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Assem Hammoud

Assem Hammoud

al-Qaeda

Home Front: WoT

20060710

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Military Court Sentences 3 to Death for Spying for Israel

2012-02-18

The Permanent Military Tribunal headed by Brig. Gen. Nizar Khalil on Friday sentenced to death Haitham al-Sahmarani, a retired Internal Security Forces first sergeant, on charges of collaboration with Israel. Upon his arrest in 2009 Sahmarani confessed to collaborating, along with his wife, with the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency. With the help of his sister who had decamped to Israel in 2000, Sahmarani began his relation with the Israelis in 2004. The sister, Sahera al-Sahmarani, and her husband Mohammed Amin Khazaal were sentenced to death in absentia on Friday. Hizbullah's mouthpiece, Al-Manar television, said "Sahmarani met with Israeli officers in Turkey and Israel and gave coordinates to the enemy during the (2006) July war of (Hizbullah chief) Sayyed (Hassan) Nasrallah's possible locations." Separately, the military tribunal sentenced Ragheda Daher to two years hard labor on charges of spying for Israel. And it handed a similar verdict to Assem Hammoud, who had been accused of plotting to bomb train tunnels in the U.S. More than 100 people have been set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock on suspicion of spying for the Israeli Mossad since April 2009, including members of the security forces and telecom employees. Several have since been sentenced to death.

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Terror Networks

Virtual Incompetence: when do-it-yourself terrorists train online.

2006-08-22

DESPITE CHARACTERIZATIONS of last week's thwarted attempt to blow up ten transatlantic flights as "homegrown," Pakistan, rather than the United Kingdom, has emerged as the epicenter of planning. The incident is part of a wider pattern--the past six weeks alone have revealed that several other aspiring and successful militants had similar connections to Pakistan. This trend suggests that, contrary to conventional wisdom, a physical sanctuary and training ground are essential to a successful terror plot. On the first anniversary of the July 2005 London attacks, Ayman al-Zawahiri released a tape featuring the video wills of bombers Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, suggesting that the two had trained with al Qaeda members in Pakistan before perpetrating the suicide bombings that killed 52 civilians on the London Underground. The video's release preceded the train bombings in Bombay, India, which killed 207 people, by less than a week. Indian authorities suspect the bombers trained in Pakistan before infiltrating Indian territory. Just weeks prior to the India attack, Lebanese police arrested Assem Hammoud on suspicion of planning to bomb the Holland Tunnel in New York. Hammoud told police that he had planned to train for the attack in Pakistan and to impart his knowledge to his co-conspirators. Hammoud is just one of dozens of terrorists who have been apprehended since September 11 while seeking training in Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Bangladesh, and several key African countries. All of these plots, successful and otherwise, contradict a prevalent theory in counter-terrorism circles that all the skills necessary to conduct a successful attack can be learned in the comfort of a terrorist's own home. This paradigm is based on the belief that internet technology has removed the need for terrorist training camps by creating a virtual safe haven where youth can self-radicalize and self-train. Bomb making and target selection are 'easy.' An attacker can simply download instructions and maps off the internet, purchase readily available materials to construct the explosive, and voilá, a fully formed terrorist emerges from behind his computer, competent to conceive, fund, plan, and execute a sophisticated terrorist attack. Such streamlined attack planning puts law enforcement at a disadvantage by decreasing the window of opportunity to detect and disrupt a plot.

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Home Front: WoT

Tunnel Plot Suspects Linked to Al-Qaeda

2006-07-11

The Lebanese man arrested in an alleged plot to bomb New York transit tunnels under the Hudson River had been recruited by al-Qaeda three years ago and members of his cell had been attempting to seek help from the organization for the attack, U.S. and Lebanese officials said yesterday. Authorities announced the arrest of Assem Hammoud, 31, on Friday. They said he had been held in Beirut since April 27 and had been planning an assault on PATH commuter trains this fall, though the alleged conspiracy never reached the point of the suspects beginning to gather intelligence and explosives. In addition to Hammoud, U.S. officials say, two suspects are being held overseas without charges, five others are at least partly identified and six foreign governments are cooperating. Rest at link.

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Great White North

Suspected bomb plotter, questioned by police, remains in Montreal

2006-07-11

OTTAWA (CP) - A suspected accomplice in a plot to bomb tunnels in New York City was questioned by RCMP for an entire day and remains under surveillance in Montreal, The Canadian Press has learned. A source familiar with the investigation said the man is a friend of Assem Hammoud, pegged by U.S. authorities as a key figure in the purported scheme to flood lower Manhattan by blowing up commuter tunnels. The 31-year-old Hammoud, who taught business ethics and human resources courses at a Beirut school, earned a commerce degree from Montreal's Concordia University four years ago after seven years of study in Canada. Eight al-Qaida-linked suspects, one of them reported to be a Canadian, had hoped to wage the attack on New York's tunnel system in October or November, U.S. officials say. But the plan had not progressed beyond the planning stages. Three people, including Hammoud, have been arrested. The Canadian was not named by authorities. However, CP reported Friday that Canadian police questioned a man they suspected of active involvement in the alleged conspiracy. He was released because there wasn't enough evidence to hold him. Still, sources say Canadian authorities are actively pursuing leads as part of a six-country investigation into the alleged plot.

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Home Front: WoT

NYC Tunnel Terrorist: Mild Mannered Student Until...

2006-07-10

Beware of Muslims with sudden personality change. Or: beware of Muslims, period. AMMAN, Jordan (UPI) -- Assem Hammoud is a 31-year-old, well-mannered Lebanese man educated in the West, multi-lingual and seems no different than other affluent, secular young Lebanese men who enjoy partying, girls and cars. Those who know him say he was the perfectly eligible bachelor: He grew up in an affluent home in Beirut, he is intelligent -- having obtained a PhD degree in economics from a university in Canada -- and his widowed mother is an artist. But like a Jekyll and Hyde, Hammoud might have another side to his personality and life that makes him more of an eligible terror recruit. This refined-looking, clean-cut young man also goes by the name of Amir al-Andalousi, or 'prince of Andalusia,' a nom de guerre he was supposedly given by Osama bin Laden`s al-Qaida network when Hammoud was recruited, not in Lebanon, but in Canada. 'The prince' may have been awarded this codename because his family claims to have originally come from Andalusia in Spain some 800 years ago. Hammoud was arrested by the Lebanese authorities on April 27 on suspicion of masterminding a plot for a massive terror attack targeting train tunnels under the Hudson River that carry thousands of commuters between New York and New Jersey every day. Based on information from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Lebanese authorities monitored him for one month and tracked his internet use before making the arrest. But his capture was not revealed until this week after it was leaked in the American press. Lebanese officials said Hammoud confessed to the plot and 'pledged allegiance' to Osama bin Laden, believed to be hiding in the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He reportedly admitted he was planning to go to Pakistan for four months to train for the operation, which was allegedly set for the end of 2006. They said the authorities also found important documents, maps and bombing plans on his personal computer and CDs.

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Home Front: WoT

Suspect in Tunnel Plot Said to Visit U.S.

2006-07-10

The Lebanese man accused of masterminding a plot to destroy Hudson River train tunnels to bring death and flooding to lower Manhattan had visited the United States at least once - a trip to California six years ago, a federal law enforcement official said. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said 31-year-old Assem Hammoud was in the U.S. on a legitimate visa for a brief stay, and that he was believed to have been visiting either family or friends. The visit occurred long before authorities say the tunnel plot began to unfold. Authorities are still trying to trace Hammoud's steps during that trip but say they have no record of him going to New York. They have not ruled out the possibility that Hammoud had come to the country using different names. Meanwhile, a senior Lebanese official said authorities there found maps and bombing plans on the personal computer of the suspect. Acting Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat described the information found on Hammoud's computer as "very important." "It contained maps and bombing plans that were being prepared," Fatfat said in a local television interview. Lebanese security officials told The Associated Press that they obtained "important information" from Hammoud's computer and CDs seized from his office at the Lebanese International University, where he taught economics. "This information helped the investigators make Hammoud confess to his role in plotting a terror act in America," one Lebanese official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

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Great White North

Canadian linked to New York terrorism plot

2006-07-09

A terrorist plot against New York involved at least one Canadian currently held in custody overseas, an FBI source knowledgeable about the investigation said Friday. The suspect is one of eight people — three of them in custody — who investigators allege were planning suicide attacks on heavily used commuter tunnels leading to southern Manhattan. Now it seems that the man pegged as ringleader of the alleged plot attended Concordia University in Montreal for several years in the mid-1990s, says a source familiar with the case. Authorities had been monitoring the group for more than a year on websites popular with Islamic extremists and feared they would attack within months. A report about the alleged plot, and arrests that occurred in Beirut in April, were published Friday in a New York tabloid, which prompted officials to reveal that they headed off a possible strike on tunnels from New York to New Jersey. “Plotting for this attack had matured to a point where it appeared that the individuals were about to move forward,” Federal Bureau of Investigation assistant director Mark Mershon told a news conference. “They were about to go to a phase where they would attempt to surveil targets, establish a regimen of attack and acquire the resources necessary to effectuate the attacks. At that point, it's entirely appropriate to take it down.” It was not clear Friday where the Canadian suspect now being held in an undisclosed foreign country fit into the picture. The alleged leader of the plot, Lebanese native Assem Hammoud, may have lived in Montreal at one point. In footage aired by CBC, his mother said he had visited there with a Canadian girlfriend. And sources told CTV that a Montreal man suspected of involvement in the plan was detained in Lebanon on April 6 and interrogated by the FBI. One counterterrorism expert who had been briefed on the plan, and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the news media, told the New York Times: “These are bad guys in Canada and a bad guy in Lebanon talking, but it never advanced beyond that.”

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Home Front: WoT

NYC Plot: 'Real Deal' Or 'Bravado'?

2006-07-09

See BS jumps in to pooh-pooh any danger... Despite the FBI's announcement that it disrupted a terror plot against New York City-area commuter trains Friday, CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart has learned that the plans were mere "jihadist bravado," according to one senior official. Authorities said the plot by foreign terrorists to attack the train tunnels beneath the Hudson River used by thousands of New York commuters every day, had eight principal players, three in custody, including the mastermind, 31-year-old Lebanese national Assem Hammoud, the only one of the suspects currently charged in his home country. However, the senior official tells Stewart that the men arrested are "far less threatening and dangerous than the Canadian cell," and unlike the Torrance, Calif., cell, which had begun conducting holdups to further their terrorist plans, these individuals had done nothing but talk over the Internet. The FBI disagreed. "This is a plot that involved martyrdom and explosives and certain of the tubes that connect Jersey and lower Manhattan," FBI Assistant Director Mark J. Mershon said during a news conference. He called the plot the "real deal." "We believe we intercepted this group early in their plotting and, in fact, the plan has largely been disrupted," Mershon said. Initial reports said the terrorists wanted to attack the Holland Tunnel. But Mershon said the group specifically mentioned only the PATH train tunnels between New York and New Jersey.

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Home Front: WoT

The new 'Prince' of terrorism

2006-07-09

HE was told not to grow a beard, wear Islamic clothing or show any sign of religious devotion. During his recruitment as a soldier in the global jihad, Assem Hammoud was told to act like a typical young, secular Lebanese man and warned not to attract attention, a senior Lebanese security official said. Hammoud was an ideal recruit because he did not have any apparent ties to militants. "He had no criminal history, and no history of involvement with militant groups," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "He was living a normal life, far from any suspicion." Hammoud, 31, was allegedly the mastermind behind a suicide bombing plot to blow up railway tunnels under the Hudson River in New York. The plan was foiled in April, after months of investigation, with Hammoud's arrest in Beirut. The planned attack, details of which were released yesterday by New York officials, was intended to flood the subway and kill commuters. Hammoud became involved with militant Islamic websites in 2003, soon after the US invaded Iraq. "He was angry with what America was doing in Iraq, and he began spending time on these Islamic sites and chat rooms," said the official, who was familiar with Hammoud's interrogations. "He became more and more deeply involved. He sank into this extremist environment."

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