Bin Laden Threatens Americans in First Video Message in Three Years

September 07, 2007 3:09 PM

From The Blotter:

Osama bin Laden's rambling address includes a direct threat to the American people.

There are only two options to end the war in Iraq: either end the American democratic system of government, or for insurgents, he says, "to continue to escalate the killing and fighting against you."

World News Video: Watch Bin Laden's New Video Message

The al Qaeda leader refers to Democrats' gains in the November 2006 elections, saying they "haven't made a move worth mentioning. On the contrary, they continue to agree to the spending of tens of billions to continue the killing and war there."

The reason, he says, is the American democracy is corrupted by the influence of money from corporations, "the true tyrannical terrorists."

"[S]ince the democratic system permits major corporations to back candidates. . . there shouldn’t be any cause for astonishment. . . the Democrats’ failure to stop the war," bin Laden says. He also says that "despite the differing intentions," his interests overlap with corporations and others who perpetuate the war.

Bin Laden also has harsh words for the U.S. news media, which "lost its credibility and manifested itself as a tool of the colonialist empires" with its early coverage of the Iraq war. That coverage, he says, was often worse than what was produced by news outlets under dictatorial regimes.

He also mentions French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who came to power in May and at the end of June, respectively.

Bin Laden does refer to the Sept. 11 attacks. He criticizes Americans for not holding "those who waged this war" accountable and for re-electing President Bush "to continue to murder our people in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"Then you claim to be innocent!" he says. "The innocence of yours is like my innocence of the blood of your sons on the 9/11 -- were I to claim such a thing."

Bin Laden emphasized the tolerance Islamic countries have shown Jews and Christians in history, contrasting that with the Jewish holocaust and the slaughter of Native Americans in North America. Ultimately, bin Laden says, everyone should convert to Islam.

This is the al Qaeda's leader first video message since October 2004.

This post has been updated.

September 7, 2007 in Osama bin Laden, Terror | Permalink | User Comments (36)

Cyberterrorists Sentenced in London; Made Online Threats against the U.S.

July 05, 2007 10:51 AM

Maddy Sauer Reports:

Three men, including one of the United Kingdom's most notorious cyberterrorists, were sentenced in London today for inciting terror over the Internet. One of the men provided a car bomb recipe to someone who claimed that he wanted to attack the United States.

23 year-old Younis Tsouli, known online as "Terrorist007," received a message from a user in his extremist chatroom on February 12, 2005, which read: 'We are 45 doctors and we are determined to undertake jihad and take the battle inside America."

The message went on to say, "The first target which will be penetrated by nine brothers is the naval base which gives shelter to the ship Kennedy."

Prosecutors believe this threat refers to the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, a 1,050-foot-long decommissioned aircraft carrier at Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville, Florida.

The message also said that other targets near the naval base would be hit including "clubs for naked women which are opposite the First and Third units." The plotters wanted to use six Chevrolet GT vehicles and three fishing boats for the attack.

Tsouli replied, "He needs the recipe for making car bombs," and the instructions were supplied over the internet.

Do you have a tip for Brian Ross and the Investigative Team?

A plot against a US base in Virginia and an attempt to free inmates in Guantanamo were also discussed on the online forum. The FBI said today that these threats have already been thoroughly investigated and that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security consider them not to be credible.

Despite the similarities in method and the claim that the plotters were a group of doctors, prosecutors do not believe that these cyberterrorists are connected to the suspects in the recent thwarted attacks in London and Glasgow.

Tsouli, a Moroccan, and his co-defendants Waseem Mughal, a British born citizen with a degree in biochemistry, and Tariq Al-Daour, who was born in the UAE and later granted British citizenship, were all arrested back in October 2005. On their computers, investigators found hordes of extremist material including bomb-making videos, martyrdom films, and footage of hostages being beheaded in Iraq.

The prosecutor in the case, Mark Ellison, said the group's websites and chatrooms distributed the material to online users all over the globe. "The point is these websites were being visited in significant numbers and people were getting access to material," said Ellison. "Putting it bluntly, the publication enterprise that this represented was successful. This material was being peddled out with its call inciting people to join jihad."

Today, Justice Peter Openshaw sentenced Tsouli to 10 years in jail and recommended his deportation at the end of his sentence. Mughal was jailed for seven and a half years for the same charge of incitement of an act of terrorism, and Al-Daour for six and a half years. All of the men pleaded guilty to their charges earlier in the trial.

This post has been updated.

Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.

July 5, 2007 in Terror | Permalink | User Comments (38)

U.S., Germans Fear Terror Attack

May 11, 2007 12:24 PM

Brian Ross, Richard Esposito & Chris Isham Report:

U.S. and German officials fear terrorists are in the advanced planning stages of an attack on U.S. military personnel or tourists in Germany.

Law enforcement officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com that U.S. air marshals have been diverted to provide expanded protection of flights between Germany and the United States.

"The information behind the threat is very real," a senior U.S. official told ABC News.

Photos Terror Threat in Germany

German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble told reporters, "The danger level is high. We are part of the global threat by Islamist terrorism."

Of particular concern, according to U.S. and German law enforcement officials, is Patch Barracks, the headquarters for U.S. European Command, near Stuttgart.

Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.

Security at all U.S. military and diplomatic facilities has been increased in the last month following reports that suspected terrorists had conducted surveillance of the Patch Barracks facility.

"The attack would be designed to create high numbers of casualties among both Germans and the U.S. military," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, a former White House counterterror official.

The 9/11 hijackers planned their operation out of Hamburg, Germany, and the country continues to be known as a staging area for al Qaeda and groups affiliated with it.

"There are 300 to 500 people who are suspected to be part of al Qaeda cells in Germany," said Col. Andrew Pratt (Ret.) of the George Marshall Center in Germany.

"In a democratic state like Germany, you just can't go out and arbitrarily arrest people because they are under suspicion," Pratt said.

German officials have called for enhanced police powers to keep suspected terror groups in check.

Several radical Islamist groups have threatened violence unless Germany withdraws its troops from the NATO force in Afghanistan.

A radical Islamist group in Iraq took a German woman and her adult son hostage in February, threatening to execute them if Germany did not pull its troops out of Afghanistan. The two are still being held.

Late last month, the U.S. Embassy in Berlin issued a statement saying that security was being increased at the embassy and other consular facilities "in response to a heightened threat situation." The statement also urged "Americans in Germany to increase their vigilance and take appropriate steps to bolster their own personal security."

A spokesperson at Patch Barracks said they were not aware of any specific surveillance on the location, and they are not under any more specific surveillance than other U.S. facilities in Germany. "As a response to the U.S. Embassy Berlin's recent warden message, all U.S. military installations in Germany are urged to exercise increased viligance," they said in a statement to ABC News.

When asked today about ABC News' report of a terror threat in Germany, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, "I don't have anything new on that."  He continued, "There was recently, within the past couple weeks...a warden message that went out from our embassy asking people in-country to exercise extra vigilance and caution although, at that point, they didn't have a specific, credible threat, but they were quite concerned."

This post has been updated.

May 11, 2007 in Terror | Permalink | User Comments (529)

Fort Dix Six Smile, Wave At Hearing

May 11, 2007 12:05 PM

Vic Walter Reports:

The six men accused in the alleged plot to kill U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix, N.J., smiled and waved at family members today as they appeared before a federal magistrate in Camden, N.J.

Appearing as if he didn't have a care in the world, Shain Duka gave an enthusiastic greeting to members of his family, many of whom had been quietly sobbing as the magistrate, Joel Schneider, ordered him held without bail.

Duka and his two brothers are illegal aliens, according to the government.

Only one of the defendants, Mohamad Shnewer, asked to be released on bail.  His lawyer, Rocco Ciperone,  said Schnewer's family had raised $600,000 to post bail.

The magistrate refused to grant bail after government prosecutors said he presented "a danger" to the community, citing the criminal complaint which detailed his alleged involvement in the plot to kill soldiers.

Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.

The men, in green jumpsuits and leg irons, appeared one by one in front of the magistrate under heavy security.

May 11, 2007 in Terror | Permalink | User Comments (26)

New Al-Zawahiri Video?

June 21, 2006 11:19 PM

Brian Ross and Rhonda Schwartz Report:

What appears to be a new videotape from Ayman al-Zawahiri, produced by As-Sahab and dated June 6, has been posted on one of the websites frequently used by al Qaeda. The rough title of the video, which is three minutes and 44 seconds long, is "America's Crimes in Kabul."

According to Ben Venske of the Intel Center, a government contractor that tracks Arabic websites, this is the sixth video statement showing al-Zawahiri to be released in 2006. Venske says the release of the video is part of an ongoing propaganda campaign that has intensified dramatically since the end of 2005.

The following is a rough translation of the video:

"My speech today is directed to the people in Kabul who have witnessed the bitter experience yesterday and watched new evidence of the crimes of the Americans against Muslims in Kabul. The new aggression against you was preceded by a series of killings of the innocent in Kabul, Khost, Kandahar….etc. and torture of Muslims and humiliation of the Qur'an and the humiliation of the prophet and it was preceded by the honoring of Salman Rushdi who mocked the prophet. Therefore I call on Muslims in Kabul in particular and the Muslims in Afghanistan in general to stand in the way of the invading forces. The flags of these forces are all over. I call on Muslims in Kabul and in all of Afghanistan to follow Islam, the Qur'an and the prophet and to be proud. I call on them to remember the history of their fathers in resisting the invaders. I call on them to resist this occupation. I call on the youth in the schools and the universities in Kabul to defend their religion. Don't believe these invaders or their agents, the traitors, who want to humiliate you for their interests. Stand as one with the mujaheddin until the invaders are kicked out and Afghanistan is liberated and the Islamic sharia is applied and there’s security and justice."

June 21, 2006 in Terror | Permalink | User Comments (22)

Alleged Canadian Terror Plot Revealed

June 06, 2006 4:53 PM

Brian Ross Reports:

Some of the 17 terror suspects smirked, and others appeared defiant in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice building in Brampton today as the new, chilling details of their alleged plot emerged.

The most dramatic part of the plot included a plan to bomb and storm the Parliament building in Ottawa.

Officials, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, were to be taken hostage and perhaps beheaded if Canadian troops were not withdrawn from Afghanistan.

The details came from a lawyer for one of the suspects who said the plot also included a plan to storm the studios of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the CBC.

"There's an allegation apparently that my client personally indicated that he wanted to behead the Prime Minister of Canada," said Gary Batasar, the lawyer for suspect Stephen Chand.

The Prime Minister has defended the role of Canada's 2,300 troops in Afghanistan, and that clearly was a big issue for the suspected terrorists.

Just two months ago at this mosque, a member of Parliament heard the alleged ringleader of the plot condemn Canadian troops as rapists.

"He alluded to the fact that Canadian troops were deployed in Afghanistan to rape Muslim women," said Wajid Khan, a member of Canadian Parliament. 

Officials say the decision to move in last Friday, with one suspect stopped in heavy traffic and taken into custody, came because it was increasingly clear the men were deadly serious in their beliefs and prepared to act.

Canadian and U.S. authorities say this was at heart a website plot, with fellow jihadists in the U.S., London and Bosnia, essentially serving as armchair commanders, making suggestions on methods of operation and targets.   

June 6, 2006 in Terror | Permalink | User Comments (10)

Homegrown Terror Cell Members Still Active

June 06, 2006 2:12 PM

Richard Esposito Reports:

U.S. and Canadian officials say the arrest in London on October 22, 2005 of Younis Tsouli was an important aspect of the case, and emails and digitized video clips found in his possession provided valuable leads in the Canadian criminal case.

These same authorities and Canadian authorities stress that while Tsouli may have "encouraged" terror activities, he was neither the lynchpin of the Canadian terror cell or of the case itself, which began a year earlier when Canadian intelligence officials monitored email accounts used by radicalized Canadian men and youths.

ABC News has learned that Tsouli was in possession of short video clips stored in a thumb drive that showed images of the U.S. Capitol, of a Secret Service large bio hazard vehicle used in the Capitol and of fuel tank farms in the Washington area. It appears these clips may have been made by one of two suspects arrested in Atlanta in March 2006 for allegedly planning to blow up tank farms and what they erroneously thought was the site that controlled the U.S. Global Positioning satellite system.

According to law enforcement, Tsouli did communicate with the Toronto cell and discuss with members "what to attack" and "how to target."

According to law enforcement, emails and other materials may be the links that established his connection and that of the digital targeting clips in his possession to the Atlanta suspects. The first reports on Tsouli and the video clips came in Newsweek online at the time of his October 2005 arrest.

It is known that the Atlanta suspects did travel to DC. The clips appear the work of amateurs, not the work of a trained professional surveillance team. They could have been useful to some degree in targeting.

Law enforcement officials say the case, which has links in Sweden, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Canada, the UK and U.S., is very much ongoing, and both internet activities and suspects at large continue to be monitored. U.S. officials say that one of the Atlanta suspects traveled to Bangladesh and intended to go to Pakistan. He was shadowed along the way. Other suspects were also shadowed as they traveled. The goal: to identify as many members as possible before taking down the large Canada component that remains the central focus of the case and the one that U.S. and Canadian officials both say was the most potentially dangerous.

June 6, 2006 in Terror | Permalink | User Comments (3)

More Arrests Expected in Homegrown Terror Plot

June 05, 2006 7:00 PM

Brian Ross Reports:

Canadian police say more arrests are likely as they seek to unravel what they describe as a homegrown terror cell that got its inspiration from Osama bin Laden and was intent on striking as soon as it could until police moved in over the weekend.

The plot was designed to inflict mass casualties with truck bombs made of fertilizer, according to police in Toronto.

The targets included Toronto's stock exchange and the Parliament building in Ottawa.

"This was a real terror plot. They had the intent and capability, and we no longer felt that we could manage the risk," said Mike McDonell, Assistant Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police .

The arrests in Canada led U.S. officials today to plan a show of force along the border.

Some local officials have complained that the government had shifted too many resources to the border with Mexico.

"There's 30 roads between Minnesota and Canada that don't even have checkpoints," said Randall Larsen, a Homeland Security analyst

Now additional Customs agents will be assigned to the northern border, and there will be an increase in random checks for weapons of mass destruction.

David Aguilar, of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said, "There is definitely a ramp up of operations specific to this past weekend due to the activities we did see."

A recent State Department terrorism report concluded terrorists have capitalized on liberal Canadian immigration policies in order to plan terrorist attacks.

In this case, all of those arrested are Canadian citizens, most of whom live in tree-lined suburbs just outside Toronto, including the alleged ringleader, a 43-year-old school bus driver with four children named Qayyum Abdul Jamal.

Authorities say he was active at a storefront mosque where he helped to radicalize and recruit others in their teens and early 20's.

Jamal's neighbors are stunned, "Our borders are open like yours are. We welcome everybody, and they dump on us."

Canadian intelligence first detected members of the suspected cell two years ago by monitoring internet chat rooms, trying to draw out people who seem intent on violence.

"They were following the dogma and preachings of al Qaeda and had bought completely into it," says McDonell.

In fact, authorities in Toronto say every time Osama bin Laden posted a message, they were encouraged and energized.

Read the Royal Canadian document with a list of the suspects and the charges against them.

June 5, 2006 in Terror | Permalink | User Comments (1)

Jihadist Message Boards

June 05, 2006 6:29 PM

Hoda Osman Reports:

The case of 17 people arrested on terror charges in Canada highlights the importance of the internet in the cat-and-mouse game between intelligence officials and suspected terrorists.  Jihad message boards have become a significant communication channel that is closely monitored by law enforcement.   

As you can see from this still from one of the jihadists' message boards, information on how to make explosives, including ammonium nitrate, which the suspects purportedly wanted to use in their attacks, could easily be found online.

There are also several "Jihad Encyclopedias" and guides with detailed information about weapons and explosives, as the manual linked here which was taken from another jihadist message board shows.

The videos and documents are usually posted by one of the users on one website then distributed to several others to incite terrorism and make it easy for young men to carry out attacks.

June 5, 2006 in Terror | Permalink | User Comments (3)

Terror Cell Targets

June 05, 2006 10:14 AM

Richard Esposito Reports:

A cell of young, homegrown terrorists targeted key landmarks and security service locations in a plot that ended last Friday with a controlled delivery by police of three tons of material the terror suspects thought was ammonium nitrate.

The plot was hatched in internet chat rooms, and that is where the investigation was begun by Canada's domestic spy service, CSIS. It was soon joined by the country's federal police, The Mounties,and by 2005 a full blown global operation was underway that included regular contact with MI-5 and Special Branch in London as well as the FBI in the United States.

According to senior intelligence and law enforcement officials overseeing the case, while the arrest of 17 young men Friday may be the most significant part of the case, the investigation is ongoing. So far, these officials confirm, it has yielded leads and led to arrests in the U.S. and in London. Canadian authorities say they have been in almost daily contact with British and U.S. authorities.

While these sources would not confirm specific targets, they continue to dismiss reports that the landmark CN tower or the Toronto subway system were among them.

Without providing details, official sources confirm the involvement in London that has led to arrests. In a London terror trial that is ongoing, the alleged bomb maker was brought into the case by the RCMP, sources said.      

June 5, 2006 in Terror | Permalink | User Comments (1)

New Links in Terrorism Case

June 04, 2006 1:17 PM

Jason Ryan Reports:

A U.S. counterterrorism official confirms yesterday's reporting that this group was homegrown. The Canadian investigation has been underway for some time. The individuals from the U.S., Syed Ahmed and Ehsanul Sadequee, essentially walked right into an ongoing surveillance operation when they traveled to Canada in March 2005.

The counterterrorism official said what is most alarming is how far along in the planning the Canadian group was.

New details following the announcement of yesterday's Atlanta terrorism case shows links to New York. Yesterday the U.S. Attorney in Atlanta announced the indictment of Syed Haris Ahmed on material support charges. Ahmed, according to an FBI affidavit just unsealed in New York, is allegedly linked with Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, a U.S. Citizen of Bangladeshi descent.

According to the affidavit, the two men traveled to Canada in March of 2005 where they met with other individuals who were already under surveillance and targets of an ongoing U.S.-Canadian terrorism investigation.

Ahmed has signed a waiver of his right to an initial appearance.  After his arrest in March, he pled not guilty on April 19. Court records about Ahmed have been sealed, but the affidavit in the Sadequee case notes that, " Ahmed, in a series of interviews in March 2006, provided a fuller picture of the March 2005 trip to Canada. First, he acknowledged that the purpose of the trip was for Sadequee and Ahmed to meet with like-minded Islamic extremists. According to Ahmed, while he and Sadequee were in Canada, they met regularly with at least three subjects of an FBI international terrorism investigation. Ahmed further explained that, during some of these meetings, he, Sadequee, and the others discussed strategic locations in the United States suitable for a terrorist strike, to include oil refineries and military bases. They also plotted how to disable the Global Positioning System in an effort to disrupt military and commercial communications and traffic. Finally, the assembled group developed a plan for traveling to Pakistan where they would attempt to receive military training at one of the several terrorist-sponsored camps."

At this time Sadequee is only charged with lying to federal agents about his travels.

the FBI kept track of Sadequee and approached him as he prepared to leave the US for Bangladesh on August 18, 2005. The interview was consensual, according to the affidavit Sadequee stated that he was traveling to Bangladesh to get married. At the time agents searched his luggage they found two CD roms, one CD contained pornography the other disc is encrypted and is unable to be decoded by FBI technical experts. Also concealed in the lining of his luggage was a map of the DC area.

The day after Sadequee was interviewed and then departed for Bangladesh, Ahmed returned from a month's trip to Pakistan and arrived in Atlanta. After he arrived, he was questioned by federal agents and said he was in Pakistan "to visit family and to seek Islamic schooling," according to the FBI affidavit.

The affidavit notes, "The recent interviews with Ahmed demonstrate that the trip to Canada was for terrorism-related planning and coordination. Sadequee, rather than choosing to remain silent, lied to federal agents about two material aspects of his trip to Canada: who his traveling companion was and where they stayed. Both of these facts, had they not been untruthfully withheld, would have assisted the Government in its ongoing terrorism investigation."

Sadequee was in Bangladesh and was arrested by Bangladeshi security services recently. He is currently enroute back to New York and is being held in Alaska at this time.

June 4, 2006 in Terror | Permalink | User Comments (1)

Canadian Terror Cell Had Connections in London and Atlanta

June 03, 2006 2:31 PM

Richard Esposito Reports:

Investigators made arrests in London and in Atlanta, and hunted suspects in Bangladesh, before "taking down" in Toronto the largest piece of a loosely linked set of home-grown fundamentalist terrorists, ABC News has learned.

Seventeen suspected terrorists were arrested by police in the Toronto area Friday, and a large cache of weapons and explosive-making chemicals seized, in a year-long investigation that was brought to a close as the "home grown" terrorists were close to striking.

According to Canadian Intelligence sources overseeing the operation and Canadian security officials, the group of young men of mixed ethnicity and were "home-grown terrorists planning to attack targets at home."

The global investigation arose out of 2004 Canadian intelligence and became an active operation last September.

Investigators in England and the United States cooperated closely with Canadian Intelligence and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in following leads and taking down small pieces of the case without risking the larger objective -- getting as many members of these hard-to-find second generation Islamist terrorists, sources say.

According to U.S. and Canadian law enforcement and intelligence sources, the arrests last November in London and the arrests in Atlanta were of other "home grown" terrorists with loose connections to the 17 Canadian men and youths arrested Friday in the greater Toronto area.

In addition, it appears weapons may have been smuggled into Canada from across the U.S. border.

The arrests -- as with the unrelated arrests of bomb suspects in London Friday, and the London bombers of July 2005 -- are the most compelling evidence to date of what some officials are calling "prairie fire or brush fire" terrorism. Such terror plotting involves insolated cells, ideologically inspired by the last generation of terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden but operating on their own, that go operational without any tell-tale links to overseas terror leaders.

Intelligence and law enforcement officials say these second generation terrorists are often born and raised in the countries where they intend to strike. That was true in the Canadian arrests and in the London cases.

These sources say there are no ties to any overseas fundamentalist terror group including Al Qaeda. Rather, these are radicalized youths who are inspired by the last generation of jihadists.

Authorities in Canada discounted early reports of a possible threat to the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa and also labeled erroneous reports that the CN tower -- a Canadian landmark -- was a target. Two men arrested Friday by Toronto police while allegedly conducting a surveillance of a subway platform were not connected to this group.

According to Canadian news accounts, police in the greater Toronto area "swept down on" as many as 12 locations in the terror roundup. The cell was not connected to the group arrested in London earlier today, Canadian officials said. In at least two past British cases a link between London-Canada and the United States has been identified.

June 3, 2006 in Terror | Permalink | User Comments (9)