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Nafis: Conflicting images emerge in US

2012-10-20

[Bangla Daily Star] At the Missouri college where Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis enrolled, a classmate said he often remarked that true Mohammedans don't believe in violence. That image seemed startlingly at odds with the Bangladesh native's arrest in an FBI sting this week on charges of trying to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank in New York with what he thought was a 1,000-pound car boom. "I can't imagine being more shocked about somebody doing something like this," said Jim Dow, a 54-year-old Army veteran who rode home from class with Nafis twice a week. "I didn't just meet this kid a couple of times. We talked quite a bit. ... And this doesn't seem to be in character." Nafis, who at the time of his arrest Wednesday was working as a busboy at a restaurant in Manhattan, was locked away You have the right to remain silent... without bail. His attorney has not commented on the case, but in other instances where undercover agents and sting operations were used, lawyers have argued entrapment. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, whose department had a role in the arrest as a member of a joint federal-state terrorism ... any action taken by a non-Moslem state that constrains the violent impulses of Moslems or their allies ... task force, said the entrapment argument rarely prevails. "You have to be otherwise not disposed to do a crime," Kelly said. "And if it's your intent to do a crime, and somehow there are means made available, then generally speaking, the entrapment defence does not succeed."

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NYPD Beefs Up Security Ahead Of Passover Holiday

2012-04-05

NYC police to deploy heavily armed roving counterterrorism units to Jewish neighborhoods during holiday Happy Holiday. Your watchfulness will be highly appreciated. The New York Police Department is beefing up security at the city's synagogues and other Jewish sites this week for the Passover holiday in the wake of a deadly attack on a religious school in La Belle France last month.   Authorities stressed that there have been no specific threats reported in the city for the weeklong holiday, which starts at sundown Friday.   Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said there would be heightened security and the deployment of heavily armed roving counterterrorism units.   "We'll ensure that coverage is more than adequate in those neighborhoods, adding foot posts, visits by officers to synagogues, outreach by community affairs officers, and a heightened presence of anti-crime," Kelly said Tuesday to a roomful of the city's Jewish leaders.  Contrast with the mayor of Malmo, Sweden. Kelly said the security measures were not related to the investigation of an online mock movie poster that warns that al-Qaeda wants to return to New York City. The poster surfaced early Monday, and came from a forum where known cut-throats have participated.   The department has kept a constant eye on myrmidon groups for signs they might attack in New York, which has the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. The city faces constant threats in al-Qaeda, the Hezbullies guerrilla group and so-called homegrown terrorists, Kelly said.   The NYPD dispatched extra patrols to more than 50 locations throughout New York last month on the news that an armed man on a cycle of violence had attacked a Jewish school in Toulouse, a southwestern city north of the Pyrenees Mountains. The shooting left a rabbi, his two young sons and a schoolgirl dead.   There were no specific threats against New York then, either, but the department decided to take the measures as a precaution.   The nation's largest police department also discussed with leaders that it took similar precautions in 2008 after Imad Mughniyeh, a senior Hezbullies commander, was killed in a car booming in Syria. The group blamed Israel for Mughniyeh's death.   A decade after the September 11 attacks, "we know that counterterrorism is now a permanent part of our mission," Kelly said at the briefing. Rough men and women standing guard so New Yorkers sleep safely at night.

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NYPD monitored Muslim students all over Northeast

2012-02-19

The New York Police Department monitored Mohammedan college students far more broadly than previously known, at schools far beyond the city limits, including the elite Ivy League colleges of Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, The News Agency that Dare Not be Named has learned.   Police talked with local authorities about professors 300 miles (480 kilometers) away in Buffalo and even sent an undercover agent on a whitewater rafting trip, where he recorded students' names and noted in police intelligence files how many times they prayed. Detectives trawled Mohammedan student websites every day and, although professors and students had not been accused of any wrongdoing, their names were recorded in reports prepared for Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.   Asked about the monitoring, police front man Paul Browne provided a list of 12 people tossed in the slammer or convicted on terrorism charges in the United States and abroad who had once been members of Mohammedan student associations, which the NYPD referred to as MSAs. "As a result, the NYPD deemed it prudent to get a better handle on what was occurring at MSAs," Browne said in an email. He said police monitored student websites and collected publicly available information, but did so only between 2006 and 2007. Oh. We are getting the vapours over something that briefly occurred half a decade ago. Have the reporters nothing more important to do?

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Round-up: Naturalized jihadi charged in foiled New York City bomb plot

2011-11-21

Well done, NYPD Intelligence Department! (AFP) - New York authorities announced Sunday they had arrested and charged a US Al-Qaeda sympathizer in a plot to build a pipe bomb to kill government workers, elected officials and others. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said 27-year-old Jose Pimentel was targeting police, postal facilities and others and said he was a "lone wolf" without affiliation to foreign terrorist organizations. City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Pimentel, though not affiliated with an outside group, was a follower of slain radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi, who was killed in a US raid earlier this year. Kelly said Pimentel, a native of the Dominican Republic who was a US citizen, had followed a online magazine from Awlaqi including an article "How to make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom." Pimentel "talked about killing US servicemen returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, particularly US army and marine corps personnel. He talked about bombing post offices in and around Washington Heights and police cars in New York City, as well as a police station in New Jersey," the police chief said. AP adds: The charges accuse him of conspiracy going back at least a year, first-degree criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism, and soliciting support for a terrorist act. The New York Times adds more detail: Mr. Pimentel, who is also known as Muhammad Yusuf, will face charges that include criminal possession of a weapon in the first degree as a crime of terrorism, which is considered an A-1 violent felony. Mr. Pimentel made incriminating statements to an informant who was working with the Police Department, investigators said, and those conversations were recorded. "He was in the process of building three pipe bombs," the law enforcement official said. "We weren't going to wait around to figure out what  he wanted do with his bombs. He was in Harlem about an hour from actually assembling the bombs," but had all the "unassembled components ready to go." Including nails for shrapnel. And from CNN: The police commissioner identified the suspect as a follower of Anwar al-Awlaki. Pimental allegedly tried to contact al-Awlaki directly, but never got a response. Pimentel had been monitored by authorities since 2009 and his extreme positions "made some of his like-minded friends nervous," said Kelly. I am truly grateful the CIA taught the NYPD all that spy stuff that the New York Times, et al were fussing about a few months ago. His aim, the police commissioner said, was to show there were "mujahedeen" -- or Islamic militants -- in the city ready to wage "jihad." And so he has done. He was arrested at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in an apartment in Washington Heights, a neighborhood in northern Manhattan, after he began to drill holes in the would-be pipe bomb, Kelly said. Update -- even more from the NY Post, summarized: The unemployed pothead converted to Islam in 2009 in while living in Schenectady, NY, where he caught the eye of local police. After he started beating his wife to encourage her to join him in conversion, and forcing their child to watch jihadi videos, she took the child and left. Following his return to NYC, his mother threw him out because of his radicalism, so he moved in with an uncle. The Schenectady police tipped off the NYPD, who apparently bugged the uncle's apartment for sound and video, Somebody got to watch him scrape the sulfur heads off of 700 matches... put a tap on his computer, and sent an informant *ring, ring* "Mahmoud the Weasel, at your service!" to be his friend. Like Santa Claus, the police know where he's been, what he's done, read, and posted on his website since he moved back to New York. Our lad confessed all, insisting that "Islamic law obligated all true Muslims to wage war against the United States." The wonder being how few have acted on that obligation, and how many of those were lone wolves. You'd think the Muslim community would be trumpeting that with pride. According to Mayor Bloomberg, this is the fourteenth jihadi plot against New York City since 9/11.

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Two 'terrorism' related arrests in New York: reports

2011-05-13

[Asia One] Two men have been incarcerated in New York on suspicion of plotting to attack a synagogue, US media reports said Thursday. The pair were caught in a sting operation discussing plans to buy guns and grenades with the "aspirational" plan to attack a Jewish house of worship, The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... quoted unidentified law enforcement officials as saying. According to the report, the men will be prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney's office, rather than federal prosecutors, who usually handle terrorism cases. A spokeswoman for the DA's office refused to comment but said a statement was expected later. Reports said the men were of North African descent, but it was not clear whether they were US citizens or not. New York, which has been targeted by Islamist bombers repeatedly over the last two decades, has been on heightened alert since US commandos killed the late Osama bin Laden ... who no longer has to waste time and energy breathing... in Pakistain. More from the Wall Street Journal: Ahmed Ferhani, a 26-year-old Algerian native, was tossed in the slammer Wednesday by a swarm of police after purchasing three weapons, ammunition and a hand grenade from an undercover detective in Midtown Manhattan, authorities said. Mr. Ferhani had agreed to pay $700 for the cache, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Mr. Ferhani's alleged cohort, Mohammed Mehdi Mamdouh, a 20-year-old native of Morocco, was tossed in the slammer moments later, standing not far from Mr. Ferhani's car. At a news conference Thursday, Mr. Kelly said that just before he was tossed in the slammer, Mr. Ferhani told the detective he wanted more guns, silencers, a box of grenades, bullet-resistant vests and police radios. "Using an expletive, [the suspect said] that he was fed up with the way Mohammedans were being treated around the world: 'They're treating us like dogs,'" Mr. Kelly said. The arrests stemmed from an investigation that began seven months ago. Police wouldn't say what first drew their attention to Mr. Ferhani. To an undercover detective, he "expressed interest in killing Jews," Mr. Kelly said. After an arraignment in a crowded Manhattan courtroom Thursday evening, the men were jugged without bail. As prosecutor Margaret Gandy listed the charges and evidence, they shook their heads, as if in disbelief. Mr. Mamdouh mouthed the word, "what?" after Ms. Gandy said the suspects considered disguising themselves as Hasidic Jews to gain entry to a temple. Mr. Mamdouh's attorney, Steven Fusfeld, said his client, who lives with his family in Whitestone, Queens, denies any involvement in a terror plot. Stephen Pokart, a Legal Aid lawyer defending Mr. Ferhani, also from Whitestone, said his client denied the charges, too. The arrests mark the first time New York state terrorism ... any action taken by a non-Moslem state that constrains the violent impulses of Moslems or their allies ... charges, rather than federal, will be used against individuals suspected in a terror plot. If convicted, the men could face life in prison without parole. Mr. Kelly said that it was decided the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance would handle the case because an unrelated criminal case in that office had touched off the probe. However, The wishy-washy However... a law-enforcement official with knowledge of the case said detectives from the New York Police Department's Intelligence Division brought the case to the Joint Terrorism Task Force, which is comprised of multiple agencies, including the NYPD, but is led by the Department of Justice and the FBI. JTTF members declined to participate because they were concerned the case wasn't strong enough to win a conviction in federal court, the official said. Since Mr. Kelly's return as police commissioner in 2002 there have been several well-publicized festivities between the FBI and NYPD. Under Mr. Kelly, the NYPD started its own antiterrorism unit. At the news conference, the police commissioner said Sherlocks found no ties between the men and al Qaeda or other terrorist groups. "We are concerned about lone wolves acting against New York City in the wake of the killing of [Osama] bin Laden," Mr. Bloomberg said. Mr. Ferhani has been tossed in the slammer at least six times, including for robbery, according to a law-enforcement official. Mr. Kelly said Mr. Ferhani moved from Algeria with his family in 1995. His parents were granted asylum, and he is a permanent resident. However, The wishy-washy However... because he failed to appear before an immigration judge to answer questions about his arrests, his case was under review for possible deportation, Mr. Kelly said. Mr. Mamdouh immigrated to Queens from Casablanca in 1999 with his family. He is a U.S. citizen.

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Top Obama officials worried U.S. terror attack by Al Shabaab may be next after Uganda bombings

2010-07-15

Concerns that Somali terrorists might stage a brazen attack on America are on the rise after the deadly Uganda bombings, senior Obama administration officials said Tuesday. Al Qaeda-aligned Al Shabaab's attacks in Kampala Sunday that killed 76 World Cup revelers, including one American, could foreshadow a U.S. terror plot, they said. "There is a concern Al Shabaab might try to carry out similar types of attacks in other venues," a top U.S. official told reporters. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said he dispatched a sergeant and three officers to join about 60 other Joint Terrorism Task Force investigators in Uganda. A detective who was already based in South Africa for the World Cup is also on his way, Kelly said. Shabaab goons - including some Somali-Americans and Al Qaeda operatives who moved to Somalia to flee a CIA drone blitz in Pakistan - have long been targeted by U.S. Special Operations Forces. "I'm worried about any organization - particularly one associated with Al Qaeda and has Al Qaeda sprinkled within it - [and] their determination, as well as potential capability, to carry out an attack outside of the region," the senior administration official said.

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Two men arrested at US airport on terror charges

2010-06-07

[Al Arabiya Latest] Two men arrested at John F Kennedy airport in New York were charged Sunday with conspiracy to kill Americans outside the country, U.S. justice officials said. Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, 20, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 26, both from New Jersey, From the standpoint of their residency, not their upbringing ... were arrested Saturday at John F. Kennedy Airport before they could board separate flights to Egypt and then continue on to Somalia, federal officials in New Jersey and the New York Police Department said in a news release. During a lengthy investigation, an NYPD undercover officer recorded conversations with the men in which they spoke about jihad against Americans. "I leave this time. God willing, I never come back," authorities say Alessa told the officer last year. "Only way I would come back here is if I was in the land of jihad and the leader ordered me to come back here and do something here. Ah, I love that." Investigators "remain concerned that once they reach their foreign destinations, they may be redirected against targets back home, as we've seen in the past," New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement. "We are also concerned that should they remain undetected and fail in their foreign aspirations that they might strike domestically, as was discussed as a possibility in this case." Alessa, of North Bergen, New Jersey, and Almonte, of Elmwood Park, New Jersey, both American citizens, ... but not necessarily from Joisey ... face charges of conspiring to kill, maim, and kidnap persons outside the United States by joining al-Shabab, a violent extremist group based in Somalia and connected to al-Qaida, authorities said. Al-Shabab was designated by the U.S. as a terrorist group in 2008. Teams of state and federal law enforcement agents who have been investigating Alessa and Almonte since 2006 took them into custody, authorities said. They are scheduled to appear Monday in federal court in Newark. The two men had planned their trip to Somalia for several months, saving thousands of dollars, undergoing tactical training and test runs at paintball fields to condition themselves physically, and acquiring equipment and clothing they could use when they joined al-Shabab in Somalia, officials said. Both had bragged about wanting to wage holy war against the United States both at home and internationally, according to a criminal complaint. Officials said the two men were not planning an imminent attack in the New York-New Jersey area. Somalia has welcomed the arrest of two New Jersey men who allegedly planned to join al-Shabab. "Foreign terrorists here are an obstacle to lasting peace in Somalia. So we welcome the move and we are calling on all governments to take such steps against al-Shabab and all terrorists at large," said Sheik Abdirisaq Mohamed Qaylow, a spokesman for the Ministry of Information. He's part of the government that controls about four city blocks in Mog. Betcha the other tribes and Al-Shabab aren't as pleased ...

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White House orders Justice Department to look for other places to try KSM

2010-01-29

Bambi isn't the most graceful in backing down ... The White House ordered the Justice Department to consider other places to try the 9/11 terror suspects after a wave of opposition to holding the trial in lower Manhattan. The White House took the action hours after Mayor Bloomberg called Attorney General Eric Holder to say he would "prefer that they did it elsewhere." "It would be an inconvenience at the least, and probably that's too mild a word for people that live in the neighborhood and businesses in the neighborhood," Bloomberg told reporters. "There are places that would be less expensive for the taxpayers and less disruptive for New York City." State leaders have railed against a plan to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Manhattan federal court since Holder proposed it last month. The order to consider new venues does not change the White House's position that Mohammed should be tried in civilian court. "President Obama is still committed to trying Mohammed and four other terrorist detainees in federal court," spokesman Bill Burton said Thursday. "He agrees with the attorney general's opinion that ... he and others can be litigated successfully and securely in the United States of America, just like others have," Burton said. Burton referred questions about the location debate to the Justice Department. Officials there have apparently been caught off guard by the fiery opposition in New York, an insider told the Daily News. "They're in a tizzy at Justice over Bloomberg," a federal law enforcement official said. "It's like a half-baked souffle - the plan is collapsing." Meanwhile, a source told The News that Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly was the driving force behind the push by Manhattan business leaders to change the mayor's mind on the trial. Kelly made an "extremely powerful" speech to a roomful of 150 prominent business leaders about how disruptive and costly the trial would be for lower Manhattan at an annual police charity event on Jan. 13, the source said. "What turned this around was when Ray made a presentation to the Police Foundation," the source said. "Everyone went from thinking, 'Justice will be served' to thinking 'We are screwed.'" What followed was a barrage of complaints to the mayor from some of New York's most powerful tycoons - part of a tide of pressure that led Bloomberg to turn against hosting the trial. Estimates put the cost of a multiyear terror trial in lower Manhattan at about $200 million a year. Leaders have suggested other venues for the trial, such as the Military Academy at West Point or Stewart Air National Guard Base in upstate Newburgh. The federal government has said they would reimburse the city for the costs, most of which cover overtime for increased security, but they won't reimburse business owners for lost revenue during the chaos, said Steven Spinola, president of the heavyweight business group Real Estate Board of New York. "Is the federal government going to give the city $1 billion plus the cost of propping up businesses? I don't think so," Spinola said. "The mayor clearly has been thinking about this. The tide is turning," He said. By the end of the day Thursday, Bloomberg's open opposition to a Manhattan trial had snowballed into a near total rebuke of the plan by politicians statewide. Rep. Pete King made a push against a Manhattan trial by introducing a bill that would prohibit the use of Justice Department funds to try Guantanamo detainees in civilian courts. The Long Island Republican called the White House plan "one of the worst decisions ever made by any President" and insisted Mohammed should be tried by the military. Gov. Paterson reiterated his opposition to a Manhattan trial because of the price tag and the burden it will put on the downtown residents. "I think New Yorkers have been through enough," Paterson said on ABC's "The View." "In my opinion, maybe we all need to sit down and see if there isn't another venue."

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-Lurid Crime Tales-

Vicious Killer Killed By Pants

2009-12-21

A career criminal massacred three members of a family in their apartment but fell to his death when he tripped over his own baggy pants. The massacre occurred Thursday afternoon near a string of upscale shops on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Police said the attack apparently stemmed from botched drug ripoff. "There is a significant amount of heroin found in the apartment," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told the Daily News. Police said Hector Quinones, 44, shot and killed Carlos Rodriguez Sr., 52, and his 24-year-old son, Carlos Rodriguez Jr., then stabbed to death the younger Rodriguez's grandfather, Fernando Gonzalez, 87, according to reports in the Daily News and the New York Post. The elder Rodriguez's wife, Gisela Rodriguez, 49, and her daughter, Leyanis, 28, walked in on the carnage. Quinones heard keys in the lock and opened the door for the women, police said. He shot the mother, who was grazed on the head by a bullet but managed to run from the apartment. The killer was just about the grab the daughter when his low-slung pants fell down and he tripped, the Post said. That gave the young woman the chance to run into a back room, where she found the bodies of her brother and father. Quinones yanked up his pants and scrambled after Leyanis Rodriguez, who climbed onto a fire escape, screaming for help to construction workers on the roof of a nearby building, the Post said. The attacker followed her onto the fire escape, but once again his drooping pants fell and he tripped, plunging three stories to his death. Estella Carrino, who manages a street-level bicycle store in the building, said she heard the body hit the ground. "He had no jacket on and his pants were down. He was very dead," she told the Daily News.

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Queens raids: FBI probe into Denver-based cell plotting attack on 9/11 scale

2009-09-17

A suspected Al Qaeda cell - the first uncovered in the U.S. since 9/11 - drew round-the-clock FBI surveillance Tuesday as authorities said they thwarted its plans for a major terror attack. Scores of FBI agents inundated Denver as they closed the noose on the five-man cabal with ties to World Trade Center mastermind Osama Bin Laden's terrorist group, sources told the Daily News. One of the suspects visited New York last week toting bomb-making plans after a trip to Pakistan - home to most of Al Qaeda's leadership, sources said. "The FBI is seriously spooked about these guys," a former senior counterterrorism official told The News. "This is not some ... FBI informant-driven case. This is the real thing." Najibullah Zazi, seen last week praying and chatting with other worshipers at the Masjid Hazrat-I-Abu Bakr Islamic Center in Queens, was one of the quintet under intense scrutiny, sources said. He recently traveled to Pakistan, where Al Qaeda's major leaders - including Bin Laden - remain hunkered down. Zazi - known around the mosque as "Naji" - ran a coffee and doughnut cart in Manhattan before moving to suburban Denver this year, other members of the center said Tuesday. He was described as a religious man, sporting a long, bushy beard, who hailed from eastern Afghanistan. Interviewed outside Denver, Zazi said he knows he is under investigation but is innocent. Zazi apparently lived recently in the same Flushing neighborhood where FBI agents swarmed into three apartments this week, bashing down doors and carrying search warrants seeking bomb-making materials. "I didn't know what he was up to," said mosque President Abdulrahman Jalili, 58, after he was contacted by the FBI about Zazi. "Islam is against terrorism. It is a religion of peace." The religion may be. Some significant number of believers are most definitely not. The operative was recently overseas visiting Pakistan and possibly other countries, police sources said. He drove from Denver to Queens carrying documents and papers about bomb-making and bombs, the sources said. Zazi remained under constant surveillance in suburban Denver Tuesday, three sources said. Red flags about an impending attack went up last week when Zazi visited with several people in a single day and there was worrisome information collected from wiretaps, sources said. Zazi was stopped at the George Washington Bridge on his way into the city. Authorities later seized his rental car from a Queens street, sources said. Two mosque members said Zazi was apolitical. "I haven't seen him talk politics," said Mohammad Aziz, 51, of Queens, who hosted a dinner for the suspect and a local imam two years ago. Zazi, who has a wife in Pakistan, said he was coming to New York to renew his peddler's license for the coffee wagon. The Queens apartment raids were triggered by the Denver investigation, the operative's New York visit and the timing of the upcoming UN General Assembly. New York authorities also detained several men - later released - in a hunt for bomb-making components, explosive powders and fuses. "The hallway was filled with guys with armor," said one man awakened when the FBI broke down a the door of a neighbor with ties to the mosque. "Heavy armor." Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said unspecified material was seized from the apartments and shipped for analysis.

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Queens raids: FBI probe into Denver-based cell plotting attack on 9/11 scale

2009-09-15

A suspected Al Qaeda cell - the first uncovered in the U.S. since 9/11 - drew round-the-clock FBI surveillance Tuesday as authorities said they thwarted its plans for a major terror attack. Scores of FBI agents inundated Denver as they closed the noose on the five-man cabal with ties to World Trade Center mastermind Osama Bin Laden's terrorist group, sources told the Daily News. One of the suspects visited New York last week toting bomb-making plans after a trip to Pakistan - home to most of Al Qaeda's leadership, sources said. "The FBI is seriously spooked about these guys," a former senior counterterrorism official told The News. "This is not some ... FBI informant-driven case. This is the real thing." Najibullah Zazi, seen last week praying and chatting with other worshipers at the Masjid Hazrat-I-Abu Bakr Islamic Center in Queens, was one of the quintet under intense scrutiny, sources said. He recently traveled to Pakistan, where Al Qaeda's major leaders - including Bin Laden - remain hunkered down. Zazi - known around the mosque as "Naji" - ran a coffee and doughnut cart in Manhattan before moving to suburban Denver this year, other members of the center said Tuesday. He was described as a religious man, sporting a long, bushy beard, who hailed from eastern Afghanistan. Interviewed outside Denver, Zazi said he knows he is under investigation but is innocent. Zazi apparently lived recently in the same Flushing neighborhood where FBI agents swarmed into three apartments this week, bashing down doors and carrying search warrants seeking bomb-making materials. "I didn't know what he was up to," said mosque President Abdulrahman Jalili, 58, after he was contacted by the FBI about Zazi. "Islam is against terrorism. It is a religion of peace." The religion may be. Some significant number of believers are most definitely not. The operative was recently overseas visiting Pakistan and possibly other countries, police sources said. He drove from Denver to Queens carrying documents and papers about bomb-making and bombs, the sources said. Zazi remained under constant surveillance in suburban Denver Tuesday, three sources said. Red flags about an impending attack went up last week when Zazi visited with several people in a single day and there was worrisome information collected from wiretaps, sources said. Zazi was stopped at the George Washington Bridge on his way into the city. Authorities later seized his rental car from a Queens street, sources said. Two mosque members said Zazi was apolitical. "I haven't seen him talk politics," said Mohammad Aziz, 51, of Queens, who hosted a dinner for the suspect and a local imam two years ago. Zazi, who has a wife in Pakistan, said he was coming to New York to renew his peddler's license for the coffee wagon. The Queens apartment raids were triggered by the Denver investigation, the operative's New York visit and the timing of the upcoming UN General Assembly. New York authorities also detained several men - later released - in a hunt for bomb-making components, explosive powders and fuses. "The hallway was filled with guys with armor," said one man awakened when the FBI broke down a the door of a neighbor with ties to the mosque. "Heavy armor." Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said unspecified material was seized from the apartments and shipped for analysis.

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NYPD Publishes Guide to Avoiding a Terrorist Attack

2009-07-02

NYPD publishes handbook for landlords, security personnel "We understand that the threat of terrorism will remain a serious concern for the foreseeable future -- and we continue to do everything possible to prevent another attack and mitigate the harmful effects one might cause," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly touted a 100-page report "Engineering Security" as an ideal safety roadmap for property owners. "We have also provided in the publication and online the tools to calculate the risk to your building," Kelly told a group of owners gathered at One Police Plaza. Police used the example of how a truck bomb filled with explosives can be loaded and driven to a target to illustrate the continuing terrorist threat. The report urged property owners to improve perimeter security, design buildings that can better withstand a blast, step up screening of visitors, design emergency evacuation plans and safeguard air systems in the event of a chemical attack. These are not just lessons from 9-11, police said. The NYPD outlined more then 10 terrorist plots in past past years with the city in the cross-hairs of al Qaeda as well as homegrown groups. These included plans to attack the Citicorp Center and other landmarks, as well as plots on trains and transportation hubs. "Terrorist intention to attack New York city's people, building or critical infrastructures is unambiguous," said David Cohen, Deputy Commissioner of the NYPD's Intelligence Division. Officials said the report was designed to help existing buildings as well as future ones. The NYPD has given its opinion on plans for ground zero and the building of the New Yankee Stadium and Citifield. Real Estate Groups and the city's building commissioner welcomed the report. "It will also act as an important tool for property owners to identify how to protect their buildings in the design phase," said Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri.

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