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Home Front: WoT

1 of the 2 busted would-be al-Qaeda is the son of a Malcolm X aide

2005-05-30

The son of a former Malcolm X aide was nabbed yesterday, along with a Florida doctor, in a plot to start an Al Qaeda training camp in the U.S. - even scouting out a Long Island warehouse for a terror school, officials said last night. Tarik Shah, 38, a self-proclaimed martial arts expert from the Bronx, and Dr. Rafiq Sabir, 50, presented themselves as a "package deal" to help Muslim "brothers" wage jihad here and in the Middle East, said Manhattan U.S. Attorney David Kelley. Kelley said Shah - son of Lieutenant X, one of Malcolm X's top aides - even bragged to an undercover FBI agent and a federal informant that he could kill with prayer beads. Sabir, a former New York doctor who moved to Boca Raton, Fla., in 2002, vowed to treat wounded jihadists in Saudi Arabia, where he was scheduled to fly this week, officials said. "Both swore an oath of allegiance to Al Qaeda and [Osama] Bin Laden in front of the informant and [an] FBI undercover agent posing as [an Al Qaeda] recruiter before they were nabbed this weekend," a statement released by Kelley said. The oath left the two men with the "impression that they had become members" of Al Qaeda, the statement said. Officials said Shah, who also went by the names Tarik Jenkins and Abu Musab, took steps to find a secret location in the New York area to house a terror training camp. "At one point, in the company of the [informant], Shah allegedly inspected a warehouse on Long Island to determine its suitability as a training facility," said the statement. Shah and Sabir, both American citizens, were charged with conspiring to provide material support to Al Qaeda. If convicted, they each face 15 years in prison and $250,000 fines. Both men were arrested Friday morning, Shah at his home on Grant Ave. near E. 163rd St. in the Bronx and Sabir in Boca Raton. Shah was scheduled to appear in Manhattan Federal Court tomorrow. Sabir - who previously worked at Harlem Hospital and Nassau University Medical Center and who once operated a storefront office at a Harlem mosque - has a court date tomorrow in a federal courtroom in Florida. His ex-wife Ingrid Doyle, 47, of Manhattan, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that Sabir was born into a large Catholic family in New York and converted to Islam while in high school. "While we were married he was a lovely father and husband and nothing if not a hardworking man," Doyle said. Last night, as the results of the joint FBI and NYPD operation were revealed, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said it is "particularly gratifying that someone using New York City as a base for terrorist support is now in custody." Federal agents began investigating Shah and Sabir in 2003, when the two began meeting with a confidential informant to talk about ways they could help Al Qaeda, the terrorist network responsible for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, authorities said. Officials said the talks were secretly recorded. "During these conversations, Shah repeatedly indicated his desire to train Muslim 'brothers' in the martial arts in order to wage jihad and also regularly discussed his desire to find people who were willing to press the fight," Kelley's statement said. Shah was so gung-ho about helping the terrorists that he presented to the informant a "training syllabus for hand-to-hand combat" and a videotape so that AlQaeda bosses in the Middle East could evaluate him, authorities said. "During one meeting with the [informant] ... Shah physically demonstrated how he had fashioned his prayer beads into a weapon which could be used to strangle a person," the statement said. Shah also was interested in getting training in "chemical stuff" and firearms, officials said. But last night, Shah's mother, Marlene Jenkins, of Albany, blasted the charges as "ridiculous." "He's no terrorist," Jenkins told the Sun-Sentinel. Sabir allegedly told the informant that once he returned to Saudi Arabia, where he claimed he had worked at a Saudi military base, he would secretly treat wounded terrorists. Sabir, who was educated at City College and Columbia University's medical school and owes $500,000 in student loans, had been set to fly to Saudi Arabia this Thursday, according to prosecutors. When cops raided his home in a gated community, Villa of San Remo, Sabir told them, "'I know you have a job to do. I'm a doctor, and I know my rights,'" a police source said. Sabir was well known in Harlem, where he once kept a storefront office below the Masjidus Sabur mosque on Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. "He helps people," said one mosque member.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Afghan Drug Kingpin Nabbed, on trial in Manhattan

2005-04-25

EFL A reputed Afghan drug lord who authorities say operated with the protection of the Taliban has been captured and faces charges that he tried to smuggle more than $50 million worth of heroin (about 1,100 pounds) into the United States, authorities said. Haji Bashir Noorzai (age 44), who is on the U.S. list of most-wanted drug kingpins, was ordered held without bail at his initial court appearance in Manhattan. If convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of life in prison. The full circumstances of Noorzai's capture were not made public. Prosecutor Boyd Johnson told a judge that Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested the defendant Saturday in New York, but he did not elaborate. U.S. Attorney David Kelley said that between 1990 and 2004, the defendant and his organization "provided demolitions, weapons and manpower to the Taliban. ...In exchange, the Taliban allowed Noorzai's business to flourish." The Taliban protected Noorzai's opium crops, heroin laboratories in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and drug transportation routes out of the country. Gen. Zaher Akbar, head of a U.S.-funded Afghan police unit charged with destroying Afghan opium crops, said Afghan authorities "appreciate the arrest of drug smugglers anywhere in the world, so long as there is proof against them and they are not just released the next day."

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Fifth Column

Fatapallooza! Lynne Stewart to Go on Tour

2005-04-25

From last week's NY Post; no link 'cause it's now in the pay-for-it archive A federal judge is letting convicted terror lawyer Lynne Stewart jet across the country as part of her campaign to argue that she was unjustly prosecuted and to rally her supporters to raise funds for an appeal. Trial Judge John Koeltl approved Stewart's request to travel to the Left Coast, where she has arranged to speak at nine events in the San Francisco Bay area and participate in at least six radio and TV interviews, starting today. A jury convicted Stewart Feb. 10 of fraud, providing material support to terrorism, and filing false statements while she represented blind Egyptian terror cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Her sentencing has been pushed back to September. Stewart faces up to 30 years in prison. Initially, Koeltl restricted felon Stewart's travel to only New York state - but, concluding she is not a flight risk, he has since OK'd her requests to go to Florida, California and Boston. In his order, Koeltl did not object to Stewart speaking at events, and said the government could require her to contact authorities during her trips to confirm her whereabouts. Stewart is scheduled to speak at nine engagements in the Bay area - including three rallies. The highlights include a Sunday gathering protesting the imprisonment of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. Stewart's defense committee publicized her California "tour" on her Web site. She declined further comment. Manhattan U.S. Attorney David Kelley's office, which prosecuted Stewart, also declined comment. But Stewart's critics blasted Koeltl's decision permitting a convicted terrorism-enabler to travel extensively before her sentencing. "During World War II, we didn't allow Hitler or supporters of Hitler to speak on our campuses," said state Conservative Party leader Mike Long. But the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center of California, which is sponsoring an event for Stewart, said "those who face terrorism-related charges will now be entitled only to a legal defense rooted in fear."

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Home Front: WoT

2 more arrested for trying to ship SAMs into the US

2005-03-19

Two Armenians were busted as part of a multimillion-dollar plot to ship shoulder-to-air missiles into the United States that could be used by terrorists to shoot down airplanes, federal authorities announced yesterday. Eighteen other people involved in the scheme were arrested earlier this week in New York, Los Angeles and Miami. "There have been two additional arrests made by Armenian authorities based on information we provided them concerning the supply of weapons," Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Lawsky said during a hearing yesterday in Manhattan federal court. "This just shows that the plot wasn't just talk. These were real weapons with real people planning to ship them," Lawsky said. The two Armenians arrested were Vahajn Yeribekyan, 25, and Razmik Barsenghyan, 32. It is believed that the pair had photographed rocket-propelled grenade launchers, shoulder-to-air missiles and other Russian weapons they planned to smuggle into the United States through co-conspirators here. What they didn't know is that the FBI had conducted a sting on arms smuggling, and the buyer they were dealing with was an informant. The investigation continues. "We are working with our counterparts overseas to get the weapons," Manhattan U.S. Attorney David Kelley said.

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Home Front: WoT

More on Iraqi-American Samir Vincent's guilty plea

2005-01-24

From the Wall Street Journal. Behind the subscription wall, so given here uncut. The United Nations Oil for Food scandal continues to effloresce, moving last week into the criminal realm. Iraqi-American Samir Vincent's guilty plea shows that Saddam Hussein was indeed exploiting the program to buy influence around the world--including in the U.S.--and suggests there is far more to be uncovered. Mr. Vincent pleaded guilty Tuesday in Federal District Court in New York to acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Saddam's Iraq and to related conspiracy and tax-evasion charges. According to the charge sheet prepared by U.S. Attorney David Kelley, he "consulted with and repeatedly received direction from the Government of Iraq in the course of lobbying officials of the United States Government and the United Nations." For his efforts, Mr. Vincent confesses, he was personally awarded five separate oil allocations worth millions of dollars under Oil for Food. He faces potential penalties of up to 28 years in prison. So, precisely what services did Saddam Hussein deem that valuable? A full answer likely will have to wait for what U.S. Attorney Kelley tells us is an "ongoing investigation"--in which Mr. Vincent has agreed to cooperate--to further its course. But the charge sheet refers tantalizingly to efforts by Mr. Vincent and unnamed others "including United Nations officials . . . to secure terms favorable to Iraq in connection with the adoption and implementation of [Security Council] Resolution 986," which created the Oil for Food program. That suggests Saddam understood from the start that Oil for Food was a chance to evade U.N. sanctions and prop up his regime. The charge sheet also describes what appear to be extensive lobbying efforts over many years involving "former officials of the United States Government who maintained close contacts to high-ranking members of both the Clinton and Bush Administrations" in an effort to fully repeal sanctions. "Vincent reported the results of those consultations to the Iraqi Intelligence Service," the charges state. Like any good prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Kelley refuses to speculate on the next steps in his investigation. But another American whose name has surfaced in connection with Oil for Food is Detroit-area businessman Shakir al-Khafaji. Like Mr. Vincent, Mr. Khafaji appeared on lists of individuals alleged to have received oil allocations from Saddam. As our Robert Pollock reported last March based on information from an Iraqi intelligence source, those oil vouchers may have been similarly intended as part of an influence-buying campaign here in the U.S. Mr. Khafaji financed an anti-sanctions documentary by former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter, and he brought a Congressional delegation headed by former House Minority Whip David Bonior to Iraq, among other activities. A third American alleged to have received oil vouchers is Texas tycoon Oscar Wyatt, a longtime acquaintance of Saddam who opposed the first Gulf War. Saddam's influence-buying was ineffective when it came to the U.S. But remember that prior to 9/11 and President Bush's decision to promote democracy in the Middle East, there was a growing consensus in the U.S. foreign policy establishment in favor of "smart" (i.e., relaxed) sanctions on Iraq. We'd be curious to know if the smart sanctions proponents were among Mr. Vincent's associates. And of course Saddam's buy-them-off strategy was far more extensive--and arguably successful--as regards the rest of the world. Why did France, Russia and the U.N. Security Council refuse to approve force despite Saddam's flagrant violation of 17 different resolutions? Last week's news makes it still harder to claim with a straight face that this type of corruption, or at least fear of its exposure, had nothing to do with the refusal to oust Saddam. The Oil for Food scandal is at its roots about whether the current U.N.-centric global security architecture is hopelessly vulnerable to corruption or can be trusted to perform. That's why every serious internationalist should be paying close attention to investigations like Mr. Kelley's and that of the U.N. panel led by Paul Volcker.

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