The Herald Square Plot: A NEFA analysis of U.S. v. Siraj

The NEFA Foundation ^ | March 2008

[hanfei]

U.S.-Based Plotters

On January 8, 2007, Shahawar Matin Siraj, a Queens, New York resident, received a thirty-year jail term after being convicted of conspiring to plant explosive devices at a New York City subway station. On March 2, 2007, James Elshafay, a Staten Island, New York resident, received a five-year prison sentence for his involvement in the plot; he had pled guilty in October 2004.

The Target: The Herald Square Subway Station Siraj and Elshafay planned to target Manhattan’s Herald Square (34th Street) subway station, which United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Roslynn R. Mauskopf labeled “one of the most active public transportation hubs in America.” At the time of their arrest, neither Siraj nor Elshafay possessed explosive materials; however, they believed that Osama Eldawoody, an NYPD informant with whom they established close ties, would supply them with bombs.

[hanfei]

Interesting commentary on the latest in jihad.

[Cindy]

http://www.investigativeproject.org/blog/2010/05/undercover-officer-tells-of-foiled-plots

“Undercover Officer Tells of Foiled Plots”

May 7, 2010 at 2:01 pm

SNIPPET: “The Wall Street Journal has published the story of an unsung hero in the fight against terrorism: an undercover New York Police Department (NYPD) officer who infiltrated local terrorist cells.

The officer, who went by the alias Kamil Pasha...”

SNIPPET: “David Cohen, deputy commissioner of intelligence at NYPD, says that such undercover operations have become the city’s main defense against terrorism amid the escalation of terrorist plots since 9/11. But despite numerous successes like the Siraj case, the use of informants against Islamist terror cells continues to come under attack from groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations.”