Free Republic

FBI agents arrested two members of a Central Avenue mosque in an overnight raid in connection with an alleged plot to buy a shoulder-fired missile that would be used to assassinate the Pakistani ambassador in New York, according to court papers filed today in federal court in Albany. Mosque members said the imam, 34-year-old Yassim Aref, who also spells his first name Yasen, was arrested early this morning. Another mosque leader, Mohammed Mosharref Hossain, 49, an owner of a downtown pizzeria, was arrested at his home, according to mosque members. The arrests are in connection with a money-laundering scheme involving...

ALBANY -- The spiritual leader of an Albany mosque repeatedly called a phone number in Syria that an FBI report indicates had been used to gather terrorist intelligence for Osama bin Laden, according to classified documents unsealed late Tuesday in U.S. District Court. The FBI report, which was based on information from a confidential informant, was among several once-secret documents that federal authorities say raise questions about Yassin Aref's connections to terrorist organizations across the Middle East. Aref, 35, a Kurdish refugee who moved to Albany with his family in 1999, is in jail without bond while awaiting trial on...