Posted on 07/06/2008 8:48:15 AM PDT by vietvet67
As the global war on terror approaches the start of its eighth year, the NYPD says it has never been more prepared - but also warns that the city can never let its guard down. In a two-part series, Daily News reporter Patrice O'Shaughnessy looks at the terror threat in New York - and around the world. Sunday's installment focuses on an NYPD undercover officer who dug deep into the potential terrorists in our midst.
A young undercover city detective spent four years in the shadowy world of terrorist wanna-bes - taking part in jihadist discussions and training in parks in the dead of night - to get a handle on the homegrown threat.
At great personal risk, he participated in everything from prayers at a mosque to martial arts training under cover of darkness to watching jihadist videos, with many of the activities laced with talk of killing, according to a source familiar with the undercover's investigations.
His experiences paint a vivid portrait of the potential for local terror. While the picture is in no way indicative of the city's Muslim population as a whole, it provides insight into its most radical element.
The detective spent his time interacting with informal groups of youths and men who shared extremist views - and his experiences illustrate what police say is the potential for radicalization of some elements in the community.
He reported that after prayers at a neighborhood mosque, there were often private classes that included discussions about bombing different areas.
The men discussed violent jihad in bookstores, private houses and on buses en route to paintball and shooting-range events.
He was invited to join in "bonding" activities like working out at a gym and martial arts training in parks at night, during which the group discussed ideological justifications for killing Westerners.
He also watched military movies and jihadist videos with groups of young men in private homes. During one such evening, one man got so excited he punched a wall.
The detective reported that some youths became extremists after they traveled to their home countries; others went on the hajj - the pilgrimage to Mecca - and came back fired up by imams who encouraged violence as a religious obligation.
Others, after visiting relatives abroad, became enraged at their family's living conditions and blamed the U.S. for supporting nondemocratic governments.
Although the youths talked about ways to attack the U.S., they lacked a strong leader who could help them follow through on a plan, the detective reported.
The undercover, a Muslim who came to America from Bangladesh when he was 7, gave only a glimpse of his work as an undercover when he testified during the trial of the Herald Square bomb plotters, the only known New York City homegrown plot to reach the jihadization stage.
The groups the detective interacted with resemble the "bunches of guys" that Marc Sageman, a noted terrorism authority and new scholar-in-residence at the NYPD, says are the real concern. His position has stirred a debate among security analysts.
While some experts contend the chief threat is Al Qaeda, Sageman, author of "Leaderless Jihad," contends the threat comes more from radicalized individuals who meet and scheme in their neighborhoods and on the Internet.
"We're still very much learning about our enemy," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. "Sageman will help us do that. He was with the CIA, a consultant to France and Spain. He's a heavyweight."
While the homegrown threat is real, "An attack from afar by Al Qaeda is always a possibility," Kelly emphasized.
Intelligence analysts for the department have compiled a report, "Radicalization in the West," that "conceptualized the whole notion of the homegrown threat," said David Cohen, deputy commissioner of intelligence. The Internet as training ground and recruitment tool for homegrown radicals is strong, Cohen said, but the number of jihadist Web sites - up from a dozen in 1998 to more than 5,000 now - has probably flattened out.
"Along with expanding computer investigations done by the cyber unit, we have expanded our human program," Cohen said, referring to traditional undercover detective work. The detective appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court two years ago as the final witness at the four-week trial of Shahawar Matin Siraj, 23, a Pakistani immigrant who was convicted of plotting to blow up the Herald Square subway station during the Republican National Convention in 2004.
The detective was not involved in that case, but testified that he had come across Siraj during his undercover work.
Testifying under the fake name of Kamil Pasha, he said he was taken from the Police Academy in October 2002 to be a "walking camera," eyes and ears, among Muslims. He interacted with groups in Brooklyn and elsewhere in the city.
The detective has been involved in "numerous" investigations for the intelligence division, part of a cadre of undercovers who act as listening posts.
"We don't target a group as a whole; we look for patterns of behavior, travel, training," Cohen said.
The NYPD has studied attacks in Europe to enhance its understanding of the homegrown threat. For example, the July 7, 2005, London subway bombings that killed 52 people drove home the issue of plotting being done outside the target area. The attack plan was hatched in Leeds - more than 150 miles from London.
"We drew a 200-mile perimeter around the city, and we work with all the local police agencies from Maryland to Canada," Cohen said.
"We have our ear to the ground," Kelly said. "We are aware of the possibility of a threat to this city developing very close to home."
poshaughnessy@nydailynews.com
Don’t be stupid. He can’t but he certainly can tell them what he wants and what he doesn’t.
What you’re saying is true, but you can’t blame Bush for 9/11. As with everything else for the past eight years, the blame Bush crowd refuses to look at the 500+ morons in the US Congress who, in my opinion, are equally as guilty for all the sins that are taking place with regard to our lack of security and the political correctness BS.
Mosque-itos spread diseases.
no attack = slow news day
“Malcolm X’s autobiography seemed to offer something different,” Obama wrote. “His repeated acts of self-creation spoke to me; the blunt poetry of his words, his unadorned insistence on respect, promised a new and uncompromising order, martial in its discipline, forged through sheer force of will.”
Quote from Barack Obama’s book, Dreams Of My Father:
“THE PERSON WHO MADE ME PROUDEST OF ALL, though, WAS HALF BROTHER (roy).. HE CONVERTED TO ISLAM.”
From ‘Dreams of my Father’, “In Indonesia, I SPENT TWO YEARS IN A MUSLIM SCHOOL, ..I STUDIED THE KORAN”.
From ‘Audacity of Hope: “LOLO (Obama’s step father) FOLLOWED..ISLAM....” “I LOOKED TO LOLO FOR GUIDANCE.
From ‘The Audacity Of Hope,
“I WILL STAND WITH THE MUSLIMS should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”
From The Audacity Of Hope, “WE ARE NO LONGER A CHRISTIAN NATION”. We are also a Jewish nation, a MUSLIM NATION, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.”
http://www.examiner.com/a-534540~Can_a_past_of_Islam_change_the_path_to__president_.html
http://www.examiner.com/a-536474~_Trapped_between_two_worlds_.html
Wotinthehell are the cops doing in mosques, dammit? Those are obvious beacons for terror plots, like muslim airline “passengers.”
The FBI can’t investigate obvious suspects as these, so why the cops? Why aren’t the cops going undercover in the retired blue hair bridge clubs, or the newborn play date groups, or the retired nanny book clubs, where we can show the world we don’t discriminate when it comes to national security? Haven’t they gotten the message that the only thing that counts in the war on terrorism is the perception of fairness?
Next thing you know, the cops will be considering link analysis for phone numbers, addresses, businesses, and other areas where there is clearly no reason to look.
I’m not stupid, but thanks for your opinion jsut the same.
With a Democrat Congress and previously with a Dem ability to block anything it would have made no difference.
This WH lost just a bit of my confidence with the expiration of Mr. Coughlin’s contract. Read below. He was the only expert on Jihadists and our Federal Government, in their great wisdom let him go. Do read his paper below if you have the time and inclination to do so. I found it worth my while.
“TO OUR GREAT DETRIMENT”:
IGNORING WHAT EXTREMISTS SAY ABOUT JIHAD
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1952167/posts
http://www.strategycenter.net/docLib/20080107_Coughlin_ExtremistJihad.pdf
Unfortunately the JCS and the Pentagon have decided they no longer need Mr. Coughlin’s services. You see, Hesham Islam an assistant to the No. 2 man in the Pentagon to a disliking to Mr. Coughlin and his writings. Coughlin is gone, Islam remains in the Pentagon with high clearance. Lovely!
To self: Interesting background for future reference concerning Coughlin.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTQ1ZjE0MWZlYWI2ODVjYzU3MjcyZjBkMzcxNzBjNTQ
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1997216/posts?page=1
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1949183/posts
Well if Obama wins, we will sit, clucking amongst ourselves, insisting the chickens have come home to roost and blame it on our “mean” American selves. /s
No $hit Sherlock.
Muslims view mosques as nothing more than weapons depots.
He also made an interesting point: Muslims have Mecca and nobody denies this as their holy place. Catholics have the Vatican and nobody denies this as well. But Judaism has Jerusalem as their holy place and they (Muslims) refuse to accept it.
When asked how to defeat terrorists he said we must indentify those who support the radical notion commonly held by too many muslims that the radical interpretations of the Koran and the actions of extremists are correct. Also, petro-dollars (Saudi) are being used to promote this ideology in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Boys and girls, that's a lot of muslims-with-attitudes right here at home. I guess we wait 'till they find a 'leader' and then the 'fun' begins. It'll be interesting to see how a religious cult bent on destroying this country fares in a militia dominated (guns are good) culture. Bets, anyone?
it sounds like individually they're seriously getting ready and training for the Big Day.
Are we?
"It is simply suicidal to treat the al Qaeda network as simply 'an illegitimate political organization, both terrorist and criminal' while ignoring the radical religious foundation underpinning this and other groups that constitute an Irreconcilable Wing of Islam. Anyone blind to this should be dismissed from working in national security." - Newt Gingrich
Police and government moles who are in the thrall of the mohammedans no doubt are vetting many of the applicants. I would be surprised if there aren't FBI agents working to provide the same service.
However no group that actively recruits from the citizenry for a criminal enterprise is going to be able to weed out every plant, every informer. A cop with a “colorful” history who parrots the correct words and shows the necessary deference to the blood thirsty god of the mohammedans is going to get a lot of leeway. They may initially look at him with some suspicion, but the opportunities presented by getting a LEO into their ranks who is a “true believer” will outweigh any possible exposure. He will be considered a coup as well as a invaluable source of intel and equipment when the time comes for overt action. The risk is far outweighted by the potential benefit.
Besides, many very high ranking politicians in washington are already on their payroll. If a cop does manage to infiltrate them and expose some small aspect of their operations, a senator making a few calls is all it will take to cover up the embarrassment and make certain there's minimal damage.
It's been repeated ad nauseum by our politicians that mohammedans are practitioners of the "religion of peace". Any "radical fringe" groups who do happen to be exposed will be decried by the rest of the jihadi community and their bought government flunkies as apostates who are corrupting the words of the "prophet". Being able to discard a single compromised cell while maintaining operation capability is right out of the guerrilla and insurgent handbook.
They have little to worry about as far as risk from being infiltrated by the kufir. A much greater threat they face is armed citizens ready to do violence in response to mohammedan aggression.
File this one under “blindingly obvious”.
Islam is a cancer on humanity.
Why do we even allow these idiots (Muslims) to immigrate here. There are countless Muslim nations where they can worship their false prophet
Go talk to an educated and normal Muslim. He/she is very nice until you mention Israel or Jews. This is when they go totally illogical and crazy. Especially the ones from Pakistan which nation is not even in the Middle East
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