http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/05/attack/main566688.shtml
Kashmir Plots Hatched In U.S.?
(CBS/AP) Eleven men, nine of them U.S. citizens, were charged with conspiring to join a Muslim extremist terror group that has been blamed for thousands of deaths in the disputed Kashmir territory of India and Pakistan.
A federal indictment unsealed Friday contends the men, who lived in suburban Fairfax County just south of Washington from early 2000 to May 2003, obtained AK-47-style assault weapons and ammunition, trained in military tactics and visited terrorist camps in Pakistan linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba group dedicated to driving India out of Kashmir.
Six of the men were arrested Friday, two were in custody earlier and three were being sought.
U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty called the indictment "a stark reminder that terrorist organizations of various allegiances are active in the United States. And these groups exploit America's freedom as a weapon to recruit and position themselves on our shores."
McNulty said that Lashkar-e-Taiba has claimed responsibility for the deaths of 14,000 Indian soldiers and the killing of more than 300 civilians. The group, which appears on the State Department's international terror list, was behind the Dec. 13, 2001 attack on India's Parliament that killed 12 people.
There have also been reports of links between the Kashmir group, whose name means "army of the righteous," and al Qaeda, McNulty said. Although Friday's indictment does not allege any plots to stage attacks in the United States, it does say that members were told that U.S. troops in Afghanistan were legitimate targets and that "the United States was the greatest enemy of Muslims."
Alice Fisher, chief deputy in the Justice Department's criminal division, said the indictment underscores the government's "strong commitment to disrupting terrorist activities" before an attack occurs.
The 11 were charged with conspiracy, a variety of firearms violations and attempting to mount a military attack against a friendly nation, India. The indictment says that they used warlike paintball games to train in military tactics and practiced with firearms at shooting ranges.
Six of those charged were arrested Friday by the FBI: Mohammed Aatique, 30, a Pakistani national and U.S. visa holder, in Philadelphia; Masoud Ahmad Khan, 31, and Donald Thomas Surratt, 30, both U.S. citizens, in Baltimore; and U.S. citizens Randall Todd Royer, 30; Hammad Abdur-Raheem, 29; and Caliph Basha Ibn Abdur-Raheem, 29, in northern Virginia.
Two had previously been taken into custody: Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Hamdi, 25, a Yemeni national; and Yong Ki Kwon, 27, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from South Korea.
Three others, all U.S. citizens, are believed to be in Saudi Arabia: Seifullah Chapman, 30, Khwaja Mahmood Hasan, 27 and Sabri Benkhala, 28. FBI officials said the United States is working with Saudi authorities to locate and apprehend the men.
Before the indictments were unsealed, the fathers of two suspects held a news conference at Washington's National Press Club to criticize what they called the government's heavy-handed tactics and proclaim their sons' innocence. King Lyon and Ramone Royer said they were present when federal agents made the arrests early Friday morning.
"My son is a veteran of the U.S. Army. He took an oath to uphold the laws of the United States of America," said Lyon, father of Hammad Abdur-Raheem. "He is a loyal citizen, the same as I am."
Trial dates for those arrested were not immediately announced. McNulty said each could face long sentences if convicted. =
India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over the mountainous, Muslim-dominated Kashmir region, which was made part of Hindu-majority India when Britain made both countries independent in 1947.
The two countries regularly trade fire over the "line of control" that separates their forces in the region.
Fighting escalated to the brink of war in 1999 and again last summer, raising fears of an all-out confrontation between the nuclear-armed rivals.
Pakistan claims to give only moral support to the rebels, but India says the association between Islamabad and the militants is stronger than that.
The arrests are the latest development in the Bush administration's "war on terrorism."
Last week, the Justice Department revealed that an Ohio trucker, Iyman Faris, had pleaded guilty to conspiring with al Qaeda to scout sites for possible terrorist attacks.
This week, the U.S. government opted to declare Ali Saleh Kahlah Al Marri, a Qatar native who had been in U.S. custody for more than a year, an enemy combatant. Two enemy combatants have already been declared; they remain in federal prison with no access to lawyers and no charges against them.
A top FBI counterterrorism official told Congress this week that the bureau is hunting possible al Qaeda cells in 40 states, but that a major attack on the United States did not appear imminent.
©MMIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/000860.php
February 10, 2004
Islamic extremists invade U.S., join sleeper cells
"Islamic radicals are being trained at terrorist camps in Pakistan and Kashmir (India) as part of a conspiracy to send hundreds of operatives to 'sleeper cells' in the United States, according to U.S. and foreign officials." This from the Washington Times:
The intelligence and law-enforcement officials say dozens of Islamic extremists have already been routed through Europe to Muslim communities in the United States, based on secret intelligence data and information from terrorists and others detained by U.S. authorities.
A high-ranking foreign intelligence chief told The Washington Times in an interview last week that this clandestine but aggressive network of training camps "represents a serious threat to the United States, one that cannot be ignored." The official said as many as 400 terrorists have been and are being trained at camps in Pakistan and Kashmir.
U.S. intelligence officials said the camps, located in the remote regions of western Pakistan and in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, are financed in part by various terrorist networks, including al Qaeda, and by sources in Saudi Arabia. ...
Several other camps are being operated by an anti-U.S. Muslim group known as Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to U.S. and foreign intelligence officials. Listed by the State Department in 2001 as a terrorist organization, Lashkar-e-Taiba is the armed wing of the Pakistan-based religious organization Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad.
Eleven men, including nine U.S. citizens, were arrested last year in Virginia in what authorities called the "Virginia jihad." The men were accused in a 41-count grand jury indictment of engaging in "holy jihad" to drive India out of the disputed Kashmir territory. Six have since pleaded guilty.
The indictment said some of the men traveled to Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist camps in Pakistan, where they were trained in the use of various weapons, including small arms, machine guns and grenade launchers. The indictment also said the trips occurred both before and after the September 11 attacks.
Posted by Robert at February 10, 2004 09:49 AM