| And, as you'll read, his mother doesn't love him anymore ... |
He was the terrorist next door.
A former Boy Scout from Long Island turned his back on his All-American life and converted to Islam, joining al Qaeda in Pakistan and firing rockets at a US military base in Afghanistan, authorities said yesterday. Bryant Neal Vinas, a 26-year-old son of South American immigrants who came to the United States to give their son a better life, instead became a jihadist hell-bent on destroying America.
"He broke my heart. This is not my son," his Argentinian-born mother, Maria Vinas, of Medford, LI, told The Post, choking back tears. "I hope I never see him again."
The one-time devout Catholic's zeal to shed American blood was not contained to conflicts abroad, authorities said. According to court papers filed in Brooklyn federal court, he also handed over to his al Qaeda handlers "expert advice and assistance" about how to blow up the subway here in New York and the Long Island Rail Road.
When he was finally arrested on the battlefield in Afghanistan and US officials caught wind of the plot, it prompted a massive security alert at Penn Station and other transit hubs last Thanksgiving.
Vinas' bizarre journey from an average suburban life in Suffolk County to that of a bearded mullah in the terrorist no-man's land of Waziristan in Pakistan has emerged as a cautionary tale of militant Islam's reach.
"A wonderful boy, my sweetheart," his mother said. "I called him my teddy bear."
Maria lost track of her son not long after giving up custody when she and her husband divorced nine years ago. When he moved out, Bryant, a one-time Scout, was active in the Catholic church. "My husband was very religious," she said. "He destroyed my son, obviously."
The father, Juan Vinas, originally from Peru, told the Los Angeles Times that his son was living with him as late as September 2007 and became immersed in Islam after he began attending a mosque in Selden, LI. He said Bryant grew increasingly reclusive and headstrong.
| No kidding. Really? Gosh, you could never have seen that coming, huh Pops? |
Bryant began wearing Islamic robes and a skullcap, said, Juan Vinas, who was extensively interviewed by the feds. "He became very excited" about Islam, converted from Catholicism and even tried to get his father to convert.
The imam at the Islamic Association of Long Island, Nayyar Imam, said Bryant showed up there in mid-2006 and quickly began attending four to five times a week. He stood out as the only Latino at the mosque that primarily is attended by immigrants from Pakistan. "He never mentioned anything happening in the news or anything in the newspaper," Imam said. "I just can't believe that this sort of person would do this. I'm shocked."
| Floored. Never saw it coming. Didn't preach anything in the mosque other than peace, harmony and good will. No idea where Vinny got all that bile about hating the Jooz ... |
Law-enforcement sources said Vinas had discovered a different, more dangerous kind of Islam when he began perusing militant Web sites.
| As opposed to the peace and fluffy bunny Islam at the mosque ... |
In late 2007, Vinas left his hometown abruptly, without telling his father where he was going.
"Hey Boy, where you going?"
"None of your beeswax, Pops!" |
Federal investigators say Bryant turned up in Pakistan in December 2007 and convinced al Qaeda recruiters that he was sincere about his commitment to radicalism. Someone close to the group vouched for him, the LA Times reported.
| And who might that be, and what connection does he have with the mosque back home? A real shame we can't, you know, check telephone records or something ... |
"He had a good reference, so they trusted him," an anti-terror official said.
"Boss, Mahmoud just called. Sez Vinny is a good fella."
"Hokay, that's enough for me. Vinny, you're a made man!"
"Gosh, you mean it? This is the happiest day of my life -- well, until I can go explode somewhere!" |
As a result, he received "military-type training" from May to August at an al Qaeda camp and went on a mission near the lawless Afghan border. Vinas became known by other names, including Ibrahim, Ben Yameen al-Kanadee and Bashir al-Ameriki -- "Bashir the American."
AKA; Cannon Fodder
He was dispatched to bring jihad to the next level. In September 2008, he and a group of cohorts fired rockets at a US base in Afghanistan, according to court papers filed by Assistant US Attorney James Loonam. The papers did not specify if there were any casualties.
| Missed by a country mile? |
The papers also revealed that Vinas provided al Qaeda with detailed information "based on his "specialized knowledge" of New York's subways and the LIRR.
Got the T-shirt with the subway map printed on it
But in November, he was captured by Pakistani forces. He immediately sang to investigators with critical information about meeting with al Qaeda operational chiefs about a plot to blow up the transit systems, although law-enforcement sources said it never got beyond an "aspirational stage."
In reality, Vinas was just a wannabe talking a big game and did not have inside information about the transit systems, having never worked for them, a source said. Instead, he had the kind of commuter knowledge that any Long Island resident would have.
| Which was more than any Peshawar resident would have ... |
The MTA said yesterday it had been "in constant communication with local and federal authorities" as the probe developed. "There was never an imminent threat to the system," the agency said in a statement.
After Vinas was captured, he was taken into custody in Brooklyn. On Jan. 28, he pleaded guilty in a closed-door hearing before federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis.
| Didn't even have to play Muskrat Love to get him to confess? |
Since then, he has also been cooperating with European investigators, who are probing cases in Italy and Belgium, allegedly involving al Qaeda terrorists who Vinas met in Pakistan.
One case involves Malika El Aroud, 50, the Belgian ex-wife of a man behind the slaying of Afghan leader Ahmed Shah Massoud. Massoud was a key anti-Taliban leader assassinated in a bomb attack two days before Sept. 11, 2001. Aroud was one of five terror suspects captured in Belgium last winter. Vinas is expected to be a star prosecution witness when the case against Aroud, a prominent pro-terrorist blogger, goes to trial. He is currently being held at an undisclosed location.
"I think the FBI know where he is," said his father, Juan. "But they won't tell me. They don't want to tell me."
Relatives told the LA Times that they were interviewed last year after a truck bomb killed 55 people at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan. The agents said they were checking on Americans living in Pakistan and had determined that Bryant Vinas was there.
Since those interviews, Juan Vinas said, he hasn't been able to get any information from the FBI.
| You didn't seem to care a whole lot when Vinny went off to Pakistain ... |
His mother first learned of his al Qaeda connection when The Post called her Medford home yesterday. "I know he's crazy, but not that crazy. This is horrible," she said. "I thought he was dead when the FBI [first] contacted me."
Vinas' identity was a closely guarded secret as the investigation into his al Qaeda ties expanded. The case is part of probes in at least seven countries. "It is a massive case," a Justice Department official said.
Vinas' mother could think of little to say to her son, whom she hasn't seen in eight years. "He chose to be like this. I feel very sorry," she said. "Good luck." |
Pakistani officials have warned that Rashid Rauf, the terrorist linked to the trans-Atlantic airline bomb plot, bas been involved in grooming two dozen British recruits to carry out new attacks.