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« More foreign and domestic | Main | From CJ Grisham »

December 14, 2009

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Home Grown (Part Two)

By Greyhawk

(Part one here)

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*****

The story received a bit of notice last September:

The Colorado man who prosecutors say received explosives training in Pakistan last year and drove to New York 12 days ago with bomb-making instructions on his laptop appeared in a Denver federal court on Monday and was ordered held without bail.

The man, Najibullah Zazi, who was born in Afghanistan, raised in Pakistan and New York and moved to Denver early this year, looked wide-eyed and younger than his 24 years when he walked into Federal District Court, his hands cuffed in front of him.

His father was at his side. Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, had also been arrested and charged.

Meanwhile, in New York, a hearing was underway for a third suspect involved in the case. "Ahmad Wais Afzali had for years been a popular imam in Queens," the New York Times reported.

In an interview on Sunday, Mr. Afzali's wife, Fatimah, said he was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. He left with his parents at age 6 or 7, arriving in Queens, where he went to school.

She described her husband as an accommodating man, a father of two children from a previous marriage and an imam who leads prayers in mosques around the city. A businessman, he also runs an Islamic burial and shipping service, where he brings comfort to the bereaved, Ms. Afzali said.

Mr. Afzali's father was also successful in business, according to Ahmad Weish, the president of Masjid-al-Saaliheen, a mosque in Queens where Mr. Afzali had, in the past, delivered the Friday sermon. Mr. Weish said that Mr. Afzali's father used to own pizzerias in Queens.

In a 2003 interview with The New York Times, Mr. Afzali gave voice to the optimism his fellow Afghans were expressing at the time about the prospects for finding stability and business prospects in their native country after years in New York.

"It's been a great opportunity for us financially," Mr. Afzali said at the time.

Though it was unclear if Mr. Afzali had rediscovered Afghanistan of late, his neighbors described his passion for cars.

"He always had fresh, expensive cars," said Messia Ben Yosef, 23, a pharmacy student who said Mr. Afzali lived on his street for at least 15 years. He said Mr. Afzali drove a white Jaguar XJ8.

Mr. Afzali's wife said her husband was a Muslim "from the inside out."

Authorities who had been tracking Zazi's cross-country excursion had contacted the Queens, New York imam - and he, according to charges based on recorded phone conversations, warned Zazi of the investigation.

But just prior to his arrest, Afzali had contacted an attorney: "Only a few weeks ago, left-leaning criminal defense lawyer Ron Kuby knew little about a popular 37-year-old Queens imam," the story begins.


Afzali called Kuby Sept. 19, claiming the authorities were now giving him grief after he had contacted, at their request, a man who formerly operated a food cart on Stone St. near Ground Zero. The man, an Afghan Muslim named Najibullah Zazi, 24, had moved to the Denver area last year but returned to Queens in a rental car around Sept. 9 or 10.

Zazi, who once attended Afzali's mosque, was now a central figure in an alleged terror plot that stretched from Pakistan to Colorado and reportedly included plans to detonate homemade bombs in New York City on the anniversary of 9/11.
<...>
"They had searched [the imam's] home twice," Kuby said. He noted police first approached Afzali on Sept. 10, showing him photos of suspects -- including Zazi, whom he identified.
<...>
But the more he was cooperating, the more they seemed to be treating him aggressively and disrespectfully. He got tired of being treated like this, and he had no idea why."

Later, "during the early-morning hours of Sept. 20, Kuby got another call from Afzali, saying police were knocking at his door."

I asked him to put one of the officers on the line but they declined to speak to me. They put him in handcuffs and took him away. That was his big arrest on a Sunday morning."

Almost immediately, Kuby launched a campaign detailing his client's history of cooperation with the police. "The police had worked with the imam and had gone to him on a fairly regular basis. And he had done what Americans say they want Islamic religious leaders to do -- just to cooperate with the police when there's an investigation. So the imam did that."

Kuby and his mentor Bill Kunstler, who specialized in pariah cases, briefly represented three accused Muslim terrorists after the first World Trade Center attack in 1993 until a judge told them they could only represent two. That may be why Kuby, an unabashed Marxist who grew up poor in Cleveland and now proudly admits making six figures a year, says he's "happy" not to be defending Najibullah Zazi even though he was asked to.

"I don't know him, but a member of Mr. Zazi's extended family called me after the imam was arrested to see if I could represent him," Kuby said. "I told him I couldn't because that would be a conflict of interest" -- that is, he couldn't represent another terror suspect when he was already getting information on the case from his current client, the imam. With a smile, the radical lawyer explained that based on the aforesaid judge's ruling, he now only represents "one client per plot."

Afzali was released after posting a $1.5 million bail bond. ("The government would not agree to release him on bail if they believed he was involved in a terrorist conspiracy," Kuby said.) Zazi was transferred from Colorado to New York.

*****

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Immediately following the arrests the Obama administration launched a media blitz to assure Americans that

  • Unlike the Bush administration, they did not believe in panicking the nation over threat levels
  • The president was personally involved in this anti-domestic terrorism effort, and
  • "Scores of people" could have been killed

...all of which led to another conclusion - key provisions of the Patriot Act can not be allowed to expire at the end of the year:

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Speaking Monday in Colorado at a conference of police chiefs, Attorney General Eric Holder said the plot had the potential to kill scores of people...

"As Zazi drove across the country under heavy surveillance, John O. Brennan, Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, briefed the president three to four times a day on Zazi's activities ." However, the White House "avoided trumpeting either the elevated threat level or the averted crisis."

"With the apprehension of Zazi," we are told, "as well as several other covert operations at home and abroad, the Obama administration is increasingly confident that it has struck a balance between protecting civil liberties, honoring international law and safeguarding the country." Additionally, "the Obama administration is pressing Congress to move swiftly to reauthorize three provisions of the USA Patriot Act set to expire in late December. They include the use of "roving wiretaps" to track movement, e-mail and phone communications, a tool that federal officials used in the weeks leading up to Zazi's arrest."

The story received a bit of attention last September, however, that bit of national security news was lost in the attention given to another story that broke at the time - the release of General McChrystal's Afghanistan assessment to the press.

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And the AP reported last week that re-authorization has yet to be accomplished. "Three provisions of the anti-terrorism Patriot Act expire at the end of the year. Some Democrats want to make changes to better ensure that government surveillance doesn't violate privacy rights."

Days later: "The looming deadline coincides with a growing concern among law enforcement officials that homegrown terrorism is becoming a more dangerous and immediate threat," Politics Daily reported, adding that neither the House or Senate has scheduled time to debate those provisions now set to expire on Dec. 31.

Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) "blamed House leaders for allowing liberal activists to politicize the issue."

"It's the left leading the left on this one. That's the problem," he said. But opponents of the Patriot Act say it tramples civil liberties and abuses constitutional freedoms.

Lungren said unless Congress acts, law enforcement officials will lose the ability to conduct three types of domestic surveillance: "roving" wiretapping, collecting business documents from third parties, and surveilling "lone wolves" -- suspects who have no demonstrated connections to foreign governments but could still be terrorist threats.

So in many ways, this news doesn't sound so new after all: "U.S. officials are increasingly concerned about the threat of homegrown Islamist extremism. This concern is prompted by a spike in attacks like the Fort Hood massacre, and conspiracies broken up by law enforcement before any attacks took place."
President Obama noted the increase during his speech last week at West Point explaining the Afghanistan surge:
"In the last few months alone, we have apprehended extremists within our borders who were sent here from the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan to commit new acts of terror."
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano echoed that sentiment in a speech last week. "We are seeing young Americans who are inspired by Al Qaeda and radical ideology," she said.

On Monday, federal prosecutors charged a Chicago man with six counts of conspiracy tied to the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India that killed more than 170 people, including six Americans.

That last quote from one of the earliest reports of five missing Americans later arrested in Pakistan, which "may end up being at least the fourth case prosecuted this year in which Muslim Americans traveled to Pakistan" to join extremist groups there."

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But the first to "make the papers" in such a big way.


Posted by Greyhawk / December 14, 2009 1:36 PM | Permalink

1 Comment

Sanmon | December 14, 2009 6:38 PM

I have a problem of the hypocrisy coming out of Washington DC regarding the Patriot Act with quotes like this: "But opponents of the Patriot Act say it tramples civil liberties and abuses constitutional freedom." When these folks have no issue with forced national health care and the abuses of constitutional freedom that violates .

We may just need to prepare ourselves mentally like they do in Israel and take the hits and go on with life. After all these are police actions now, miranda rights along with the constitutional rights that go with them.

KSM welcome to America, can we get you signed up for a reality TV show and a New York penthouse after you get released because your rights were violated. The kinder US of A we have no clinched fist towards anyone for any reason. Unless you do not pay for health care and then you go to jail. Hypocrisy!
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July 19, 2010


Dawn Patrol 07/19/2010
 [Greyhawk]

Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our ongoing roundup of information on war and other topics - from the MilBlogs and other sources around the world.

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Always updating - refresh for updates.

AFGHANISTAN

Prospects for stability in Musa Qala: challenges and possible solutions -- [Bill Ardolino /Long War Journal - in Afghanistan]
Part 3 in a three-part series on Musa Qala. For Part 1, see The checkered history of Musa Qala; for Part 2, see US Marines battle the Taliban for control of Musa Qala.
..."To the west, there are more 'little-t Taliban,' mostly in it for the money and drug smuggling," explains McDowell. "The farther east of the line you go, the more you see 'capital-T Taliban,' the ideologues who are affiliated with the Qetta Shura."
...A third, nebulous category of enemy also exists: violence is often tied to inscrutable local business interests, politics, and simple crime, especially in cases of Afghan-on-Afghan violence.
"Here in the District Center ... it's really strange, it's hard to characterize what is happening," explains H&S Company Commander First Lieutenant Joshua Hartley, who regularly leads patrols through Musa Qala...
Positive factors at present include...

Exploding Culverts -- [Kandahar Diary - in Afghanistan]
The ambush was initiated with a large IED, planted in a road culvert...
The initiation was followed up by sustained and accurate small-arms and RPG fire to the front, middle and rear of the convoy from the high ground on both sides of the MSR. My guards de-bussed and returned fire...

Arbaki -- [Free Range International - in Afghanistan]
It looks like the new boss has convinced President Karzai to reverse his position on using tribal militias. The new name for these soon to be created Arbaki is Local Police Forces (LPF.) This is a plan which has been tried before with minimal success... I'm not sure what is being modified to make this cunning plan more effective than the last time around but I do know this much - the plan is going to fail.

Weather -- [A Major's Perspective - in Afghanistan]
Its hot here right now...but not a hot like you would think...
The wind is something to describe though. Starting in late spring it starts to pickup and everyday around 230PM until Midnight it blows. All of the sand / dust gets picked up by it turning into a swirling maelstorm of junk and dirt.
For the guys in Kandahar and the eastern portions of the country it is different. Kandahar is hot, very hot, reminds me of Iraq hot. The east of the country is hot but also mixed with humidity...

Fête Nationale -- [Field Notes: One Soldier's Perspective - in Afghanistan]
July 14: This morning we had a brief ceremony to recognize and celebrate "Fête Nationale" or French National Day. It is the official national day of France. While it is also known as Bastille Day (anniversary of storming the Bastille in 1789), it actually celebrates the anniversary of the Fête de la Fédération that occurred on 14 July 1790 (one year after the storming of the Bastille)...
This morning's ceremony featured the raising of the French flag over the ISAF Headquarters...

Goodbye "FaST" Food (and good riddance) -- [FaST Surgeon - in Afghanistan]
...I am completely for the elimination of places like BK and Pizza Hut from military installations. Not only in theaters of war, but in ALL military installations. I simply don't believe there is any reason for their existence on our bases / camps / or posts...

IRAQ

On The Iran, Iraq Border -- [J.D. Johannes - in Iraq]
In the 1980s Iran and Iraq fought to a bloody stalemate on a thin strip of desert over access to a waterway, the Shatt al Arab, that had been in dispute since the days of the Ottoman Empire.
The war was a pure fire-power battle resembling the trench warfare of World War I and the set piece charges of the American Civil War.
The tension over the Iran/Iraq border still lingers making border security one of the key missions of US Forces in Iraq.
I spent a day at the Shalamcha Port of Entry, a bustling entry point for Iranian tourists and transhipment point east of Basrah, Iraq...

WAR ON TERROR /TERRORISM

Senators Look For Smoking Gun In BP-Lockerbie Link -- [AP]
...Soon after al-Megrahi's release last year, BP acknowledged that it urged the British government to sign a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya, but stressed it didn't specify his case. It reiterated that stance this week when four U.S. Democratic senators asked the State Department to investigate whether there was a quid pro quo for the Lockerbie bomber's release.
"The evidence here may be circumstantial but if I were a prosecutor, I'd love to take this case to a jury," said New York Sen. Charles Schumer...

No Link Between BP And Lockerbie Release: UK Envoy -- [NPR news blog]
Many people for obvious reasons are more than willing to believe the worst about BP.
So when stories circulated this week that the company had lobbied for Scotland to release convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in order to secure an oil deal with Libya, many BP haters were perfectly ready to believe that.
But the United Kingdom's ambassador to the U.S., Nigel Sheinwald, says BP played no such a role in the al-Megrahi affair.
The envoy explained in an open letter to Sen. John Kerry, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...

UK's Cameron: Releasing Lockerbie Bomber Was Wrong -- [AP]
"As leader of opposition, I couldn't have been more clear that I thought the decision to release al-Megrahi was completely and utterly wrong," Cameron told the BBC before leaving Tuesday on his first visit as British leader to the United States, where he is expected to face questioning about the case.
In fact, Cameron's political party did more than just condemn the former Libyan intelligence agent's release. In the weeks following, Britain's Conservatives called for an inquiry into whether trade considerations played any role in the decision.
The party has changed tack, however, since taking control in May of Britain's government in a coalition. Cameron's Downing Street office said a government-commissioned inquiry was "not currently under consideration."
Cameron emphasized that the final decision to release al-Megrahi was made by Scotland's government, which holds some limited powers within the United Kingdom, and not by the previous British government headed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

U.S. AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

As Cameron and Obama Meet, BP Will Be Top Issue -- [NY Times]
On the eve of a White House meeting with President Obama, Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday stepped into the furor over BP's lobbying for a prisoner-transfer agreement between Britain and Libya by saying he considered the release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber from a Scottish prison last year to be "completely and utterly wrong."
Ten weeks after taking office, Mr. Cameron is making his first visit to the United States as prime minister. He and Mr. Obama have a ledger of issues to discuss, including the Cameron government's decision to set an end date of 2015 for Britain's combat role in Afghanistan...

Afghanistan tops agenda for British PM's visit -- [Washington Times]
The White House on Monday said the war in Afghanistan is "first and foremost" on the agenda for Prime Minister David Cameron's first Washington visit with President Obama, but the new British leader will be walking a political tightrope over the release of the Lockerbie bomber amid questions from Congress about whether BP had a role in the decision.
The meeting Tuesday comes as operations in Afghanistan are at a pivotal point...

WELCOME HOME

Homecoming -- [Rajiv Srinivasan - home from Afghanistan]
..."All 5th Brigade Personnel bound for Joint-Base Lewis-McChord, we'll be boarding you at Gate 4 in five minutes," announced an airline representative over the intercom. A smile broke across my face. I was heading home. I was almost done. This war was over for me, and I could wash my hands of it for at least a year or two. I jumped up from my seat, gave one last grin at the run way, knowing I'd be on it in just a few moments.
"Hey Raj," called out my friend James, a West Point classmate in the brigade.
"What's going on brother?! Ready to kick this pig?!" I slapped him enthusiastically on the back.
"Rajiv...something's happened." James voice became quiet...

STRATEGY & TACTICS

ISAF, SCR Address Military ROE and Tactical Directives -- [ISAF]
"Our rules of engagement are solid, and they have not changed," said Blotz. "They are based on international law and are standardized across 47 nations, and describe the circumstances and limitations under which forces will begin or continue to engage in combat. This defines the"right and left limits" of what we will allow our forces to do as they fight."
...He added that the tactical directives tell troops what they should do while the rules of engagement instruct them what they can do. In an example he describes the difference between the two directives.
"If our troops are fired upon from a compound, under the laws of armed conflict...international law, that compound is a legal target," the general said. "However, the current tactical directive will ask our troops to consider the minimal level of force that's required to handle the situation."
...At the moment, the application of the current tactical directive is being reviewed to ensure it is consistently being used across our force.
"It is important to remember that [ISAF] military forces always retain the right to self defense, if commanders believe their forces are in danger they are required to make decisions to protect themselves," said Blotz..

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Raytheon's pain gun finally gets deployed in Afghanistan (update: recalled) -- [Engadget]
t's been six long years since we first got wind of the Pentagon's Active Denial System, and four since it was slated to control riots in Iraq, but though we've seen reporters zapped by the device once or twice, it seems the Air Force-approved pain gun is only now entering service in Afghanistan...
Update: Sorry folks, false alarm -- a Air Force spokesperson just informed us that though the pain gun was indeed sent to Afghanistan, it's now being returned to the US without ever seeing use.


Pain Ray Recalled From Afghanistan -- [Noah Shachtman/Danger Room]
...The system's tactical advantages are far outweighed by the strategically-massive propaganda boost that the pain ray would've given the Taliban.

The Active Denial System: the weapon that's a hot topic -- [The Telegraph (UK)]
In 2007, with the situation in Iraq at its most volatile since the invasion, US forces requested the presence of the ADS. It was never sent. Indeed, The Daily Telegraph has learnt that it has now been recalled from Afghanistan, without being fired in anger...
...Other problems come from the limitations of the device itself. Rain, snow and fog hamper its effectiveness, and it can be blocked by highly reflective materials such as aluminium foil...
Yet even if the ADS falls short, the ongoing pressure to keep the civilian body count to a minimum has made the development of similar weapons a top priority for Western forces. The ADS is only one of a raft of new non-lethal measures the US has been developing, under varying levels of secrecy...

World's Fastest Helicopter Boosts Battle Against Insurgents -- [ISAF]
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...The aircraft's value in the battle against insurgents lies in its versatile performance. The Lynx crews can track insurgent movements and watch over vulnerable areas with its sophisticated surveillance camera. This "overwatch" capability helps in the protection of the massive convoys used to re-supply front line troops in the forward operating bases.
The convoys can be vulnerable to attack as they track across vast swathes of desert from base to base but with the Lynx and its formidable weapons systems circling above, the insurgents stay away...



POLITICS

Is it time for a real GI Jane? -- [CNN]

HUMOR/SATIRE

-- []


(Need more? Dawn Patrols Archives are here.)

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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
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The Mudville Gazette is written and produced by Greyhawk. Unless otherwise credited, the opinions expressed are those of the author, and nothing here is to be taken as representing the official position of or endorsement by the United States Department of Defense or any of its subordinate components. Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house.

I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email.

Original content copyright © 2003 - 2009 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed.

Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com

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