Posted on 08/29/2002 5:12:37 PM PDT by Pokey78
Six men in America have been indicted on charges of supporting Islamic terrorist activities, including an alleged five-man "sleeper cell" in Detroit and a former worshipper at a radical mosque in London.
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The grand jury indictments are the first time since September 11 that an alleged terrorist unit has been exposed. They also mark an escalation in the US authorities' investigation of links between militants in America and Britain.
The suspected cell - some of whom worked at Detroit airport - are accused of having surveillance videos of Disneyland in California and the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas that law enforcement agents believe were to be the targets of their attacks.
The government said the suspects were members of the Salafi Group for Call and Combat, a Muslim militant group launched in Algeria and supported by Osama bin Laden. They are also accused of trying to recruit terrorists for attacks on a US air base in Turkey and a hospital in Jordan.
Karim Koubriti, Ahmed Hannan, Youssef Hmimssa and Farouk Ali-Haimoud, all from Algeria or Morocco, have been in custody since last September. Another man known only as Abdella, who is believed to be the head of the unit, is still at large.
In Seattle, James Ujaama, 36, an American who is an associate of Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri, the radical imam of Finsbury Park mosque in north London, was charged with planning to set up a "jihad training camp" in Oregon.
He is not believed to have links with the Detroit-based group but instead has been accused of providing the al-Qa'eda terrorist network with "training, facilities, computer services, safe houses and personnel" and of attempting to establish the camp in 1999.
The FBI investigation of his activities is understood to be concentrating on his links with Abu Hamza. Federal sources say he was the real organiser behind the planned camp.
Abu Hamza admits that he knew Ujaama in London but maintains that they lost touch after he "disappeared".
Agents are understood to be trying to build up a strong case for the radical imam's extradition. A crucial witness is Feroz Abbasi, a young Briton being held at Camp X-Ray after being arrested by US forces in Afghanistan.
Abbasi, 22, from Croydon, south London, also attended the Finsbury Park mosque and is believed to have told interrogators that he was escorted from London to Afghanistan by Ujaama, who is also said to have used the trip to deliver computer equipment to the Taliban.
The Disney Airforce will be taken out of mothballs and placed on alert.
All former pilots are directed to report at once.
Yep, things are going to start clicking along pretty soon. I expect we'll be seeing Osama's head on a pike before too long.
Maybe, just maybe, we started wising up in time in this country.
Another thought that has been troubling me lately as far as targets is the Chunnel. I somehow doubt that the security is on the same level as that of an airport. On the French side they have a huge Muslim refugee camp built nearby. The refugees frenquently try to get in the Chunnel and make it to Great Britain. There's a lot of opportunity for wreaking havoc in that formula.
I believe when the Chunnel was built it was at the time the most expensive construction project ever conceived. The monetary loss would be spectacular as would the disruption in Chunnel traffic, not to mention it would be a high profile type operation that al Qaeda seems to like- Spielberg type destruction coupled with major loss of life. I know it must have crossed the jihadis minds...
Actually, the average French is at least 10 notches more intellectual than the average American. They rather go to the museum then to to watch Jerry Springer or Okrah!
It is bad streotypical to pick on France, a country that helped us gain independence, and a culture that most of the world borroed heavily from. However, if you don't understand my point, or you don't care about the facts, then all you have to do is go back to watching Jerry Spinger in your mobile home--Baba!
And speaking of Jerry, there is still that mysterious French fascination with JERRY Lewis as some sort of cinematic genius.
Though I am a right winger, I found better intellectual conversations with leftists in Paris or Stanford! Leftists in New York or Boston are not real intellectuals.
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