Threat Matrix: 2009

Thanks much WCG.

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FBI, NYPD Arrest 4 in Alleged Plot to Bomb NY Synagogues
Wed, May 20, 2009

EXCLUSIVE: Four New York City men were arrested Wednesday in connection with an alleged plot to blow up New York City synagogues and other city locations, WNBC's Jonathan Dienst has learned. Raids by the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force in the Bronx captured the suspected ringleader and three followers in what law enforcement sources are calling a homegrown terrorist plot.

Investigators stress the suspects' meetings had been infiltrated early on and there was "no chance" the alleged plot could succeed. Investigators said several of the suspects are Muslims who allegedly talked about destroying two Jewish temples, including at least one in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. Prosecutors also said the men discussed tyring to shoot down military planes at Stewart Airport. The four suspects were identified as James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen.

The men ordered and accepted delivery of materials they believed were bomb-making ingredients, authorities said. But investigators said they made sure the materials the suspects received were inert. Officials tell WNBC they moved in now so the alleged plot could not progress any further.

The four men are in custody and are expected to be arraigned Thursday in White Plains federal court on terrorism-related counts. An official announcement of the arrests is expected later Wednesday or Thursday morning. The motives behind the alleged plot are not yet known, but authorities said that Cromitie was apparently upset over the war in Afghanistan.

Excerpted

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/FBI-Bust-Plot-Foiled.html

Plot to blow up New York synagogue was hatched in Newburgh, feds say

NEW YORK – Four men are in federal custody following their arrests on charges that they conspired to use weapons of mass destruction in the United States, specifically to blow up a synagogue in the Bronx and military planes at the Air National Guard Base at Stewart Airport.

The plot was hatched in a house in Newburgh, authorities said Wednesday night. The men are all current residents of Newburgh.

Authorities arrested James Cromitie, also known as Abdul Rahman; Onta Williams, also known as Hamza; David Williams, also known as Daoud; and Laguerre Payen, also known as Amin on charges arising from a plot to detonate explosives near a synagogue in the Riverdale section of the Bronx and to shoot military planes at the Air Guard Base at Stewart Airport with Stinger surface-to-air guided missiles.

In June 2008, an informant working with the FBI met with Cromitie in Newburgh. He told the informant that has parents had lived in Afghanistan and that he was upset about the war there and that many Muslim people were being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by the military forces.

Cromitie expressed interest in returning to Afghanistan and spoke to the informant about how, if he were to die a martyr, he would go to “paradise.”

Beginning in October 2008, the informant began meeting with Cromitie at a house in Newburgh that the FBI had equipped with concealed video and audio equipment. During those meetings is when the four suspects discussed their desire to attack certain targets in New York.

Beginning in April 2009, the four men selected the synagogue and Jewish community center they intended to target, and conducted surveillance, including photographs, of military planes at the Air Guard Base.

In April of this year, two of the men bought a nine millimeter semi-automatic pistol for use during the planned terrorist operations. At the same time, two of the men went to a location from which they could shoot at the military planes with surface-to-air guided missiles.

The informant later told the men to drive toward Stamford, CT to obtain what the defendants were told would be a surface-to-air guided missile system and three improvised explosive devices containing C-4 plastic explosive material.

The informant gave the men a Stinger missile provided by the FBI that was inoperable, as well as three IEDs that each contained over 30 pounds of inert C-4 explosives.....

http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2009/May09/20/Terror_plot-20May09.htm

NEW YORK CITY (BNO NEWS) – LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, JOSEPH M. DEMAREST, JR., the Assistant-Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (”FBI”), RAYMOND W. KELLY, the Police Commissioner for the City of New York, HARRY J. CORBITT, the Superintendent of the New York State Police (”NYSP”), and DANA SIMMONS, the Brigadier General of the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations (”AFOSI”), announced the arrests tonight of JAMES CROMITIE, a/k/a “Abdul Rahman,” a/k/a “Abdul Rehman,” DAVID WILLIAMS, a/k/a “Daoud,” a/k/a “DL,” ONTA WILLIAMS, a/k/a “Hamza,” and LAGUERRE PAYEN, a/k/a “Amin,” a/k/a “Almondo,” on charges arising from a plot to detonate explosives near a synagogue in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, New York, and to shoot military planes located at the New York Air National Guard Base at Stewart Airport in Newburgh, New York, with Stinger surface-to-air guided missiles. In their efforts to obtain weapons, the defendants dealt with an informant acting under law enforcement supervision, and the FBI and other agencies monitored the defendants’ actions up to the time of arrest, including providing an inactive missile and inert explosives to the informant for the defendants.

The charges, which are contained in a criminal Complaint filed yesterday in White Plains federal court, include conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction in the United States and conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles. The defendants are expected to appear in White Plains federal court tomorrow. According to the Complaint:

In June 2008, an informant working with the FBI met CROMITIE in Newburgh, New York. CROMITIE explained to the informant that his parents had lived in Afghanistan and that he was upset about the war there and that many Muslim people were being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by the United States Military forces. CROMITIE expressed interest in returning to Afghanistan and spoke to the CW about how if he, CROMITIE, were to die a martyr, he would go to “paradise.” CROMITIE also expressed an interest in doing “something to America.” The following month, CROMITIE and the informant discussed the organization Jaish-e-Mohammed, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization based in Pakistan, with which the informant claimed to be involved. CROMITIE stated to the informant that he, CROMITIE, would be interested in joining Jaish-e-Mohammed to “do jihad.”

Beginning in October 2008, the informant began meeting with CROMITIE at a house in Newburgh, New York that the FBI had equipped with concealed video and audio equipment. During meetings at this location, CROMITIE, DAVID WILLIAMS, ONTA WILLIAMS, and PAYEN discussed their desire to attack certain targets in New York, including a synagogue in the Bronx and military aircraft located at the Air National Guard Base. CROMITIE asked the informant to supply surface-to-air guided missiles and explosives for the planned operations. The informant responded that he could provide CROMITIE with C-4 plastic explosives.

Beginning in April 2009, CROMITIE, DAVID WILLIAMS, ONTA WILLIAMS, and PAYEN selected the synagogue and Jewish community center they intended to target, and conducted surveillance, including photographs, of military planes at the Air National Guard Base. In late April 2009, CROMITIE and DAVID WILLIAMS purchased a 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol for use during the planned terrorist operations. At around the same time, CROMITIE and DAVID WILLIAMS traveled to the location from which they could shoot at the military planes using surface-to-air guided missiles. In early May 2009, CROMITIE, DAVID WILLIAMS, and PAYEN drove with the informant toward Stamford, Connecticut, to obtain what the defendants were told would be a surface-to-air guided missile system and three improvised explosive devices (”IEDs”) containing C-4 plastic explosive material. The informant provided the defendants with a Stinger surface-to-air guided missile provided by the FBI that was not capable of being fired, telling the defendants that he had obtained it from Jaish-e-Mohammed. The informant also provided three IEDs that each contained over 30 pounds of inert C-4 plastic explosives, again telling the defendants that he had obtained them from Jaish-e-Mohammed. CROMITIE, DAVID WILLIAMS, and PAYEN transported these apparent weapons back to Newburgh. Two days later, CROMITIE, DAVID WILLIAMS, ONTA WILLIAMS, and PAYEN met to inspect the “missile system” and the “explosive devices” and to further discuss the logistics of the operation.

CROMITIE, DAVID WILLIAMS, ONTA WILLIAMS, and PAYEN each are charged with one count of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction within the U.S., which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, and one count of conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison and a mandatory minimum of 25 years in prison.

CROMITIE, DAVID WILLIAMS, ONTA WILLIAMS, and PAYEN currently reside in Newburgh, New York.

The charges filed yesterday were the result of the cooperative efforts of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, FBI, NYPD, NYSP, Newburgh City Police Department, Town of New Windsor Police Department, United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and New York State Office of Homeland Security. Mr. DASSIN praised the investigative work and efforts of these agencies.

“As alleged in the Complaint, the defendants wanted to engage in terrorist attacks. They selected targets and sought the weapons necessary to carry out their plans. Fortunately, the defendants sought the assistance of a witness cooperating with the Government. While the weapons provided to the defendants by the cooperating witness were fake, the defendants thought they were absolutely real,” said Acting United States Attorney LEV L. DASSIN. “The defendants planned to strike military planes with surface-to-air guided missiles and to destroy a synagogue and a Jewish community center with C-4 plastic explosives. Thanks to the extraordinary, collaborative work of our law enforcement partners, the defendants’ plans were thwarted and the defendants are under arrest.”

Assistant United States Attorneys ERIC SNYDER and DAVID LEIBOWITZ are in charge of the prosecution.

The charges contained in the Complaint are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

http://adjix.com/66q9

Al Qaeda recruits back in Europe, but why?

Four men say their training experience in Pakistan wasn’t what they hoped for. Anti-terrorism officials wonder if they’re just biding their time, ready to strike in Europe.
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Reporting from Brussels - Determined to die as martyrs, the French and Belgian militants bought hiking boots and thermal underwear and journeyed to the wilds of Waziristan.

After getting ripped off in Turkey and staggering through waist-deep snow in Iran, the little band arrived in Al Qaeda’s lair in Pakistan last year, ready for a triumphant reception.

“We were expecting at least a welcome for ‘our brothers from Europe’ and a warm atmosphere of hospitality,” Walid Othmani, a 25-year-old Frenchman from Lyon, recalled during an overnight interrogation in January.

Instead, the Europeans — and at least one American — learned that life in the shadow of the Predator is nasty, brutish and short.

Bringing Jihad Home to Europe Wary of spies, suspicious Al Qaeda chiefs grilled the half-dozen Belgians and French. They charged them $1,200 each for AK-47 rifles, ammunition and grenades. They made them fill out forms listing next of kin and their preference: guerrilla fighting, or suicide attacks?.......

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-fg-junior-jihadis24-2009may24,0,1289045.story

Blast hits mosque in southeast Iran, kills 15
5/28/09

TEHRAN – An explosion hit a mosque in the southeast Iranian city of Zahedan on Thursday, killing 15 people and wounding 50, the state news agency IRNA reported.

Zahedan is the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province, which shares a border with Pakistan and is the scene of frequent clashes between Iranian police and drug dealers and militants.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090528/wl_nm/us_iran_explosion_mosque;_ylt=AjB9DHGjmHEvGCtlfPKSvzQLewgF;_ylu=X3oDMTJ1cGhvaGszBGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMDkwNTI4L3VzX2lyYW5fZXhwbG9zaW9uX21vc3F1ZQRwb3MDMwRzZWMDeW5fcGFnaW5hdGVfc3VtbWFyeV9saXN0BHNsawNibGFzdGhpdHNtb3M-

This is from one week ago but I don't remember reading about this curious incident.
Police Raid Apartment, 2 In Custody
Friday, 22 May 2009

Glenda Johnson saw so many police and plain clothed federal agents on her block that she thought someone had been shot. "The police was so crowded, you couldn't even walk past. They was in trucks, they was in cars, they was in regular cars. It looked like someone had killed someone," said Johnson.

That swarm of badges consisted of the FBI, Chicago Police and the Joint Terrorism Task Force. In their sights were two buildings on the 6300 block of North Artesian. People who live in a six flat there say the feds were very interested in its basement, specifically, two storage lockers.

A spokesperson for the FBI confirms a search warrant was executed at the building as part of an ongoing investigation. Glenda Johnson says an FBI agent made the search sound extremely urgent.

“They was looking for someone who lives in this building. So I was like ‘what's the cause?’ They said ‘we don't want to say yet, but it's a life and death situation.’ I was like ‘wow,’” said Johnson. A source in federal law enforcement told Fox Chicago that the case is similar to one that unfolded in New York yesterday.

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/Police_raid_apartment_bomb

Brazil Detains Al Qaeda Suspect Who Ran Anti-American Web Site
Tuesday, May 26, 2009

SAO PAULO — Brazilian authorities detained an Arab who ran a Web site forum that could be linked to terrorists and included anti-American statements in Arabic, a prosecutor said Tuesday night. The Arab resident of Brazil was not identified and a court ordered his release after police investigated, federal prosecutor Ana Leticia Absy said in a statement.

Absy said Brazil police were alerted to the presence of the closed Web site by the FBI, obtained judicial permission to investigate it and concluded it could be connected "to a terrorist group." But Absy stressed in a statement that no evidence has been uncovered suggesting the moderator was actually a member of a terrorist group.

The statement was issued after a columnist for the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper reported Tuesday that the man was suspected of being a member of Al Qaeda. Prior to the statement's release, a federal police spokeswoman confirmed for The Associated Press that the man was suspected of being a key player in Al Qaeda's international communications. She spoke on condition of anonymity, in keeping with department policy.

Excerpted

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,522078,00.html?test=latestnews

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