his time in al Qaeda training camps in Pakistan is a playbook of how the terror group survived after 9/11 and continues to operate in the remote hills of Pakistan.
Al Qaeda has shown remarkable adaptability and remains as committed as ever to launching attacks in the West, according to the descriptions of several alleged Western recruits, including Vinas, who spent time together in al Qaeda camps in the region between September 2007 and December 2008.
In their interrogations, the recruits revealed al Qaeda's continued determination to attack mass transport systems in the West and training programs for new forms of attack, including breaking into residences to carry out targeted assassinations.
The documents provide an inside view of al Qaeda's organizational structures, training programs, and the protective measures the terrorist organization has taken against increasingly effective U.S. missile strikes.
And they arguably shed more light on the state of al Qaeda than any previously released into the public domain.
Intelligence officials say intensified U.S. Predator drone strikes have degraded al Qaeda's capabilities since the end of last year, but the accounts suggest that because of the decentralization of its organization and close ties with the Pakistani Taliban, the terrorist network will be difficult to dislodge from Pakistan's tribal areas.
Despite not being able to operate training camps on anything like the scale they did in Afghanistan, the accounts suggest that al Qaeda has been able to sustain many of its training operations by confining them to small dwellings in the remote mountains of Waziristan. Inside these dwellings bomb-making training appears to have been emphasized, some of it very sophisticated.
An American joins al Qaeda
On September 10, 2007, almost exactly six years after al Qaeda attacked New York, Vinas, a 24-year-old Queens-born American citizen boarded a flight from the city en route to Lahore, in eastern Pakistan, determined to fight jihad in neighboring Afghanistan.
Brought up a Catholic by his Latin American immigrant parents, who divorced when he was young, Vinas tried to join the U.S. army in 2002 but dropped out after just a few weeks.
In 2004 -- for reasons which are still unclear -- he converted to Islam and started frequenting a mosque in Long Island near where he lived with his father. Over the next three years he became radicalized, U.S. officials have stated, in no small part because of his exposure to pro-al Qaeda Web sites.
A former U.S. government official told CNN that youths influenced by the ideas of the British pro-al Qaeda extremist group Al Muhajiroun were known to have hung out in the vicinity of the mosque at the same time as Vinas.
The former official told CNN that they were a splinter group of the Al Muhajiroun followers who used to hang out in the New York/Long Island area in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Al Muhajiroun's American members, the former official stated, included Syed Hashmi, a Brooklyn college graduate who traveled to Pakistan in 2003 and now awaits trial on charges of providing material support to the terrorist network. He has pled not guilty.
Another who belonged to Al Muhajiroun was Mohammed Junaid Babar, a trainee Queens taxi driver, who met two of the July 7, 2005 London bombers in Pakistan and who in 2004 pled guilty to providing material support to terrorists in Pakistan. Al Muhajiroun was formally disbanded in October 2004 but still operates, CNN has discovered, under a variety of guises.
Anjem Choudhary, the former deputy leader of Al Muhajiroun, told CNN Monday that New York was one of the organization's main hubs before 2004. He says dozens of followers from the New York area still regularly tune into online sermons put together by the group's founder Omar Bakri Mohammed in Tripoli, Lebanon, where he has been living since being banned from the UK after the 2005 London bombings.
Choudhary stated that he and Bakri were still loosely affiliated with The Islamic Thinkers Society, a New York based organization, which says the peaceful restoration of the Islamic Caliphate is one of its objectives.
A March 5, 2009 posting on the homepage of its Web site states that Bakri Mohammed is "a man who has inspired thousands across the world to rise for Islam." The Islamic Thinkers Society exists legally in the United States and says it is committed solely to the political and intellectual struggle for Islam.
When Vinas arrived in Lahore he had little idea about how he was going to gain access to the fighting in Afghanistan, according to his own account. But a few days after he arrived he sought help from a New York friend whom he knew moved in militant circles.
One introduction led to another and eventually Vinas met a Jihadist commander about to return to Afghanistan. Identified in legal documents as S.S., their commander agreed to let him join his group. CNN has learned from a source briefed on the case that the initials S.S. stand for a man who goes by the name of Shah Saab, and is believed to be somewhere in Pakistan's tribal areas.
At the end of September Vinas was whisked in the commander's car into Pakistan's tribal areas and then across the border into Afghanistan to join up with a small band of fighters targeting an American base. The raid however was called off at the last minute because of American aircraft circling above.
His quick introduction to the fighting appears to have been unusual. Vinas stated it was standard for fighters to undergo military training before being selected for such missions.
It is possible he persuaded his handlers that his brief stint as a U.S. army recruit justified him being fast-tracked; or perhaps the jihadist group just needed more fighters.
On his return to Mohmand, a district in Pakistan's tribal areas, Vinas was asked by one of the fighters if he wanted to become a suicide bomber. Vinas, according to his own account, accepted and was sent to Peshawar, Pakistan, for more instruction.
But his handlers there judged that he had not received enough religious instruction to launch such an attack. Perhaps it was dawning on them just how valuable an American recruit might one day be.
Vinas stated that at this point he traveled back to a village in Waziristan where he spent time with a number of al Qaeda members, including a number of Saudis and Yemenis.
In March 2008 he successfully persuaded one of them, a Yemeni he identified as Soufran, to recommend him for formal membership in the terrorist group. Only Soufran's initials appeared in the legal document but CNN obtained his name from a source briefed on the case. His current whereabouts are unknown.
According to Vinas, al Qaeda recruits were asked to fill out forms with personal information and hand over their passports when they joined the organization, but were not required to sign a contract or take part in a ceremony to become a member of al Qaeda.
The Belgian-French group
Around this time, Vinas says in his interrogation, he came across several Belgian and French militants who had traveled to Pakistan's tribal areas at the beginning of the year, also intent on fighting in Afghanistan.
The group's members -- four Belgians and two French citizens, all of North African descent -- were recruited, Belgian police say, by Malika el Aroud and Moez Garsallaoui, a married couple who had long enjoyed a notorious reputation among European counter-terrorism services.
El Aroud's previous husband, Abdessattar Dahmane, had assassinated Ahmed Shah Massoud, the head of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, in a suicide bombing attack ordered by Osama bin Laden two days before 9/11.
When CNN interviewed the couple in 2006, El Aroud showed how she administered a pro-al Qaeda Web forum called Minbar SOS, which included pro-al Qaeda postings and propaganda videos.
Belgian investigators say the Web site played an important role in the radicalization of members of the French-Belgian group.
One of them was a 25-year-old Frenchman, Walid Othmani. He was arrested on his return to France from Pakistan. Belgian prosecutors told CNN Othmani has been charged in France with participation in a criminal conspiracy with the aim of preparing a terrorist act.
"I don't think I would have left to fight Jihad without viewing these videos [on Minbar] ... it made me aware that the European media were hiding things about the situation in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan," Othmani told French interrogators, according to Belgian legal documents obtained by CNN.
According to Belgian counter-terrorism officials, Garsallaoui, a Tunisian citizen, recruited some of those who traveled to Pakistan in person in Brussels, but relied on the Internet to recruit others.
The six recruits met Garsallaoui in Istanbul in December 2007. With Garsallaoui setting off first, they followed him towards Pakistan, paying off a series of people-smugglers between Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, to gain entry to al Qaeda's heartlands in the mountains of Waziristan.
Vinas says he met with at least three members of this group in Waziristan: its leader Moez Garsallaoui, Hamza el Alami, and Hicham Bouhali Zrioul, a Belgian-Moroccan who once worked as a taxi driver in Brussels. All three are believed by Belgian intelligence officials to be at large in the mountainous area along the Pakistan/Afghan border.
Three other members -- Hicham Beyayo, Ali El Ghanouti and Said Harrizi -- were arrested when they returned to Belgium and have been charged with participation in a terrorist group. They don't dispute they went to fight Jihad; they do deny participating in a terrorist group.
Al Qaeda's new training facilities
Between March and July 2008 Vinas stated that he attended three al Qaeda training courses, which focused on weapons, explosives, and rocket-based or propelled weaponry.
During these classes, attended by 10-20 recruits, Vinas was taught how to handle a large variety of weapons and explosives, some of them of military grade sophistication, according to his account.
Vinas stated he became familiar with seeing, smelling and touching different explosives such as TNT, as well as plastic explosives such as RDX, and Semtex, C3 and C4 -- the explosive U.S. authorities have stated was used in al Qaeda's attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Vinas also learned how to make vests for suicide bombers.
Vinas stated that he was also instructed how to prepare and place fuses, how to test batteries, how to use voltmeters and how to build circuitry for a bomb. According to his account, al Qaeda also offered a wide variety of other courses including electronics, sniper, and poisons training.
Instruction in the actual construction of bombs, he stated, was offered to al Qaeda recruits who had become more advanced in their training.
Vinas' training during this period was very similar to the training described by members of the French-Belgian group. Othmani, the French recruit, stated that the group were given explosives training and taught how to fire rocket launchers and RPGs.
Like Vinas, the group had been required to sign forms before their training. Othmani stated that his group was required to pledge absolute obedience to their handlers and indicate whether they wanted to become suicide bombers.
Othmani provided interesting new details about the training facilities being used by al Qaeda in the tribal areas.
His group trained in a small mountain shack, a far cry from the large camps al Qaeda had run in Taliban-era Afghanistan, when it had been able to operate with little danger of being targeted by military strikes.
However the wide number of training courses described by both Vinas and Othmani suggest that al Qaeda has been able to adapt well to the new security environment. By operating a larger number of smaller facilities, al Qaeda would also appear to have increased its resilience to attack.
While the classrooms are safer from drone attacks than the pre-9/11 sessions on the mountainsides the content seems to have changed to match new targeting plans.
Suicide vest and IED construction show how the curriculum is being modified for today's combat with U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Making and handling explosives, as well as fuse construction, show the sessions may also be geared for killing in Europe and the United States.
These are the very skills the July 7, 2005 London bombers Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammed Siddique came to Pakistan to learn. Al Qaeda, it would seem, may still want to pull off spectacular attacks in Europe or the United States.
Vinas says he took a course in propelled weaponry with Zrioul, the former Brussels taxi driver, whom he first met in March 2008, and formed a friendship with.
Vinas stated that when they completed their training, al Qaeda instructors did a written evaluation of their performance. Vinas had been judged qualified to participate in missile attacks against U.S. and NATO bases in Afghanistan, according to his account.
That suggests al Qaeda has maintained its capacity for administration and paperwork even in a harsher security environment.
When their training finished in the summer of 2008, Vinas and Zrioul lived in the same house in the mountains of Waziristan. Zrioul managed to acquire a computer which he rigged up to watch Jihadist videos.
According to Othmani, al Qaeda fighters numbered between 300-500 in Pakistan's Tribal Areas -- spread out in groups of 10. Such decentralization was a function of the growing deadliness of U.S. military strikes using Predator drones.
Hicham Beyayo, one of the Belgian Jihadist volunteers, said his group moved around a lot because such strikes were known to be "very effective," his lawyer, Christophe Marchand told CNN.
The loss of an increasing number of operatives, stated Othmani, prompted an order from al Qaeda's top command for fighters to remain inside as much as possible. In order to keep in touch jihadists operated a courier service across the region according to the Frenchman's testimony.
The decentralization of al Qaeda's structures appear to have created some costs for recruits.
Two members of the Belgian-French group describe feeling increasingly cut off, bored, and fed up with the primitive living conditions in their mountain shacks.
They often did not seem to know what their next orders would be or where their handlers would take them. They also described being deeply frustrated at being repeatedly given false promises that they would be able to fight in Afghanistan.
Othmani also described the group's frustration at having to pay for their own weapons and training -- at a cost of €1,300 (about $1,800) -- which if true might lend credence to reports that al Qaeda has come under financial strain. Vinas, for his part, made no mention of having to make payments to his handlers.
New attack plans
During a mountain walk with Zrioul one day, Vinas says he was told about a new course being taught by al Qaeda called "international operations" set up by the organization's head of international operations whom Vinas later identified as Abu Hafith.
Hafith, he stated, was responsible for recruitment and direction of terrorist cells, and attacks outside Pakistan and Afghanistan. Hafith was identified by his initials in the legal document but CNN obtained his name from a source briefed on the case. He is believed to be still at large in the Pakistan-Afghan border area.
Vinas was told that the training course Hafith set up focused on kidnapping and assassination, including instruction on the use of silencers and how to break into and enter a property.
The revelations raise the possibility that al Qaeda was developing a program of targeted assassinations. Though al Qaeda has carried out some assassinations in the past, most of its attacks in the West have not targeted any particular individuals but crowded areas, such as mass transport.
Vinas stated that Zrioul also discussed with him an attack on the Brussels metro, telling him it was a soft target because it was poorly protected. He said Zrioul also raised the possibility of launching an attack on a European football stadium.
A senior Belgian intelligence official told CNN that Belgian security services only learned about these conversations in March 2009 after Vinas met with Belgian prosecutors in New York. Although concerned, Belgium's intelligence service concluded that no concrete plot had likely existed, said the official.
Such conversations illustrate the terror network's continued desire to inflict mass casualties. Vinas stated that he himself gave detailed briefings to al Qaeda chiefs in Waziristan in September 2008 about how the Long Island Commuter Rail service worked, according to a federal indictment earlier this month.
Vinas' life as an al Qaeda fighter saw him rotate between fighting behind enemy lines in Afghanistan, training in remote mountain dwellings in the tribal areas, and spending downtime in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, movements which indicate that al Qaeda has recently found it possible to operate in a large swath of territory across Pakistan's North-west.
Vinas not only had a toe amputated in Peshawar, but also went there to look for a wife. None of this would have happened without al Qaeda's blessing. Although he was ultimately arrested in Peshawar, al Qaeda would not have signed off on his visits unless they'd felt confident he'd be safe there.
Meetings with top al Qaeda leaders
During his travels Vinas met some of al Qaeda's top leaders, leaders he was able to identify to U.S. authorities after his capture. According to U.S. investigators, quoted by the Los Angeles Times, Vinas says he met with Abu Yayha al Libi, one of al Qaeda's principal spokesmen and Rashid Rauf, the British al Qaeda operative suspected of coordinating a plot against transatlantic aviation in August 2006. Rauf, who was arrested that August in Pakistan, escaped from custody in December 2007 but is believed to have been killed in a Predator strike in North Waziristan in November 2008.
Vinas says he also met with an individual by the name of Abdullah Saeed, whom he says replaced Abu Leith al Libbi as al Qaeda's military chief in Afghanistan and Pakistan in January 2008. A former jihadist told CNN that Saeed is almost certainly Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid, an Egyptian also known as Sheikh Saeed. In June Al-Yazid released an audio recording complaining of a lack of funds for the fighting in Afghanistan.
Raids into Afghanistan
Vinas stated that he met with Saeed in the late summer of 2008 in Waziristan, and al Qaeda's military chief personally instructed him to join a group of fighters targeting American bases from the tribal areas of Pakistan. This January, Vinas pleaded guilty to having targeted an American base in September 2008.
That attack however appears to have been a failure. Creeping up towards the American forward operating base Vinas and other al Qaeda fighters' first attempt to fire on the base was botched by radio problems. The second rocket attack fell short of the base, according to Vinas' account.
Attacks by his associates however may have been more deadly. In June 2008 Moez Garsallaoui, the French-Belgian group leader, wrote an email to his wife in Belgium, intercepted by U.S. counter-terrorism agencies, in which he claimed to have killed several Americans in Afghanistan, according to Belgian legal documents.
And Walid Othmani said that in July 2008 Garsallaoui told him he had killed Americans by firing rockets at an American combat outpost from Pakistan, according to the documents. As he was not specific about the date, CNN has not been able to substantiate the claim.
Both Vinas and Othmani described close ties between al Qaeda and Taliban elements in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
The relationship between the two groups was so close, Vinas stated, that members of al Qaeda were also sometimes simultaneously members of the Taliban.
Garsallaoui appears to be one such recruit. In a message he posted on Minbar SOS on May 11, 2009, discovered by CNN, he described undertaking raids with "brother Taliban" from the tribal areas of Pakistan against targets in Afghanistan. "Nothing has given me greater pleasure than encountering [American] soldiers during long days on the battlefield," he said.
A continued threat to the West.
Between late July and early December of 2008 four members of the Belgian-French group -- Beyayo, El Ghanouti, Harrizi and Othmani -- returned to Europe.
On December 11 Belgian counter-terrorism police launched one of the largest operations in the country's history, arresting six people including Garsallaoui's wife Malika el Aroud and charging them with participation in a terrorist group.
According to Belgian counter-terrorism sources, the trigger for the Brussels arrests was an intercepted e-mail sent by one of the alleged recruits, Beyayo, in early December shortly after he returned to Belgium.
The e-mail allegedly suggested Beyayo had been given the green light to launch an attack in Belgium.
However no explosives were recovered by Belgian police, and some terrorism analysts are skeptical that an attack was imminent.
Beyayo's lawyer, Christophe Marchand, told CNN in February that the e-mail was merely "tough talk" to impress an ex-girlfriend. Belgian authorities continue to insist that the alleged cell was a potential national security threat.
Vinas, for his part, was arrested by Pakistani police in Peshawar in November 2008 and transferred into American custody.
Of those still thought to be at large, Garsallaoui issued this threat to Belgium authorities on his wife's Web site on May 11, 2009: "If you thought that you could pressure me to slow down through the arrest of my wife, you were wrong. It won't stop me fulfilling my objectives... the place of my wife in my heart and the heart of all the mujahedeen is greater than ever... Surprises are sure to be in store for you in the days ahead. Those who laugh last, laugh more."
Such threats will have caused concern because of Garsallaoui's wide connections in European militant circles. Two of his Brussels associates, Bassam Ayachi, 62, and Raphael Gendron 33, are in custody in Italy, charged with being leaders of a logistical support team for al Qaeda. They have denied the charges.
The duo, who were detained in the port city of Bari in November for trying to illegally smuggle Middle Easterners into the country, had allegedly talked to each other in their detention center about what sounded like a scheme to attack Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, a conversation bugged by Italian police. French officials have said they were never aware of a concrete plot to attack the airport.
According to a senior Belgian intelligence official, Garsallaoui, his wife El Aroud, and several others who traveled to Pakistan were all connected through the Centre Islamique Belge, an organization Belgian authorities say espouses hardline Salafist and pro-al Qaeda views.
In past interviews the organization's founder Bassam Ayachi has said it concentrates on pastoral care for Muslims in Brussels and did not promote pro-al Qaeda views.
Members of the Brussels-based group are believed to have received terrorist training in other countries besides Pakistan.
In late May, several days before U.S. President Barack Obama traveled to Cairo to give a major speech, several Belgian citizens were arrested in Egypt and accused of being members of a terrorist cell affiliated with al Qaeda.
A senior Belgian counter-terrorism official told CNN that two Belgians now in Egyptian custody were known associates of Garsallaoui at the Centre Islamique Belge and are believed to have received military training with an ultra-extremist Palestinian group in Gaza.
"Anybody who gets such training is obviously a potential danger if they return to Europe," said the official.
The insider accounts of al Qaeda operations in the tribal areas of Pakistan make clear the terrorist organization's continued determination to attack the West.
While the potential pool of recruits may have shrunk significantly because of a backlash against al Qaeda in Muslim communities around the world -- due to its targeting of civilians and the fact that so many of its victims have been Muslim -- the insider accounts suggest that there are still a significant number of hardcore extremists in the West and in Muslim countries -- who are willing to join bin Laden's terrorist outfit.
The insider descriptions provided by Vinas and Othmani indicate that these violent extremists are as motivated as any of their predecessors.
Their accounts also indicate that the al Qaeda network has demonstrated a remarkable ability to adapt its operations to a much harsher security environment.
But Vinas and Othmani's accounts also suggest that al Qaeda may be having leadership problems.
While able to find fresh recruits to replace those killed and arrested it seems to have more difficulty replacing senior military trainers and other key operational figures.
A former U.S. government official, specializing in counter-terrorism, commented that the insider accounts suggest the same people are leading training as a decade ago.
The only difference, there are fewer of them. Perhaps those killed or captured along the Afghan/Pakistan border are not being replaced.
Recent reports that al Qaeda is moving some operatives out of the tribal areas of Pakistan towards safer placements in Pakistani cities, or to Jihadist fronts in other countries such as Yemen and Somalia, may indicate that the pressure from U.S. missile strikes is starting to show.
But the decentralization of al Qaeda's training and their ever closer ties with local Pakistani Taliban, mean it remains extremely difficult to eliminate from the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Above all the accounts from Vinas and others show that al Qaeda's training structures have but one goal, another 9/11.
* Interviews with accused al Qaeda members reveal how it is adapting
* Accounts show it's suffering from U.S. attacks; possible funding problems
* Now running smaller operations along Pakistan border, still planning major attacks
By CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson and Paul Cruickshank | July 31, 2009
Editor's note: This story is based on interrogation reports that form part of the prosecution case in the forthcoming trial of six Belgian citizens charged with participation in a terrorist group. Versions of those documents were obtained by CNN from the defense attorney of one of those suspects. The statement by Bryant Vinas was compiled from an interview he gave Belgian prosecutors in March 2009 in New York, and was confirmed by U.S. prosecutors as authentic. The statement by Walid Othmani was given to French investigators, and was authenticated by Belgian prosecutors.
(CNN) -- When Bryant Neal Vinas spoke at length with Belgian prosecutors last March, he provided a fascinating and sometimes frightening insight into al Qaeda's training -- and its agenda.
Vinas is a young American who was arrested in Pakistan late in 2008 after allegedly training with al Qaeda in the Afghan/Pakistan border area.
He was repatriated to the United States and in January pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and receiving military-type training from a foreign terrorist organization.
In notes made by FBI agents of interviews with Vinas, he admits he went to Pakistan to join al Qaeda and kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan. But the terror group appeared to have other ideas for him. He volunteered to become a suicide bomber but was dissuaded at every turn. On Thanksgiving weekend last year, shortly after his arrest, much of the New York mass transit system was put on high alert, including Penn Station. According to the Belgian prosecutor's document, Vinas had told al Qaeda's command everything he knew about the system.
Vinas's account of his time in al Qaeda training camps in Pakistan is a playbook of how the terror group survived after 9/11 and continues to operate in the remote hills of Pakistan.
Al Qaeda has shown remarkable adaptability and remains as committed as ever to launching attacks in the West, according to the descriptions of several alleged Western recruits, including Vinas, who spent time together in al Qaeda camps in the region between September 2007 and December 2008.
In their interrogations, the recruits revealed al Qaeda's continued determination to attack mass transport systems in the West and training programs for new forms of attack, including breaking into residences to carry out targeted assassinations.
The documents provide an inside view of al Qaeda's organizational structures, training programs, and the protective measures the terrorist organization has taken against increasingly effective U.S. missile strikes.
And they arguably shed more light on the state of al Qaeda than any previously released into the public domain.
Intelligence officials say intensified U.S. Predator drone strikes have degraded al Qaeda's capabilities since the end of last year, but the accounts suggest that because of the decentralization of its organization and close ties with the Pakistani Taliban, the terrorist network will be difficult to dislodge from Pakistan's tribal areas.
Despite not being able to operate training camps on anything like the scale they did in Afghanistan, the accounts suggest that al Qaeda has been able to sustain many of its training operations by confining them to small dwellings in the remote mountains of Waziristan. Inside these dwellings bomb-making training appears to have been emphasized, some of it very sophisticated.
An American joins al Qaeda
On September 10, 2007, almost exactly six years after al Qaeda attacked New York, Vinas, a 24-year-old Queens-born American citizen boarded a flight from the city en route to Lahore, in eastern Pakistan, determined to fight jihad in neighboring Afghanistan.
Brought up a Catholic by his Latin American immigrant parents, who divorced when he was young, Vinas tried to join the U.S. army in 2002 but dropped out after just a few weeks.
In 2004 -- for reasons which are still unclear -- he converted to Islam and started frequenting a mosque in Long Island near where he lived with his father. Over the next three years he became radicalized, U.S. officials have stated, in no small part because of his exposure to pro-al Qaeda Web sites.
A former U.S. government official told CNN that youths influenced by the ideas of the British pro-al Qaeda extremist group Al Muhajiroun were known to have hung out in the vicinity of the mosque at the same time as Vinas.
The former official told CNN that they were a splinter group of the Al Muhajiroun followers who used to hang out in the New York/Long Island area in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Al Muhajiroun's American members, the former official stated, included Syed Hashmi, a Brooklyn college graduate who traveled to Pakistan in 2003 and now awaits trial on charges of providing material support to the terrorist network. He has pled not guilty.
Another who belonged to Al Muhajiroun was Mohammed Junaid Babar, a trainee Queens taxi driver, who met two of the July 7, 2005 London bombers in Pakistan and who in 2004 pled guilty to providing material support to terrorists in Pakistan. Al Muhajiroun was formally disbanded in October 2004 but still operates, CNN has discovered, under a variety of guises.
Anjem Choudhary, the former deputy leader of Al Muhajiroun, told CNN Monday that New York was one of the organization's main hubs before 2004. He says dozens of followers from the New York area still regularly tune into online sermons put together by the group's founder Omar Bakri Mohammed in Tripoli, Lebanon, where he has been living since being banned from the UK after the 2005 London bombings.
Choudhary stated that he and Bakri were still loosely affiliated with The Islamic Thinkers Society, a New York based organization, which says the peaceful restoration of the Islamic Caliphate is one of its objectives.
A March 5, 2009 posting on the homepage of its Web site states that Bakri Mohammed is "a man who has inspired thousands across the world to rise for Islam." The Islamic Thinkers Society exists legally in the United States and says it is committed solely to the political and intellectual struggle for Islam.
When Vinas arrived in Lahore he had little idea about how he was going to gain access to the fighting in Afghanistan, according to his own account. But a few days after he arrived he sought help from a New York friend whom he knew moved in militant circles.
One introduction led to another and eventually Vinas met a Jihadist commander about to return to Afghanistan. Identified in legal documents as S.S., their commander agreed to let him join his group. CNN has learned from a source briefed on the case that the initials S.S. stand for a man who goes by the name of Shah Saab, and is believed to be somewhere in Pakistan's tribal areas.
At the end of September Vinas was whisked in the commander's car into Pakistan's tribal areas and then across the border into Afghanistan to join up with a small band of fighters targeting an American base. The raid however was called off at the last minute because of American aircraft circling above.
His quick introduction to the fighting appears to have been unusual. Vinas stated it was standard for fighters to undergo military training before being selected for such missions.
It is possible he persuaded his handlers that his brief stint as a U.S. army recruit justified him being fast-tracked; or perhaps the jihadist group just needed more fighters.
On his return to Mohmand, a district in Pakistan's tribal areas, Vinas was asked by one of the fighters if he wanted to become a suicide bomber. Vinas, according to his own account, accepted and was sent to Peshawar, Pakistan, for more instruction.
But his handlers there judged that he had not received enough religious instruction to launch such an attack. Perhaps it was dawning on them just how valuable an American recruit might one day be.
Vinas stated that at this point he traveled back to a village in Waziristan where he spent time with a number of al Qaeda members, including a number of Saudis and Yemenis.
In March 2008 he successfully persuaded one of them, a Yemeni he identified as Soufran, to recommend him for formal membership in the terrorist group. Only Soufran's initials appeared in the legal document but CNN obtained his name from a source briefed on the case. His current whereabouts are unknown.
According to Vinas, al Qaeda recruits were asked to fill out forms with personal information and hand over their passports when they joined the organization, but were not required to sign a contract or take part in a ceremony to become a member of al Qaeda.
The Belgian-French group
Around this time, Vinas says in his interrogation, he came across several Belgian and French militants who had traveled to Pakistan's tribal areas at the beginning of the year, also intent on fighting in Afghanistan.
The group's members -- four Belgians and two French citizens, all of North African descent -- were recruited, Belgian police say, by Malika el Aroud and Moez Garsallaoui, a married couple who had long enjoyed a notorious reputation among European counter-terrorism services.
El Aroud's previous husband, Abdessattar Dahmane, had assassinated Ahmed Shah Massoud, the head of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, in a suicide bombing attack ordered by Osama bin Laden two days before 9/11.
When CNN interviewed the couple in 2006, El Aroud showed how she administered a pro-al Qaeda Web forum called Minbar SOS, which included pro-al Qaeda postings and propaganda videos.
Belgian investigators say the Web site played an important role in the radicalization of members of the French-Belgian group.
One of them was a 25-year-old Frenchman, Walid Othmani. He was arrested on his return to France from Pakistan. Belgian prosecutors told CNN Othmani has been charged in France with participation in a criminal conspiracy with the aim of preparing a terrorist act.
"I don't think I would have left to fight Jihad without viewing these videos [on Minbar] ... it made me aware that the European media were hiding things about the situation in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan," Othmani told French interrogators, according to Belgian legal documents obtained by CNN.
According to Belgian counter-terrorism officials, Garsallaoui, a Tunisian citizen, recruited some of those who traveled to Pakistan in person in Brussels, but relied on the Internet to recruit others.
The six recruits met Garsallaoui in Istanbul in December 2007. With Garsallaoui setting off first, they followed him towards Pakistan, paying off a series of people-smugglers between Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, to gain entry to al Qaeda's heartlands in the mountains of Waziristan.
Vinas says he met with at least three members of this group in Waziristan: its leader Moez Garsallaoui, Hamza el Alami, and Hicham Bouhali Zrioul, a Belgian-Moroccan who once worked as a taxi driver in Brussels. All three are believed by Belgian intelligence officials to be at large in the mountainous area along the Pakistan/Afghan border.
Three other members -- Hicham Beyayo, Ali El Ghanouti and Said Harrizi -- were arrested when they returned to Belgium and have been charged with participation in a terrorist group. They don't dispute they went to fight Jihad; they do deny participating in a terrorist group.
Al Qaeda's new training facilities
Between March and July 2008 Vinas stated that he attended three al Qaeda training courses, which focused on weapons, explosives, and rocket-based or propelled weaponry.
During these classes, attended by 10-20 recruits, Vinas was taught how to handle a large variety of weapons and explosives, some of them of military grade sophistication, according to his account.
Vinas stated he became familiar with seeing, smelling and touching different explosives such as TNT, as well as plastic explosives such as RDX, and Semtex, C3 and C4 -- the explosive U.S. authorities have stated was used in al Qaeda's attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Vinas also learned how to make vests for suicide bombers.
Vinas stated that he was also instructed how to prepare and place fuses, how to test batteries, how to use voltmeters and how to build circuitry for a bomb. According to his account, al Qaeda also offered a wide variety of other courses including electronics, sniper, and poisons training.
Instruction in the actual construction of bombs, he stated, was offered to al Qaeda recruits who had become more advanced in their training.
Vinas' training during this period was very similar to the training described by members of the French-Belgian group. Othmani, the French recruit, stated that the group were given explosives training and taught how to fire rocket launchers and RPGs.
Like Vinas, the group had been required to sign forms before their training. Othmani stated that his group was required to pledge absolute obedience to their handlers and indicate whether they wanted to become suicide bombers.
Othmani provided interesting new details about the training facilities being used by al Qaeda in the tribal areas.
His group trained in a small mountain shack, a far cry from the large camps al Qaeda had run in Taliban-era Afghanistan, when it had been able to operate with little danger of being targeted by military strikes.
However the wide number of training courses described by both Vinas and Othmani suggest that al Qaeda has been able to adapt well to the new security environment. By operating a larger number of smaller facilities, al Qaeda would also appear to have increased its resilience to attack.
While the classrooms are safer from drone attacks than the pre-9/11 sessions on the mountainsides the content seems to have changed to match new targeting plans.
Suicide vest and IED construction show how the curriculum is being modified for today's combat with U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Making and handling explosives, as well as fuse construction, show the sessions may also be geared for killing in Europe and the United States.
These are the very skills the July 7, 2005 London bombers Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammed Siddique came to Pakistan to learn. Al Qaeda, it would seem, may still want to pull off spectacular attacks in Europe or the United States.
Vinas says he took a course in propelled weaponry with Zrioul, the former Brussels taxi driver, whom he first met in March 2008, and formed a friendship with.
Vinas stated that when they completed their training, al Qaeda instructors did a written evaluation of their performance. Vinas had been judged qualified to participate in missile attacks against U.S. and NATO bases in Afghanistan, according to his account.
That suggests al Qaeda has maintained its capacity for administration and paperwork even in a harsher security environment.
When their training finished in the summer of 2008, Vinas and Zrioul lived in the same house in the mountains of Waziristan. Zrioul managed to acquire a computer which he rigged up to watch Jihadist videos.
According to Othmani, al Qaeda fighters numbered between 300-500 in Pakistan's Tribal Areas -- spread out in groups of 10. Such decentralization was a function of the growing deadliness of U.S. military strikes using Predator drones.
Hicham Beyayo, one of the Belgian Jihadist volunteers, said his group moved around a lot because such strikes were known to be "very effective," his lawyer, Christophe Marchand told CNN.
The loss of an increasing number of operatives, stated Othmani, prompted an order from al Qaeda's top command for fighters to remain inside as much as possible. In order to keep in touch jihadists operated a courier service across the region according to the Frenchman's testimony.
The decentralization of al Qaeda's structures appear to have created some costs for recruits.
Two members of the Belgian-French group describe feeling increasingly cut off, bored, and fed up with the primitive living conditions in their mountain shacks.
They often did not seem to know what their next orders would be or where their handlers would take them. They also described being deeply frustrated at being repeatedly given false promises that they would be able to fight in Afghanistan.
Othmani also described the group's frustration at having to pay for their own weapons and training -- at a cost of €1,300 (about $1,800) -- which if true might lend credence to reports that al Qaeda has come under financial strain. Vinas, for his part, made no mention of having to make payments to his handlers.
New attack plans
During a mountain walk with Zrioul one day, Vinas says he was told about a new course being taught by al Qaeda called "international operations" set up by the organization's head of international operations whom Vinas later identified as Abu Hafith.
Hafith, he stated, was responsible for recruitment and direction of terrorist cells, and attacks outside Pakistan and Afghanistan. Hafith was identified by his initials in the legal document but CNN obtained his name from a source briefed on the case. He is believed to be still at large in the Pakistan-Afghan border area.
Vinas was told that the training course Hafith set up focused on kidnapping and assassination, including instruction on the use of silencers and how to break into and enter a property.
The revelations raise the possibility that al Qaeda was developing a program of targeted assassinations. Though al Qaeda has carried out some assassinations in the past, most of its attacks in the West have not targeted any particular individuals but crowded areas, such as mass transport.
Vinas stated that Zrioul also discussed with him an attack on the Brussels metro, telling him it was a soft target because it was poorly protected. He said Zrioul also raised the possibility of launching an attack on a European football stadium.
A senior Belgian intelligence official told CNN that Belgian security services only learned about these conversations in March 2009 after Vinas met with Belgian prosecutors in New York. Although concerned, Belgium's intelligence service concluded that no concrete plot had likely existed, said the official.
Such conversations illustrate the terror network's continued desire to inflict mass casualties. Vinas stated that he himself gave detailed briefings to al Qaeda chiefs in Waziristan in September 2008 about how the Long Island Commuter Rail service worked, according to a federal indictment earlier this month.
Vinas' life as an al Qaeda fighter saw him rotate between fighting behind enemy lines in Afghanistan, training in remote mountain dwellings in the tribal areas, and spending downtime in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, movements which indicate that al Qaeda has recently found it possible to operate in a large swath of territory across Pakistan's North-west.
Vinas not only had a toe amputated in Peshawar, but also went there to look for a wife. None of this would have happened without al Qaeda's blessing. Although he was ultimately arrested in Peshawar, al Qaeda would not have signed off on his visits unless they'd felt confident he'd be safe there.
Meetings with top al Qaeda leaders
During his travels Vinas met some of al Qaeda's top leaders, leaders he was able to identify to U.S. authorities after his capture. According to U.S. investigators, quoted by the Los Angeles Times, Vinas says he met with Abu Yayha al Libi, one of al Qaeda's principal spokesmen and Rashid Rauf, the British al Qaeda operative suspected of coordinating a plot against transatlantic aviation in August 2006. Rauf, who was arrested that August in Pakistan, escaped from custody in December 2007 but is believed to have been killed in a Predator strike in North Waziristan in November 2008.
Vinas says he also met with an individual by the name of Abdullah Saeed, whom he says replaced Abu Leith al Libbi as al Qaeda's military chief in Afghanistan and Pakistan in January 2008. A former jihadist told CNN that Saeed is almost certainly Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid, an Egyptian also known as Sheikh Saeed. In June Al-Yazid released an audio recording complaining of a lack of funds for the fighting in Afghanistan.
Raids into Afghanistan
Vinas stated that he met with Saeed in the late summer of 2008 in Waziristan, and al Qaeda's military chief personally instructed him to join a group of fighters targeting American bases from the tribal areas of Pakistan. This January, Vinas pleaded guilty to having targeted an American base in September 2008.
That attack however appears to have been a failure. Creeping up towards the American forward operating base Vinas and other al Qaeda fighters' first attempt to fire on the base was botched by radio problems. The second rocket attack fell short of the base, according to Vinas' account.
Attacks by his associates however may have been more deadly. In June 2008 Moez Garsallaoui, the French-Belgian group leader, wrote an email to his wife in Belgium, intercepted by U.S. counter-terrorism agencies, in which he claimed to have killed several Americans in Afghanistan, according to Belgian legal documents.
And Walid Othmani said that in July 2008 Garsallaoui told him he had killed Americans by firing rockets at an American combat outpost from Pakistan, according to the documents. As he was not specific about the date, CNN has not been able to substantiate the claim.
Both Vinas and Othmani described close ties between al Qaeda and Taliban elements in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
The relationship between the two groups was so close, Vinas stated, that members of al Qaeda were also sometimes simultaneously members of the Taliban.
Garsallaoui appears to be one such recruit. In a message he posted on Minbar SOS on May 11, 2009, discovered by CNN, he described undertaking raids with "brother Taliban" from the tribal areas of Pakistan against targets in Afghanistan. "Nothing has given me greater pleasure than encountering [American] soldiers during long days on the battlefield," he said.
A continued threat to the West.
Between late July and early December of 2008 four members of the Belgian-French group -- Beyayo, El Ghanouti, Harrizi and Othmani -- returned to Europe.
On December 11 Belgian counter-terrorism police launched one of the largest operations in the country's history, arresting six people including Garsallaoui's wife Malika el Aroud and charging them with participation in a terrorist group.
According to Belgian counter-terrorism sources, the trigger for the Brussels arrests was an intercepted e-mail sent by one of the alleged recruits, Beyayo, in early December shortly after he returned to Belgium.
The e-mail allegedly suggested Beyayo had been given the green light to launch an attack in Belgium.
However no explosives were recovered by Belgian police, and some terrorism analysts are skeptical that an attack was imminent.
Beyayo's lawyer, Christophe Marchand, told CNN in February that the e-mail was merely "tough talk" to impress an ex-girlfriend. Belgian authorities continue to insist that the alleged cell was a potential national security threat.
Vinas, for his part, was arrested by Pakistani police in Peshawar in November 2008 and transferred into American custody.
Of those still thought to be at large, Garsallaoui issued this threat to Belgium authorities on his wife's Web site on May 11, 2009: "If you thought that you could pressure me to slow down through the arrest of my wife, you were wrong. It won't stop me fulfilling my objectives... the place of my wife in my heart and the heart of all the mujahedeen is greater than ever... Surprises are sure to be in store for you in the days ahead. Those who laugh last, laugh more."
Such threats will have caused concern because of Garsallaoui's wide connections in European militant circles. Two of his Brussels associates, Bassam Ayachi, 62, and Raphael Gendron 33, are in custody in Italy, charged with being leaders of a logistical support team for al Qaeda. They have denied the charges.
The duo, who were detained in the port city of Bari in November for trying to illegally smuggle Middle Easterners into the country, had allegedly talked to each other in their detention center about what sounded like a scheme to attack Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, a conversation bugged by Italian police. French officials have said they were never aware of a concrete plot to attack the airport.
According to a senior Belgian intelligence official, Garsallaoui, his wife El Aroud, and several others who traveled to Pakistan were all connected through the Centre Islamique Belge, an organization Belgian authorities say espouses hardline Salafist and pro-al Qaeda views.
In past interviews the organization's founder Bassam Ayachi has said it concentrates on pastoral care for Muslims in Brussels and did not promote pro-al Qaeda views.
Members of the Brussels-based group are believed to have received terrorist training in other countries besides Pakistan.
In late May, several days before U.S. President Barack Obama traveled to Cairo to give a major speech, several Belgian citizens were arrested in Egypt and accused of being members of a terrorist cell affiliated with al Qaeda.
A senior Belgian counter-terrorism official told CNN that two Belgians now in Egyptian custody were known associates of Garsallaoui at the Centre Islamique Belge and are believed to have received military training with an ultra-extremist Palestinian group in Gaza.
"Anybody who gets such training is obviously a potential danger if they return to Europe," said the official.
The insider accounts of al Qaeda operations in the tribal areas of Pakistan make clear the terrorist organization's continued determination to attack the West.
While the potential pool of recruits may have shrunk significantly because of a backlash against al Qaeda in Muslim communities around the world -- due to its targeting of civilians and the fact that so many of its victims have been Muslim -- the insider accounts suggest that there are still a significant number of hardcore extremists in the West and in Muslim countries -- who are willing to join bin Laden's terrorist outfit.
The insider descriptions provided by Vinas and Othmani indicate that these violent extremists are as motivated as any of their predecessors.
Their accounts also indicate that the al Qaeda network has demonstrated a remarkable ability to adapt its operations to a much harsher security environment.
But Vinas and Othmani's accounts also suggest that al Qaeda may be having leadership problems.
While able to find fresh recruits to replace those killed and arrested it seems to have more difficulty replacing senior military trainers and other key operational figures.
A former U.S. government official, specializing in counter-terrorism, commented that the insider accounts suggest the same people are leading training as a decade ago.
The only difference, there are fewer of them. Perhaps those killed or captured along the Afghan/Pakistan border are not being replaced.
Recent reports that al Qaeda is moving some operatives out of the tribal areas of Pakistan towards safer placements in Pakistani cities, or to Jihadist fronts in other countries such as Yemen and Somalia, may indicate that the pressure from U.S. missile strikes is starting to show.
But the decentralization of al Qaeda's training and their ever closer ties with local Pakistani Taliban, mean it remains extremely difficult to eliminate from the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Above all the accounts from Vinas and others show that al Qaeda's training structures have but one goal, another 9/11.
Filed under
Al Muhajiroun,
al Qaeda,
Belgium,
Bryant Neal Vinas,
Malika el Aroud,
Omar Bakri Mohammed,
Rashid Rauf
by Winter Patriot
on Friday, July 31, 2009
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My FOX Philly : Muslim Conference Leader Speaks Out
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Muslim Conference Leader Speaks Out
Not Clear If Accused Plotter Registered To Attend
May 22, 2009
PHILADELPHIA - The FBI stopped an alleged terror plot with a Philadelphia connection. You heard about it first Thursday on Fox 29 News at Noon.
An interfaith service has been held at one of the synagogues targeted in this alleged plot. And Jews attending Shabbat services and Muslims going to worship may see tighter security.
Whenever a plot of this nature is discovered, Muslim leaders say their members are often targeted with vandalism or physical violence.
And we're learning more about the conference that brought one of the alleged terrorists to Philadelphia. The theme of the conference was "Forging A Muslim-American Agenda."
The general secretary of the Muslim Alliance in North America, the organization that put on the conference, told Fox 29's Julie Kim that terrorism or a Jihad against America was not a part of that agenda.
Long before they ended up in handcuffs and charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, the four suspects in this alleged terror plot -- shown in just released court sketches -- were small-time criminals. Authorities said James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen met while in prison, where they converted to Islam.
Court documents say that the plot to target Jews originated in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Authorities said Cromitie attended the Muslim Alliance in North America conference in November, where he allegedly told an informant that he hated Jews and wanted to destroy a synagogue.
Ihsan Bagby, the general secretary of MANA, talked to Fox 29's Julie Kim on Friday, saying Cromitie was seen at the conference although they are still trying to confirm his registration.
He said MANA is mostly a social-service organization that promotes volunteerism. He said, "We condemn violence. There is no place for it in the Islam or the Muslim-American community. We speak out against extremism. Anyone who attended the conference did not hear anything like that (promoting violence). … They heard the opposite."
Authorities said it was after the conference when the men collected guns, cell phones, surveyed synagogues and purchased what they thought were real explosives and a missile system from undercover law enforcement.
The men were arrested late Wednesday night as they planted fake explosives at two synagogues in the Bronx.
MANA also said they are letting their members and various mosques be more secure.
Meanwhile, the Anti-Defamation League said they've sent letters urging synagogues to be cautious but not hysterical.
Not Clear If Accused Plotter Registered To Attend
May 22, 2009
PHILADELPHIA - The FBI stopped an alleged terror plot with a Philadelphia connection. You heard about it first Thursday on Fox 29 News at Noon.
An interfaith service has been held at one of the synagogues targeted in this alleged plot. And Jews attending Shabbat services and Muslims going to worship may see tighter security.
Whenever a plot of this nature is discovered, Muslim leaders say their members are often targeted with vandalism or physical violence.
And we're learning more about the conference that brought one of the alleged terrorists to Philadelphia. The theme of the conference was "Forging A Muslim-American Agenda."
The general secretary of the Muslim Alliance in North America, the organization that put on the conference, told Fox 29's Julie Kim that terrorism or a Jihad against America was not a part of that agenda.
Long before they ended up in handcuffs and charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, the four suspects in this alleged terror plot -- shown in just released court sketches -- were small-time criminals. Authorities said James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen met while in prison, where they converted to Islam.
Court documents say that the plot to target Jews originated in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Authorities said Cromitie attended the Muslim Alliance in North America conference in November, where he allegedly told an informant that he hated Jews and wanted to destroy a synagogue.
Ihsan Bagby, the general secretary of MANA, talked to Fox 29's Julie Kim on Friday, saying Cromitie was seen at the conference although they are still trying to confirm his registration.
He said MANA is mostly a social-service organization that promotes volunteerism. He said, "We condemn violence. There is no place for it in the Islam or the Muslim-American community. We speak out against extremism. Anyone who attended the conference did not hear anything like that (promoting violence). … They heard the opposite."
Authorities said it was after the conference when the men collected guns, cell phones, surveyed synagogues and purchased what they thought were real explosives and a missile system from undercover law enforcement.
The men were arrested late Wednesday night as they planted fake explosives at two synagogues in the Bronx.
MANA also said they are letting their members and various mosques be more secure.
Meanwhile, the Anti-Defamation League said they've sent letters urging synagogues to be cautious but not hysterical.
Filed under
David Williams,
FBI,
James Cromitie,
Laguerre Payen,
Onta Williams
by Winter Patriot
on Tuesday, June 02, 2009
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NYT : 4 Accused of Bombing Plot at Bronx Synagogues
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
4 Accused of Bombing Plot at Bronx Synagogues
By AL BAKER and JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ | May 20, 2009
Four men were arrested Wednesday night in what the authorities said was a plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y.
The men, all of whom live in Newburgh, about 60 miles north of New York City, were arrested around 9 p.m. after planting what they believed to be bombs in cars outside the Riverdale Temple and the nearby Riverdale Jewish Center, officials said. But the men did not know the bombs, obtained with the help of an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, were fake.
The arrests capped what officials described as a “painstaking investigation” that began in June 2008 involving an F.B.I. agent who had been told by a federal informant of the men’s desire to attack targets in America. As part of the plot, the men intended to fire Stinger missiles at military aircraft at the base, which is at Stewart International Airport, officials said.
“This latest attempt to attack our freedoms shows that the homeland security threats against New York City are sadly all too real and underscores why we must remain vigilant in our efforts to prevent terrorism,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in a statement. The mayor was expected to appear at 6:45 a.m. Thursday at the Riverdale Jewish Center morning services, joined by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.
The charges against the four men represent some of the most significant allegations of domestic terrorism in some time, and come months into a new presidential administration, as President Obama grapples with the question of how to handle detainees at the Guantánamo Bay camp in Cuba.
Rabbi Jonathan I. Rosenblatt, the senior rabbi at the Riverdale Jewish Center, a modern Orthodox congregation, said the police informed him on Wednesday evening that his synagogue was a target of the plot, as well as the Riverdale Temple, a Reform synagogue that is a short distance away, on Independence Avenue. The two buildings are about six blocks apart, each with a brick facade. Outside the synagogues on Wednesday night, the streets were eerily quiet.
Rabbi Rosenblatt said in a phone interview that he took the news with “shock, surprise — a sense of disbelief that something which is supposed to belong to the world of front pages and the evening news had invaded the quiet world of our synagogue.”
Jonathan Mark, associate editor of The Jewish Week newspaper who grew up in Riverdale, said it would have been the third plot in the past decade against the synagogues in Riverdale.
Law enforcement officials identified the four men arrested as James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, all of Newburgh. One is of Haitian descent, according to law enforcement officials, and at least three were United States citizens. They are all Muslim, a law enforcement official said.
Mr. Cromitie had told the informant that he was upset about the war in Afghanistan and that that he wanted to “do something to America.” Mr. Cromitie stated “the best target” — the World Trade Center — “was hit already,” according to the complaint.
In April, Mr. Cromitie and the three other men selected the synagogues as their targets, the statement said. The informant soon helped them get the weapons, which were incapable of being fired or detonated, according to the authorities.
Mr. Kelly told Jewish leaders Wednesday evening that the attackers planned simultaneous attacks, and the men planned to leave the bombs in the cars in front of the two synagogues, drive back to Newburgh and retrieve cellphone-detonating devices and then proceed with the attack on the air base — simultaneously shooting down aircraft while remotely setting off the devices in the cars.
On Wednesday night, they planted one of the mock improvised explosive devices in a trunk of a car outside the temple and two mock bombs in the back seat of a car outside the Jewish center, the authorities said. Shortly thereafter, police officers swooped in and broke the windows on the suspects’ black sport utility vehicle and charged them with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction within the United States and conspiracy to acquire and use antiaircraft missiles.
Around 9 p.m., a law enforcement official said an 18-wheel New York police department vehicle blocked the suspects’ black sport utility vehicle at 239th Street and Independence Avenue. Another armored vehicle arrived and officers from the department’s Emergency Service Unit took the men out of the truck and handcuffed them.
After the plot was broken up, the team of uniformed officers took the suspects away.
Three of the four men were escorted by federal agents from Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan around 1 a.m. Thursday. They were handcuffed and did not respond to reporters’ questions as they were loaded into the back of vehicles to be taken to the nearby Metropolitan Correctional Center. There, they emerged one by one.
Mr. Cromitie, who was wearing a dark blue shirt and jeans, gazed at the assembled reporters and photographers but again did not respond to questions. David Williams and Onta Williams also did not answer questions as they quickly walked by, staring at the ground. The four defendants were to be taken to White Plains later on Thursday morning, where they were to appear in federal court.
A federal law enforcement official described the plot as “aspirational” — meaning that the suspects wanted to do something but had no weapons or explosives — and described the operation as a sting with a cooperator within the group.
“It was fully controlled at all times,” a law enforcement official said.
Stewart International Airport is used by the New York Air National Guard and United States Air Force, according to the complaint, and it stores aircraft used to transport military supplies and personnel to the military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Political leaders responded to the news of the arrests with statements expressing relief.
“This was a very serious threat that could have cost many, many lives if it had gone through,” Representative Peter T. King, Republican from Long Island, said in an interview with WPIX-TV. “It would have been a horrible, damaging tragedy. There’s a real threat from homegrown terrorists and also from jailhouse converts.”
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said in a statement: “If there can be any good news from this terror scare it’s that this group was relatively unsophisticated, infiltrated early, and not connected to another terrorist group. This incident shows that we must always be vigilant against terrorism — foreign or domestic.”
Reporting was contributed by Sewell Chan, David Johnston, Angela Macropoulos, Jennifer Mascia, Colin Moynihan, William K. Rashbaum and Benjamin Weiser.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 22, 2009
An article in some editions on Thursday about the arrests of four men suspected in what the authorities said was a plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y., included erroneous descriptions from a law enforcement official about the men’s ethnic origins. One is a Haitian immigrant and the other three are African-Americans; none are of Arabic descent.
~~~
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 27, 2009
Because of an editing error, an article in some editions on Thursday about the arrests of four men suspected in what the authorities said was a plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y., misstated, in some copies, the Bronx location where a police vehicle blocked the suspects’ sport utility vehicle. It was at 239th Street and Independence Avenue — not 237th Street and Riverdale Avenue, which do not intersect.
By AL BAKER and JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ | May 20, 2009
Four men were arrested Wednesday night in what the authorities said was a plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y.
The men, all of whom live in Newburgh, about 60 miles north of New York City, were arrested around 9 p.m. after planting what they believed to be bombs in cars outside the Riverdale Temple and the nearby Riverdale Jewish Center, officials said. But the men did not know the bombs, obtained with the help of an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, were fake.
The arrests capped what officials described as a “painstaking investigation” that began in June 2008 involving an F.B.I. agent who had been told by a federal informant of the men’s desire to attack targets in America. As part of the plot, the men intended to fire Stinger missiles at military aircraft at the base, which is at Stewart International Airport, officials said.
“This latest attempt to attack our freedoms shows that the homeland security threats against New York City are sadly all too real and underscores why we must remain vigilant in our efforts to prevent terrorism,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in a statement. The mayor was expected to appear at 6:45 a.m. Thursday at the Riverdale Jewish Center morning services, joined by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.
The charges against the four men represent some of the most significant allegations of domestic terrorism in some time, and come months into a new presidential administration, as President Obama grapples with the question of how to handle detainees at the Guantánamo Bay camp in Cuba.
Rabbi Jonathan I. Rosenblatt, the senior rabbi at the Riverdale Jewish Center, a modern Orthodox congregation, said the police informed him on Wednesday evening that his synagogue was a target of the plot, as well as the Riverdale Temple, a Reform synagogue that is a short distance away, on Independence Avenue. The two buildings are about six blocks apart, each with a brick facade. Outside the synagogues on Wednesday night, the streets were eerily quiet.
Rabbi Rosenblatt said in a phone interview that he took the news with “shock, surprise — a sense of disbelief that something which is supposed to belong to the world of front pages and the evening news had invaded the quiet world of our synagogue.”
Jonathan Mark, associate editor of The Jewish Week newspaper who grew up in Riverdale, said it would have been the third plot in the past decade against the synagogues in Riverdale.
Law enforcement officials identified the four men arrested as James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, all of Newburgh. One is of Haitian descent, according to law enforcement officials, and at least three were United States citizens. They are all Muslim, a law enforcement official said.
Mr. Cromitie had told the informant that he was upset about the war in Afghanistan and that that he wanted to “do something to America.” Mr. Cromitie stated “the best target” — the World Trade Center — “was hit already,” according to the complaint.
In April, Mr. Cromitie and the three other men selected the synagogues as their targets, the statement said. The informant soon helped them get the weapons, which were incapable of being fired or detonated, according to the authorities.
Mr. Kelly told Jewish leaders Wednesday evening that the attackers planned simultaneous attacks, and the men planned to leave the bombs in the cars in front of the two synagogues, drive back to Newburgh and retrieve cellphone-detonating devices and then proceed with the attack on the air base — simultaneously shooting down aircraft while remotely setting off the devices in the cars.
On Wednesday night, they planted one of the mock improvised explosive devices in a trunk of a car outside the temple and two mock bombs in the back seat of a car outside the Jewish center, the authorities said. Shortly thereafter, police officers swooped in and broke the windows on the suspects’ black sport utility vehicle and charged them with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction within the United States and conspiracy to acquire and use antiaircraft missiles.
Around 9 p.m., a law enforcement official said an 18-wheel New York police department vehicle blocked the suspects’ black sport utility vehicle at 239th Street and Independence Avenue. Another armored vehicle arrived and officers from the department’s Emergency Service Unit took the men out of the truck and handcuffed them.
After the plot was broken up, the team of uniformed officers took the suspects away.
Three of the four men were escorted by federal agents from Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan around 1 a.m. Thursday. They were handcuffed and did not respond to reporters’ questions as they were loaded into the back of vehicles to be taken to the nearby Metropolitan Correctional Center. There, they emerged one by one.
Mr. Cromitie, who was wearing a dark blue shirt and jeans, gazed at the assembled reporters and photographers but again did not respond to questions. David Williams and Onta Williams also did not answer questions as they quickly walked by, staring at the ground. The four defendants were to be taken to White Plains later on Thursday morning, where they were to appear in federal court.
A federal law enforcement official described the plot as “aspirational” — meaning that the suspects wanted to do something but had no weapons or explosives — and described the operation as a sting with a cooperator within the group.
“It was fully controlled at all times,” a law enforcement official said.
Stewart International Airport is used by the New York Air National Guard and United States Air Force, according to the complaint, and it stores aircraft used to transport military supplies and personnel to the military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Political leaders responded to the news of the arrests with statements expressing relief.
“This was a very serious threat that could have cost many, many lives if it had gone through,” Representative Peter T. King, Republican from Long Island, said in an interview with WPIX-TV. “It would have been a horrible, damaging tragedy. There’s a real threat from homegrown terrorists and also from jailhouse converts.”
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said in a statement: “If there can be any good news from this terror scare it’s that this group was relatively unsophisticated, infiltrated early, and not connected to another terrorist group. This incident shows that we must always be vigilant against terrorism — foreign or domestic.”
Reporting was contributed by Sewell Chan, David Johnston, Angela Macropoulos, Jennifer Mascia, Colin Moynihan, William K. Rashbaum and Benjamin Weiser.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 22, 2009
An article in some editions on Thursday about the arrests of four men suspected in what the authorities said was a plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y., included erroneous descriptions from a law enforcement official about the men’s ethnic origins. One is a Haitian immigrant and the other three are African-Americans; none are of Arabic descent.
~~~
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 27, 2009
Because of an editing error, an article in some editions on Thursday about the arrests of four men suspected in what the authorities said was a plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y., misstated, in some copies, the Bronx location where a police vehicle blocked the suspects’ sport utility vehicle. It was at 239th Street and Independence Avenue — not 237th Street and Riverdale Avenue, which do not intersect.
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NY Daily News : Newburgh neighbors stunned as cops see enough hate to kill in terror fiends
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Newburgh neighbors stunned as cops see enough hate to kill in terror fiends
BY Carrie Melago, Alison Gendar, Joe Kemp and Matt Lysiak | DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS | May 22, 2009, 4:00
Three did prison time for drug dealing - and the fourth is a mentally ill Haitian immigrant found too insane to be deported.
Prosecutors described the men as bloodthirsty wanna-be terrorists who crossed the line from minor crime to big trouble when they were caught planting what they thought were explosives at two Bronx synagogues.
The awful details of the group's year-long plotting were captured by hidden cameras and microphones, prosecutors said.
James Cromitie, 44, David Williams, 28, and Onta Williams, 32, all served time for drug dealing, converting to Islam in prison. Cromitie had as many as 27 convictions.
He even made the stunning admission in court that he had smoked pot before the bust.
The fourth man, Laguerre Payen, 27, had served 15 months for assault and was supposed to be deported to Haiti. But an immigration judge stayed the order because Payen, a paranoid schizophrenic, was judged insane.
"Waiting for him to be sane enough to boot out of the country? That logic is what's insane," said a law enforcement source.
Payen lived in a filthy crack den where a friend Thursday said he saw bottles of urine.
The other three routinely hung out on Cromitie's porch in upstate Newburgh, across the street from David Williams' house, drinking and barbecuing.
They also routinely gathered at a Denny's restaurant, talking and eating dishes of rice and beans, said neighbors.
The assistant imam at the mainstream Masjid al-Ikhlas mosque in Newburgh, where the four worshiped sporadically, said they frequently had to be corrected in their understanding of the Koran.
One pal said Cromitie, the accused ringleader, brought up 9/11 just two weeks ago over beers on his creaky porch in a rundown section of Newburgh.
"James was disgusted by the death and carnage of 9/11. He said, 'Only an idiot believes peace can be achieved through violence,'" said neighbor Ricky Jewel.
"Now I look at that smile, and I don't know if he's grinning or plotting."
Prosecutors said Cromitie claimed his father was Afghan, but cops now believe it was a lie to boost his "terror creds."
Cromitie and his stepson, a seventh-grader, played baseball with the neighborhood kids hours before his arrest Wednesday. Cromitie also was known for helping elderly people in his housing development.
Cromitie, a high school dropout whose most recent arrest was for selling drugs near a New York City school, lived with his girlfriend, Kathleen Baynes, whom he met when she worked at a homeless shelter in upstate Chester.
BY Carrie Melago, Alison Gendar, Joe Kemp and Matt Lysiak | DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS | May 22, 2009, 4:00
Three did prison time for drug dealing - and the fourth is a mentally ill Haitian immigrant found too insane to be deported.
Prosecutors described the men as bloodthirsty wanna-be terrorists who crossed the line from minor crime to big trouble when they were caught planting what they thought were explosives at two Bronx synagogues.
The awful details of the group's year-long plotting were captured by hidden cameras and microphones, prosecutors said.
James Cromitie, 44, David Williams, 28, and Onta Williams, 32, all served time for drug dealing, converting to Islam in prison. Cromitie had as many as 27 convictions.
He even made the stunning admission in court that he had smoked pot before the bust.
The fourth man, Laguerre Payen, 27, had served 15 months for assault and was supposed to be deported to Haiti. But an immigration judge stayed the order because Payen, a paranoid schizophrenic, was judged insane.
"Waiting for him to be sane enough to boot out of the country? That logic is what's insane," said a law enforcement source.
Payen lived in a filthy crack den where a friend Thursday said he saw bottles of urine.
The other three routinely hung out on Cromitie's porch in upstate Newburgh, across the street from David Williams' house, drinking and barbecuing.
They also routinely gathered at a Denny's restaurant, talking and eating dishes of rice and beans, said neighbors.
The assistant imam at the mainstream Masjid al-Ikhlas mosque in Newburgh, where the four worshiped sporadically, said they frequently had to be corrected in their understanding of the Koran.
One pal said Cromitie, the accused ringleader, brought up 9/11 just two weeks ago over beers on his creaky porch in a rundown section of Newburgh.
"James was disgusted by the death and carnage of 9/11. He said, 'Only an idiot believes peace can be achieved through violence,'" said neighbor Ricky Jewel.
"Now I look at that smile, and I don't know if he's grinning or plotting."
Prosecutors said Cromitie claimed his father was Afghan, but cops now believe it was a lie to boost his "terror creds."
Cromitie and his stepson, a seventh-grader, played baseball with the neighborhood kids hours before his arrest Wednesday. Cromitie also was known for helping elderly people in his housing development.
Cromitie, a high school dropout whose most recent arrest was for selling drugs near a New York City school, lived with his girlfriend, Kathleen Baynes, whom he met when she worked at a homeless shelter in upstate Chester.
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Jewish Exponent : Synagogue Plot Underscores Threat From Independent Attackers
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Synagogue Plot Underscores Threat From Independent Attackers
Jewish Telegraphic Agency | May 28, 2009
WASHINGTON: The arrest of four men accused of plotting to attack two Bronx synagogues underscores the threat to Jewish targets by individuals or small groups, said several experts.
Whether it was the shooting at a Los Angeles Jewish community center 10 years ago to the attack on the Seattle Jewish federation building in 2006 to the targeting of Jews at Connecticut's Wesleyan University earlier this month, an individual or small group not formally connected to any major international terrorist group was at the center of the threat.
Police believe that the four suspects arrested last week -- James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen -- were working alone. They were taken into custody the night of May 20 shortly after planting fake explosives, which they believed to be real, in cars parked outside the Riverdale Temple, a Reform synagogue, and the Riverdale Jewish Center, an Orthodox synagogue. They also wanted to shoot down military planes at a nearby base, according to the authorities.
Reports that an FBI informant played a key role in encouraging and financing the plot have prompted questions about how serious a threat was. But several security experts who work with the Jewish community said that the case provides a clear road map for protecting against potential threats.
"All you need to know about terrorism you can learn from this case," said Steve Pomerantz, a former assistant director of the FBI and a former director of its counterterrorism unit.
Jews will always be at the top of the list of targets for terrorists, he said, and groups unaffiliated with a large international terrorist group are "at least as dangerous" as known groups such as Al Qaeda because they can "more easily slip through the intelligence net."
Paul Goldenberg, executive director of the Jewish-organized Secure Community Network, stressed "one common denominator" present in all past plots against Jews: hostile surveillance by the attackers.
"They were methodical ... and premeditated enough to plan and study the target," said Goldenberg, whose network was established 31/2 years ago by the United Jewish Communities and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations to coordinate and advise on security procedures within the Jewish community.
For example, the criminal complaint for the New York plot states that last month, one of the defendants "photographed several synagogues and Jewish community centers in the Bronx and elsewhere for consideration as possible targets in a planned terrorist bombing campaign." The JCC was "easy as pie" to target, according to the complaint.
Employees at Jewish institutions need to be "extremely cognizant" of what's going on, said Goldenberg, because individuals could be watching the building, studying the patterns of who enters and when security patrols the surroundings.
While most institutions have video-camera surveillance, personnel must be trained to spot potential dangers, he added.
In Philadelphia, officials at local Jewish institutions said that they would continue with the same vigilance they had already adopted.
At the Jewish Community Services Building -- home to the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and other Jewish groups -- Domenic Vallone, director of operations, said that many precautions had been implemented within the past 18 months at the recommendation of the Department of Homeland Security and the counterterrorism wing of the Philadelphia Police Department.
Vallone said that he had been in contact with local authorities about safety in the wake of the plot, and noted that homeland security has conducted rapid response reports on the building several times in the past and been "very satisfied."
He also noted that plans were under way for DHS to come into the Federation building later this summer for a community-wide training program for Jewish agencies and synagogues -- something that was in the works prior to the New York incident.
Barry Morrison, executive director of the local branch of the Anti-Defamation League, said that his group sent out an alert about the importance of being vigilant, but hadn't heard much from local constituents.
"If people were apprehensive, we'd be hearing from them," he said. "There's a sense that agencies -- Jewish defense agencies and law enforcement -- are doing their work."
Jewish Exponent staff writer Aaron Passman contributed to this report.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency | May 28, 2009
WASHINGTON: The arrest of four men accused of plotting to attack two Bronx synagogues underscores the threat to Jewish targets by individuals or small groups, said several experts.
Whether it was the shooting at a Los Angeles Jewish community center 10 years ago to the attack on the Seattle Jewish federation building in 2006 to the targeting of Jews at Connecticut's Wesleyan University earlier this month, an individual or small group not formally connected to any major international terrorist group was at the center of the threat.
Police believe that the four suspects arrested last week -- James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen -- were working alone. They were taken into custody the night of May 20 shortly after planting fake explosives, which they believed to be real, in cars parked outside the Riverdale Temple, a Reform synagogue, and the Riverdale Jewish Center, an Orthodox synagogue. They also wanted to shoot down military planes at a nearby base, according to the authorities.
Reports that an FBI informant played a key role in encouraging and financing the plot have prompted questions about how serious a threat was. But several security experts who work with the Jewish community said that the case provides a clear road map for protecting against potential threats.
"All you need to know about terrorism you can learn from this case," said Steve Pomerantz, a former assistant director of the FBI and a former director of its counterterrorism unit.
Jews will always be at the top of the list of targets for terrorists, he said, and groups unaffiliated with a large international terrorist group are "at least as dangerous" as known groups such as Al Qaeda because they can "more easily slip through the intelligence net."
Paul Goldenberg, executive director of the Jewish-organized Secure Community Network, stressed "one common denominator" present in all past plots against Jews: hostile surveillance by the attackers.
"They were methodical ... and premeditated enough to plan and study the target," said Goldenberg, whose network was established 31/2 years ago by the United Jewish Communities and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations to coordinate and advise on security procedures within the Jewish community.
For example, the criminal complaint for the New York plot states that last month, one of the defendants "photographed several synagogues and Jewish community centers in the Bronx and elsewhere for consideration as possible targets in a planned terrorist bombing campaign." The JCC was "easy as pie" to target, according to the complaint.
Employees at Jewish institutions need to be "extremely cognizant" of what's going on, said Goldenberg, because individuals could be watching the building, studying the patterns of who enters and when security patrols the surroundings.
While most institutions have video-camera surveillance, personnel must be trained to spot potential dangers, he added.
In Philadelphia, officials at local Jewish institutions said that they would continue with the same vigilance they had already adopted.
At the Jewish Community Services Building -- home to the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and other Jewish groups -- Domenic Vallone, director of operations, said that many precautions had been implemented within the past 18 months at the recommendation of the Department of Homeland Security and the counterterrorism wing of the Philadelphia Police Department.
Vallone said that he had been in contact with local authorities about safety in the wake of the plot, and noted that homeland security has conducted rapid response reports on the building several times in the past and been "very satisfied."
He also noted that plans were under way for DHS to come into the Federation building later this summer for a community-wide training program for Jewish agencies and synagogues -- something that was in the works prior to the New York incident.
Barry Morrison, executive director of the local branch of the Anti-Defamation League, said that his group sent out an alert about the importance of being vigilant, but hadn't heard much from local constituents.
"If people were apprehensive, we'd be hearing from them," he said. "There's a sense that agencies -- Jewish defense agencies and law enforcement -- are doing their work."
Jewish Exponent staff writer Aaron Passman contributed to this report.
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Laguerre Payen,
Onta Williams
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Poughkeepsie Journal : Man believed to be informant in terror plot also frequented Wappingers Falls mosque
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Man believed to be informant in terror plot also frequented Wappingers Falls mosque
John W. Barry | May 23, 2009
A man believed to be the government informant at the center of a Newburgh-based terrorism plot that unfolded last week had previously attended services at a mosque in Wappingers Falls, according to sources.
Imam Salahuddin Mustafa Muhammad of Masjid Al Ikhlas mosque in Newburgh said today that he believes a man named Shahid Maqsood, who attended services at the mosque, is the government informant.
Muhammad said he had previously learned, during routine dialogue with Masjid Al-Noor mosque in Wappingers Falls, that a man there had invited attention after asking more than once for a list of members.
“We suspect this person was a government agent,” Muhammad said.
Four men were arrested Wednesday and accused of plotting to blow up synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh.
The men — James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, all of Newburgh — have pleaded not guilty.
Cromitie and Payen attended Masjid Al Ikhlas mosque occasionally.
Federal officials had been aware of the plot for almost a year and had an informant working with the crew, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday night. The FBI arranged for the alleged plotters to receive a non-functioning missile and bogus C-4 explosives, according to the complaint.
Muhammad said he grew suspicious of Maqsood because, “of things that came back to me from other people, who were saying he invited them to lunch, he invited them to dinner; he started having these conversations: what do you think about what’s going on in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Don’t you think we should deal with jihad?”
Zubair Zoha, chairman of the board of trustees at Masjid Al-Noor mosque in Wappingers Falls, said Maqsood had asked him three times for the mosque’s membership list, sometime between 2007-08, when Zoha was treasurer. Maqsood had told Zoha he wanted to start a business locally and was hoping to advertise his services to members of the mosque.
“I was suspicious,” Zoha said. “Nobody ever requested the membership list. I didn’t know what the purpose was. Why did he want the list? He couldn’t convince me.”
John W. Barry | May 23, 2009
A man believed to be the government informant at the center of a Newburgh-based terrorism plot that unfolded last week had previously attended services at a mosque in Wappingers Falls, according to sources.
Imam Salahuddin Mustafa Muhammad of Masjid Al Ikhlas mosque in Newburgh said today that he believes a man named Shahid Maqsood, who attended services at the mosque, is the government informant.
Muhammad said he had previously learned, during routine dialogue with Masjid Al-Noor mosque in Wappingers Falls, that a man there had invited attention after asking more than once for a list of members.
“We suspect this person was a government agent,” Muhammad said.
Four men were arrested Wednesday and accused of plotting to blow up synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh.
The men — James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, all of Newburgh — have pleaded not guilty.
Cromitie and Payen attended Masjid Al Ikhlas mosque occasionally.
Federal officials had been aware of the plot for almost a year and had an informant working with the crew, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday night. The FBI arranged for the alleged plotters to receive a non-functioning missile and bogus C-4 explosives, according to the complaint.
Muhammad said he grew suspicious of Maqsood because, “of things that came back to me from other people, who were saying he invited them to lunch, he invited them to dinner; he started having these conversations: what do you think about what’s going on in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Don’t you think we should deal with jihad?”
Zubair Zoha, chairman of the board of trustees at Masjid Al-Noor mosque in Wappingers Falls, said Maqsood had asked him three times for the mosque’s membership list, sometime between 2007-08, when Zoha was treasurer. Maqsood had told Zoha he wanted to start a business locally and was hoping to advertise his services to members of the mosque.
“I was suspicious,” Zoha said. “Nobody ever requested the membership list. I didn’t know what the purpose was. Why did he want the list? He couldn’t convince me.”
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James Cromitie,
Laguerre Payen,
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Workers World : FBI entraps four Black men in phony bomb plot
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
FBI entraps four Black men in phony bomb plot
By Larry Hales | May 27, 2009
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York state Gov. David A. Paterson and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly honored the FBI agents and New York Police Department personnel who foiled the phony FBI-engineered “terror plot.”
Each official took turns May 21 congratulating the federal and local cops, overblowing the circumstances surrounding the arrests of four Black men.
Bloomberg said of the arrests, “I feel safer in the city today than ever before,” and, “They have prevented what could have been a terrible loss of life.”
Paterson said it was “one of the most heinous crimes that has been [planned] in this city for a long time.”
Kelly called the response of the cops and FBI, “a textbook example of how a major investigation should be handled.” (New York Daily News, May 22)
This so-called plot ended when police arrested James Cromitie, 44; David Williams, 28; Onta Williams, 32; and Haitian immigrant Laguerre Payen, 27, as the four allegedly planted two bags supposedly filled with inert plastic explosives at two synagogues in the exclusive Riverdale neighborhood in the Bronx.
As with all the other so-called “homegrown terror plots,” this case is being revealed for what it really is: entrapment. It is one more incident of an FBI informant going fishing, baiting, in particular, Black men and enticing them with money and other favors, directing their conversations and playing upon their anger against their oppression.
This case has many similarities to a so-called plot involving the Miami 7. Five of the Miami defendants of the mostly Haitian group of seven were convicted a week earlier. It is also similar to the phony Fort Dix plot that led to five Muslim men being convicted earlier in May.
Informant promised to help dying brother
Elizabeth McWilliams, the mother of David Williams, said that the FBI informant, Shahed (Malik) Hussain, offered to help save David’s dying brother, who needs a liver transplant and is dying from an immunity disorder, sarcoidosis. McWilliams said, “He promised he would take care of it.” (Daily News, May 24)
James Cromitie’s friend, Kathleen Baynes, said the informant, also known as Maqsood, had given Cromitie rent money and cash. “They come and hit a brother who is down and out,” she said, “and tell him they’ll give him the world. Maqsood is no different than a pimp or drug dealer sitting on 42nd St.” (Daily News, May 24)
The government charged the four men with one count of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and another count of conspiracy to use an anti-aircraft missile. The four had all been released from prison in the recent past after having served time, mostly for drug convictions.
Cromitie worked at Wal-Mart and Onta Williams at loading and unloading trucks since being released. Another of the men worked at a landscaping company. Their neighbors describe them as nice guys. “There’s nothing bad to say about him,” one friend said, regarding Cromitie. (Los Angeles Times, May 22)
David Williams’ aunt, Aahkiyaah Cummings, said Williams is a good father.
Laguerre Payen had been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic, for which he takes medication. Payen cannot read or write English. When asked if he understood what he was being charged with, he responded, “sort of.” Payen was also unemployed, had no money and was fighting a deportation order. (Daily News, May 24)
This government conspiracy involved the informant targeting the Masjid al-Ikhlas mosque in Newburgh, N.Y., starting a few years ago. According to worshippers there, Hussain focused “most of his attention on younger Black members and visitors.” (New York Times, May 23)
Informant’s deal with the FBI
Hussain, who had been an informant in a number of other federal cases, had moved to the U.S. from Pakistan in 1994. He was arrested in 2002 and charged with trying to help people in Albany get drivers’ licenses. Facing deportation, Hussain instead chose to assist the FBI in exchange for a light sentence of five years probation. (New York Times, May 23)
Worshippers said Hussain would approach young men, mostly Black men, and ask them out to lunch. He also asked the assistant to the imam at the mosque for a meeting.
Before attending services at the Masjid in Newburgh, Hussain went to another one in Wappingers Falls, not far from Newburgh. It was there that he asked an assistant to the imam for a list of worshippers. Most worshippers found Hussain suspicious and stayed clear of him.
Hussain stopped attending services at the Wappingers Fall mosque in June 2008, shortly before he met James Cromitie. It is reported that Cromitie told Hussain that his parents lived in Afghanistan for a time and that he was angry about the U.S. war there. This was around the time their relationship began.
A member of the mosque, Jamil Muhammad, said of Hussain, “It’s easy to influence someone with the dollar. Especially these guys coming out of prison.” (New York Times, May 23)
All of the men existed under dire circumstances forced upon them as oppressed Black men with a prison record before they began being mixed up with the government informant.
Hussain would sit outside the Newburgh mosque in his black Mercedes. He may have appeared as a way for the men to escape their circumstances, a way for David Williams to get his brother the liver transplant, a way for the others to get their heads above water in times of a crisis of the system.
As in the case of the Miami men, the informant did much of the talking. Hussain posed as having contacts with a Pakistani group, Jaish-e-Mohammed (Mohammed’s Army). He had the contacts to get the disabled anti-aircraft weapon and the inert explosives. Hussain even took the four men to get cell phones.
Since the men primarily worked at low paying jobs, transcripts of the investigation will most likely reveal that Hussain bankrolled the entire operation.
That Cromitie expressed anger towards the United States for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is no great crime. The majority of people in the U.S. and around the world oppose the U.S. occupations of those countries.
A New York Times article quoted above even reveals that the imam of the Newburgh mosque questions whether a plot would have developed if Hussain had not been around.
It is evident and will prove even more so over time that if he had not been entrapped, James Cromitie would have most likely gone about his life. So would the other three. But the FBI and the informant preyed upon their anger.
Ultimately, though, it is not their anger that is at fault, but the conditions of U.S. society. Here oppressed people seek and, in particular, these four Black men sought, whatever means might improve their daily existence. Then they are criminalized for it.
This crisis of the system falls upon them harder than on most people. If this is indeed “how every major investigation should be handled,” as Police Commissioner Kelly said, then more such cases of entrapment can be expected. Their righteous indignation towards capitalism and imperialism can itself turn them into pariahs.
Articles copyright 1995-2009 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
By Larry Hales | May 27, 2009
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York state Gov. David A. Paterson and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly honored the FBI agents and New York Police Department personnel who foiled the phony FBI-engineered “terror plot.”
Each official took turns May 21 congratulating the federal and local cops, overblowing the circumstances surrounding the arrests of four Black men.
Bloomberg said of the arrests, “I feel safer in the city today than ever before,” and, “They have prevented what could have been a terrible loss of life.”
Paterson said it was “one of the most heinous crimes that has been [planned] in this city for a long time.”
Kelly called the response of the cops and FBI, “a textbook example of how a major investigation should be handled.” (New York Daily News, May 22)
This so-called plot ended when police arrested James Cromitie, 44; David Williams, 28; Onta Williams, 32; and Haitian immigrant Laguerre Payen, 27, as the four allegedly planted two bags supposedly filled with inert plastic explosives at two synagogues in the exclusive Riverdale neighborhood in the Bronx.
As with all the other so-called “homegrown terror plots,” this case is being revealed for what it really is: entrapment. It is one more incident of an FBI informant going fishing, baiting, in particular, Black men and enticing them with money and other favors, directing their conversations and playing upon their anger against their oppression.
This case has many similarities to a so-called plot involving the Miami 7. Five of the Miami defendants of the mostly Haitian group of seven were convicted a week earlier. It is also similar to the phony Fort Dix plot that led to five Muslim men being convicted earlier in May.
Informant promised to help dying brother
Elizabeth McWilliams, the mother of David Williams, said that the FBI informant, Shahed (Malik) Hussain, offered to help save David’s dying brother, who needs a liver transplant and is dying from an immunity disorder, sarcoidosis. McWilliams said, “He promised he would take care of it.” (Daily News, May 24)
James Cromitie’s friend, Kathleen Baynes, said the informant, also known as Maqsood, had given Cromitie rent money and cash. “They come and hit a brother who is down and out,” she said, “and tell him they’ll give him the world. Maqsood is no different than a pimp or drug dealer sitting on 42nd St.” (Daily News, May 24)
The government charged the four men with one count of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and another count of conspiracy to use an anti-aircraft missile. The four had all been released from prison in the recent past after having served time, mostly for drug convictions.
Cromitie worked at Wal-Mart and Onta Williams at loading and unloading trucks since being released. Another of the men worked at a landscaping company. Their neighbors describe them as nice guys. “There’s nothing bad to say about him,” one friend said, regarding Cromitie. (Los Angeles Times, May 22)
David Williams’ aunt, Aahkiyaah Cummings, said Williams is a good father.
Laguerre Payen had been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic, for which he takes medication. Payen cannot read or write English. When asked if he understood what he was being charged with, he responded, “sort of.” Payen was also unemployed, had no money and was fighting a deportation order. (Daily News, May 24)
This government conspiracy involved the informant targeting the Masjid al-Ikhlas mosque in Newburgh, N.Y., starting a few years ago. According to worshippers there, Hussain focused “most of his attention on younger Black members and visitors.” (New York Times, May 23)
Informant’s deal with the FBI
Hussain, who had been an informant in a number of other federal cases, had moved to the U.S. from Pakistan in 1994. He was arrested in 2002 and charged with trying to help people in Albany get drivers’ licenses. Facing deportation, Hussain instead chose to assist the FBI in exchange for a light sentence of five years probation. (New York Times, May 23)
Worshippers said Hussain would approach young men, mostly Black men, and ask them out to lunch. He also asked the assistant to the imam at the mosque for a meeting.
Before attending services at the Masjid in Newburgh, Hussain went to another one in Wappingers Falls, not far from Newburgh. It was there that he asked an assistant to the imam for a list of worshippers. Most worshippers found Hussain suspicious and stayed clear of him.
Hussain stopped attending services at the Wappingers Fall mosque in June 2008, shortly before he met James Cromitie. It is reported that Cromitie told Hussain that his parents lived in Afghanistan for a time and that he was angry about the U.S. war there. This was around the time their relationship began.
A member of the mosque, Jamil Muhammad, said of Hussain, “It’s easy to influence someone with the dollar. Especially these guys coming out of prison.” (New York Times, May 23)
All of the men existed under dire circumstances forced upon them as oppressed Black men with a prison record before they began being mixed up with the government informant.
Hussain would sit outside the Newburgh mosque in his black Mercedes. He may have appeared as a way for the men to escape their circumstances, a way for David Williams to get his brother the liver transplant, a way for the others to get their heads above water in times of a crisis of the system.
As in the case of the Miami men, the informant did much of the talking. Hussain posed as having contacts with a Pakistani group, Jaish-e-Mohammed (Mohammed’s Army). He had the contacts to get the disabled anti-aircraft weapon and the inert explosives. Hussain even took the four men to get cell phones.
Since the men primarily worked at low paying jobs, transcripts of the investigation will most likely reveal that Hussain bankrolled the entire operation.
That Cromitie expressed anger towards the United States for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is no great crime. The majority of people in the U.S. and around the world oppose the U.S. occupations of those countries.
A New York Times article quoted above even reveals that the imam of the Newburgh mosque questions whether a plot would have developed if Hussain had not been around.
It is evident and will prove even more so over time that if he had not been entrapped, James Cromitie would have most likely gone about his life. So would the other three. But the FBI and the informant preyed upon their anger.
Ultimately, though, it is not their anger that is at fault, but the conditions of U.S. society. Here oppressed people seek and, in particular, these four Black men sought, whatever means might improve their daily existence. Then they are criminalized for it.
This crisis of the system falls upon them harder than on most people. If this is indeed “how every major investigation should be handled,” as Police Commissioner Kelly said, then more such cases of entrapment can be expected. Their righteous indignation towards capitalism and imperialism can itself turn them into pariahs.
Articles copyright 1995-2009 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Filed under
David Williams,
entrapment,
FBI,
James Cromitie,
Laguerre Payen,
Onta Williams,
Shahed "Malik" Hussain
by Winter Patriot
on Tuesday, June 02, 2009
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