Homeland Security

[Soldier4Christ]

Man Linked To al-Qaeda Able To Get Canadian Visa

A man suspected of having links to al-Qaeda managed to secure a visa to live in Canada and was later arrested at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, CBC’s French-language service Radio-Canada reported Thursday evening.

The man, who is of Pakistani descent, obtained a visa to temporarily reside in Canada from the High Commissioner in London, according to a secret document sent to federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day from Canada Border Services last July.

The note, obtained by Radio-Canada, does not reveal the identity of the man but says he is implicated in al-Qaeda’s mass destruction weapons program.

CBSA agents arrested the man on July 12, 2007, when he arrived in Toronto from Newcastle, England. While verifying his passport, they determined he had been flagged by Canadian authorities.

Customs agents interrogated the man. He then requested to be returned to England while renouncing his visa, but the pilot wouldn’t let him on the plane.

He spent one night in a Toronto detention centre before being deported back to England.

British authorities were alerted about his return, but it’s unclear where he is now.

[Soldier4Christ]

FBI: Suspected pipe bomb damages courthouse in San Diego

A suspected pipe bomb exploded at a federal courthouse in downtown San Diego early Sunday, damaging the front entrance and blowing out a window, authorities said. No injuries were reported.

Few people were around the building, which is a block from nightclubs in the Gaslamp Quarter, when the powerful blast also damaged the lobby area of the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Courthouse about 1:40 a.m., said FBI spokeswoman April Langwell.

The bomb was reported by two guards in the building, who were uninjured. About 40 agents combed the front courtyard after the area was swept for explosives. No arrests have been made.

Debris was found lodged in a window about eight stories up the AT&T building that faces the courthouse.

Authorities said that surveillance cameras outside the building may provide information, but that no cameras directly face the doorway.

Streets in the area have been closed during the investigation. The courthouse will remain closed Monday as repairs are made.

[Soldier4Christ]

911 Dispatcher Arrested for Accessing Websites With Terrorist Information

A 911 dispatcher, Nadire Zelenaj, has been arrested for using computers at work to access secure government websites containing information about suspected terrorists.

Now the FBI wants to know what she did with that sensitive information.

The employee was hired in 2002 after the September 11 terrorist attack. 911 computers allow employees to access a secured police data site with criminal information.

However, Zelenaj was using that access for personal reasons.

Police say she accessed information from a terrorist watch list for personal reasons.

They tracked her movements in a two-year period between January ‘06 and December ‘07 and say she visited that site at least 232 times.

Richard Vega of the Office of Public Integrity said that at the present, they can only suspect what she’s been up to.

What we do know is — now the FBI is involved. Agents would not comment other than to say it’s part of a larger investigation.

Zelenaj has been charged with 232 felony counts of computer trespass and one count of official misconduct. She was fired in December.

A co-worker saw her on the site and became suspicious. From there, it was easy to track her computer movements.

[HisDaughter]

Congress: Al-Qaeda Using Internet to Recruit Terrorists in the U.S.
Penny Starr
Senior Staff Writer

(CNSNews.com) - Using a video montage showing mass executions, bomb-making, and audio sound bites, including one promising to "slit the throats of Americans and Jews," Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) unveiled a report by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs at a press conference on Capitol Hill on Thursday.

Lieberman and Collins told reporters that Al-Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist groups are using the Internet to recruit and train extremists in the United States.

"This bi-partisan report concludes that homegrown violent Islamic extremism poses an increasing threat to the safety of the American people," Lieberman said, adding that "homegrown" terrorists refer to American citizens or long-term residents. "The sophisticated use of the Internet by international terrorist organizations and their followers is increasingly a cause of this homegrown terrorism."

The report calls for better coordination between outreach programs, communication strategies, and law enforcement efforts to meet the growing threat.

"We need a well-coordinated national plan to counter terrorists' use of the Internet and to isolate and discredit their violent ideology," Lieberman said, "and, of course, the means to stop them before they carry out their violent, hate-filled acts against this country and its citizens."

Lieberman and Collins also called on American Muslim leaders to help counter the threat.

The Internet, the report says, gives disaffected people who have access to a computer a way "to identify and connect with networks throughout the world ... and gain expertise that previously was available only in overseas training camps."

"What makes it so troubling is we don't know how many people are being radicalized," Collins said, "because it's very difficult to track."

Lieberman said it was a mistake to underestimate the tactics being used by "the minority" of Muslims, who believe in jihad, or struggle, to create a caliphate, or global Islamic state.

"The terrorists, who some still mistakenly dismiss as people living in caves, are as sophisticated in their communication abilities today as the very sophisticated members of this generation," Lieberman said.

He said that sophistication includes the coordination of the message being disseminated to Americans through virtual clearinghouses.

"Al Qaeda or allied violent Islamic organizations manage a multi-tiered online media operation consisting of several production units to create content with the core message used to recruit and train terrorists."

The congressional report cites one Web site, at-Tibyan Publications, which posted the text of "39 Ways to Serve and Participate in Jihad." It offers tips on fundraising, weapons training and "raising children to love jihad and those who wage it."

The report concludes that "this is a critical challenge for homeland security of the United States; one the U.S. government must work quickly and aggressively to overcome. The safety of the American people depends on it."

[Soldier4Christ]

This is actually nothing new. It has been going on since before 9/11. It is just that it has recently become more prevalent and more in the open. It is no different than many of the mosques and training camps that are currently within the U.S. right now that are also working to recruit terrorists for their cause.

[HisDaughter]

This is actually nothing new. It has been going on since before 9/11. It is just that it has recently become more prevalent and more in the open. It is no different than many of the mosques and training camps that are currently within the U.S. right now that are also working to recruit terrorists for their cause.

Amazing that if this is "known", that it isn't stopped.  Not "surprising" mind you, but amazing none the less!

[Soldier4Christ]

It is difficult to stop such things without having a lot of "proof" first and having everything all together leagl wise. It is the same as some of our homegrown "militia type" organizations. As long as they have not actually broken any laws the government has their hands tied and can't do anything about it. I am sure that it is all being watched carefully and actions are being taken as they are able to.

[Soldier4Christ]

Fairfax Cop Who Tipped Terror Suspect Helped Kill Training Program

A Fairfax County Police sergeant who admits tipping off a terrorism suspect that he was under FBI surveillance also helped kill what had been a successful intelligence and terrorism-related training program within his police department.

Sgt. Weiss Rasool was sentenced to two years probation on April 22 after pleading guilty to illegally accessing a police database to run license tag numbers for a friend who thought he was being followed. Those tags traced back to FBI agents who had Rasool's acquaintance under surveillance as part of a terrorism investigation.

The Washington Post reported that Rasool cried during his sentencing and apologized for what he called "errors of judgment. But I never intended to put anybody's life at risk." The Post further reported:

        "The target was arrested in November 2005, then convicted and deported, according to court filings in Rasool's case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeanine Linehan said that the target and his family were already dressed and destroying evidence at 6 a.m. when agents arrived to make the arrest, indicating that they had been tipped off."

Now the president of an Arlington, Va.-based counterterrorism research center is asking Rasool's bosses to reconsider their 2006 decision to cease using training programs offered by the center. Complaints by Rasool and an officer from another local agency that the training was anti-Islam prompted Fairfax County police to break with the Higgins Center for Counter Terrorism Research.

In a letter to Police Chief David Rohrer written two days after Rasool's sentencing, Higgins Center President Peter Leitner said Rasool's complaints were unfounded and harmed his company's reputation:

        "We were deeply disturbed and offended that the leadership of your Department sided with Rasool and essentially blackballed our non-Profit (sic) organization from teaching within your Academy. Several scheduled classes were cancelled and we were never invited back…

        We were dismissed without recourse, suffered financial and professional reputation losses, and the resulting pressures caused serious damage to our ability to function properly. All on the basis of spurious charges made by someone who later proved to be unreliable -- at best."

Leitner said he has received no response to his letter.

"This is precisely why Fairfax PD needs our training," Leitner told the Investigative Project on Terrorism in an e-mail. "They need to learn about 5th column activities and penetrating agents. It also shows how ignorance and/or political correctness at the local level can jeopardize national security interests and assets."

Though he pled guilty, prosecutors still complained that Rasool was not playing straight with them. They originally argued that Rasool deserved a sentenced at the low end of the federal guidelines. That changed after a defense sentencing motion cast his actions as a simple administrative oversight, and that had he submitted a relevant form, "it is possible the case would not be before the Court today." Prosecutors then argued Rasool was not taking responsibility for his actions, saying he even claimed not to remember tapping in to the federal database and that he initially denied knowing the suspect or calling him. He confessed only after hearing a recording of the call.

"[A]s I told you, I can only tell you if it comes back to a person or not a person and all three vehicles do not come back to an individual person, so I just wanted to give you that much, uhh ok. Hope things work out for you," Rasool said in a voice mail message to his friend that was intercepted by federal investigators.

Rasool's attorney argued he was responding normally to a citizen's concern that he was being followed. "Rather," prosecutors responded, "the evidence is that the defendant was advising the target that he was being following by government vehicles."

In their sentencing memo to the court, prosecutors made clear the severity of Rasool's breach:

        "The defendant, through his experience with the police, had a basis to believe that the leasing company was used for federal law enforcement vehicles, but despite that, relayed the information to the individual. The defendant also checked his name and other names multiple times in NCIC without a legitimate law enforcement purpose to do so and to see if he or others he was acquainted with were listed on the Terrorist Watch List.

        The defendant's actions damaged the integrity of the NCIC system and jeopardized at least one federal investigation. The defendant's actions could have placed federal agents in danger. The FBI has had to undo the harm caused by the defendant."

The Higgins Center had offered courses for years without any complaint, yet in June of 2006, that all changed. In a letter dated June 26, 2006 to Academy Director Major Tyrone Morrow, Higgins Vice President Brian Fairchild indicated six officers in total lodged complaints against his programs. But the complaints did not reflect the program's actual content, Fairchild said, noting that statements used to illustrate Islamist ideology come from the Islamists themselves. In addition, instructors repeatedly make clear that the Islamists expressing radical ideology do not reflect the general Muslim world:

        "It appears that these officers misunderstood and/or are confused by the content of our courses which is solely to educate officers about Islamist terrorists and the international revolutionary Islamist movement that creates and supports them. We are surprised by the assertions in these complaints, because, in order to ensure that such misunderstandings do not occur, we clearly define our terms in lecture supported by PowerPoint slides.

        In our seminars, we never criticize traditional Islam or Muslims. Quite to the contrary, we definitively and repeatedly state that the overwhelming majority of the 1.3 billion Muslims worldwide are fine people that have nothing to do with extremism or terrorism." (emphasis in original)

In one complaint, Fairchild noted, the officer praised Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, who founded the Pakistani Islamic group Jamaat e-Islami in 1941. Maududi, Fairchild wrote, considered non-Islamic governments to be evil and sanctioned their violent overthrow.

    "One of Maududi's direct quotes concisely describes his views:

        * ‘Islam wishes to destroy all States and Governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam regardless of the country or the Nation which rules it. The purpose of Islam is to set up a State on the basis of its own ideology and programme, regardless of which Nation assumes the role of the standard bearer of Islam or the rule of which nation is undermined in the process of the establishment of an ideological Islamic State.'"

Rasool was under federal investigation at the time. In addition to running the license tag numbers, he admitted improperly accessing the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database 15 times in 2005-06, checking for his own name and the names of acquaintances. "The defendant did this in an attempt to determine if he or others were registered with the Violent Crime and Terrorist Offender File, which is a category of records maintained within the NCIC system," the plea agreement states.

In an interview, Leitner expressed frustration with the way Fairfax police officials treated him and his company. He called the complaints "nebulous," and said he was never given a full opportunity to rebut them. "It was very star chamber like."

Another officer who joined Rasool in complaining about the Higgins program works for an area sheriff's department, Leitner said. That officer claimed to be a representative from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Leitner said.

In November 2006, Fairfax County Police Chief David Rohrer attended CAIR's 12th Annual Banquet at the Marriott hotel in Crystal City. He credited CAIR with "helping police departments to better understand the Muslim community," adding:

        "As we go forward, let us choose to make a difference and embrace a vision of peace and unity and hope. And let us choose for us and our children hope over fear, caring over indifference, tolerance over intolerance, acceptance over prejudice, and understanding over ignorance."

Among those writing to the sentencing judge in support of Rasool was CAIR governmental affairs director Corey Saylor. "I have always found Sgt. Rasool eager to promote a substantive relationship between the Fairfax County Police Department and the local Muslim community. His efforts played a significant role in improving trust in a time when mutual misunderstanding could easily severe (sic) all positive ties between these two groups."

Another letter of support came from Tyrone Morrow, the training academy major to whom Fairchild wrote his letter of appeal in 2006. Morrow, now retired, told the court he used to supervise Rasool and found him "to be of sound character and reputation."

Despite his plea to a misdemeanor, Rasool remains a Fairfax County police sergeant although he is under an internal affairs investigation.

[Soldier4Christ]

Fifth In String of Fake Bombs Discovered At Oregon Recruiting Center

A fake bomb that was investigated Monday by law enforcement was the fifth in a string of fake bombs left at military recruitment centers, the FBI said.

A package that was designed to look like a bomb, which was left in front of an Army-Navy recruitment center with German words printed on it, was the fourth reported case of similar packages planted, FBI agents said.

Previous packages had “Die Weisse Rose” written on them, which is German for “The White Rose” a name of a historic anti-Hitler group that operated during World War II, FBI agents said.

Each of the five hoax bombs was left in front of some type of military recruitment center over the last year with most bearing the phrase “Die Weisse Rose,” FBI agents said.

State police closed down a city block for several hours Monday while investigating the fake bomb, police said.

There is a combined $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individuals involved.

[Soldier4Christ]

Investigators find gaps in port program
Report assesses federal effort established after 9/11 attacks

A Department of Homeland Security program to strengthen port security has gaps that terrorists could exploit to smuggle weapons of mass destruction in cargo containers, congressional investigators have found.

The report by the Government Accountability Office, being released Tuesday, assesses the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C- TPAT), a federal program established after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to deter a potential terrorist strike via cargo passing through 326 of the nation's airports, seaports and designated land borders.

Under the program, roughly 8,000 importers, port authorities and air, sea and land carriers are granted benefits such as reduced scrutiny of their cargo. In exchange, the companies submit a security plan that must meet U.S. Customs and Border Protection's minimum standards and allow officials to verify their measures are being followed.

A 2005 GAO report found many of the companies were receiving the reduced cargo scrutiny without the required full vetting by U.S. Customs, a division of DHS. The agency has since made some improvements, but the new report found that Customs officials still couldn't provide guarantees that companies were in compliance.

Among the problems:

_A company is generally certified as safer based on its self-reported security information that Customs employees use to determine if minimum government criteria are met. But due partly to limited resources, the agency does not typically test the member company's supply-chain security practices and thus is "challenged to know that members' security measures are reliable, accurate and effective."

_Customs employees are not required to utilize third-party or other audits of a company's security measures as an alternative to the agency's direct testing, even if such audits exist.

_Companies can get certified for reduced Customs inspections before they fully implement any additional security improvements requested by the U.S. government. Under the program, Customs also does not require its employees to systematically follow up to make sure the requested improvements were made and that security practices remained consistent with the minimum criteria.

"Until Customs overcomes these collective challenges, Customs will be unable to assure Congress and others that C-TPAT member companies that have been granted reduced scrutiny of their U.S.-bound containerized shipments actually employ adequate security practices," investigators wrote. "It is vital that Customs maintain adequate internal controls to ensure that member companies deserve these benefits."

The GAO urged Customs and Border Protection to require consideration of third-party and other outside audits and take steps to make certain companies comply with any additional security improvements requested. The report also calls for some technological improvements to help improve consistency and better information-gathering in Customs' security checks.

Responding in part, Customs officials in the report agreed they could do more to follow up on suggested security improvements but noted that employees often use their expert discretion in assessing the potential danger before certifying a company. The agency has also said the program overall has made the nation safer.

Congress has been working to improve port security after the independent Sept. 11 commission cited the potential dangers in its 2004 final report. The commission stated that compared to commercial aviation, "opportunities to do harm are as great, or greater, in maritime or surface transportation." DHS has said that while the likelihood of terrorists smuggling weapons of mass destruction into the U.S. in cargo containers is low, the nation's vulnerability and consequences of such an attack are potentially high.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said the report shows the importance of the private sector's continued cooperation in helping improve port security. "I will continue to work with DHS and the private sector to ensure the effectiveness of the crucial port security program," she said.

The GAO study examined a sample of 25 company reviews by Customs and Border Protection from March 1, 2006 through Sept. 30, 2006. Investigators interviewed officials, reviewed documents and studied the agency's minimum security criteria to see if standards were being met.

[Soldier4Christ]

JFK suspects to be arraigned in NYC
3 Muslim men charged with plan to blow up jet fuel artery feeding airport

Three men charged with plotting an attack on New York City's JFK airport were arraigned on Wednesday.

Abdul Kadir was the first of the defendants to face charges at the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse.

He pleaded not guilty to six counts: conspiracy to attack a public transportation system; conspiracy to destroy a building by fire; conspiracy to attack an aircraft; conspiracy to destroy an international airport, specifically JFK; conspiracy to attack a mass transportation facility; and engaging in surveillance of mass transportation security.

The judge granted the U.S. attorney's request that he remain in detention. No bail was set.

Kareem Ibrahim, a Muslim cleric, and Abdel Nur appeared next and also pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and other charges.

Trinidadian suspect Ibrahim had been hospitalized since April after apparently suffering a mental breakdown.

The suspects have denied allegations of participating in a terror cell that planned to blow up a jet fuel artery feeding New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. Their lawyers argue that a government informant entrapped the men into plotting the attack, but that there never was any real threat.

Appeals Court Judge Roger Hamel Smith on Monday upheld their extradition from Trinidad and rejected a defense argument that the three, who claim they cannot get a fair trial in the U.S. because of publicity, could not legally be extradited under Trinidad law.

A fourth suspect, who worked as a cargo handler at the airport until 1995, is in custody in New York.

A U.S. indictment charges the suspects with conspiring to "cause death, serious bodily injury and extensive destruction."

The next court date is Aug. 7.

[Soldier4Christ]

Threat Received Before US Cargo Jet Caught Fire At San Francisco Airport

Air crash investigators have revealed the operators of a cargo plane which caught fire at San Francisco last week received a threat earlier in the week.

In its continuing investigation to determine the cause of the June 28, 2008, fire that burned a hole through the top of the fuselage of an ABX Air Boeing 767 cargo airplane parked at San Francisco International Airport, the National Transportation Safety Board has developed the following factual information:

The primary location of the fire was outside the cargo hold in an area just aft of the cockpit. The fire was extinguished by San Francisco Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting, but not before causing substantial damage to the aircraft. The flight crew of two, who were preparing to start the engines when the fire broke out, escaped from the aircraft without injury.

The NTSB dispatched a team of five investigators to the accident scene. Joining them were representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; the Transportation Security Administration; the Federal Aviation Administration; the San Francisco Fire Department; and Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting. NTSB investigators have worked closely with all of these groups throughout the process of examining and documenting the fire damage to the aircraft.

After the NTSB was notified of the fire, it was reported that within a week prior to the accident, the cargo carrier had received a threat against an unspecified aircraft. Preliminary examinations have not revealed any indication of an explosive or incendiary device.

The 21-year-old aircraft was originally configured for passenger operations and modified in 2004 to a cargo configuration by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). The Israel Ministry of Transport has designated an accredited representative to the investigation under the provisions of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Annex 13. IAI will serve as a technical adviser to the accredited representative.

NTSB investigators interviewed both members of the flight crew yesterday. The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder are at NTSB headquarters in Washington where data from each is being analyzed.

The NTSB team anticipates completing the on-scene phase of the investigation by Sunday, July 6.

Parties to the investigation are the Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, ABX Air, the San Francisco Fire Department, the San Francisco Airport Authority, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

[Soldier4Christ]

Thief Alerts Police To Terror Van - New York

Yesterday evening (July 4th), an unidentified thief with a police record broke into a van that had been parked in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park for about a month.

He was stunned when he looked inside, it was filled with gas cans and Styrofoam cups containing a mysterious white substance with protruding wires and switches.

The street is lined with brownstones, and there’s a ballet studio and a small Muslim school. So he drove the van 15 blocks to 37th Street and parked it at a desolate waterfront location behind the Costco store and next to some little-used piers.

Then he got out and called a cop he knows from his run-ins with the law.

The red Ford with mismatched license plates in Sunset Park contained explosives nearly identical to those previously used by Yung (Mark) Tang, who once tried to blow up a renter during a landlord-tenant dispute, sources said.

Investigators crawled over the van at 37th St. and Second Ave. Friday and discovered several 5-gallon containers and 12-ounce water bottles filled with a clear liquid that smelled like gasoline, according to a police source.

The jugs were connected with wires but no obvious detonator could be found, the source said.

“The bomb squad believes they seem similar, and it was found within a few blocks of [Tang’s] house,” a source said.

[Soldier4Christ]

Undercover city detective finds hints of danger among mosques

As the global war on terror approaches the start of its eighth year, the NYPD says it has never been more prepared - but also warns that the city can never let its guard down. In a two-part series, Daily News reporter Patrice O'Shaughnessy looks at the terror threat in New York - and around the world. Sunday's installment focuses on an NYPD undercover officer who dug deep into the potential terrorists in our midst.

A young undercover city detective spent four years in the shadowy world of terrorist wanna-bes - taking part in jihadist discussions and training in parks in the dead of night - to get a handle on the homegrown threat.

At great personal risk, he participated in everything from prayers at a mosque to martial arts training under cover of darkness to watching jihadist videos, with many of the activities laced with talk of killing, according to a source familiar with the undercover's investigations.

His experiences paint a vivid portrait of the potential for local terror. While the picture is in no way indicative of the city's Muslim population as a whole, it provides insight into its most radical element.

The detective spent his time interacting with informal groups of youths and men who shared extremist views - and his experiences illustrate what police say is the potential for radicalization of some elements in the community.

He reported that after prayers at a neighborhood mosque, there were often private classes that included discussions about bombing different areas.

The men discussed violent jihad in bookstores, private houses and on buses en route to paintball and shooting-range events.

He was invited to join in "bonding" activities like working out at a gym and martial arts training in parks at night, during which the group discussed ideological justifications for killing Westerners.

He also watched military movies and jihadist videos with groups of young men in private homes. During one such evening, one man got so excited he punched a wall.

The detective reported that some youths became extremists after they traveled to their home countries; others went on the ubgone86 - the pilgrimage to Mecca - and came back fired up by imams who encouraged violence as a religious obligation.

Others, after visiting relatives abroad, became enraged at their family's living conditions and blamed the U.S. for supporting nondemocratic governments.

Although the youths talked about ways to attack the U.S., they lacked a strong leader who could help them follow through on a plan, the detective reported.

The undercover, a Muslim who came to America from Bangladesh when he was 7, gave only a glimpse of his work as an undercover when he testified during the trial of the Herald Square bomb plotters, the only known New York City homegrown plot to reach the jihadization stage.

The groups the detective interacted with resemble the "bunches of guys" that Marc Sageman, a noted terrorism authority and new scholar-in-residence at the NYPD, says are the real concern. His position has stirred a debate among security analysts.

While some experts contend the chief threat is Al Qaeda, Sageman, author of "Leaderless Jihad," contends the threat comes more from radicalized individuals who meet and scheme in their neighborhoods and on the Internet.

"We're still very much learning about our enemy," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. "Sageman will help us do that. He was with the CIA, a consultant to France and Spain. He's a heavyweight."

While the homegrown threat is real, "An attack from afar by Al Qaeda is always a possibility," Kelly emphasized.

Intelligence analysts for the department have compiled a report, "Radicalization in the West," that "conceptualized the whole notion of the homegrown threat," said David Cohen, deputy commissioner of intelligence. The Internet as training ground and recruitment tool for homegrown radicals is strong, Cohen said, but the number of jihadist Web sites - up from a dozen in 1998 to more than 5,000 now - has probably flattened out.

"Along with expanding computer investigations done by the cyber unit, we have expanded our human program," Cohen said, referring to traditional undercover detective work. The detective appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court two years ago as the final witness at the four-week trial of Shahawar Matin Siraj, 23, a Pakistani immigrant who was convicted of plotting to blow up the Herald Square subway station during the Republican National Convention in 2004.

The detective was not involved in that case, but testified that he had come across Siraj during his undercover work.

Testifying under the fake name of Kamil Pasha, he said he was taken from the Police Academy in October 2002 to be a "walking camera," eyes and ears, among Muslims. He interacted with groups in Brooklyn and elsewhere in the city.

The detective has been involved in "numerous" investigations for the intelligence division, part of a cadre of undercovers who act as listening posts.

"We don't target a group as a whole; we look for patterns of behavior, travel, training," Cohen said.

The NYPD has studied attacks in Europe to enhance its understanding of the homegrown threat. For example, the July 7, 2005, London subway bombings that killed 52 people drove home the issue of plotting being done outside the target area. The attack plan was hatched in Leeds - more than 150 miles from London.

"We drew a 200-mile perimeter around the city, and we work with all the local police agencies from Maryland to Canada," Cohen said.

"We have our ear to the ground," Kelly said. "We are aware of the possibility of a threat to this city developing very close to home."

[Soldier4Christ]

Post 9/11 dragnet turns up surprises
Biometrics link foreign detainees to arrests in U.S.

In the six-and-a-half years that the U.S. government has been fingerprinting insurgents, detainees and ordinary people in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa, hundreds have turned out to share an unexpected background, FBI and military officials said. They have criminal arrest records in the United States.

There was the suspected militant fleeing Somalia who had been arrested on a drug charge in New Jersey. And the man stopped at a checkpoint in Tikrit who claimed to be a dirt farmer but had 11 felony charges in the United States, including assault with a deadly weapon.

The records suggest that potential enemies abroad know a great deal about the United States because many of them have lived here, officials said. The matches also reflect the power of sharing data across agencies and even countries, data that links an identity to a distinguishing human characteristic such as a fingerprint.

"I found the number stunning," said Frances Fragos Townsend, a security consultant and former assistant to the president for homeland security. "It suggested to me that this was going to give us far greater insight into the relationships between individuals fighting against U.S. forces in the theater and potential U.S. cells or support networks here in the United States."

The fingerprinting of detainees overseas began as ad-hoc FBI and U.S. military efforts shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It has since grown into a government-wide push to build the world's largest database of known or suspected terrorist fingerprints. The effort is being boosted by a presidential directive signed June 5, which gave the U.S. attorney general and other cabinet officials 90 days to come up with a plan to expand the use of biometrics by, among other things, recommending categories of people to be screened beyond "known or suspected" terrorists.

Fingerprints are being beamed in via satellite from places as far-flung as the jungles of Zamboanga in the southern Philippines; Bogota, Colombia; Iraq; and Afghanistan. Other allies, such as Sweden, have contributed prints. The database can be queried by U.S. government agencies and by other countries through Interpol, the international police agency.

Civil libertarians have raised concerns about whether people on the watch lists have been appropriately determined to be terrorists, a process that senior government officials acknowledge is an art, not a science.

Large-scale identity systems "can raise serious privacy concerns, if not singly, then jointly and severally," said a 2007 study by the Defense Science Board Task Force on Defense Biometrics. The ability "to cross reference and draw new, previously unimagined, inferences," is a boon for the government and the bane of privacy advocates, it said.

An FBI mission
The effort, officials say, is bearing fruit.

"The bottom line is we're locking people up," said Thomas E. Bush III, FBI assistant director of the Criminal Justice Information Services division. "Stopping people coming into this country. Identifying IED-makers in a way never done before. That's the beauty of this whole data-sharing effort. We're pushing our borders back."

In December 2001, an FBI team was sent on an unusual mission to Afghanistan. The U.S. military had launched a wave of airstrikes aimed at killing or capturing al Qaeda fighters and their Taliban hosts. The FBI team was to fingerprint and interview foreign fighters as if they were being booked at a police station.

The team, led by Paul Shannon, a veteran FBI agent embedded with U.S. special forces, traveled to the combat zone toting briefcases outfitted with printer's ink, hand rollers and paper cards. The agents worked in Kandahar and Kabul. They traversed the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. They hand-carried the fingerprint records from Afghanistan to Clarksburg, W.Va., home to the FBI's criminal biometric database.

As they analyzed the results, they were surprised to learn that one out of every 100 detainees was already in the FBI's database for arrests. Many arrests were for drunken driving, passing bad checks and traffic violations, FBI officials said.

"Frankly I was surprised that we were getting those kind of hits at all," recalled Townsend, who left government in January. They identified "a potential vulnerability" to national security the government had not fully appreciated, she said.

The people being fingerprinted had come from the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan. They were mostly in their 20s, Shannon recalled. "One of the things we learned is we were dealing with relatively young guys who were very committed and what they would openly tell you is that when they got out they were going back to jihad," he said. "They'd already made this commitment."

One of the first men fingerprinted by the FBI team was a fighter who claimed he was in Afghanistan to learn the ancient art of falconry. But a fingerprint check showed that in August 2001 he had been turned away from Orlando International Airport by an immigration official who thought he might overstay his visa. Mohamed al Kahtani would later be named by the Sept. 11 Commission as someone who allegedly had sought to participate in hijackings. He currently is in custody at Guantanamo Bay.

Similarly, in 2004, an FBI team choppered to a remote desert camp on the Iraq-Iran border, home to the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), whose aim is to overthrow the Iranian government. The MEK lead an austere lifestyle in which men are segregated from women and material goods are renounced. The U.S. State Department considers the organization to be a terrorist group.

The FBI team fingerprinted 3,800 fighters. More than 40, Shannon said, had previous criminal records in the agency's database.

While the FBI was busy collecting fingerprints, the military was setting up its own biometrics database, adding in iris and facial data as well. By October, the two organizations agreed to collaborate, running queries through both systems. The very first match was on the man who claimed to be a poor dirt farmer. Among his many charges were misdemeanors for theft and public drunkenness in Chicago and Utah, a criminal record that ran from 1993 to 2001, said Herb Richardson, who serves as operations manager for the military's Automated Biometric Identification System under a contract with Ideal Innovations of Arlington.

Many of those with U.S. arrest records had come to the United States to study, said former Criminal Justice Information Services head Michael Kirkpatrick, who led the FBI effort to use biometrics in counterterrorism after Sept. 11. "It suggests there was some familiarity with Western culture, the United States specifically, and for whatever reason they did not agree with that culture," he said. "Either they became disaffected or put up with it, and then they went overseas."

cont'd