An update on the NYC tunnel plot, from AP:
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese authorities found maps and bombing plans on the personal computer of an al-Qaida suspect accused of plotting to attack New York train tunnels, a senior Lebanese official said.
Acting Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat described the information found on Assem Hammoud's computer as "very important."
"It contained maps and bombing plans that were being prepared," Fatfat said in a local television interview.
Lebanese security officials told The Associated Press that they obtained "important information" from Hammoud's computer and CDs seized from his office at the Lebanese International University, where he taught economics.
"This information helped the investigators make Hammoud confess to his role in plotting a terror act in America," one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
The FBI announced Friday that it had uncovered a plot to attack Hudson River tunnels that which carry more than 215,000 passengers each weekday between New York and New Jersey. U.S. officials said the plot involved at least eight people, including Hammoud. At least two besides Hammoud have been arrested, Lebanese officials said.
U.S. officials said the suspects hoped to pull off an attack involving "martyrdom and explosives" in October or November, but federal investigators working with six other countries intervened before the suspects could travel to the United States.
"We received information from the FBI in April about an attempt to plot a terror act in New York City through Internet communications in Lebanon," Fatfat said in the interview Saturday. "Based on this information, security forces acted and arrested Mr. Assem Hammoud."
Officials said Hammoud, 31, confessed to the plot, and to swearing allegiance to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
"During the investigation, Assem Hammoud admitted that he was planning to go to Pakistan for four months for training on the implementation of this operation in New York and that the implementation date was the end of 2006," Fatfat said.
Bin Laden and his closest aides are believed to be hiding in the mountains along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Lebanese newspaper As-Safir reported that a Syrian suspect had been lured to Libya and arrested there, along with a third suspect whose nationality was unknown.
Other suspects still at large include a Saudi, a Yemeni, a Jordanian, a Palestinian, an Iranian Kurd and a sixth whose nationality was unknown, As-Safir said.
The denial below from Assem's family reflects how successfully he followed the al-Qaida manual:
The suspect's family denied that he had any al-Qaida links. His mother, Nabila Qotob, said Hammoud was an outdoorsy person who drank alcohol, had girlfriends and bore none of the hallmarks of an Islamic extremist.
The Canadian Press, citing a source familiar with the case, reported that Hammoud attended Montreal's Concordia University in the mid-1990s.
FWIW, this particular terrorist plot is the subject of much ridicule and scorn on the internet, resulting in yet more distrust and disbelief in our political leadership..
Simple reason is that blowing up the Holland Tunnel would not flood Wall Street, as Wall street is on higher ground.
And FWIW again, Muslims are irrational, Muslims are as braindead as any believer, but they aren't stupid, and aren't stupid enough to make such mistakes, people who can exploit weaknesses, use technology, shift money around the world OUTSIDE of the banking system, communicate and coordinate without being overheard or monitored by the wests expensive and exhaustive systems are not stupid.
article from Globe and Mail about Hammoud's Canadian connection:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060708.wterrornotCanuck0708/BNStory/Front/home
From above:
“Muslims are irrational, …braindead as any believer, but they aren't stupid, and aren't stupid enough to make such mistakes, people who can exploit weaknesses, use technology, shift money around the world OUTSIDE of the banking system, communicate and coordinate without being overheard or monitored by the wests expensive and exhaustive systems are not stupid.”
Where does one begin with that? Putting the level of wisdom required to follow such a religion aside, there are stupid people of every background. Even Zarqawi made mistakes and OBL is only alive due to misjudgments by our leaders, not due to divine protection or superior intellect.
http://www.madcowprod.com/11122004issue.html
Your statement is too general and therefore irrelevant.
There is too much of our infrastructure available on the internet to ignore. It’s amazing what “Google” can filter when it comes to money. Apparently Homeland Security has not made them a sufficient offer.
-XRDC
During the period of this muslim at Concordia (1990's), the muslims with the help of the leftists aggressively campaigned for the 'poor palestineans' and reviled Jewish students.
The left wholeheartedly joined with the muslims to try and control student counsel and make some strange rulings. What an unholy alliance.
What a travesty that this was allowed to happen on a Canadian campus.
Perhaps one can look at the old news footage and ID these pious and committed jihadi bastards.
" His mother, Nabila Qotob, said Hammoud was an outdoorsy person who drank alcohol, had girlfriends and bore none of the hallmarks of an Islamic extremist."
We have to begin profiling Muslims according to various criteria, including negative criteria (i.e., the absence of external indicators of "extremism"). Any rational profiling net will have to include even Muslims who are outdoorsy and who claim to have located by some special "tafsir" the harmlessly chewy nougat center of Islam.
Clearly the alleged time line for the attack " October or November" was designed to influence the American political process. ( Mid term elections in early November. ) And like the Bin Laden tape released before the last general election , it is an influence designed to help and assist the Republican party hold on to politcal power. Look for ole Osama to release another taped threat in late October to give his buddy Bush another boost in the polls.
-----Nossy
But, wasn't this plot more "aspirational than operational"?
That excuses it from serious consideration according to the media Pooh-Pooh Brigades everywhere.
Using variations of the new Western form of taqqiya:
(Sometimes you just want to smack the media 'upside the head' with an entrenching tool.)
"The problem is, and I think you will agree, is that we are NOT profiling at all."
I agree. I think Western governments are refraining from profiling because any methodology of profiling Muslims that is put into practice will inevitably appear to be racial (which translates as "racist" for the pathologically PC) -- and that appearance will be factual, because the overwhelmingly vast majority of world Muslims are, in fact, non-white.
There are two ways out of this conundrum:
1) refrain from profiling Muslims (the current policy)
2) stop being so irrationally hypersensitive about the racial complexion of Islam: even though, while we would be screening for a non-racial ideology when we profile Muslims, our methodology in practice will have an unavoidable racial bias, this does not mean we are targeting race: it's just a statistical by-product of the ideology which, through historical reasons (not the least of which was the fact that Islam's imperialism was predominantly in non-white regions of the world), yields a predominantly non-white complexion.
Unfortunately, the forces leaning toward #1 are still dominant in Western societies, and they will only be further nourished when we Jihad Watchers insist with earnest simple-mindedness that Islam is devoid of racial characteristics.