Posted on 08/05/2004 1:01:05 PM PDT by johnfrink
FBI agents arrested two members of a Central Avenue mosque in an overnight raid in connection with an alleged plot to buy a shoulder-fired missile that would be used to assassinate the Pakistani ambassador in New York, according to court papers filed today in federal court in Albany.
Mosque members said the imam, 34-year-old Yassim Aref, who also spells his first name Yasen, was arrested early this morning. Another mosque leader, Mohammed Mosharref Hossain, 49, an owner of a downtown pizzeria, was arrested at his home, according to mosque members.
The arrests are in connection with a money-laundering scheme involving a shoulder-fired missile.
Law enforcement sources said the mosque, Masjid As-Salam, located at 278 Central Ave., has been under surveillance for about two years. FBI agents removed documents from the mosque during the raid.
At a press conference in Washington, Justice Department officials said the two men were recruited to help launder money from the sale of a missile in the Middle East.
James Comey, the deputy Attorney General, said the informant, a Pakistani national, has a criminal record and was working with authorities to get a reduced sentence.
According to law enforcement officials, the two are being charged with providing material support to terrorism by participating in a conspiracy to help someone they believed was a terrorist purchase a shoulder-fired missile.
The informant told the men he was associated with Jaish-e-Mohammed, an Islamic extremist group in Pakistan that the U.S. government considers a terrorist organization. According to court records, the informant told the pair that the missile would be used to mount an attack on the Pakistani consulate across the street from the United Nations. The target would be the Pakistani ambassador.
No missile ever changed hands.
The informant approached Hossain in November 2003 during a meeting that was secretly videotaped, according to an affidavit by FBI Agent Timothy Coll. The informant told Hossain he imported weapons and ammunition from China, shipped equipment to New York and that Islamic fundamentalists used such weapons to shoot down airplanes. The informant told Hossain he earned $50,000 from the sale of each missile.
Coll said Hossain smiled when he saw a photograph of a shoulder-fired missile and said he could earn a substantial sum from such imports, which are illegal. Coll said the two ``then further discussed religion.''
A month later, during a secretly videotaped meeting at Hossain's pizzeria, the informant proposed giving Hossain $50,000 to launder on the informant's behalf with the understanding that Hossain could keep $5,000, Coll said.
Hossain said he didn't need that much money but ultimately agreed to make it appear Hossain had earned the money from rental properties. Hossain recruited Aref, an imam at the mosque, to witness the laundering transactions and said Aref wouldn't betray their confidence because ``he's not afraid of anything; he's only afraid of God.''
Justice Department officials defended the method of the sting operation, insisting they had ample provocation to make these arrests after a lengthy investigation.
Comey admitted that Aref and Hossain were only involved in the money end of the deal and took money from the informant, returning him business checks.
When asked by a reporter if the government was ``picking on these two men because they are from a mosque,'' Comey said, ``We have way too much to do to just spend our time on a case like that.''
He later added that this ``is a good case, a solid case. It's important to note that.'' He admitted it was ``not the case of the century,'' and had nothing to do with the current heightened security alert. ``Our purpose here is to lock up two guys who committed crimes,'' he said.
In a late-morning news conference in Albany, Gov. George Pataki said that while ``there are terrorists among us who would do us harm,'' the government is ``taking these threats to our freedom very seriously.''
He refused to give any details of the investigation or the case against the defendants except to say the arrests ``were not a surprise to any of us. This has been an ongoing investigation.''
Pataki pointed to the ``Lackawana Six'' and the ``money-laundering scheme in Syracuse'' as other examples of terrorists among us and of people ``who want to do horrible acts against the people of America.''
The Lackawanna Six refers to a group of men, most from Yemen, who have been convicted in western New York for attending an alleged al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan in early 2001.
In Syracuse, several people have been arrested and accused of raising money and sending it to Iraq in the time before the 2003 invasion.
Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings said the ``coordinated efforts (of all levels of law enforcement) reap benefits,'' and he thanked ``the public who cooperated, and you know who you are, who helped this investigation.''
He said the city's police department ``has been on top'' of the investigation and ``we will continue to be proactive.''
Pataki said there was no apparent link between the Albany scheme and the two men arrested and the heightened alert status for New York City.
CBS News, citing unidentified law enforcement officials, reported today that the two men were arrested after one of them recently bought a plane ticket.
Hossain's wife, Mossammat, said her husband went to New York City Wednesday afternoon to obtain visas for two of the couple's five children and an airline ticket for her mother, who was planning to return to Bangladesh later this month.
Her husband returned at around 1:30 a.m. today, when FBI agents swarmed the couple's apartment above the Little Italy pizzeria they operate.
She said agents took $6,000 in cash, the hard drive from her husband's computer and assorted personal records, including bank account records.
``My husband has a very clean heart,'' she said. ``He doesn't hide anything.''
So, he won't be pleading the 5th?
Shoulder launched missile as a weapon to bring down an airplane....can you say "Flight 800"? Sure! I knew you could!
It's good to read that they've had these guys under surveilance for two years.
And the 2 are still alive?
Who would eat a pizza from these filthy rats? No thanks.
We have a Qwicki Mart down the street, I watched the raghead there go from cleaning the restroom, to making ice cream cones without even rinsing his hands. Soap? They don't even know what it's for.
Soap is an evil invention of the west you know.........
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