Showing posts with label FBI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FBI. Show all posts

Monday, September 27, 2010

FBI employees cheated on security test: Report

A significant number of FBI employees cheated on an exam about new rules for terrorism and criminal investigations and for collecting foreign intelligence, according to a US Justice Department report released today.

The report by inspector-general Glenn Fine found that some FBI employees improperly consulted with others while taking the exam, and others used or distributed answer sheets or study guides that essentially provided the answers to the test.

A tour sign stands outside the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) headquarters in Washington as seen in this file photo



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Friday, December 18, 2009

Security threat keeps American jet grounded-Bom threat letter found in plane toilet-Passengers and lugage rescreen.


A bomb threat was made on American Airlines plane headed from Austin to Chicago on Friday

A bomb threat grounded an American Airlines plane holding 144 people Friday in Austin, Texas, an airline spokeswoman confirmed.

The McDonnell Douglas MD-83 jet headed for Chicago O’Hare International Airport as flight #2486 was moved to a maintenance area away from the terminal after the pilot reported a threatening note found in the airplane bathroom, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

Passengers were ordered to deplane and were to be interrogated, according to a passenger who posted on Twitter. They will all undergo additional security screening before the plane is allowed to take off. The airport is not closed down and is functioning normally at this time.

Police and fire crews were on the scene at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Friday after a bomb threat.

The threat involves American Airlines flight 2486 scheduled to depart for Chicago on Friday afternoon.

One hundred and twenty nine passengers on the flight were offloaded onto a maintenance ramp.

A flight attendant doing departure checks found a note in the bathroom with some reference to a bomb.

All the passengers were being questioned, though authorities indicate it's possible the note was left by a passenger from an earlier flight.




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Thursday, December 3, 2009

Ohio serial killer suspect pleads insanity-Ohio suspect faces arraignment on 11 murder counts


This Nov. 13, 2009 file photo shows Anthony Sowell in Cleveland. The registered sex offender attacked 14 women and killed 11 of them, leaving their remains in and around his home, a prosecutor said Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009 in announcing a grand jury indictment against the suspected serial killer.

A registered sex offender accused of killing 11 women and leaving their remains in and around his Cleveland home has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to all charges.

Fifty-year-old Anthony Sowell (so-WEHL') was arraigned Thursday by video hook-up from jail.

Sowell was indicted Tuesday on 85 charges, including murder, rape, assault and corpse abuse. He is accused of murdering 11 women and could get the death penalty if convicted of any of the killings.

Ten bodies and a skull were found at his Cleveland home. On Wednesday, FBI agents with cadaver dogs searched another house where Sowell lived before going to prison for 15 years for a 1989 attempted rape. No bodies were found.

A prosecutor asked for bond in the amount of $14 million, but the judge ordered Sowell held without bond.




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Saturday, November 14, 2009

U.S. authorities to seize four mosques and 36-storey New York skyscraper that are 'under secret control of Iran'


The 36-storey skyscraper in New York, known as the Piaget building, was erected in the 1970s on Manhattan's posh Fifth Avenue


U.S. Marshals post a copy of the federal government's demands last night on the door of a school in the New York borough of Queens borough. The school is among the assets listed by U.S. prosecutors




last night as the government took steps to seize it as part of the operation



The entrance to the Piaget skyscraper in New York yesterday. As part of its claim the U.S. government wants to seize the building


Another view of the Razi school in the Queens borough of New York last night



U.S. Federal authorities have moved to seize this Islamic Education Centre - a primary school and mosque - in Houston


Four mosques and a Manhattan skyscraper owned by a Muslim organisation are suspected by U.S. prosecutors of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.

Prosecutors filed a civil complaint yesterday in federal court against the Alavi Foundation in an attempt to take control of more than $500million in assets.

The move may be one of the biggest counter-terrorism seizures in American history.

The assets include bank accounts; Islamic centres consisting of schools and mosques in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres of land in Virginia; and a 36-story glass office tower in New York.

The mosques and the skyscraper will remain open while the case is tangled up in the courts. It is expected to be a long legal process.

What will happen to them if the government wins is unclear. The U.S. government usually sells properties it has seized through forfeiture, and the proceeds are sometimes distributed to crime victims.

Prosecutors claim the Alavi Foundation managed the office tower on behalf of the Iranian government.

Working with a front company known as Assa Corp., the Foundation illegally funnelled millions in rental income to Iran's state-owned Bank Melli, they claim.

Bank Melli has been accused by a U.S. Treasury official of providing support for Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. It is illegal in the U.S. to do business with the bank.

The U.S. has long suspected the foundation was an arm of the Iranian government. A 97-page complaint includes details of the involvement of several top Iranian officials in the Foundation's business - including the deputy prime minister and ambassadors to the United Nations.

The skyscraper in New York, known as the Piaget building, was erected in the 1970s on Manhattan's posh Fifth Avenue under the shah of Iran. The shah was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Tenants of the skyscraper include law and investment firms, among other businesses.

The sleek, modern building, last valued at $570million to $650million in 2007, has served as an important source of income for the foundation over the past 36 years.

The most recent tax records show the foundation earned $4.5million from rents in 2007.

Rents collected from the building help fund the Islamic centres and other ventures, such as sending educational books and other literature to jailed Muslims in the U.S.

The foundation has also invested in dozens of mosques around the country and supported Iranian academics at prominent universities.

If federal prosecutors seize the skyscraper, the Alavi Foundation would have almost no way to continue supporting the Islamic centres, which house schools and mosques.

That could leave a major void in Shiite communities, and hard feelings toward the FBI, which played a big role in the investigation.

'For two decades, the Alavi Foundation's affairs have been directed by various Iranian officials, including Iranian ambassadors to the United Nations, in violation of a series of American laws,' U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

Confiscating the properties would be a sharp blow against Iran, which has been accused by the U.S. government of bankrolling terrorism and trying to build a nuclear bomb.

Iran's U.N. Mission has not yet commented on the case.

So far no British link has emerged in the operation.

The Alavi Foundation is the successor organization to the Pahlavi Foundation, a non-profit group used by the shah to advance Iran's charitable interests in America.

But authorities said its agenda changed after the fall of the shah in 1979.

There were no raids yesterday as part of the forfeiture action. All the government had to do was post notices of the civil complaint on the property.

John D. Winter, the Alavi Foundation's lawyer, said it intends to fight back against the move.

He said the foundation has been co-operating with the government's investigation for the better part of a year.

'Obviously the foundation is disappointed that the government has decided to bring this action,' Mr Winter said.

It is extremely rare for U.S. law enforcement authorities to seize a house of worship. To do so immediately raises questions about the constitutional right to freedom of religion.

The move is also expected to inflame tensions between the U.S. government and American Muslims.

Many Muslims in the U.S. are already fearful of a backlash after last week's shooting rampage at Fort Hood military base, blamed on a Muslim American major.

'Whatever the details of the government's case against the owners of the mosques, as a civil rights organization we are concerned that the seizure of American houses of worship could have a chilling effect on the religious freedom of citizens of all faiths and may send a negative message to Muslims worldwide,' said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

'No action has been taken against any tenants or occupants of those properties,' U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Yusill Scribner said.

'The tenants and occupants remain free to use the properties as they have before today's filing. There are no allegations of any wrongdoing on the part of any of these tenants or occupants.'

As prosecutors outlined their allegations against Alavi, the Islamic centres and the schools they run carried on as normal yesterday. The mosques' leaders would not comment on the case and accusations.

Parents lined up in their cars to pick up their children at the schools within the Islamic Education Center of Greater Houston and the Islamic Education Center in Rockville, Maryland.

No notices of the forfeiture action were posted at either place as of late last night.

At the Islamic Institute of New York, a mosque and school in the city's Queens borough, two U.S. marshals came to the door and rang the bell repeatedly.

When there was no answer, the marshals taped a forfeiture notice to the window and left a large document sitting on the ground. After they left a group of men came out of the building and took the document.

The fourth Islamic centre marked for seizure is in Carmichael, California.

The operation comes at a tense moment in U.S.-Iranian relations, with the two sides at odds over Iran's nuclear programme and its arrest of three American hikers.

But Michael Rubin, an expert on Iran at the American Enterprise Institute, said the timing of the forfeiture action was probably just a coincidence.

'Suspicion about the Alavi Foundation transcends three administrations,' Mr Rubin said.

'It's taken ages dealing with the nuts and bolts of the investigation. It's not the type of investigation which is part of any larger strategy.'

Legal scholars said they know of only a few cases in U.S. history in which authorities have seized a house of worship.

Marc Stern, a religious-liberty expert with the American Jewish Congress, called such cases extremely rare.
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Monday, November 9, 2009

Detecting glimpses of humanity in DC sniper-Is to Be Executed on Tuesday



The car had a hole cut in the trunk near the license plate (see photo below, left) so that shots could be fired from within the vehicle. It was, in effect, a rolling sniper’s nest.



This blue 1990 Chevy Caprice was used as a rolling sniper's nest.


In this Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009 photo, Prince William County Commonwealth Attorney Paul Ebert, displays a book of photos related to the sniper case during an interview in his office in Manassas, Va. Virginia's death row is lined with killers the Prince William County commonwealth's attorney has sent to their demise. Next up: John Allen Muhammad, mastermind of the 2002 sniper attacks that left 10 dead in the Washington, D.C., area.


n this Oct. 22, 2009 photo, Prince William County Commonwealth Attorney Paul Ebert during an interview in his office in Manassas, Va. Virginia's death row is lined with killers the Prince William County commonwealth's attorney has sent to their demise. Next up: John Allen Muhammad, mastermind of the 2002 sniper attacks that left 10 dead in the Washington, D.C., area.


In this Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009 photo, Bob Meyers poses for a photograph with images of his slain brother Dean Harold Meyers, in Phoenixville Pa. John Allen Muhammad is scheduled to be executed on Nov. 10 for the October 2002 slaying of Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas gas station during a string of shootings that left 10 people dead and three wounded in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland.


FILE -- In a March 9, 2004, file photo convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad stands as he is sentenced to death for the shooting of Dean Meyers at the Prince William County Circuit Court in Manassas, Va. Forty-eight-year-old John Allen Muhammad is set to die by lethal injection in a Virginia prison Nov. 10,2009, seven years after he and his teenage accomplice terrorized the area in and around the nation's capital.



The Supreme Court on Monday declined to block the execution of John A. Muhammad, the sniper who terrorized the Washington area seven years ago. The step cleared the way for Mr. Muhammad to be put to death on Tuesday unless Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia intervenes.

The court did not comment in refusing to hear Mr. Muhammad’s appeal, but three justices objected to the relative haste accompanying the execution.

Justice John Paul Stevens complained that “under our normal practice,” Mr. Muhammad’s petition for the court to take his case would have been discussed at the justices’ conference scheduled for Nov. 24. But because Virginia scheduled the execution for Tuesday, the judicial process was rushed, Justice Stevens said in a statement joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor.

Justice Stevens wrote that, having reviewed Mr. Muhammad’s argument, he did not disagree with the majority’s decision to decline the case. Nevertheless, he said, because the court declined to stay the execution, “we have allowed Virginia to truncate our deliberative process on a matter — involving a death row inmate — that demands the most careful attention.”

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., upheld the death sentence three months ago. In rejecting Mr. Muhammad’s appeal, that federal panel said it was “unable to find reversible error in the conclusions of the state and district courts.”

Unless Mr. Kaine stops the execution, Mr. Muhammad, 48, will be given a lethal injection on Tuesday night for the killing of Dean H. Meyers, an engineer who was shot in the head at a gas station in Manassas, Va.

Mr. Meyers was one of 10 people killed in Maryland, Virginia and Washington over three weeks in October 2002. Mr. Muhammad’s accomplice, Lee B. Malvo, who was 17 at the time, was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The two are also suspected of fatal shootings in Alabama, Arizona and Louisiana.

Mr. Kaine has promised to review Mr. Muhammad’s request but has signaled that he is not inclined to intervene.

The governor has said he is personally opposed to the death penalty, but he has allowed a number of executions to take place since he took office in 2006. Virginia has the nation’s second-busiest death chamber, behind Texas.

The jurors who convicted Mr. Muhammad in November 2003 cited the defendant’s apparent lack of remorse in deciding to impose the death penalty.



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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Jaycee Dugard Tells the World She's Getting Her Life Back


Phillip Garrido, who kidnapped and rape Jaycee Dugard , imprison her for 18years and father 2 child from Jaycee.



Jaycee Dugard as she appears in People magazine



Jaycee Dugard wants the world to know she's re-building her life after nearly two decades in captivity.

For the first time, we're seeing what the 29-year-old looks like now, and we're hearing how she's putting the pieces back together.

After 18 years in captivity, her smile and blue eyes still shine. People magazine had released the first photo of kidnap survivor Jaycee Dugard.

Erica Schulte, Dugard family spokesperson, said, "I was thrilled when i saw the photo because it is just the perfect representation of what she looks like."

Two months ago, Jaycee was freed from this backyard prison in northern California, along with two daughters fathered by her alleged kidnapper, Phillip Garrido. Garrido and his wife Nancy are charged with abducting Jaycee--when she was just 11--and rape.

Jaycee, now 29, has spent the last two months in seclusion with her family.

Peter Castro, People Magazine Deputy Managing Editor, said, "She missed 18 Christmases, 18 Thanksgivings, 18 birthdays with her family, and she is now back with her mother, with her daughters, and she just can't believe how happy she is right now."

The family is getting to know one another again, and Jaycee and her daughters are learning to build trust.

Dr. Jeff Gardere, Clinical Psychologist, said, "Even though she does have this incredible resilience, which is wonderful, and the happiness is authentic, she will have to work through those issues of being in captivity for 18 years."

Jaycee did not let the magazine photograph her daughters' faces, so why did she go public now?

Castro said, "There is sort of a contradiction if she is so private how can she be on the cover of People magazine. She wants to lift the veil on this situation. She wants to let the world know that she is doing okay, and that she is in a very good place right now."

Jaycee says she's appreciative of the outpouring of love and support from around the world.

“I’m so happy to be back with my family,” Ms Dugard, 29, told People magazine, which will publish several photographs of the kidnap victim — along with a brief interview — on Friday.

Ms Dugard, who was rescued when a parole officer discovered her real identity during an interview with her captor, is said to be living in seclusion with her mother, Terry Probyn, 50, and her two daughters, Angel, 15, and Starlit, 11.

Both girls were fathered by Ms Dugard’s captor, Phillip Garrido, who allegedly snatched her from a bus stop near her home in South Lake Tahoe when she was 11 years old. Both Mr Garrido and his wife, Nancy, are now awaiting trial.

Mr Garrido, a heavy LSD user and religious zealot — who reportedly tried to gouge out his first wife’s eyeballs with a safety pin — had been sent to prison for 50 years in the 1970s for kidnapping and raping another woman. However, he was released after serving only 11 years.

A registered sex offender, he allegedly kept Ms Dugard in a squalid makeshift camp in his back yard — it is thought she gave birth to both their daughters there — without ever attracting the suspicion of the authorities, in spite of visits to his home by the police and complaints from neighbours about the sound of children coming from within his property.

According to People, Ms Dugard has already started the slow process of recovery. “She rides horses, cooks meals, and is thinking of collaborating on a book,” says the magazine.

Terry Probyn’s stepmother, Joan Curry, added: “They live a surprisingly normal life, considering the circumstances.” Asked by a US television show whether People had paid for the photographs, the magazine’s managing editor, Larry Hackett, said, “We have bought photographs in the past. I don’t want to go into the details.”

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Saturday, September 26, 2009

Zazi Trips, Shopping Led to NY Terror Threat- Bought large amount of Peroxide to made bomb.Laptop contain instruction.Hotel room traces of bomb.


Najibullah Zazi, center, is escorted off an NYPD helicopter by U.S Marshals after being extradited from Denver, Colo., to New York.


The arrest of Najibullah Zazi shows an encouraging level of cooperation between NYC police and the Feds.


A Denver man accused of plotting a terrorist attack in the United States had apparently planned to set off a bomb in New York on the most recent anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal prosecutor said Friday.

That revelation came during what was otherwise a routine federal court hearing in Denver that paved the way for Najibullah Zazi, 24, to be flown to New York on Friday.

"The evidence suggests a chilling, disturbing sequence of events showing the defendant was intent on making a bomb and being in New York on 9/11, for purposes of perhaps using such items," Assistant U.S. Atty. Tim Neff told the court.

Zazi, an airport shuttle driver in Denver, was indicted on a terrorism charge Thursday by a federal grand jury in New York, but the indictment did not spell out when or where an attack was allegedly planned to take place.

Neff made the remarks during a hearing in which Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer dismissed a charge against Zazi of making false statements to authorities, thus clearing the way for the Afghan-born man to be transferred to New York to face the terrorism charge.

At the detention hearing Friday morning, Shaffer rejected arguments by Zazi's attorney, Arthur Folsom, that Zazi should be freed on bail.

Folsom said that Zazi didn't pose a flight risk because most of his immediate family lives in Colorado and because he had neither the resources nor inclination to flee the country. Folsom argued that if Zazi had wanted to escape, he had several opportunities to do so before his arrest.

Shaffer countered that Zazi had powerful incentives for running away, including the possibility that if convicted, he could face deportation after serving his sentence. Zazi is a legal U.S. resident, not a citizen.

"He has very little reason to stay," Shaffer said. Shaffer also said that Zazi posed "substantial danger" to the community if freed.

The indictment said that Zazi and unnamed co-conspirators recently made large purchases of chemicals from beauty supply stores, including hydrogen peroxide and acetone, that can be used to make explosives. It also said Zazi had researched how to make bombs and had sought advice on mixing chemicals for explosives.

The chemicals that Zazi and others sought were the kind found in the "explosive used in the 2005 London train bombings and intended to be used in the 2001 'shoe bomb' plot by Richard Reid," the indictment said.

On Sept. 8, the indictment said, Zazi rented a car in Colorado and searched the Internet for the location of a home-improvement store in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens in New York City. Zazi then searched the company's website for information on muriatic acid, which can be used as a bomb-making component, it said.

Zazi has maintained his innocence, as has his father and a New York City imam who have also been arrested. So far authorities have only charged the three Afghan-born men with lying to investigators, which carries an eight-year maximum sentence, and not a more serious terrorism-related charge.

According to the government, agents approached Afzali Sept. 10 and showed him a photo of Najibullah Zazi, 24, a fellow Afghan immigrant who moved from Queens to Denver.

The next day, Sept. 11, FBI wiretaps caught Zazi's father telling his son he'd gotten a call from Afzali warning him the FBI was showing his photo.
The father was urging his son to call Afzali when call-waiting beeped: Afzali was on Zazi's other line.

"They asked me about you guys," the imam told the suspected terrorist, according to a transcript. "They came to ask me about your characters."
He continued, "I'm not sure what happened. And I don't want to know ...I told them that 'they are innocent, law abiding.'"

Afzali told Zazi to take comfort that the FBI was just asking around about them.

"Trust me, that is a good sign," he said. "The bad sign is for them coming to you guys and picking you up automatically."

Afzali told Zazi: "Listen, our phone call is being monitored."

Hours later, Zazi called the imam to say his rental car had vanished. Afzali allegedly asked if there was any "evidence" in the car and Zazi said no.

The car contained bomb making notes, the FBI says.

According to the government, when questioned April 17, Afzali said it was Zazi who called him, not the other way around.


According to the indictment, nine pages of notes found on Najibullah Zazi's laptop computer include formulas for making triacetone triperoxide, or TATP. The highly volatile, highly explosive compound can be made from widely available chemicals, including acetone -- the main ingredient in nail polish remover -- hydrogen peroxide, flour and muriatic acid, a diluted form of hydrochloric acid used to clean metal.

TATP was used in the 2005 London transit bombings, the 2001 Richard Reid "shoe bomb" plot and other overseas attacks. The indictment states Zazi conducted Internet research on components for explosives and made several purchases of substances that can be used to make TATP and other explosives.

According to GlobalSecurity.org, an online resource for security information, TATP is extremely sensitive to impact, temperature change and friction. Just a few hundred grams of the material produce hundreds of liters of gas in a fraction of a second, the Web site reports.




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Friday, September 25, 2009

Denver man charged in alleged terrorist bomb plot-Planning to bom new york.


From left: Najibullah Zazi; Ahmad Wais Afzali, imam of a Queens mosque; and Mohammed Wali Zazi, Najibullah's father.The imam previously was a police informer.


FBI agents arrested Najibullah Zazi, 24, late Saturday in Aurora, Colo. The Justice Department says that he worked for more than a year on an Al Qaeda plot to detonate a weapon of mass destruction in the United States.


Najibullah Zazi tried to cook up explosives, authorities say.


An Afghan immigrant who received explosives training from al-Qaeda went from one beauty-supply store to another, buying up large quantities of hydrogen peroxide and nail-polish remover, in a chilling plot to build bombs for attacks on U.S. soil, authorities charged yesterday.

Najibullah Zazi, 24, a shuttle driver at the Denver airport, was indicted in New York on charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. Investigators found bomb-making instructions on his computer's hard drive and said Zazi used a hotel room in Colorado to try to cook up explosives a few weeks ago before a trip to New York.

The extent of Zazi's ties to al-Qaeda was unclear, but if the allegations prove true, this could be the first operating al-Qaeda cell to be uncovered inside the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Over the last few days, talk of the possible plot set off the most intense flurry of national terrorism warnings since the aftermath of 9/11.

Prosecutors said they had yet to establish exactly when and where the Zazi attacks were supposed to take place. But Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in Washington: "We believe any imminent threat arising from this case has been disrupted."

The extent of Zazi's ties to al-Qaeda was unclear, but if the allegations prove true, this could be the first operating al-Qaeda cell to be uncovered inside the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Over the last few days, talk of the possible plot set off the most intense flurry of national terrorism warnings since the aftermath of 9/11.

A law enforcement official said yesterday that Zazi had associates in New York who were in on the plot.

Zazi was arrested in Denver last weekend and was charged along with his father and a New York imam with lying to investigators. Authorities said in the last few days that they feared Zazi and others might have been planning to detonate homemade bombs on New York trains, and warnings went out to transit systems, stadiums, and hotels nationwide.

Explosives built with hydrogen peroxide killed 52 people four years ago in the London transit system. They are easy to conceal and detonate, and last week's warnings asked authorities to be on the lookout for them.

A law enforcement official said yesterday that authorities had been so worried about Zazi - and that his Sept. 10 trip to New York coincided with a visit by President Obama - that they considered arresting him as soon as he reached the city.

Zazi left a Denver court yesterday without commenting and will be transferred to New York. He and his attorney have denied he is a terrorist.

In two unrelated terrorism cases elsewhere around the country yesterday:

Michael C. Finton, a 29-year-old man who idolized American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh, was arrested after attempting to detonate what he thought was a bomb inside a van outside a federal courthouse in Springfield, Ill., officials said. FBI agents had infiltrated the alleged plot months ago.

Two North Carolina men under arrest since July on international terrorism charges were also accused by prosecutors of plotting to kill U.S. military personnel. A superseding indictment returned against Daniel Patrick Boyd and Hysen Sherifi is the first time authorities have said the homegrown terrorism ring had specific targets.

In the Zazi case, a government motion seeking to deny bail laid out a chronology of the alleged scheme, which prosecutors said had been in the works for as much as a year. The court papers filed in Brooklyn federal court also refer to "others" who bought bomb materials with Zazi.

According to prosecutors' account, Zazi - a legal U.S. resident who immigrated in 1999 - began plotting as early as August 2008 to "use one or more weapons of mass destruction." That was when he and others traveled from Newark, N.J., to Pakistan, where he received the explosives training, prosecutors said.

Within days of returning from Pakistan in early 2009, he moved to the Denver suburb of Aurora, where he used a computer to research bomb ingredients and to look up beauty-supply stores where he could buy them, according to prosecutors.

During the summer, Zazi and three unidentified associates bought "unusually large quantities" of hydrogen peroxide and acetone - a flammable solvent found in nail-polish remover - from beauty-supply stores in the Denver area, prosecutors said.

The affidavit .

Several of the officials said it was likely that Najibullah Zazi will be charged with providing material support to a known terrorist organization based on his admission that he trained in weapons and explosives at an Al Qaeda camp in Pakistan last year. That admission was cited in an FBI affidavit unsealed over the weekend.

The affidavit also alleges that authorities found images on Najibullah Zazi's laptop of nine pages of notes on making explosives and fuses, apparently in his own handwriting. In addition, the affidavit alleges that authorities have found other information linking Zazi to the suspected plot, including his fingerprints on a small electronic scale and double-A batteries, which are often used in making bombs.

Zazi, who had been monitored by authorities for some time after returning from a trip to Pakistan, was stopped on a New York bridge on Sept. 10 after driving from Colorado on what he said was a trip to settle a business deal that had gone sour.

New York police checked his car and allowed him to leave, according to court documents. Soon after, police showed pictures of Zazi and several others to Afzali, the imam of a Queens mosque who had worked as a police informant in the past.

Why suspects?

azi was an airport shuttle-bus driver who journeyed to Pakistan in August 2008 for four months of training in weapons and explosives at the hands of operatives with ties to al-Qaida, investigators wrote in court papers. He returned to the U.S. in January, preparing to use the skills he had amassed, investigators wrote.

Zazi and three unidentified helpers purchased "unusually large quantities" of hydrogen peroxide and acetone products in July and August from beauty shops in and around Aurora, Colo., prosecutors wrote, citing surveillance video and receipts for "Ms. K Liquid 40 Volume" and other products. The aides traveled from New York to Denver to assist Zazi, using stolen credit cards, the Associated Press reported.

Notes that authorities discovered in a file on Zazi's computer hard drive describe explosives including triacetone triperoxide, the chemical used in the 2005 London train bombings. Zazi accessed the document on his laptop in June and July 2009, searching the Internet for "hydrochloric acid" and bookmarking a site on "lab safety," prosecutors Jeffrey Knox, Berit Berger and David Bitkower wrote.

On Sept. 6 and 7, authorities said, Zazi rented a suite in a hotel in Aurora, where FBI agents later detected "the presence of acetone ... in the vent above the stove." The bomb-making instructions mention heating the components to make them "highly concentrated," prosecutors said.

On Sept. 9, Zazi rented a car, drove to and stayed overnight in a Queens apartment, where investigators later found backpacks, cellphones and an electronic scale, which FBI agents say could have been used to weigh bomb components.

Also Thursday, a well-known New York imam, Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, appeared in federal District Court in Brooklyn, where a magistrate set $1.5 million bail allowing for his release under electronic surveillance. Afzali was overheard on recorded conversations reportedly warning Zazi's father about law-enforcement interest earlier this month.

New York police intelligence-unit officers, who had used the imam as a source in the past, consulted Afzali about the unfolding investigation, setting off a chain of events in which Afzali became a target, accused of lying to authorities.


National-security experts said that although much about the case remains unclear, including the possible target of the plot, it is significant.

"This rises to the top in terms of level of concern in the post-9/11 environment, given what appears to be direct connections to al-Qaida in Pakistan, clear intent to perpetrate an attack, and what appears to have been final stages of preparation," said Juan Zarate, deputy national-security adviser for counterterrorism to President George W. Bush.

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Sunday, September 20, 2009

"Worst of the Worst murder case" said Police- Mum, 5 kids killed in US


A Collier County Crime Scene Investigator removes bags of evidence on Sunday from a home where authorities say Guerline Damas and her five children were found dead Saturday evening.


In this driver's license photo provided by the Collier County Sheriff's Office, Mesac Damas, 33, is shown. Collier County Sheriff's officials say they want to talk to Damas, who is a person of interest in the slaying of a woman and five young children inside a Naples, Fla. apartment.Damas believe to be the husband of the slain family. Believed to have fleed to Haiti.


Pastor Pierre Merone prays during service at First Haitian Baptist Church in East Naples Sunday, Sept. 20, 2009.


Five young children and their mother have been found dead in a Florida apartment, and authorities are searching for the woman's husband.

The Collier County Sheriff's Office says the husband boarded a flight to Haiti, where he has family. The sheriff's office describes him as a person of interest.

His car was found at Miami International Airport and investigators are checking it for evidence.

Family members contacted authorities Thursday saying they hadn't heard from the mother, and a missing person report was filed the next day. Yesterday, the sheriff's office entered the home in a gated community in Naples and found the bodies.

Police launched a massive manhunt late Saturday for Damas' husband, Mesac, who they say drove to Miami International Airport on Friday morning and boarded a flight to Haiti. Damas reportedly has family from Haiti.

Collier Sheriff Kevin Rambosk called the homicides “the worst of the worst.”

“In no uncertain terms this is the most horrific and violent event this community has ever experienced,’’ the sheriff said.

Dead are wife Guerline Damas, 32 and children Michzach, 9, Marven, 6, Maven, 5, Megan, 3, and Morgan Damas, 11 months.

Damas is no stranger to the Collier County court system according to court records. He has been involved in four domestic violence cases this decade.Collier County court records show Mesac Damas has prior charges for domestic violence against his wife. Roberts said that in January, Damas pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge against his wife.

Mesac Damas is a cook at Miller’s Ale House on Naples Boulevard in Naples. He also told his landlord that he was a disc jockey.

“We don't have a comment on anything,” general manager Jimmy Chico said.

Investigators said Damas left Miller’s Ale House shortly before 9 p.m. on Thursday.

Neighbors said they often saw the three older children at the bus stop in the morning. The oldest was protective of his two younger siblings, warning them to stay out of the street. They could also be seen playing in their yard and saying hello to neighbors in the community landscaped with palm trees and filled with light colored town homes, many of which have screened patios in the back.

Neighbor Vebi Shuaipi said the family was very nice and friendly.

He said he never saw the couple fighting, although the police were at their house all week because they had been yelling.

'Every homicide is tragic, however this is the worst of the worst.' Collier County sheriff's office chief investigator Jim Williams said 'the couple has a history of violence that has been in the court system.' The sheriff, too, noted that police had gone twice in the past year to the Damas residence to respond to 'domestic violence' complaints, most recently in January.

In an interview on Sunday, Mr Damas's father told the Naples Daily News that his son had fled to Haiti.

Jean Damas Sr said he knew his son had arrived in the Caribbean nation because 'he (Mesac Damas) called his brother from there', the newspaper reported on its website.

The father also confirmed to the paper that those killed in the North Naples home were his daughter-in-law and five grandchildren, and acknowledged that his son and his wife had had domestic problems.

Mr Williams said picking through the crime scene was 'very, very difficult and tedious'. Police said the child victims included three boys, age nine, six and five, a girl age three and a baby girl 11 months old.

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5 young children and their mother have been found dead in a Fla. apartment, and authorities are searching for the woman's husband. Officials say the couple had a history of domestic violence calls to their home over the past decade.

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