FBI hunts American citizens trained overseas for terrorFeds launch dragnet to stop 'October surprise' attack
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Posted: September 29, 2008
1:00 am Eastern
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=76415© 2008 WorldNetDaily
As Pakistani investigators hunt the terrorists behind the massive Marriott Hotel bombing in Islamabad, FBI agents in the U.S. have begun aggressively hunting for Americans who have recently returned from trips to Pakistan where they may have trained at al-Qaida camps, WND has learned.
A coast-to-coast dragnet has been launched partly in response to leads developed in the arrest of one of al-Qaida's "fixers" in the U.S., say FBI officials. They report the bureau is in a race against time to identify Pakistan-trained sleeper cells and disrupt a possible pre-election "October surprise."
For the first time since 9/11, counterterrorism field agents have been authorized to spy on young Muslim men and women – including American citizens – who have traveled to Pakistan without any specific evidence of wrongdoing.
Controversial new investigative guidelines approved by the Justice Department allow agents to monitor suspects and conduct undercover interviews even before opening formal investigations.
FBI headquarters has ordered its field offices to aggressively pursue anonymous tips and report back any suspicious activities in their Muslim communities. The intelligence will be immediately analyzed and shared in a threat matrix to avoid a repeat of the so-called "Phoenix memo" intelligence failure, officials say.
In the weeks prior to 9/11, an alert agent in the FBI's Phoenix office noted that several radical Middle Eastern men were taking flying lessons. He drafted a memo and sent it to headquarters, which promptly buried it, missing an opportunity to act before the disastrous hijackings of 9/11.
The FBI's new rules and current sense of urgency follow the recent interrogation of al-Qaida operative Aafia Siddiqui, an M.I.T.-educated scientist who fled to Pakistan after 9/11. She was arrested this summer in Afghanistan and brought back to the U.S. after sustaining injuries from a gun battle.
According to a federal indictment, Siddiqui was found with handwritten notes that referred to a "mass casualty attack" and listed various locations in the U.S. including Wall Street, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Plum Island and the Brooklyn Bridge. In addition, certain notes referred to the construction of "dirty bombs," chemical and biological weapons and other explosives.
Siddiqui's notes also discussed "mortality rates associated with certain of these weapons and explosives," the indictment says. Other notes referred to various ways to attack "enemies," including destroying reconnaissance drones, using underwater bombs and using gliders.
A computer thumb drive in Siddiqui's possession contained electronic correspondence that referred to specific "cells" and "attacks" by certain "cells," the indictment says. Other documents referred to "enemies," including the U.S., and discussed recruitment and training.
Officials say subsequent interrogations have revealed that possibly hundreds of American Muslims, many of them of Pakistani descent, have traveled to Pakistan in recent years to train at al-Qaida and Taliban madrassas and terror camps and have returned to the U.S. to carry out suicide attacks.
The revelation has shocked the politically sensitive FBI into abandoning its long-held policy of coordinating investigations in the Muslim community with Muslim-rights groups. Officials say it's more important than ever to track down Muslims who have traveled to Pakistan, and gather and disseminate intelligence quickly to disrupt possible terror plots before they can develop to an operational stage.
"There's some worry we may be in another Phoenix moment," one official said, "but this time we're determined to leave no stone unturned."
The formation of al-Qaida training camps inside Pakistan has been a major concern among U.S. security agencies since at least 2004, when Washington issued a rare intelligence directive to border agents to check young Pakistani male travelers –including Americans – for physical signs of military training.
As WND first reported, they were asked to look for "rope burns," "unusual bruises," "scars" and other possible injuries suffered from obstacle courses, firearms or explosives.
"Many of the individuals trained in the Pakistani camps are destined to commit illegal activities in the United States," warned the two-page DHS advisory that launched the special action.
According to another internal DHS document obtained by WND, the department more recently directed customs officers to escort passengers identified by "one-day lookouts" to secondary inspection, where they are subjected to a battery of questions to determine if they have visited terror camps in Pakistan.
American citizens of Pakistani descent also are under increased scrutiny. Over the past few years, U.S. authorities have arrested or investigated several Pakistani-American men who have trained at the camps during trips to Pakistan. One camp used photos of President Bush for target practice.
"The camps are a big concern," said a DHS official, who requested anonymity. "We are questioning U.S. citizens, as well as Pakistani nationals, as they come back to the states if the computer says they might have terrorist ties."
FBI Director Robert Mueller earlier this month cited the threat posed by the Pakistani terror-training camps while briefing Congress about the bureau's expanded investigative powers, which officially go into effect Oct. 1.
"We know that in western Pakistan now that there are camps in which individuals are being trained. The U.K. knows that very well because individuals who were involved in the 2005 attacks and later attacks had traveled to Pakistan for training in the camps and then come back," Mueller testified before the House Judiciary Committee. "I believe the American public would want us to do what is necessary to try to identify persons who had traveled to Pakistan, whatever their heritage, whatever their background, whatever their ethnicity, to determine who has gone to Pakistan to obtain that training and may be coming back to the United States to undertake an attack."
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., complained the new investigative rules would give FBI agents license to racially profile citizens.
FBI officials noted that the Marriott blast, which killed both U.S. Defense and State Department officials, signaled new techniques by al-Qaida-trained suicide terrorists. The dump-truck bomb they used was so massive, leaving a crater 30 feet deep and 60 feet wide, that it managed to severely damage the building even from beyond the concrete barriers protecting the perimeter of the building.
Also, investigators said that the hotel – a high-profile target that was used by Western diplomats as well as the CIA – had been targeted at least twice previously for attack, just as the U.S. embassy in Yemen had been hit in minor operations before this month's full-scale attack.
The repeat attacks indicate the terrorists are testing security, experts say. It also indicates they will keep coming back to the same target until they are successful in destroying it.
In the U.S., the World Trade Center was first attacked in 1993 and then again in 2001. A target the hijackers intended to strike but failed to hit on 9/11 was the U.S. Capitol. Terror analysts believe the Pentagon remains an al-Qaida target as well, since it was only partially damaged in the 9/11 operation.
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from ACT for America
P.O. Box 6884
Virginia Beach, VA 23456
http://www.actforamerica.org/-----------------------------------------------------
COMMENT by lw
" .
. . Americans who have recently returned from trips to Pakistan . . . " It is a shame that our enemies can function under the label "Americans." whether born here or naturalized, these enemies of ours should first be stripped of citizenship--which is nigh impossible for the ones
born here (a law that needs changing).
When you read that "
. . . hundreds of American Muslims, many of them of Pakistani descent, have traveled to Pakistan in recent years to train at al-Qaida and Taliban madrassas and terror camps and have returned to the U.S. to carry out suicide attacks." You rightly start to wonder about the loyalty of Moslems in America. Is it to the US and its Constitution or to Islam and its sharia and Koran, both incompatible with that Constitution.
As an aside, one wonders whether an Obama Administration, tinged as Barack Hussein Obama himself is with Moslem beginnings and koranic education would allow the "
Controversial new investigative guidelines approved by the Justice Department . . . ." And Obama is the Moslem's Choice, no two ways about it (whether these Moslems are American or not).
One encouraging note is that "
The revelation has shocked the politically sensitive FBI into abandoning its long-held policy of coordinating investigations in the Muslim community with Muslim-rights groups." For far too long, the FBI had been inveigled into "touchy-feely 'sensitivity' training with the so-called "
Muslim-rights groups, such as CAIR (Council on American Muslim Relations), who have
demanded these "rights." (The only
rights that Moslems in America should demand is the right--as it is of any American--to Freedom of Speech. Provisions must be made so that Islamics in the U.S. can freely speak their minds as concerns their preference of America over Islam and for freedom to throw off the chains of the Islamic "whole-life system" without the fear of being killed by rabid Islamics who also infest America.
Another concern for us should be such easy-on-Islamics as "
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., [who]
complained the new investigative rules would give FBI agents license to racially profile citizens."
and here we have the the Obama danger looming were Barack Husein Obama to get the
Power of the White House that he years for so disgustingly. The theme of "racism" as applied to Islamics(who are not all "dark-skinned" as such renegades as Adam Yahiye Gadahn and the Albanians arrested in connection with a Fort Dix, NJ, planned strike are testimony of.
Islam is not a "race." Whites, black, browns, and all shades in between can be found amongst the ranks of the Islamic enemies of the United States. Race-conscious Americans or better-said "African-Americans," including Barack Hussein Obama, will play the race card
ad nauseam.
Going easy on Islamics in America will be a horrid mistake for which we all will have to pay off in spades.
As to "Can there be such a thing as a 'Moslem-American?'"
An "American Moslem?"
Can a Moslem be a good American?
Can a Moslem even be an American?
[I don't mean an "American citizen," because they can perjure themselves when swearing to uphold our Constitution and get citizenship. lw]
I have received this via email---
Can a good Muslim be a good American ?This is something I've wondered about for some time now: How & why do the
Muslims hate us & everyone else so much? Doesn't their God teach them to
love?
Can a good Muslim be a good American?
This question was sent to a friend who worked in Saudi Arabia for 20 years.
The following is his reply:
Theologically - no. Because his allegiance is to Allah, the moon god of
Arabia.
Religiously - no. Because no other religion is accepted by his Allah
except
Islam (Quran, 2:256)
Scripturally - no. Because his allegiance is to the five pillars of Islam
and the Quran (Koran).
Geographically - no. Because his allegiance is to Mecca, to which he turns
in prayer five times a day.
Socially - no. Because his allegiance to Islam forbids him to make friends
with Christians or Jews.
Politically - no. Because he must submit to the mullah (spiritual
leaders), who teach annihilation of Israel and Destruction of America, the great
Satan.
Domestically - no. Because he is instructed to marry four women and beat
and scourge his wife when she disobeys him (Quran 4:34).
Intellectually - no. Because he cannot accept the American Constitution
since it is based on Biblical principles and he believes the Bible to be
corrupt.
Philosophically - no. Because Islam, Muhammad, and the Quran do not allow
freedom of religion and expression. Democracy and Islam cannot co-exist.
Every Muslim government is e ither dictatorial or autocratic
Spiritually - no. Because when we declare "one nation under God," the
Christian's God is loving and kind, while Allah is NEVER referred to as
heavenly father, nor is he ever called love in The Quran's 99 excellent
names.
Therefore after much study and deliberation....perhaps we should be very
suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS in this country. They obviously cannot be both
"good" Muslims and good Americans.
Call it what you wish....it's still the truth.
If you find yourself intellectually in agreement with the above
statements, perhaps you will share this with your friends. The more who
understand this, the better it will be for our country and our future.
Pass it on, Fellow Americans.
