Posted on 06/27/2003 11:53:03 AM PDT by milestogo
Edited on 07/19/2004 2:11:28 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
June 27 (Bloomberg) -- Eight men were arrested on charges they formed a ``Virginia jihad network'' with ties to the Kashmiri separatist group Lashkar-E-Taiba and planned terrorist attacks overseas, the U.S. government said.
The men, along with three others believed to be in Saudi Arabia, are accused of plotting to engage in a ``jihad,'' or holy war, in Kashmir, Chechnya, the Philippines and other countries. U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty, who announced the indictment today in Alexandria, Virginia, declined to say whether any attacks were planned in the U.S.
(Excerpt) Read more at quote.bloomberg.com ...
Have a link for that little tidbit? Since DC ANG F-16 unit is not an Air Defense unit, and wouldn't have had any jets on alert, if they scrambled in an hour, that would be doing quite well. It takes longer than hour to prep an aircraft for a mission, which is why the dedicated Air Defense units have or had at one time, aircaft "on alert", which had already been preped My understanding is that they had some aircraft doing air to ground training missions at a range somewhere south. Some of those aircraft were returning to base when the fit hit the shan, and were ordered to land and refuel and try for an intercept, even though they had no air to air weapons loaded, other than the Vulcan cannon, and it was loaded with non-explosive practice ammunition.
I found one site that made much of the fact that the ANG and Marine units at Andrews were listed as "ready" or "combat ready". But that merely means that they are trained, and have flyable aircraft, not that they are "cocked and locked". I suspect there are a bunch more aircraft on strip alert these days than before 9-11. I do know that the local (San Antonio) F-16 Air Defense *Training* unit was reported to have 4 aircraft on strip alert, by the time the sun went down on 9-11, don't know if that's true or not, but it wouldn't suprise me. Normally, being an operational conversion and training unit, they wouldn't have any.
The squadron failed to scramble for over an hour AFTER it was known there were terrorists in the skies over D.C.
A Security Squadron is an Air Force police/base defense unit, not a flying unit. You can tell that in part because it has the same number as it's parent wing, whereas the flying unit under that wing the 121st Fighter Squardon, has it's own number, which is standard Air Force practice.
Major Moose, assuming he was even there, which would be very unlikely on a weekday morning though not impossible, would have had nothing do with what aircraft were or were not flying. Getting aircraft into the air in an hour from a "cold start", would have been quite commendable, it might even be possible, although just barely, and even that is doubtfull. The aircraft they did put into the air, were already flying that morning, returning from an air-to-ground trainnig mission.
Watching the Sniper's travelogue, I'd say they were a strictly a "Southern Operation" group. I still believe the snipers are connected to the Anthrax mailings but only as runners. (The Sniper note and the Anthrax letters have MANY similarities.)
You are talking about the Dar AL Hijrah mosque at 3159 Row Place, Falls Church, VA. That would be the windmill shaped building 700 feet from the Home Depot where the FBI agent was murdered.
The mosque/islamic center is where this group of eleven were said to meet to hear lectures by an Islamic lecturer: Ali Al-Timimi,
The Michael's craft store that Muhammad/Malvo visited twice earlier in 2002 is also in the same shopping center, so in my opinion, M&M must have visited this mosque in January and August 2002. I would even bet they ESCAPED to this mosque after the murder...
And with the LEADER of this group of 11 jihadists ALSO being a black Gulf I war veteran, Washington State native, and Islamic convert, I have to assume they met at some point and knew each other.
If this aerial photo doesn't show up try the mapquest map here
As for your question, I think Freeper angkor answered it on another thread:
I'd forgotten all about him. Did he ever show up?
As an aside, it's remarkable that every time there is another incident involving Dar al-Hijra, it members, or its imams, that these are identified in the press as "a Northern Virginia mosque." Turn over the rock, and you're right back at the epicenter of 9/11, Malvo/Muhammad, and Wahabbist activity in Virginia.
By the way, I've posted before that Dar al-Hijra is in equally close proximity to the office of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (formerly run by OBL's brother) and had on its board at least once banker to Osama bin Laden.
Because the USA is an easy country in which to do business, and there are already legitimate businesses set up between here & India?
Dar al-Hijra is on Leesburg Pike. Less than 1 1/2 miles east, straight down Leesburg Pike, is the Skyline apartment/condominium complex, a series of 8 or 10 highrise apartment buildings that have a huge number of Muslim/Arabic/North African occupants.
It's worth noting that immediately after 9/11, the FBI was making repeated visits to various Skyline buildings, and that significant number of occupants either disappeared or left the country under federal suprvision.
At the southeast corner of the Skyline complex (at Seminary and South George Mason) is a strip shopping mall called "Plaza America" which ironically is also called "Little Arabia" or something like that due to the overwhelming number of Middle Eastern shops, restaurants, and coffee houses.
There is another smaller strip mall of Middle Eastern shops about halfway between Dar al-Hijra and Skyline, and also on Leesburg Pike. That mall is almost directly across Leesburg Pike from the 5913 Leesburg Pike apartment address used by many of the 9/11 hijackers on their phoney Virginia ID cards.
Finally, many of the Muslim "social" organizations (e.g., Muslim Youth Association, World Assembly of Muslim Youth, American Muslim Association) either now or in the past have run their operations out of this little section of Northern VA, most of the time using PO Boxes from the Bailey's Crossroads post office (zip code 2204x). Many of the leaders of these groups live in the Skyline complex.
Stephen Schwartz (see "Wahhabis in the Old Dominion") has done a lot of other research on the activity around Dar al-Hijra, including its leadership and the clear ties to the financial groups raided last year in Herndon. Also there are fairly clear links to the bin Laden family and Dar al-Hijra, though I believe most of those have been identified and probably shut down or reduced.
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