“Qaeda’s training area in Pakistan is ‘the most dangerous spot on the map’”
BY JAMES GORDON MEEK IN WASHINGTON AND HELEN KENNEDY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Monday, September 21st 2009, 4:00 AM
SNIPPET: “The lawless area between Pakistan and Afghanistan - where an Afghan terror suspect arrested in Denver admitted he was trained by Al Qaeda - has been called “the most dangerous spot on the map.”
If the United States suffers another 9/11-style attack, experts expect it will be born there, in the region known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
“If the United States is going to get hit, it’s going to come out of the planning that the [Al Qaeda] leadership in the FATA is generating,” Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in June 2008.
A Center for Strategic and International Studies report this year described the area as a “witches’ brew of terror and militancy” that is now ground zero of the U.S. war against extremism.
About 3 million Pashtun tribesmen - along with 1 million Afghan refugees - live in the FATA region, which is roughly the size of Massachusetts. Chief terror suspect Najibullah Zazi and his father, Mohammed Zazi, also under arrest, are Pashtuns from there.”
Thanks to a special emailer for pointing to this article:
http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2009/09/najibullah_zazi_and_the_new_yo.php
“Najibullah Zazi and the New York/Colorado raids”
By DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS
September 21, 2009 11:09 PM
SNIPPET: “Over the weekend, three men were arrested and charged in the ongoing terror probe centered around New York and Colorado. The three men are Najibullah Zazi, 24, his father Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, and Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37. Though all three were charged with making false statements to authorities, terrorism charges are likely to follow; authorities have said that the false statement charges “are designed to keep them in custody while more serious charges are considered.” At this point, there remain a large number of significant unanswered questions. However, I have spoken with a range of intelligence and law enforcement sources, and they believe that the combination of capabilities, desire to strike, and concrete steps taken likely make this the most serious terrorist plot on U.S. soil since 9/11. (The 2006 transatlantic air plot was more serious, and would have been devastating to the U.S., but planning occurred in Britain.) Some key highlights follow.”