http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/08/05/ny.missile.sting/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Midwest/08/05/chicago.arrest/index.html
Two men arrested in missile sting operation
WASHINGTON, D.C. (CNN) -- The imam and the founder of an Albany, New York, mosque are being held after an FBI sting operation in which the suspects believed they were helping a terrorist launder money, federal law enforcement sources said Thursday.
The suspects are Yasin Aref, a 34-year-old Iraqi with asylum status who is the imam at the Masjid As-Salam mosque, and founder Mohammed Hossain, 49, a native of Bangladesh and a U.S. citizen.
They were apprehended when they allegedly agreed to launder the money from the sale of a shoulder-fired missile, the criminal complaint says.
The men are charged with money laundering and conspiring to conceal support and resources "knowing and intending that they are to be used in preparation for, and in carrying out a violation of" a U.S. law banning unlawful use of weapons of mass destruction.
Community to hold rally
At an arraignment Thursday, both were ordered held without bail. Hossain requested his own attorney; Aref, through an interpreter, said he wanted a court-appointed lawyer.
About a dozen family and friends were in the courtroom. Several cried.
The mosque's president, Shamshad Ahmad, released a statement decrying "all forms of terrorism" and expressing concern about anti-Muslim backlash and hate crimes. He called on people not to draw conclusions from the arrests.
The Muslim community planned to hold a rally Thursday evening.
Federal law enforcement sources said the men are believed to be connected with Ansar al-Islam, a terrorist organization with links to the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. U.S. officials suspect al-Zarqawi has links to al Qaeda.
Investigators suspected Aref of shipping money from the United States to Islamist radicals overseas, so they came up with the sting operation, a federal law enforcement source said.
The complaint says an undercover FBI informant told the two men he would use a missile against Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations in retaliation for that country's support of the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
The informant gave the men thousands of dollars in checks and cash, saying the funds to be laundered were proceeds from the purported importation of a missile and that they could keep some money in exchange for their help, according to the complaint.
The informant told the two men that the attack would take place at an address that fronts the U.N. headquarters in New York, the complaint said.
At a news conference, federal officials would not say what information led them to suspect Aref and Hossain.
The investigation began a year ago, and was conducted by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes federal, state and local authorities.
The informant had previously pleaded guilty to document fraud, a felony, and agreed to work with authorities, the complaint said.
Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Comey told reporters the undercover informant struck up a relationship with the two men, and Hossain asked the informant's help in fraudulently securing a New York driver's permit for his brother.
Hossain told the informant that he believed now is not the time for "violent jihad," Comey said.
But when the informant proposed the laundering scheme, Hossain agreed, and suggested that Aref assist, Comey said.
The FBI has audio and video recordings of various conversations, he said. The informant told the two men he wanted to provide arms to his "brother mujahedeen," according to the complaint.
The men received about $40,000 in cash and returned $25,000 in cash, Comey said. Under the scheme, they were allowed to keep some of the money.
"This is not a case where the defendants were plotting terrorist violence," Comey said.
Raids on mosque, homes
After the arrests, authorities spent about seven hours at the mosque and two houses, a government official said.
Aref's wife, Zuhur, 33, said that the FBI took her and her three children at 2 a.m. to a hotel for questioning. She declined to say what officials asked her about and said she was unaware of what charges her husband faces.
After the charges were described to her, she responded, "I have no idea about that. I don't think so."
Hossain's wife, Mossammat, told the Albany Times Union that her husband had returned home at 1:30 a.m. from a trip to New York City when the FBI arrived at the couple's apartment above the Little Italy pizzeria they operate.
The newspaper said agents took $6,000 in cash, a computer hard drive and assorted personal records.
In June, Hossain told the paper, "I'm proud to be an American," calling the country a "great land."
Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings said city and state police worked together with the FBI.
"It's been an ongoing investigation, and obviously the results are good," he said. "This is something we've anticipated. People shouldn't be concerned because we've been on top of this for quite awhile."
Albany was one of 50 U.S. cities to be appropriated several million dollars by the Department of Homeland Security in late 2003. The New York capital was earmarked for $6.8 million, according to the Times Union.
In August 2003, a British citizen was arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle shoulder-fired missiles into the United States. In that case, Hemant Lakhani, 69, is accused of buying a fake missile from undercover Russian agents and trying to sell it to a man claiming to represent a Somali group. The man instead was a cooperating witness for the United States.
Lakhani is scheduled to go to trial November 3. Two other men already have pleaded guilty to transferring money illegally.
CNN's Kelli Arena, Alina Cho, Terry Frieden, Jeanne Meserve and Richard Roth contributed to this report.
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http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Midwest/08/05/chicago.arrest/index.html
Chicago man arrested in alleged bomb plot
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- The FBI arrested a Chicago man Thursday on charges he plotted to blow up a federal courthouse with a truck bomb made from fertilizer, federal prosecutors said.
Gale Nettles, 66, was accused of targeting the Everett McKinley Dirksen Federal Building. Nettles faced an initial court appearance Thursday afternoon, prosecutors said. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said the court building, located in downtown Chicago, was never in danger.
Prosecutors said Nettles purchased 500 pounds of what he was told was ammonium nitrate fertilizer -- the same material used to build the bomb used to destroy Oklahoma City's federal building in 1995 -- from an undercover FBI agent Wednesday.
He was arrested Thursday morning after selling 1,500 pounds of fertilizer to another undercover agent, who was posing as a member of a Middle Eastern terrorist organization Nettles hoped would join the plot, Fitzgerald said.
"The closest he came to a terrorist was meeting an undercover FBI agent," Fitzgerald said.
On April 19, 1995, around 9:03 a.m., just after parents dropped their children off at day care at the Murrah Federal Building, a rental truck parked outside the building and loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded killing 168 people.
On June 11, 2001, Timothy McVeigh was executed after his murder conviction for driving the bomb-laden truck.
In June of this year, a jury in a state trial convicted conspirator Terry Nichols on 161 counts of murder for his role in the bombing but could not reach the required unanimous decision on whether he should be sentenced to death. Nichols was convicted in an earlier federal trial and sentenced to life in prison.
CNN's Grace Ramirez contributed to this report.