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

SNIPPET: "TERROR mastermind Rashid Rauf has been linked to a fresh Al Qaida plot to launch attacks on the US. The Birmingham-born extremist has been named by witnesses due to testify against Najibullah Zazi, who was arrested for plotting suicide bombings in New York. MI6 officers have linked the plot to a complex terror network said to be directed from Pakistan by Rauf and fellow jihadists. Zazi, 24, was identified through an intercepted communication, and was further implicated by US national Bryant Neal Vinas, who was captured in Pakistan last November. Vinas, 26, allegedly admits meeting Rauf and receiving training...

Instead of the 'jihadist pipeline,' a Muslim convert tapped into an informal network of militants -- a cause for concern, intelligence experts say. Bryant Neal Vinas' unlikely odyssey from Long Island, N.Y., to Al Qaeda's innermost circle of commanders in Pakistan was achieved without any help in the U.S. from the well-oiled "jihadist pipeline" that has guided so many militants from Europe and other countries -- a fact that is cause for concern, current and former U.S. counter-terrorism officials said. His case, which became public last week, showed that a U.S. convert to Islam bent on waging holy war could...

SNIPPET: "Bashir al-Ameriki, born Bryant Neal Vinas, was in the right place at the right time. He caught a wave of online jihadi activism dominated by some really interesting and aggressive individuals, and he rode that wave all the way to glory - sort of. Now he's a prized possession of the United States of America. I have to assume there are a number of indictments either pending or under seal, because Bashir likes to talk."

A Long Island man confessed to feeding Al Qaeda information about New York's subways and LIRR trains, triggering last year's Thanksgiving Eve terror alert, the feds say. Bryant Neal Vinas, 26, the son of South American immigrants and a convert to Islam, was captured in November in Pakistan after he joined in a rocket attack on U.S. troops in Afghanistan, according to court papers unsealed Wednesday. He confessed his treason almost immediately and began cooperating, offering information of potentially great value because he had met with high-level operational leaders, sources said. Vinas is one of a handful of Americans charged...

NEW YORK (CNN) -- An American has been indicted on charges that he aided al Qaeda and helped attack a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, court documents show. Bryant Neal Vinas fired rockets at the military base along with others during a September 2008 attack, according to a federal indictment returned Wednesday.

American-born convert allegedly gave terror group info on U.S. rail systemsCourt papers unsealed Wednesday in New York federal court say Bryant Neal Vinas (aka Bashir al-Ameriki) fired rockets on US troops in Afghanistan. An American-born New Yorker fought side-by-side with al Qaida in Afghanistan and even supplied the terror network with information about New York's public transit system, according to federal prosecutors. Bryan Neal Vinas, a radical Islam convert who went by the name Bashir al-Ameriki, trained with al Qaida and took part in a rocket attack on a U.S. military base in Afghanistan last year, according to a three-count...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. man has been charged with giving al Qaeda details about the New York City transit system and the Long Island Railroad, as well as firing rockets on U.S. troops in Afghanistan, according to court papers unsealed on Wednesday. Bryant Neal Vinas, 26, is also accused of receiving military-type training between March and August last year from the Islamist extremist group headed by Osama bin Laden. Vinas provided al Qaeda with "expert advice and assistance, including assistance derived from specialized knowledge of the New York transit system and Long Island Railroad, communications equipment and personnel,...

A man from a New York City suburb has been charged with joining al Qaeda and taking part in a rocket attack against a U.S. base in Afghanistan. Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's office in New York alleged in court papers unsealed today that Bryant Neal Vinas, 26, of New York's Long Island received al Qaeda training in Pakistan between March and August 2008. He also is accused of taking part in a September 2008 rocket attack against U.S. forces. Vinas has worked as a truck driver and for the Long Island Rail Road, a major commuter rail line in...