Shooting at Ft. Hood Texas 11/05/09 13 dead, 43 wounded-(Murder Charges)

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In pictures: Jet bomb suspect's journey
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8433599.stm

Video: Abdulmutallab's Yemen Connection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3O2SCvILvM&feature=player_embedded

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Airline bombing plot: Al-Qaida supporting cleric may face arrest

Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni cleric said to have met the Nigerian accused of the Christmas Day terrorist plot. Photograph: AP

An influential Yemeni cleric, once thought untouchable by the authorities despite his preaching in support of al-Qaida, including to several of the 9/11 hijackers, tonight appeared to be a target for arrest after a senior minister suggested the US-born cleric had met the man accused of the attempted Christmas Day airliner bombing.

Rashad al-Alimi, Yemen's deputy prime minister for defence and security, told journalists in Sana'a today that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian who tried to detonate explosives aboard an airliner over Detroit, had gone to Anwar al-Awlaki's home during a trip to Yemen late last year.

Abdulmutallab arrived in Yemen in late August on a student visa and was last seen on 21 September, according to friends and teachers. He reappeared on 5 December, friends said, and left Yemen two days later, the authorities confirmed.

The date of Abdulmutallab's departure calls into question the claim by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP), the group Barack Obama blames for the airliner incident, that the attack was in direct response to US military support for Yemen's all-out offensive against the militants, which began on December 17.

The deputy minister confirmed that during his 11-week disappearance Abdulmutallab met al-Qaida leaders at a farmhouse in Rafad, in Yemen's remote eastern province of Shabwa. The farmhouse was bombed on 24 December, a day before the attempted Detroit attack, in air strikes that Yemeni security sources initially said killed Awlaki.

However, a journalist and family friend of Awlaki told the Guardian last week that he had spoken to the cleric, who lives near the farmhouse and he was "alive and well". Several of Awlaki's relatives who had attended the meeting were killed in the attack, but AQAP's senior leadership escaped, said local sources, having left the farm just hours before.

Awlaki's contacts with Nidal Hassan, the US army psychiatrist who killed 13 American soldiers at Fort Hood in November, have raised further serious doubts over the effectiveness of US intelligence gathering. Last month it emerged that Hassan's first email to Awlaki asked whether the cleric could justify, under Islamic law, the killing of American soldiers on US soil. The email was sent on 17 December 2008 and was intercepted by the FBI, who failed to stop Hassan before the killings 11 months later.

The confirmation of Awlaki's contacts with Abdulmutallab will put Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, under serious pressure as his American allies demand to know why the cleric was allowed to continue to operate for months, even after the revelation of his contacts with the Fort Hood killer.

Authorities said in November they sought the arrest of Awlaki, but local journalists said the cleric continued to live at home untroubled. The authorities' reluctance to move against radical Islamists in Yemen underscores the deep conflicts over political Islam which lie at the heart of Yemen's ruling elite. While the government runs a programme to re-educate Islamist militants away from violence, it lost the support of US officials after graduates of the scheme were captured in Iraq fighting US-led forces.

The re-education programme, involving talks between jailed militants and a senior Yemeni cleric, aims to persuade jihadists that Islam does not condone the kind of violent terrorism practised by groups such as al-Qaida.

"Yemen has created a new way to fight terrorism. We proved to the world that the tongue and pen are more powerful than weapons," Judge Hamoud Hitar, the Islamic scholar who leads the programme, told the Guardian.

The programme also aims to integrate former militants into society, providing them with training, jobs and a home.

Hitar said that up until 2006, of the 420 prisoners holding extremist militant Islamic views whom he talked to, none had committed armed violence against the state. But the judge said he was unable to argue against militants fighting in Muslim countries under occupation. Hitar said: "As long as the US army and British army are conquering them, Muslims have the right to fight and defend their lands and themselves. The jihad is a part of our religion."

Obama said this week he would suspend repatriation of any Yemeni prisoners held at Guantánamo bay, which he has pledged to close. Nearly half the remaining 198 inmates are from Yemen.

Alimi denied accusations that another prominent Yemeni cleric and leader of the Islamist opposition, Abdul Majeed Zindani, had played a role in radicalising Abdulmutallab.

A Sunday Times report said the Nigerian had attended lectures by Awlaki at Zindani's Iman University. Alimi said Abdulmutallab had not done a formal course at Iman. When asked why the authorities had not arrested Zindani, labelled by the US a "specially designated global terrorist" for ties to Osama Bin Laden, the minister said there was no legal basis for doing so.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/07/airline-bombing-plot-alqaida-cleric

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Suicide bomber at Afghan base was 'loner,' his mother says

January 7, 2010 -- Updated 2211 GMT (0611 HKT)

Amman, Jordan (CNN) -- The suicide bomber who killed eight people at a U.S. base in Afghanistan last week was a loner since childhood, his mother told CNN Thursday.

Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi wanted to be a pediatrician and went to medical school in Istanbul, Turkey, his mother, Shnara Fadel al-Balawi, said while wearing black in mourning for her son.

And he aspired to go to America, she added, even telling her last year that he had booked a ticket to the United States.

It is not clear that he did go to the United States. His wife said he went to Pakistan for further schooling and then found work.

The man identified as the double agent was a Jordanian doctor recruited as a counterterrorism intelligence source, a senior Jordanian official said Tuesday. A former U.S. intelligence official identified him earlier this week as al-Balawi.

Defne Bayrak, his Turkish wife, was "shocked" to hear what he had done, she told CNN Turk television.

"It is impossible for me to make a guess if he was an agent, what was his reason going there," she said. "I am not saying whether I am believing or not believing. I am trying to say, we were not expecting something like this."

He had been working in Pakistan as far as his wife knew, she said from their home in Istanbul.

Bayrak, an author and Turkish-Arabic translator, said they were continuously in communication via the Internet and that he repeatedly said he was coming home.

"When he phoned us, his conversations were very normal. Since he was always talking about coming to Turkey, naturally a human being would be shocked when such news comes," she said.

His brother told CNN his bomber's actions were "out of character" and that the man was "under pressure."

The man's father, who is shocked by his son's actions, said he was called by an Afghan speaking in broken Arabic from Afghanistan. The Afghan told him his son was dead and that he died as a hero in an operation to kill CIA agents. The caller said, according to the father, the circumstances could make problems for his family and that they will have to cope with it.

But the caller told the man's father his son was a hero. The mother, brother and father spoke to CNN's Nic Robertson.

The December 30 blast at a U.S. base in Khost, in southeastern Afghanistan, killed seven CIA operatives, including two from private security firm Xe, formerly known as Blackwater. The eighth victim was Jordanian Army Capt. Sharif Ali bin Zeid, a cousin of Jordan's King Abdullah II.

The suspected suicide bomber left Jordan a year ago for Turkey to finish his medical studies, but his family realized three months later he wasn't there, relatives said. The family didn't know whether the Afghan caller was from al Qaeda but believes it was some militant group.

A Jordanian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, had said authorities in Jordan arrested al-Balawi more than a year ago "for some suspicious information related to him" but released him due to lack of evidence.

"After (a) few months, he got in touch with us through the Internet and sent us several e-mails that include very important and rather dangerous information that might affect the security and stability of the country," the official told CNN.

"We kept in touch with him through e-mails in order to get more information and also trying to bring him over to be able to get more information. We shared and exchanged the information he gave us with some other friendly countries that are involved in countering terrorism."

The official said Jordan could not confirm that al-Balawi was the bomber, "because we are not on the ground."

"But we are not denying that if he is the one, then he is the Jordanian doctor," the official said.

U.S. sources said bin Zeid was the Jordanian operative working closely with al-Balawi, who was from the same hometown as the onetime leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Jordanian and U.S. intelligence agencies apparently believed al-Balawi had been rehabilitated from his extremist views and were using him to hunt Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's No. 2 figure, the former intelligence official said.

Former CIA official Robert Richer called the bombing the greatest loss of life for the agency since the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, which killed eight agents. An American intelligence official vowed last week that the United States would avenge the attack.

CNN's Nic Robertson, Caroline Faraj and Talia Kayali contributed to this report.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/01/07/afghanistan.jordanian.attack/

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Fundraising Event Schedule for Local Fort Hood Soldier

The Sidney American Legion is hosting a benefit for Matthew Cooke. Matthew Cooke was shot several times at the Ft. Hood military base in Texas. This local soldier is slowly recovering. During the incident Matthew crawled to a wounded soldier and covered him to save his life. Matthew will need at least one more operation plus physical and occupational therapy.

We want to show our support by having a benefit/fundraiser and tribute to Matthew Cooke. This weill take place Saturday, February 20th, at the American legion located at 22 Union st. Sidney, from 1pm-5pm. Tickets can be purchased in advance for a roast beef dinner at $9.00 a person

We are looking for monetary donations and auction items. Please send all monetary donations to Sidney American Legion, Attn: Matthew Cooke Benefit, 22 Union St. Sidney, NY13838. Make Checks payable to Matthew Cooke. Bring all donations ideally to the legion the day before February 19th. There will be someone there all day preparing for this.

We will be having music at some point in the day, to be determined. We will also be having auctions all day long with 50/50 raffles.

Contact me at Lawrence.halbert@mwv.com or call me at (607)-237-4762

http://www.wicz.com/news2005/viewarticle.asp?a=12181

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Intel Failure in Ft. Hood Case Preceded Airline Attack

Friday, January 08, 2010

Shortly after alleged gunman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire at Fort Hood and killed 13 people, the Pentagon's top intelligence officer reportedly sent a classified report to the White House detailing a prior failure to connect the dots.

According to CBS News, the 18 e-mails Hasan exchanged with radical Muslim imam Anwar al-Awlaki leading up to the rampage that were being monitored by a wiretap were never seen by the terrorism task force that was determining whether the Army major posed a threat.

After the task force had concluded Hasan didn't pose a threat, it didn't request later information on his exchanges with Awlaki.

Because Hasan was a member of the military, the FBI showed the e-mails to a Pentagon investigator with the note "comm" written on it. The word reportedly was seen as meaning "communication" to the Pentagon official, but to the FBI it meant "commissioned officer."

Thus, no alert was raised in regard to Hasan's communications with Awlaki.

The incident at Fort Hood mirrors U.S intelligence agencies' failure to pull together fragments of data needed to foil the failed Christmas Day bomb plot on the Detroit-bound airliner.

Officials had received fragments of information as early as October about an alleged terror recruit they later learned was Nigerian suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

President Obama on Thursday called for intel agencies to do a better job of recognizing serious terror threats that coincided with the release of a declassified summary of a two-week review of the incident.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,582540,00.html

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The radical cleric with ties to the Detroit bomber is also linked to the Fort Hood suspect. Their e-mail exchanges are at the heart of another apparent failure by the intelligence community.  (CBS/ AP)

Fort Hood Intel Lapse Mirrors Detroit Case

Exclusive: FBI and Pentagon Missed Red Flag that Hasan Was E-mailing Qaeda Cleric, Who's also Linked to Abdulmutallab

By David Martin

(CBS)  Less than a month after major Nidal Hasan allegedly killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, the Pentagon's top intelligence officer sent the White House a report detailing an earlier failure to connect the dots. It reads like a dress rehearsal for the Detroit bomber case, reports CBS News chief national security correspondent David Martin.

Special Report: The Christmas Day Terror Attack
http://www.cbsnews.com/2718-201_162-445.html

According to that still-classified report, the terrorism task force responsible for determining whether Hasan posed a threat never saw all 18 e-mails he exchanged with that radical Yemeni cleric Awlaki whose communications were being monitored under a court ordered wiretap.

After the Washington task force decided Hasan was not dangerous, it never asked to see his subsequent communications with Alwaki.

"I think it's a real problem that you didn't have in one place at one time all of the communications being evaluated," said CBS News security analyst Juan Zarate.

None of the e-mails specifically mentioned Hasan's plans for a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, but because he was a member of the military the FBI showed them to a Pentagon investigator with the note "comm" written on it. To the FBI that meant "commissioned officer." The Pentagon investigator thought it meant "communication."

Special Section: Tragedy at Fort Hood
http://www.cbsnews.com/2718-501143_162-377.html?tag=wc5553176

As a result, there were no red flags that an army officer was e-mailing a radical cleric suspected of being a talent spotter for al Qaeda.

Bottom line: the lessons of the Fort Hood shootings were not learned in time to avert the near disaster on Christmas day.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/07/eveningnews/main6069298.shtml?tag=stack

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Soldier shot at Fort Hood heads back to Texas + Video

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Theresa Gutierrez

January 7, 2009 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- For the last two and a half weeks Army First Class Najee Hull has been spending time with his family in the south suburbs, recovering from the wounds he suffered in the shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas.

Hull was the first soldier shot during the incident. He returns to the base this weekend. Hull talked with ABC 7's Theresa Gutierrez.

Army Private First Class Najee Hull may be healing from the gunshot wounds he suffered during the shootings at the US Army base in Fort Hood, Texas, but the massacre of soldiers and civilians is something he will never forget.

"Sometimes I slip into a zone where it keeps replaying over and over in my mind what's happening. And then the physical part is just my body just went through something traumatic. And I've never went through that before," said Pfc. Najee Hull, Fort Hood survivor.

The 21-year-old Homewood native came home for the holidays to recuperate from his injuries.

Hull says he was the first person wounded in the shooting spree.

"My instincts prevailed, and I did what I could to get out of the building and survive," said Hull.

Hull says his faith and the support of his family kept him going. But he still asks himself how a member of the U.S. military could turn on his comrades and open fire on a U.S. base.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder at Fort Hood.

"I really wasn't expecting to be shot by someone who was supposed to have my back in time of need," Hull said.

Hull says he often asks himself why he survived, and at times, he feels betrayed.

"Why me? Why me? Why would I be in this type of position, and then my aunt told me of course everything happens for a reason. You were spared because you have something to tell people," said Hull.

Hull and his older brother Nathaniel believe much has to be done to prevent this from ever happening again.

"I don't think it should be so easy to get onto a military facility, armed, and get into a building where they're not armed," said Nathaniel Hull, Najee's brother.

The 2007 Homewood-Flossmoor High School Graduate has undergone a number of surgeries. His spleen has been removed and fragments of bullets remain lodged in his chest and knee. He is scheduled to return to Fort Hood on Saturday.

"I serve my country. And that's what I do," said Hull.

Hull is a mechanic and is part of the 36th Engineer Brigade, which will deploy to Afghanistan this month without him. He still does not know what the future holds.

Hull has two years left in the Army and plans to attend college to become an electrical engineer.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7206648

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AbdulMutallab's trial begins

By Thisdayonline
International

Suspected Nigerian terrorist, Farouk Umar Abdul-mutallab, will be tried today in the United States for attempting to bomb an airliner in a proceeding analysts say may last for only two minutes after which he would be quickly hustled by marshals back to US federal prison in Milan to serve a life sentence.

Ahead of the trial, US President Barack Obama has accepted responsibility for the failure of intelligence in the failed bombing attempt.

Cameras will not be allowed within the premises of the court and Abdulmutallab may not say anything during the trial.

Prosecutors would not be required to present more evidence unless Abdulmutallab's lawyers at the Federal Defender Office request a detention hearing.

But this is said to be unlikely because Abdulmutallab is not in the US legally – his visa having been revoked – and would immediately be detained by US immigration authorities if a judge released him.

Also unclear is whether there will be a post-arraignment hearing on prosecutors' request to obtain a DNA sample from Abdulmutallab.

His lawyers have opposed it, but legal experts have said prosecutors can obtain the evidence through a search warrant.

“The attempted murder of 289 innocent people merits the most serious charge available, and that's what we have charged in this indictment,” U.S. Attorney Barbara McQ-uade of Detroit has said.

Today's arraignment is to be conducted by Magistrate Judge Mark Randon. The case has been assigned to US District Judge Nancy Edmunds.

The indictment says the 23-year-old Nigerian national tried to kill 279 passengers –including himself – and 11 crew members with a weapon of mass destruction on December 25.

"The bomb was designed to allow defendant Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate it at a time of his choosing, and thereby cause an explosion aboard Flight 253," the seven-page indictment said.

The document made no mention of terrorism, but the most serious of the six charges he faces – attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction – falls squarely under US federal terrorism statutes.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Had anyone died in the bomb plot, the charge could have brought the death penalty.

The other five counts carry maximum penalties ranging from 20-30 years in prison.

Two of the counts – possession of a destructive device in furtherance of a crime of violence – can add 30-year mandatory consecutive sentences to the weapon of mass destruction count. If convicted, Abdulmutallab could face a life sentence, plus 90 years.

Abdulmutallab was subdued by passengers on the plane after they noticed his pant, leg and the side of the plane's cabin were in flames. No passengers or crew were injured in the attack, which resulted in increased airline security worldwide.

When he was arrested, authorities said the bomb consisted of PETN, or pentaerythritol tetranitrate, a colourless, crystalline material that is highly explosive and in the same chemical family as nitroglycerin.

Wednesday's indictment also revealed that the device contained triacetone triperoxide, another high explosive known as TATP. It's one of the most sensitive explosives known and has recently appeared as a popular weapon in the Middle East.

It can be easily prepared using commercially available materials, according to a government website.

Both explosives were used by Richard Reid, who tried unsuccessfully to detonate a bomb in his shoe aboard a Paris-to-Miami flight in 2001. He is serving a life prison sentence in Colorado.

The indictment is straightforward, said Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and former federal prosecutor.

David Griem, a prominent Detroit criminal lawyer and former federal prosecutor, was quoted by deep.com as calling the case “the trial that cannot be lost”.

“This is a case that my 14-year-old daughter could prosecute,” he said after reading the indictment. We could try this case 100 times, and she'd beat me every time,” he said.

Griem said any plea bargain would be tricky, especially with a life-plus offence on the table. “What would the government be willing to offer this guy?” Griem said. “You can't plea-bargain your case away. What message are you sending to terrorists then?”

Dearborn attorney Majed Moughni has helped organise a demonstration, scheduled for today in front of the federal court building in Detroit, where Muslim Americans plan to denounce terrorism.

"We want to send a message to these terrorists that you're not welcome in our religion," he said. "We want the world to see our faces. Our goal is to ignite a peaceful protest throughout the Muslim world. We want the world to see what we can do here."

Moughni said he expects thousands from southeast Michigan to attend the protest.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that Abdulmutallab met al Qaeda elements in Yemen, and may have also met a radical US-born Islamic preacher, a focus of past US counterterrorist probes, according to a high-ranking Yemeni official.

Yemeni Deputy Prime Minister Rashad al Alimi, speaking to a news conference in the capital San'a, said Abdulmutallab may have met Anwar al Awlaki in Yemen's southern Shabwa province, after Abdulmutallab slipped out of San'a in late September, where he had been studying. Shabwa is one of at least three provinces known to be al Qaeda strongholds in Yemen.

"There is no doubt he met with al Qaeda elements in Shabwa, including likely with Awlaki," Alimi said, citing local intelligence investigations into the whereabouts of Abdulmutallab before he left Yemen on December 4.

And a few hours ahead of the trial of Abdulmutallab, Obama has accepted responsibility for the failure of American security agencies to stop the near-bombing.

Obama spoke as his staff released a report showing that officials missed numerous opportunities to stop Abdulmutallab before he boarded the Detroit-bound plane with explosives hidden in his clothing.

“The intelligence did not aggressively follow up on” information about the suspect, he said, nor did it “connect the dots” on the plot.
Obama said he had ordered officials to act more swiftly in adding terrorist suspects to no-fly lists and on examining evidence that could lead to an attack.

“We must follow the leads that we get,” Obama said, and act “on information that could protect the American people.”
He added, “we must do better in keeping dangerous people off airplanes.”

Obama said: “We must do better in keeping dangerous people off airplanes while facilitating air travel.”

The president said there's no "foolproof solution” to avoiding terror attacks.

The White House was making public a declassified account of how the suspect slipped through post-September 11 security to board the plane with an explosive.

Obama said America's first line of defence is “timely, accurate” intelligence that is properly integrated.
“That's not what happened” before the attack, he said.

http://www.modernghana.com/news/258251/1/abdulmutallabs-trial-begins.html

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2 Men Arrested in Connection With Zazi Terror Inquiry

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
Published: January 8, 2010

Two young men from Queens who had traveled to Pakistan in 2008 with a Denver airport shuttle bus driver who later was charged in a Qaeda bomb plot were arrested early Friday morning in connection with the case, according to the F.B.I.

The two men, Adis Medunjanin, 25, and Zarein Ahmedzay, 24, came under intense scrutiny during the investigation that led to a federal bombing conspiracy indictment against the shuttle bus driver, Najibullah Zazi, 24, in September, and have remained under investigation, officials have said.

The charges against Mr. Medunjanin and Mr. Ahmedzay — who both attended Flushing High School, as did Mr. Zazi — were not immediately made available on Friday morning. But the two men were expected to be arraigned later in the day in federal court in Brooklyn, where the charges were lodged against Mr. Zazi.

“Early this morning, Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay were arrested by the F.B.I.- N.Y.P.D. Joint Terrorism Task Force,” said James M. Margolin, a spokesman for the bureau’s New York office. He referred additional questions to the office of the Brooklyn United States Attorney, Benton J. Campbell, which is prosecuting the case and overseeing the investigation. A spokesman for Mr. Campbell declined comment.

A lawyer for Mr. Medunjanin, a United States citizen who is originally from Bosnia, has consistently denied that his client had any role in any terrorist plot or was involved in any wrongdoing. On Friday morning, the lawyer, Robert C. Gottlieb, accused the authorities of keeping his client away from him and from relatives, and said any statements Mr. Medunjanin may have made if he was questioned on Thursday night or Friday morning would therefore be inadmissible.

Mr. Ahmedzay’s father said on Thursday night that he has no lawyer. Another family member has denied that the young man, who like Mr. Zazi is originally from Afghanistan, was involved in any wrongdoing.

The arrests of the two young men sometime after midnight came hours after two agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized Mr. Medunjanin’s passport at his family’s Flushing apartment, pursuant to a search warrant, about 3 p.m. on Thursday. That led to a strange series of events that ended with Mr. Medunjanin in the custody of F.B.I. agents and police detectives and undergoing questioning, according to law enforcement officials.

Roughly an hour after his passport was seized, Mr. Medunjanin, who was being trailed by agents and detectives from the joint task force, was involved in a car accident near the Whitestone Bridge, according to law enforcement officials.

Mr. Medunjanin, who graduated from Queens College in June, got out of the car and apparently tried to flee the scene on foot. He was pursued and apprehended by the investigators, a law enforcement official said. He was taken to New York Hospital Queens, where he was treated for minor injuries, and then questioned by agents and detectives, a law enforcement official said.

Mr. Zazi, according to court papers filed in his case, admitted to F.B.I. agents during questioning in September that he had received training in weapons and explosives from Al Qaeda during his 2008 trip to Pakistan, although he has denied taking part in a bomb plot, and has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

Mr. Medunjanin’s lawyer, Mr. Gottlieb, said that two agents had gone to his client’s apartment with a search warrant for the passport.

The warrant, he said, indicated that the passport was being sought as part of an investigation into a conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction — the formal charge leveled against Mr. Zazi in September — and receiving military-type training from a foreign terrorist organization.

On Friday morning, Mr. Gottlieb said that he had been trying to contact federal authorities for nearly 12 hours, and that they had not notified him of his client’s arrest. He said that he had gone to the hospital on Thursday night after learning of the accident, and then to the nearby police precinct station house where, an emergency room nurse told him, Mr. Medunjanin had been taken. But, he said, he was unable to locate his client.

He said a desk sergeant at the station house told him Mr. Medunjanin had been taken to the Task Force’s offices in Manhattan, but he was unable to reach anyone there or at the prosecutor’s office.

The Task Force investigators and prosecutors, he said, knew that Mr. Medunjanin was represented by a defense lawyer and therefore could not legally question him without his lawyer present.

“And, therefore, if they did question him, it was an illegal interrogation and has to be thrown out,” Mr. Gottlieb said.

In September, Mr. Medunjaninand and Mr. Ahmedzay became the focus of intense investigation, partly because they had traveled to Pakistan in 2008 with Mr. Zazi, people with knowledge of the case have said.

 Agents and detectives assigned to the task force searched their homes, questioned them at length in voluntary interviews and took fingerprints from them, people briefed on the case have said. During the searches, investigators took cellphones and laptop computers, which family members said were later returned, and other items.

Both men were also kept under surveillance.

Another measure of investigators’ interest in the two men could be found in an incident that some investigators have said forced them to begin executing search warrants and take the investigation into Mr. Zazi public before they were ready.

Police detectives assigned to the Intelligence Division showed photographs of the two men, along with a picture of Mr. Zazi and an unidentified man, to a Queens imam who had helped the police in the past, according to the cleric’s lawyer, Ronald L. Kuby. The imam, Ahmad Wais Afzali, was later arrested on charges of making false statements and accused of warning Mr. Zazi that he was being sought by the authorities. Mr. Zazi’s father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, was also charged with making false statements in the case.

Mr. Zazi, who was born in Afghanistan, was raised in Pakistan and lived in Queens for 10 years before moving to Denver in January, was ordered held without bail in September after he pleaded not guilty to a bombing conspiracy indictment of a single count. A detention memorandum filed in federal court detailed what prosecutors said was his effort to make homemade explosives and his drive from Colorado to New York.

“Zazi and others flew from Newark Liberty International Airport to Peshawar, Pakistan,” the memo said, referring to the 2008 trip, without identifying the others.

Mr. Medunjanin, Mr. Zazi and Mr. Ahmedzay, 24, a taxi driver, had all lived in the same Flushing neighborhood. After they returned from Pakistan, Mr. Zazi moved to Denver, where he worked as a shuttle bus driver at Denver International Airport, according to court papers and people briefed on the matter.

Mr. Medunjanin’s and Mr. Ahmedzay’s apartments were among four that were searched in September as part of the investigation that led to bombing conspiracy charges against Mr. Zazi a week later.

“After all these months, when I was hoping they had closed the book on him, it indicates that things are still percolating, and the family is very upset,” Mr. Gottlieb said of the search warrant on Thursday, before learning of the car accident and subsequent arrest. “He did not do anything wrong, and if the book isn’t already closed, it should have been.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/09/nyregion/09zazi.html?pagewanted=2

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FILE - Najibullah Zazi arrives at the offices of the FBI in Denver for questioning in this Sept. 17, 2009 file photo. Two men have been arrested in connection with the investigation of a bomb plot against New York City. FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko says Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay were arrested early Friday Jan. 8, 2010 in New York. The FBI says the arrests were part of "an ongoing investigation."
Ed Andrieski / AP Photo
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/AP/story/1415382.html

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Two more arrested in suspected New York bomb plot
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0823606420100108?type=marketsNews

2 men arrested in connection with Zazi terrorism case
http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-zazi-arrests-010810,0,2475252.story

Zazi pal in Qns. crash fleeing from feds
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/zazi_pal_in_qns_crash_fleeing_from_svNiYDl0UZOr5u09nt6oDN#ixzz0c1jYk6PG

2 N.Y. Men Arrested In Zazi Terror Probe + Video
http://cbs4.com/national/adis.medunjanin.zarein.2.1412792.html

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Terror Suspect Arrested After Fleeing FBI, Crashing Car

After crashing his car on the Whitestone Expressway in an apparent attempt to shake FBI agents on his tail, a Queens man connected to Najibullah Zazi's alleged subway bombing plot was arrested at a Queens hospital, where he was being treated for minor injuries. Adis Medunjanin, 25, saw federal agents "swarming" his apartment as he arrived around 3:45 p.m. yesterday, and sped off. After crashing in Whitestone, he attempted to flee the scene but was apprehended by agents.

Medunjanin's attorney, Robert C. Gottlieb, said the FBI was at his client's home with a search warrant to seize his passport, as part of an investigation into a conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. Gottlieb also told the AP late last night that he was not officially notified that Medunjanin had been arrested: "As of 1 a.m., law enforcement—both federal and state—was refusing to confirm that they had him in custody. They intentionally hid him from his lawyer and his family.''

A second man, Zarein Ahmedzay, a taxi driver, was also arrested yesterday. Ahmedzay, Medunjanin, and Zazi are all graduates of Flushing High School; the former two have been under intense scrutiny since Zazi's arrest in September. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder claims that Zazi was plotting "one of the most serious terrorist threats to our country since 9/11." In 2008 the three men traveled to Pakistan together, and Zazi, 24, admitted to F.B.I. agents in September that he had received weapons and explosives training from Al Qaeda on the trip. However, he denies any bomb plot, the Times reports.
http://gothamist.com/2010/01/08/terror_suspect_arrested_after_fleei.php

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Complete details on recent deadly operations against al-Qaeda
[03/January/2010]
By: Mohammad Taher

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news202231.htm

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Abdulmutallab Enters Not Guilty Plea in Detroit Hearing

By: Alicia Lozano

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the man accused of attempting to blow up a U.S.-bound flight on Christmas Day, entered a not guilty plea during his arraignment Friday in a federal courtroom in Detroit.

The 23-year-old Nigerian suspect said little during a hearing that lasted less than five minutes. He wore a white T-shirt, tennis shoes and light olive pants, said "yes" in English when asked if understood the charges against him, according to the Associated Press.

The suspect stood at a podium along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel and defense attorney Miriam Siefer and answered several questions from the magistrate judge. When the judge asked if he had taken any drugs or alcohol in past 24 hours, he answered, "some pain pills."

Siefer then said Abdulmutallab was competent to understand the proceedings following his treatment for burns. His attorneys waived the reading of the indictment, and the judge entered not guilty plea enter on his behalf.

The suspect was indicted earlier this week by a federal grand jury that charged him with six counts including the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. He was also charged with attempted murder and possession of a firearm. He could face life in prison if found guilty.

Authorities charge that Abdulmutallab was traveling from Amsterdam to Detroit when he tried to blow up a plane carrying nearly 300 people on Christmas Day.

On Thursday, President Obama accepted responsibility for U.S. intelligence agencies failing to "connect the dots" that led to the al-Qaida-backed terrorism attempt.

Ultimately "the buck stops with me," the president said. He suggested that no one would be fired for the lapse in security, but did indicate that the scare was caused by a "systemic failure across organizations and agencies."

The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that U.S. border security learned of Abdulmutallab's connection to al-Qaida while the suspect was in mid-air. They intended to question him when he arrived in Detroit. The 23-year-old Nigerian has also been linked to the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was a person of interest in the November Fort Hood military base rampage.

Since the failed bomb plot, the Transportation Security Administration has boosted security in airports throughout the country and seeks to expand the use of full-body scanners, which experts say are more effective than metal detectors. Some argue that this is an invasion of privacy, however.

Abdulmutallab is being held at the federal prison in Milan, Mich.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/01/abdulmutallab-enters-not-guilty-plea-in-detroit-hearing.html

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Raw Video: Terror Suspect Arrives in Court
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-80y_F91RY&feature=player_embedded





Terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is arraigned today at the Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse in Detroit. (RASHAUN RUCKER/Detroit Free Press)




Blog from terror hearing: Media scrum outside court

BY JIM SCHAEFER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
http://www.freep.com/article/20100108/NEWS05/100108024/Blog-from-terror-hearing-Media-scrum-outside-court





Representatives of the local Muslim community in Metro Detroit Majed Moughni and his wife Vivian Moughni unveil a banner "Not in the name of Islam in front of the federal courthouse in Detroit around 11am on the day of the arraignment of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian national accused of trying to blow up an airliner as it descended toward Metro Airport on Dec. 25. The leaflet they distributed "If you want to Americans we are Americans, come kill us first, if you want to assassinate Americans, we are Americans, come assassinate us first. If you want to blow up American Airlines, we are Americans, come bomb us first". January 8, 2009. (MARCIN SZCZEPANSKI/DFP)

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This courtroom drawing shows Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, right, charged with attempting to blow up a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner, at his hearing in Detroit federal court on Friday Jan. 8, 2010. Abdulmutallab was arraigned Friday on six charges. The most severe carries up to life in prison, the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
(AP Photo/Verna Sadock)

Christmas terror suspect says little in court
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_airline_attack;_ylt=AoW7My1rcPBtfv0VZ3NTUolsaMYA


Maryam Uwais, a lawyer in Nigeria is escorted away from federal court in Detroit, Friday, Jan. 8, 2010. Uwais says she was sent by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's family to observe the hearing on Friday. Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian suspect who allegedly tried to set off an explosive device aboard Northwest 253 on Christmas day as it came in for a landing in Detroit from Amsterdam, pleaded not guilty to charges that he tried to blow up a packed U.S. Detroit.
(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)



Haider Koussan, left, Fatima Kesselouani, center, and Moad Taleb stand outside the Theodore Levin United States Courthouse in Detroit, Friday, Jan. 8, 2010. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab arrived at federal court Friday for his arraignment on charges he failed to detonate a chemical-laden explosive on a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight.
(AP Photo/Paul Sancya)


Nigerian-Americans including Follisito Ogunfiditimi, right, stand outside the Theordore Levin United States Courthouse in Detroit, Friday, Jan. 8, 2010. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian suspect who allegedly tried to set off an explosive device aboard Northwest 253 on Christmas day as it came in for a landing in Detroit from Amsterdam, is scheduled to appear in federal court Friday.
(AP Photo/Paul Sancya)


In this artist's sketch, Nigerian bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (R) appears before Judge Bernard Friedman (L) in Federal Courthouse in Detroit, Michigan. Hobbled by leg irons, the young Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a US plane on Christmas Day pleaded not guilty Friday as he made his first court appearance amid heightened security.
(AFP/Vera Sadock)

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CIA bomber's wife says war must go on against US


Defne Bayrak, the Turkish wife of Jordanian doctor Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi who killed seven CIA employees in a suicide attack in Afghanistan, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in a park in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, Jan. 8, 2010. Bayrak said her husband was outraged over the treatment of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison and the U.S.-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Bayrak also said that his hatred of the United States had motivated her husband to sacrifice his life on Dec. 30 in what he regarded as a holy war against the U.S.
(AP Photo/Ibrahim Usta)

By SELCAN HACAOGLU, Associated Press Writer Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jan 8, 7:24 am ET

ISTANBUL – The Turkish wife of a Jordanian doctor who killed seven CIA employees in a suicide attack in Afghanistan says her husband was outraged over the treatment of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison and the U.S.-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defne Bayrak, the wife of bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, said in an interview with The Associated Press that his hatred of the United States had motivated her husband to sacrifice his life on Dec. 30 in what he regarded as a holy war against the U.S.

Bayrak also said Friday, "I think the war against the United States must go on."

Turkish police questioned and released Bayrak on Thursday. But she says police confiscated a book she had written called "Osama bin Laden the Che Guevera of the East."
Mother of 'Jordan bomber' says he was no extremist Play Video AFP  – Mother of 'Jordan bomber' says he was no extremist

    * CIA base attacked in Afghanistan Slideshow:CIA base attacked in Afghanistan
    * Brian Ross Investigates CIA Bomber Play Video Video:Brian Ross Investigates CIA Bomber ABC News
    * CIA Looking for Revenge After Attack Play Video Video:CIA Looking for Revenge After Attack ABC News

This undated image provided Friday, Jan. 8, 2009 by Jordan's Al-Ghad newspaper, AP – This undated image provided Friday, Jan. 8, 2009 by Jordan's Al-Ghad newspaper, purports to show Humam …
By SELCAN HACAOGLU, Associated Press Writer Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jan 8, 7:24 am ET

ISTANBUL – The Turkish wife of a Jordanian doctor who killed seven CIA employees in a suicide attack in Afghanistan says her husband was outraged over the treatment of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison and the U.S.-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defne Bayrak, the wife of bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, said in an interview with The Associated Press that his hatred of the United States had motivated her husband to sacrifice his life on Dec. 30 in what he regarded as a holy war against the U.S.

Bayrak also said Friday, "I think the war against the United States must go on."

Turkish police questioned and released Bayrak on Thursday. But she says police confiscated a book she had written called "Osama bin Laden the Che Guevera of the East."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100108/ap_on_re_eu/eu_turkey_cia_afghan_attack;_ylt=AiOyM3GWEhEZSr.L1__JA4ms0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTN2ODRzYzI2BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwMTA4L2V1X3R1cmtleV9jaWFfYWZnaGFuX2F0dGFjawRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzcEcG9zAzQEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl9oZWFkbGluZV9saXN0BHNsawNjaWFib21iZXJzd2k-

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Relative of Alleged Fort Hood Shooter Joins Defense Team

Miriam Rozen
Texas Lawyer
January 08, 2010

Belton, Texas, solo John Galligan, who represents Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, says he has added a close relative of Hasan's from out of state to the defense team as of Tuesday. Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who allegedly went on a shooting spree at Fort Hood on Nov. 5, is facing a possible court martial.

Galligan says he added the relative to make it possible for that relative to visit with Hasan for more than a few hours a week and to do so without being observed and possibly videotaped by Army investigators. Galligan declines to identify the relative.

On Dec. 9, Galligan told Tex Parte he had learned the precise terms of his client's pretrial confinement, as set by the U.S. Army. According to the December interview with Galligan, the rules: allowed for a closed-circuit TV camera in Hasan's room for Hasan's and others' safety; barred visits from anyone except Hasan’s family members and his lawyers (at the time, Galligan and Hasan’s appointed military defense counsel, Major Christopher E. Martin) and limited those visits to one hour (Galligan did not know at the time if the time limit was per day or per visitor); required all visitors to provide picture identification; restricted all communications with Hasan to English; and required that an interpreter be present if another language is spoken.

On Thursday, Galligan said he added the relative to the defense team only after Army officials denied the relative a confidential visit with Hasan. As of press time, Galligan says his client and the relative have met twice, alone, without recording devices.

This article first appeared on the Tex Parte blog on TexasLawyer.com.

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202437753755&rss=newswire

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Mr Abdulmutallab stayed standing, neither aggressive, nor cowed


Abdulmutallab impassive in court

Sketch of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in court in Detroit (8 January 2010)
Mr Abdulmutallab stayed standing, neither aggressive, nor cowed

By Matthew Price
BBC News, Detroit

Considering the violence of the attempted crime, Room 100 of the US district court in Detroit was surprisingly calm, just an hour ahead of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's first appearance.

Seating was limited to those who had queued outside on the frosty pavement for a pass several hours earlier.

In the front rows sat a delegation from the Nigerian embassy in Washington. One of the diplomats said the accused's family had not come.

   
I don't want anybody to be able to see how far the podium is from the rest of the room
Court official

The official courtroom artists - those who draw the sketches of the scene inside - sat opposite the chairs reserved for the defence.

An official asked them to be careful about what they depicted.

"I don't want anybody to be able to see how far the podium is from the rest of the room," he explained.

If not nerves, there is some awareness here of the potential at least for some sort of attack against the court during such a sensitive trial.

Painkillers

And then, without warning, and five minutes before the case was due to start, there he was.

The man who faces six charges, including attempting to blow up a plane and kill the 289 other passengers and crew on 253 to Detroit on Christmas Day, hobbled in - perhaps because of the injuries sustained or the leg irons he was wearing.

A short young man, he sat in a chair and for several moments listened and nodded to his lawyers.

   
THE CHARGES
Attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction
Attempted murder within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the US
Wilful attempt to destroy and wreck an aircraft
Wilfully placing a destructive device in or near an aircraft which was likely to endanger the safety of the aircraft
Two counts of possession of a firearm, ie the bomb, in furtherance of violent crime

He looked up slowly, his eyes staring with a slightly vacant look at the court. His shoulders were hunched.

Then the court stood, and the judge came in.

Mr Abdulmutallab approached the bench, slowly again. He spoke to say his name, then spelt it out at the judge's request.

The judge asked him what level of school he had reached. He seemed not to understand - though his English seemed excellent.

The judge asked him if he had attended secondary school. "Yes," he replied.

The judge asked if he had taken any medication in the last 24 hours. He said he had not.

Then he corrected himself, in a soft, lilting and polite voice: "In the last 24 hours? Some painkillers," he told the judge.

The court was quiet.

Then the judge asked if he had had time to see the six charges against him, and understood them. He replied yes to both.

"Do you understand the sentence you face?" Mr Abdulmutallab was asked. "Yes, I do."

Little emotion

Mr Abdulmutallab stayed standing, neither aggressive, nor cowed.

It was hard to read his thoughts, hard to tell what he has been thinking in the 14 days since the attempted bombing.

His lawyer told the court he would not be applying for bail.

The judge said there would be further proceedings at a later date, and after a little more procedure, that was it. Less than three minutes in all.

As the court rose, and the judge left the chamber, Mr Abdulmutallab turned to his left to walk out of the court.

Then - in the first display of any real interest on his part - he craned his neck to take a look at the front row of the public gallery.

It was hard to read any emotion on his face as he looked for anyone he knew, a family member perhaps.

And then he walked slowly out.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8449660.stm

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Profile: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a transatlantic flight on Christmas Day, appears to have lived a life of privilege.

As the son of one of Nigeria's most prominent businessmen he had access to international travel and a world-class education. He has been described by one former British teacher as a dream student.

But people close to him have said he was increasingly showing signs of extremist views.

After his arrest, his family told the BBC they had not heard from him since October 2009.

US and Yemeni officials have linked him to radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, whom he is said to have met while in Yemen before the attack, and that he was trained for the attack in Yemen, by the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

'Teacher's dream'

Mr Abdulmutallab's father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, said he had approached the US and Nigerian authorities to warn them about his son's views in November - weeks before the alleged attempt to destroy the flight to Detroit.

Nigerian media quoted Mr Mutallab, an influential banker who is well connected in Nigerian politics, as saying his son first became radicalised while studying at the British School in Lome (BSL), Togo.

Michael Rimmer, a Briton who taught him history, told the BBC Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had been "every teacher's dream - very keen, enthusiastic, very bright, very polite".

He had excelled in Islamic scholarship at the British school and gained a reputation for preaching to other students, said Mr Rimmer.

Mr Rimmer said his former student had always been "very religious" and occasionally aired opinions which were "a bit over the top".

"In 2001 we had a number of class discussions about the Taliban. All the other Muslim kids in the class thought they were just a bunch of nutters, but Umar spoke in their defence," said Mr Rimmer.

But he assumed Mr Abdulmutallab was "just playing devil's advocate, trying to keep the discussion going".

Contact severed

Between 2005 and 2008, Mr Abdulmutallab was enrolled on a course in mechanical engineering at the prestigious University College London.
Alhaji Umaru Mutallab (file image)
Mr Mutallab had warned the authorities about his son's extreme views

The UCL engineering department has described him as a "well-mannered, quietly spoken, polite and able young man," who "never gave his tutors any cause for concern".

Yemeni officials have said he was recruited to al-Qaeda while in London. But UCL and UK government officials have denied that his radicalisation took place during those years.

A former close friend of Mr Abdulmutallab told the BBC he also believed he was recruited only after leaving the country in 2008.

Qasim Rafiq, who knew the suspect for three years at UCL and preceded him as president of its Islamic Society, said he had shown no signs of violent extremism while living in the UK.

Media reports say Mr Abdulmutallab lived in comfort during his studies, in an apartment in a smart neighbourhood of west London.

After graduating in 2008, he told his family he wanted to continue learning, by moving to an Arab country to study Arabic.

His family told the BBC Mr Abdulmutallab's parents decided to send him to Dubai to study for a post-graduate degree in business management, thinking he would benefit from its cosmopolitan nature and would not be exposed to extremist influences.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is thought to have tried to cut ties with his mother (file image)
Mr Abdulmutallab's family said they would cooperate with any enquiry

But despite his parents' objections, he abandoned the course before it was finished, saying he was no longer interested and had found an alternative course in Yemen.

He said the seven-year programme would cost nothing and that it did not matter if his Nigerian passport expired - he would be able to obtain a Yemeni one.

When his mother contacted him to urge him to reconsider, Mr Abdulmutallab told her not to get in touch again as he had found "a new life" and they no longer had any ties to him.

It was at this point, the BBC was told, that Mr Mutallab attempted to travel to Yemen to bring his son home. He also sought help from the US, Nigerian and Saudi authorities, telling them he was concerned by his son's behaviour.


Mr Abdulmutallab's family said they would cooperate with any enquiry

'Actionable intelligence'

The Mutallab family say they have had no contact with Mr Abdulmutallab since October, when he was in Yemen.

They have since been told by US officials that he left Yemen, travelling to Ethiopia and Ghana and finally Nigeria, from where he embarked on his alleged bombing mission.
Map of route

Despite being on a US terrorism database of 550,000 suspects, Mr Abdulmutallab was not on shorter lists of people banned from flying in the country or subject to additional security screening.

He was able to fly from Lagos to Amsterdam and then board a plane bound for Detroit with high explosives - PETN and TATP - allegedly sewn into his underwear. He tried to detonate the explosives by injecting chemicals into them, before being overpowered by passengers and crew. He was badly burned in the process.

US officials said that after his arrest he spent several hours with the FBI and provided them with "usable, actionable intelligence".

Mr Abdulmutallab is reported to have told investigators he had links to al-Qaeda and had received his explosives in Yemen. Yemen denies this, saying they came from Nigeria.

On 6 January he was indicted by a US grand jury on six charges, including the attempted murder of the plane's 290 passengers and crew, and attempted use of weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Abdulmutallab faces up to life prison if convicted, and is currently being held at a prison in the state of Michigan.

The attack has led the US and other countries to boost security at airports around the world, including enhanced screening for travellers arriving from or through 14 countries considered to be high risk, including Yemen and Nigeria.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8431530.stm