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On January 13, Robert González Nieves, archbishop of San Juan, revealed Pope Francis’ role in Barack Obama’s pardon of terrorist mastermind Oscar Lopez-Rivera. Speaking from the Cathedral of San Juan, Nieves announced that although the Holy Father made no public statement of his involvement, he had indeed worked behind the curtain on behalf of the unrepentant, bloody-handed Lopez-Rivera. The archbishop was pleased to say: “I know that there have been efforts made through diplomatic channels. The pope is very aware. We are grateful to the Holy Father for his support.” Papal complicity in this politically charged act received little notice...

Two men from East Elmhurst, Queens have been arrested and charged with plotting to blow up a Manhattan synagogue. Mayor Michael Bloomberg was joined by top city law enforcement officials at City Hall earlier today in announcing the arrests of Ahmed Ferhani, 26, and Mohamed Mamdouh, 20. Ferhani, who is from Algeria, and Mamdouh, was is from Morocco, are both charged with engaging in terrorism, weapons possession and hate crimes. An arraignment is expected later today. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says the men told undercover officers that they hated Jews and wanted to kill them. He also says they had...

Note: The following text is a quote: Queens Man and Accomplice Charged with Attempting to Provide Material Support to Hizballah Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Joseph M. Demarest, Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the FBI, announced the filing of an indictment yesterday charging Patrick Nayyar and Conrad Stanisclaus Mulholland with attempting to provide material support to Hizballah, a designated foreign terrorist organization. The indictment also charges Nayyar with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition. On Sept. 24, 2009, Nayyar, a 46-year-old citizen of India who had...

Port Authority police were told to stop and search would-be subway bomber Najibullah Zazi's car last September as he drove up to the George Washington Bridge—but waved him across without finding two pounds of explosives hidden inside. The failure to uncover the explosives after an alert about Mr. Zazi from the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been widely discussed among police but never publicly disclosed. It stoked longstanding tensions between the Port Authority Police and the New York Police Department, which are more pronounced since the 9/11 attacks. The Port Authority is tasked with protecting the bridges, tunnels and major...

New details have emerged in a foiled plot to bomb New York City's subways, as authorities reportedly arrested another suspect in Pakistan. The unidentified man is the fourth man arrested in connection with the plan to stage a series of suicide attacks on subway trains last September. Law enforcement officials had said more arrests overseas were likely. This suspect will be extradited from Pakistan to the U.S. where he will be charged in Brooklyn's Eastern District Court, The Daily News reported today. The suspect will join Zarein Ahmedzay and Adis Medunjanin, accused of being the planned second and third suicide...

Chilling new details about the foiled Al Qaeda plot to blow up the city's busiest subways have emerged as a fourth suspect was quietly arrested in Pakistan, the Daily News has learned. The unidentified man, who helped plan the plot, is expected to be extradited to the U.S. to betried in Brooklyn Federal Court with Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay of Flushing, Queens, sources said. The cooperation of would-be lead bomber Najibullah Zazi has helped law enforcement officials piece together a fuller picture of the evil plan to kill innocent straphangers around the 9/11 anniversary last year.Zazi and his two...

Accused terror plotter Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty Monday, admitting he and others were on the verge of carrying out "martyrdom operations" in Manhattan subways. Appearing in Brooklyn Federal Court, Zazi said the transit attacks were planned for Sept. 14, 15 or 16 - days after the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. He and his co-conspirators aborted the ghastly plot after Zazi's car - packed with chemicals and detonators - was stopped on the George Washington Bridge by investigators who had tailed him from Denver. "I realized law enforcement was watching," Zazi, 25, said matter-of-factly in court. Sources said...

DEVELOPING: The man under FBI investigation for alleged ties to a New York subway terror plot has admitted he has ties to Al Qaeda and is in negotiations to plead guilty to a terror charge, a source familiar with the investigation told FOX News.

Ahmad Afzali, the Queens imam who pleaded guilty in March to lying to law enforcement officials about his relationship with Najibullah Zazi, the airport worker who planned to bomb New York's subways, was sentenced by a federal judge yesterday to time served. Mr. Afzali, who left his native Afghanistan following the Soviet invasion, also agreed to "self-execute" removal from the United States in the next 90 days in order to avoid a deportation hearing. Prosecutors alleged that Mr. Afzali warned Mr. Zazi and his father that they were under law-enforcement surveillance, then, as Assistant U.S. Attorney James P. Loonam told...

SNIPPET: "It may have been one of the coldest days this season, but that did not deter angry protesters from gathering at the residence of Youssef Al-Khattab, a Jewish convert to Islam who has been tagged as an Al-Qaida sympathizer." SNIPPET: "Sunday’s protest came after Al-Khattab posted comments on his website, revolutionmuslim.com, supporting the Fort Hood attacks and other violent acts of radical Muslims. He also has made several anti-Semitic comments on his site, including saying he wants liquid drain cleaner to be thrown in Jews’ faces, and calling for the outdoor huts some build during the holiday of Sukkot...

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned that al-Qaida followers are inside the U.S. and pose the threat of terrorist attacks on Americans. “The fact is that home-based terrorism is here,” she said in an address to the American-Israel Friendship League in New York on Wednesday night. “And like extremism abroad, it is now part of the threat picture that we must confront." “Individuals sympathetic to al-Qaida and its affiliates, as well as those inspired by their ideology, are present in the U.S., and would like to attack the homeland or plot overseas attacks against our interests abroad.” Napolitano said a...

For years, he was a fixture in Lower Manhattan, as regular as the sunrise. Every morning, Najibullah Zazi would be there on Stone Street with his pastries and his coffee, his vending cart anchored to the sidewalk. For many on Wall Street — young, old, all in a hurry, the charging bulls of Bowling Green — his was the first hello of the day. Affable and rooted, he lived for 10 years in the same apartment with his family in Flushing, Queens. His father drove a cab for more than 15 years. He was, in other words, no brooding outcast,...

Investigation Into Alleged NYC Bomb Plot Includes Nearly All of the Bureau's U.S. Field OfficesCriminal Complaint Suggests Cops May Have Tipped-Off Zazi By Questioning New York Imam, Seizing CarThe FBI is expanding its investigation into an alleged terror plot targeting New York City, and nearly every one of the FBI's 57 field offices in the country and several overseas are now in on the case, working along with local police. On Wednesday, the NYPD was showing a new training video in precincts citywide detailing the intelligence from the agencies. Bomb Squad Commander Lt. Marc Torre narrates the video, giving regular...

AURORA, Colorado (CNN) -- Federal agents have charged a 24-year-old Colorado resident, his father and another man with making false statements during an extensive terror investigation that stretches to Pakistan. Najibullah Zazi is accused of making false statements to officials about an alleged bomb plot in the United States. The Justice Department said Sunday it is investigating several other people in connection with the plot to detonate bombs in the United States. Najibullah Zazi and his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi -- both originally from Afghanistan -- were arrested Saturday night. They were handcuffed without incident after authorities raided Zazi's home...

WASHINGTON — President Obama has sent a request to Gov. David A. Paterson that he withdraw from the New York governor’s race, fearing that Mr. Paterson cannot recover from his dismal political standing, according to two senior administration officials and a New York Democratic operative with direct knowledge of the situation. The decision to ask Mr. Paterson to step aside was proposed by political advisers to Mr. Obama, but approved by the president himself, one of the administration officials said. “Is there concern about the situation in New York? Absolutely,” the second administration official said Saturday evening. “Has that concern...

Fearful of a Madrid-style subway train bombing, authorities are poised to make more raids to seize bomb-making materials at locations in Queens, sources said Wednesday. The FBI's elite Hostage Rescue Team arrived in New York in anticipation of the offensive to thwart a Denver-based terror cell with ties to Al Qaeda, police sources told the Daily News. Another source said an earlier raid uncovered nine backpacks and cell phones, raising memories of the March 2004 bombings in Madrid. A series of terrorist bombs detonated aboard commuter trains killed 191 people. The source said authorities feared a potential attack on the...

BULLETIN -- NEW YORK POLICE AND FBI RAID HOMES IN QUEENS IN TERRORISM INVESTIGATION.6 minutes ago from BNO Headquarters

AP source: Queens workers take suspicious trash to police By DONNA DE LA CRUZ Associated Press Writer March 17, 2004, 5:39 PM EST NEW YORK -- A box containing material that warned about terrorist activities and books on electronic circuitry and aircraft was found by sanitation workers collecting garbage on a Queens street on Wednesday and was taken to a police precinct, a high-level police source told The Associated Press. As a precaution, police scanned the workers' garbage truck for radioactivity and got a reading high enough to prompt them to evacuate the 114th Precinct, but the box and the...

The young Muslim men, with beards and bullhorns, work the streets of Jackson Heights on the weekends. They surface at parades and protests around the city, loudly declaring America the enemy and advocating for an Islamic state. Several weeks ago, they publicly tore up an American flag as payback for the reported desecration of the Koran at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Their own videos of violence against Muslims, one with the title "Muslim Massacres," have recently appeared on Queens Public Television.

Afghans at Queens Mosque Are Divided Over bin Laden September 19, 2001 By DEXTER FILKINS At New York City's largest Afghan mosque, supporters of the Taliban have chosen to pray in the basement or outside in the parking lot. They have not returned to the mosque for daily prayers since last Friday, when their imam denounced the attacks on the World Trade Center. "When I speak against the Taliban and Osama, they harass me; so many times they harass me," Imam Mohammed Sherzad, the leader of Hazrat-I-Abubakr Sadiq mosque, said at his office in Flushing, Queens. "They say: "Why do...