Times Square Suspect Charged in Complaint

The recently released criminal complaint against Faisal Shahzad revealed new details about how investigators were able to identify, locate, and apprehend the suspected Times Square bomber in under 52 hours.

Among the charges in the five-count complaint is an attempt to use a weapon of mass destruction, an attempt to kill or maim people and explosives charges.

When law enforcement sources say they found a trove of evidence inside the Nissan Pathfinder discovered smoking Saturday evening, the complaint offers details. Among other items, investigators found three keys. One was for an Isuzu, which is what Shahzad drives, and another opened the door to his Connecticut home.

According to the complaint, Shahzad took steps to hide his identity. He used a disposable cell phone for communicating with a fireworks distributer in rural Pennsylvania and the seller of the Nissan Pathfinder in Connecticut that he bought April 24. When he first met the seller, Shazad looked at the "interior seating and cargo area of the Pathfinder, but not the engine."

After paying 13 $100 bills for the Pathfinder, Shahzad insisted that no bill of sale be made, saying that it would be unnecessary.

Federal authorities are still trying to follow up on any potential leads to foreign terrorist groups. After his arrest, Shahzad, who is said to be cooperating, admitted that he recently received bomb-making training in Waziristan, Pakistan. Moreover, the disposable cell phone that has been traced back to him allegedly received at least four phone calls from Pakistan in the days leading up to the attempted bombing.

Jihadist Training Camps Caught up in the Web

Would-be Islamic terrorists increasingly are looking to cyberspace for operational training, says Paris-based McAfee Labs Threat Researcher and blogger, Francois Paget. According to Paget, the trainers to whom these individuals look:

"wish to create a 'jihad virtual university' with the creation of a worldwide caliphate as its ultimate objective. Through the Internet they attempt to indoctrinate and encourage people to commit themselves to violent activities against their enemies."

Inspired by the analysis of Canadian Crown Prosecutor, Dominique Dudemaine, at the 2010 Francopol conference on cybercrime in Montreal, Paget elaborates on how this shift is a significant move away from traditional – and as Dudemaine says "in-the-field" – training in camps around the world. As we previously noted, it is clear that the danger posed by the virtualization of terrorism has devolved far beyond radicalization, theological justification for jihad, and propaganda. It now also includes actual tactical planning and military training.

While Paget's focus is on the rapid spread of online links to terrorist plots and prosecutions in Canada, the pervasiveness of the threat is, in reality, global. He mentions a number of cases, including that of "Toronto 18" member Zakaria Amara, "considered the ringleader of the…extremist Muslim group," who is said to have "learned how to construct a fertilizer bomb over the Internet and planned to use it on the Toronto Stock Exchange."

Similarly, Paget notes the case of Saïd Namouh, video maker for the al Qaeda-linked Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF). According to Paget, Namouh:

"was found guilty of conspiring to commit a bombing attack in Europe, attempting to extort the governments of Austria and Germany with video threats (in March 2007), participating in a terrorist group, and aiding terrorist activities."

Outside of Canada, the examples of aspirant terrorists taking to the Internet to translate radical religious beliefs and anti-American zeal into violence have become all too common. A 2005 ABC News report discussed how online training manuals were appearing online that detailed to jihadist recruits how to become a sniper and "how to inflict the maximum damage" against U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

The evidence of this type of cyber-based terrorism is not simply academic or propaganda. People are acting on it, as demonstrated by criminal investigations and prosecutions.

In the trial of Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Sadequee, both men were said to have recorded "casing videos" in Washington, DC, which were then sent via the internet for tactical planning to later-convicted terrorist, Younis Tsouli, AKA Irhabi007.

Even more disconcerting was the June 2008 acknowledgement by Ahmed Mohamed that he had used the internet to broadcast a self-made video showing how to build a makeshift detonator for an explosive device. According to the plea agreement, the video was meant to:

"teach 'martyrdoms' and 'suiciders' how to save themselves so they could continue to fight the invaders…He said he intended the technology demonstrated in his audio/video recording to be used against those who fight for the United States."

What future role the internet will play in the actions of jihadists is, at this point, unclear. There are some who argue that "not putting their recruits through a more formal training regimen…makes it more difficult for groups to thoroughly indoctrinate recruits with jihadist ideology," which could impact the success of plots.

However, if what Paget and Dudemaine argue proves to be the case – that "along with real-world activities, the jihadists use the Internet to pursue a psychological war, communicate and coordinate, finalize their strategies, and obtain financing" – then we are in for a long fight against a new breed of impassioned, well-organized, and well-trained jihadists.

Dramatic Arrest in Attempted Times Square Bombing

It was nearly midnight. On board a late flight to Dubai from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Faisal Shahzad had just settled into his seat and was awaiting takeoff when agents with the Customs and Border Patrol came on board and arrested him. Within hours, the Department of Justice announced that Shahzad was suspected of driving a car bomb into Times Square just days earlier.

Saturday's failed attack in Times Square set off a manhunt which sent agents from the New York Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation from New York to Connecticut.

The car bomb—a rough concoction of ordinary items—was left at West 45^th Street near Broadway in Manhattan. The makeup was reminiscent of bombings in Glasgow, Scotland and at a London nightclub last year. Although the crudely made bomb failed to detonate, police initially said that it would have created a fireball that would have killed or wounded many people. Thankfully, the failure of the device left what one U.S. official described as a "treasure trove of evidence in the unexploded car."

The Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) had been removed from the dashboard, but using another VIN number on the engine block, agents tracked the car to its original owner in Connecticut. Investigators were then able to trace the sale of the vehicle to Shahzad, a 30-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen born in Pakistan. Since the arrest, agents have carried out a search of the suspect's home in what has been described as an ongoing investigation. Speaking at a 1:30 a.m. press conference Attorney General Holder explained:

"This investigation is ongoing. It is multifaceted and it is aggressive….It's clear that the intent behind this terrorist attack was to kill Americans."

While the attack is now being characterized by American law enforcement as an act of terrorism, the investigation continues into whether or not there is a connection to a foreign terrorist group. The Pakistani Taliban initially claim responsibility for the car bomb in three videos that surfaced after the failed attack, but NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said that no evidence existed to support that claim. The news that Shahzad recently returned from a five month trip to Pakistan now provides at least a hint of evidence supporting a link to the Pakistani Taliban.

Shahzad will appear in federal court in Manhattan today where he will be formally charged. Although the charges remain unknown, they may include conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, the same crimes for which Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab and Mohammed Zazi were charged. A conviction for this offense would carry a life sentence for the man alleged to have attempted to set off a car bomb in Times Square.

The Palestinian Authority's Terrorist Glorification

A new report by an Israeli watchdog group chronicles the glorification of terrorists by the Palestinian Authority.

The report, From Terrorists to Role Models: The Palestinian Authority's Institutionalization of Incitement, follows the Palestinian Authority's (PA) move last month to rename a street in Ramallah after a Hamas terrorist, which was strongly condemned by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the U.S. State Department.

According to the report, institutions named in honor of terrorists by the PA include schools and kindergartens, streets, buildings and neighborhoods, sports facilities, military units, summer camps, cultural events, popular publications and more.

The report from the group Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) offers this overview:

"A Palestinian child can walk to school along a street named after the terrorist Abu Jihad, who planned a bus hijacking that killed 37, spend the day learning in a school named after Hamas founder Ahmad Yassin, in the afternoon play football in a tournament named after suicide terrorist Abd Al-Baset Odeh who killed 31, and end his day at a youth center named after terrorist Abu Iyad, responsible for the killing of the 11 Olympic athletes in Munich."

During a news conference unveiling the report Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon thanked PMW for "expos[ing] Palestinian society and the Palestinian Authority as they present themselves, not to the world but to themselves."

Among the 46 different terrorists cited in the report, one is glorified by the PA more than any other. Dalal Mughrabi, whose 1978 attack on a bus filled with civilians killed more Israelis than any other Palestinian terrorist attack, has over a dozen of institutions in the West Bank named after her. In fact, USAID, through American Near East Refugee Aid, funded renovations for "the Dalal Mughrabi Girl's High School" in Hebron.

The PA does not distinguish between terrorists of different groups; in fact, the report cites approximately a dozen cases of institutions named after terrorists belonging to Hamas – the PA's long time bloody rival in Gaza.

PMW explains that "the PA practice of honoring terrorists is a very dangerous form of incitement, because it praises the killer and the act of killing after the actual murder has taken place…Honoring a suicide terrorist does not refer to a possibility, but glorifies an actual murder."

Reports: Times Square Investigation Progressing Quickly

A series of national media reports indicates that investigators tracking down the suspect, or suspects, behind Saturday's failed car bombing in Times Square believe the case could have an international component.

The Washington Post started the reporting by citing Obama administration officials saying it "increasingly appears to have been coordinated by more than one person in a plot with international links."

ABC and Fox News each issued similar reports. ABC reports that one suspect may be a Pakistani-American, citing an official who said "This is moving very fast because they left behind a treasure trove of evidence in the unexploded car."

Police credit a T-shirt vendor who noticed smoke coming out of a Nissan Pathfinder with alerting them to the attempted attack. Despite efforts to conceal the Pathfinder's ownership history, police already have traced its previous owner and the Connecticut junkyard where its license plate was taken from.

Fox said officials were looking at similarities between this failed attack and an attack on the Glasgow, Scotland airport and the attempted bombing of a London night spot in 2007 because they also involved bombs made with propane and gasoline like the Times Square bomb.

That doesn't mean it's tied to known terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda or a Pakistani Taliban group which issued a threatening taped message after the failed attack. In an online Post chat, terrorism analyst Evan Kohlmann said plots from established groups tend to be more sophisticated:

"based on the amateurish construction of the device and the fact that it does not appear to be part of a coordinated campaign of attacks, it seems unlikely that an organized terror group was responsible. However, given the flurry of claims from the Pakistani Taliban over the past few days -- including a video last night of Hakimullah Mehsud vowing to carry out imminent attacks on U.S. cities -- it may be premature to rule out that possibility entirely."

Reports indicate that investigators found large amounts of fertilizer in the Pathfinder containing the bomb, but not the kind of fertilizer that explodes.

Galloway Attorneys Fight Canadian Ban

Attorneys for British Parliamentarian George Galloway spent much of Wednesday in a Toronto courtroom, arguing that the controversial politician's year-old ban from entering the country should be overturned. It is based, they say, on the Canadian government's pro-Israel stance.

Galloway planned to speak in four Canadian cities in 2009 following a short tour in the United States and the successful completion of his first Viva Palestina (VP) convoy to Gaza. He was deemed inadmissible based on an immigration law barring foreign nationals who support terrorism. During the first VP convoy, Galloway gave more than $1 million to Hamas officials in Gaza.

"If in fact Mr. Galloway is a terrorist for providing aid to the elected government of Gaza, then our Prime Minister is as well," attorney Barbara Jackman told the court. Canada sends humanitarian aid to Gaza.

"We have clearly aligned ourselves with a particular political point of view," she said.

Government lawyers denied that the immigration minister had any involvement in the decision to ban Galloway, and that Galloway should be considered a member of a terrorist organization because he provided material and financial support to Hamas. However, these arguments are undercut by the inadvertent disclosure of a 66-page document, known as the Court Tribunal Record, of internal government emails and letters which allegedly shows the involvement of the Ministry.

"This is a measure of how Canada has become Israel's ambassador at large," Galloway said in an interview Wednesday. "Not just Israel's ambassador at large, but Netanyahu's ambassador at large -- the most extreme government that Israel has ever had. I can't imagine why Canada would want to throw away the high reputation [it] had in the world as a decent place in which people respected others. For what? For Netanyahu? What's in that for Canada?"

Egypt deported Galloway in January, and he was declared "persona non grata" by the Egyptian foreign ministry, barring him from entering the country again. The United States and Britain have taken no action against him, despite the mounting evidence that Galloway and his group have given money to Hamas.

Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley reportedly will take a month before deciding on the case.

Arrested Development for the Damra Brothers

Fawaz and Fayez Damra are Palestinian brothers who made their way to America as young men during the 1980s, became naturalized U.S. citizens and set about making new lives in their new homeland.

Fawaz Damra became a man of the cloth, a Muslim cleric who ultimately was the imam Cleveland's largest mosque. Fayez Damra became a businessman, starting a computer software design company in Las Vegas. On the surface, the Damra brothers were on their way to living the American dream. The brothers Damra, however, moved in darker circles.

While publicly posturing as a pious cleric, Fawaz Damra shilled behind the scenes for the likes of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), its leading U.S. operative Sami Al-Arian, and an al-Qaeda-linked organization in New York. Not surprisingly, Fawaz omitted the facts concerning his terror support activities when he applied to become an American citizen. After nearly a decade, he was prosecuted and convicted of that felonious fraud in 2004, stripped of his U.S. citizenship and subsequently deported to the West Bank in 2007.

The prosecution of Fawaz Damra generated interest from the IRS. Shortly after his conviction in 2004, the IRS began investigating his financial activities. In reviewing his tax returns, the IRS discovered a suspicious reporting for $100,000 as payment to Fawaz as a consultant to a software company. The IRS investigation determined the software company was the one owned by his brother Fayez. That investigation further determined Fawaz performed no consulting work.

In fact, Fayez told IRS agents and federal prosecutors that he did not like his brother Fawaz, attributed his (Fayez') involvement in the case to his "disgruntled brother Fawaz Damra." He accused Fawaz of skimming and stealing money that Fayez intended to send to their ailing father in Jerusalem. Fawaz, his brother said, was a "coward and a loser" who was mentally unstable. He paid the $100,000 to Fawaz only after family from the West Bank called and "guilted him" into paying.

Fayez hoped the money would be a "divorce payment" to get Fawaz away from him. It was never compensation for consulting work since Fawaz never brought any business to the computer company.

The IRS investigation found that Fawaz originally invested between $20,000 and $40,000 in Fayez' computer business. Fayez told investigating agents he believed Fawaz got that money by skimming it from his mosque.

Both Damra brothers were indicted for tax fraud in 2006. With Fawaz Damra's 2007 deportation, the tax fraud case against him was suspended, but it continued against Fayez. Against the court's repeated advice, Fayez Damra chose to represent himself at trial. He was convicted in May, 2007 and sentenced to 21 months in prison. He remains free on bond as he appeals to 6^th Circuit Court of Appeals. Oral arguments in his appeal are scheduled for June 15.

The U.S. court system established that Fawaz Damra, who enjoyed a reputation as a moderate voice of interfaith dialogue, was really a lying supporter of radical Islamic terror. That same court system has further proved Fawaz Damra's corruption extended to his own family.

American al Qaeda Supporter Pleads Guilty

A former Brooklyn College student, Syed Hashmi, has pled guilty to providing material support to al Qaeda. This, after months of criticism from civil rights groups such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) that the charges were unfounded and the security measures in place were unconstitutional.

The defendant, a Pakistani who became an American citizen, was indicted in May of 2006. According to the indictment:

"From January 2004 through May 2006, Hashmi provided material support or resources to al Qaeda by helping to provide equipment to others who then transported the equipment to al Qaeda associates in South Waziristan, Pakistan. Hashmi provided the equipment with knowledge that it would be used by al Qaeda to fight against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Hashmi also provided money to a co-conspirator who planned to transport the equipment to al Qaeda in Afghanistan."

British authorities arrested Hashmi at Heathrow Airport a month later while he was set to board a flight to Pakistan. Hashmi became the first person extradited from Britain to the United States on terrorism charges, and he was set to stand trial for his crimes this week in a federal court in Manhattan.

Hashmi has been in the custody of U.S. authorities pending trial since then. Throughout that time, his continued incarceration has been the subject of much criticism. While challenging the indictment itself as a form of guilt by association, most of the critiques have focused on the conditions of Hashmi's confinement. In an open letter drafted by the Center for Constitutional Rights, Amnesty International USA, and CAIR-NY stated:

"Muslim community groups are increasingly expressing concern about these prison conditions, as they seem to be imposed disproportionately on Muslims suspected of connections with terrorism."

Despite past denials of any culpability for his role in supplying al Qaeda terrorists, Tuesday, just a day prior to trial, Hashmi pled guilty to one count of the indictment in exchange for a reduced sentence. Avoiding a possible 70 year prison sentence, Hashmi is now expected to serve 15 years in prison for his role in the conspiracy.

Commenting on the case, Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan explained,

"having admitted his guilt, he will now face justice for giving aid to terrorists he knew full well were dedicated to harming Americans."

Egyptian Court Sentences Hizballah Terror Plotters

An Egyptian court has sentenced more than two dozen men tied to a Hizballah plot to attack tourist sites in Egypt.

The presiding judge found sufficient evidence that the defendants planned "to strike Egypt's economy, destroy the bonds between its people and create chaos and instability throughout the country."

Authorities claim they found explosive vests and other bomb-making material when they arrested the suspects more than a year ago. They also claimed the cell leader admitted plotting simultaneous attacks against Israeli tourists at three different locations in Egypt. The plot was designed to be retaliation for the 2008 assassination of senior Hizballah operative Imad Mughniyah, which Israel is believed to have carried out.

Hizballah officials denied any plans to attack targets in Egypt, but did acknowledge defendant Sami Chehab, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison, was a Hizballah member. His work, the group claimed, tried to help equip Palestinians in their fight against Israel.

Egypt has imposed a blockade on Hamas-controlled Gaza and Hizballah has been critical of this. Critics often cast doubt on the actions of Egyptian law enforcement and the fairness of its courts. Whatever the circumstances, Egypt doesn't seem to be in a mood to do Israel any favors. It is contesting Israeli claims the Hizballah has been supplied with Scud missiles from Syria which could hit targets throughout Israel. And, as the Jerusalem Post reports, Egypt's foreign minister called Israel an "enemy" state.

U.S. officials, meanwhile, are expressing deep concern that Hizballah is stocked with an increasingly lethal arsenal. Defense Secretary Robert Gates described Hizballah as possessing "far more rockets and missiles than most governments in the world." U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Hizballah's "rockets and missiles in Lebanon are substantially increased and better technologically than they were, and this is a real point of danger for Israel."

Video Emerges of Christmas Day Bomber in Training Camps

When he was interrogated by the FBI, the failed Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, said that there were "others like me" who would be sent to carry out similar attacks. Now, months after he attempted to set off a bomb on a Northwest Airlines jet, videos obtained by ABC News appear to back up his claims.

The videos, produced by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, show Abdulmutallab and others in his "training class" firing automatic weapons at targets including a Jewish Star of David, the British Union Jack, and the letters "UN."

A U.S. intelligence official told Newsweek that:

"The video was consistent with investigators' information that, while visiting Yemen beginning in roughly August 2009, ostensibly to learn Arabic, the former Nigerian student 'was in some type of training environment.'"

Abdulmutallab remains in the custody of U.S. law enforcement and is reported to be cooperating with attempts to identify the other men with whom he trained.

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