A British citizen who was arrested last August in a sting operation pleaded
not guilty Friday to federal charges that he plotted to sell shoulder-fired
missiles that he knew were to be used against commercial airliners in the
United States, as well as a so-called dirty bomb, to people he believed to
be terrorists.
The man, Hemant Lakhani, 69, a London resident of Indian ancestry, entered
his plea Friday before Judge Katherine S. Hayden of Federal District Court.
The judge ordered that he continue to be held without bail pending an April
26 hearing on pretrial motions.
January 10, 2004
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In May, a New York cabdriver from Afghanistan was arrested after asking an
undercover agent questions about buying enough explosives to blow up a
mountain. Prosecutors labeled him dangerous and suggested he might be a
terrorist.
Yesterday, the cabdriver, Sayed Abdul Malike, pleaded guilty in Federal
District Court in Brooklyn to making false statements to F.B.I. agents when
he denied during law enforcement interviews that he had been asking about
explosives. But he told the judge that there was an innocent explanation.
January 24, 2004
---
About two years ago, a young man using the screen name "akagunfighter"
joined a local Islamic Internet chat room.
His real name was Ryan G. Anderson, and he could hardly have been less welcome.
Anderson was arrested yesterday by U.S. Army officials, who say the
26-year-old National Guardsman attempted to communicate and provide
intelligence to the al-Qaida terrorism network
Several sources familiar with the investigation have said Anderson was
arrested following a sting operation and that no information was ever
passed to the enemy.
Seattle Times, February 13, 2004
---
Four men have been arrested on suspicion of terrorist offences following a
sting operation organised by a Sunday newspaper, police said last night.
Three men were seized in a "pre-planned" operation by officers from the
Metropolitan Police's anti-terrorist branch at a hotel in Brent Cross,
north London on Friday. The fourth man was arrested later at his north
London home.
The sting was set up after a News of the World reporter, posing as a
"Muslim extremist", infiltrated a gang which was allegedly trying to buy
radioactive material for an unnamed Saudi Arabian man.
The newspaper's investigations editor, Mazher Mahmood, went undercover
after claiming to have received a tip-off that a Saudi sympathetic to "the
Muslim cause" was willing to pay pounds 300,000 for a kilogram of powerful,
radioactive "Red Mercury". The chemical is said to have been developed by
Soviet scientists for "briefcase nuclear bombs", but, said the newspaper,
"scientists are divided over whether any actually exists".
The Independent, September 26, 2004
---
ARMED POLICE with bomb-sniffing dogs guarded the federal courthouse in
Newark, New Jersey, yesterday as an Indian-born British businessman stood
trial accused of attempting to smuggle surface-to-air missiles into the
United States to shoot down airliners.
More than a year after Hemant Lakhani was arrested in a hotel suite close
to Newark airport on charges of plotting to sell weapons to an alleged
terrorist cell in the US, he faces a trial that may last at least 10 weeks.
If convicted, Mr Lakhani of Hendon, north London, could face 25 years in
prison.
At the time he was arrested, President George Bush hailed it as an advance
in the "war on terror". "We got a significant arms-dealer and a dangerous
terrorist," the President said. "This is a major step in the global war
against terrorism."
Just how significant a catch 70-year-old Mr Lakhani really was will be a
focus of the trial. Apparently, he has no criminal convictions and no known
ties to terror groups. Friends in London have described him as an ageing
Del Boy, after the character in the TV programme, Only Fools and Horses,
with a talent more for bungled business deals than international intrigue.
The Independent, January 5, 2005
---
A Yemeni cleric and an aide who helped finance terrorist groups are as
dangerous as the al Qaeda and Hamas terrorists who commit vicious attacks,
a federal prosecutor told jurors Thursday.
"Although these defendants did not strap on bombs or fly planes into
buildings, they are indispensable to the people who do," said Assistant
U.S. Attorney Pamela Chen in closing arguments in the trial of the two men,
who were arrested in an FBI sting. "Without the defendants, the terrorists
couldn't exist."
Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan Al Moayad, 56, and his assistant, Mohammed Mohsen
Yahya Zayed, 31, are accused of providing material support to
U.S.-designated terrorist groups and of conspiracy to provide material
support, among other charges. The white-bearded sheik, who comes to court
in long robes, was arrested in Frankfurt, Germany, in January 2003. He
traveled there to collect a $2.5 million donation for terrorist groups,
prosecutors alleged.
The donor was an FBI agent posing as an American sympathizer, and the
meeting was a law enforcement sting.
March 4, 2005
---
IF a mentally disturbed individual, envisioning a nonexistent technology,
offers to sell an imaginary bomb to a lawman posing as a member of
al-Qaida, is he guilty of attempting to aid and abet foreign terrorists?
In the case of Ronald Allen Grecula, arrested in Houston by FBI agents last
week, the answer will determine whether he faces a 15-year prison sentence
and a fine of up to $ 250,000.
Grecula, 68, certainly talked the talk in taped conversations with a
federal informant and undercover agent, spinning tales of explosives that
could level whole city blocks. He likened himself to the Roman rebel
Spartacus and repeatedly said he hated the United States and wanted to help
its enemies.
The roots of the terrorism case against Grecula go back to his imprisonment
in 2002 on the Mediterranean island nation of Malta, where he was arrested
for kidnapping his two children from an estranged wife. Grecula told a
cellmate he wanted to sell bombs to make money and hire a hitman to kill
the wife. After both were released, the former cellmate stayed in contact
and eventually notified authorities of Grecula's schemes. The man lured
Grecula to meet with the bogus terrorists in Houston, where he was arrested
and charged.
May 28, 2005
---
A martial arts expert from the Bronx and a doctor from Florida have been
arrested on charges that they conspired to train and provide medical
assistance to Al Qaeda terrorists, federal and local authorities said
yesterday.
The men, United States citizens who were identified by the authorities as
Tarik ibn Osman Shah of the Bronx and Rafiq Sabir of Boca Raton, were
captured in early morning raids in the Bronx and in Boca Raton on Friday,
according to Paul J. Browne, a New York City police spokesman.
The arrests came as part of a two-year sting operation that ended with each
man facing a single conspiracy charge. While the authorities said that they
had no evidence that either man had actually provided support to
terrorists, they said they had taped each man swearing his allegiance to
Osama bin Laden, Mr. Browne said.
The New York Times, May 30, 2005
---
The arrest of 17 terrorism suspects in Canada is part of a continuing,
multinational inquiry into suspected terrorist cells in at least seven
countries, a U.S. counter-terrorism official confirmed Sunday.
The senior U.S. law enforcement official said authorities were combing
through evidence seized during raids in Canada this weekend to look for
possible connections between the 17 suspects arrested Friday and Saturday
and at least 18 other Islamist militants who had been arrested in locations
including the United States, Bangladesh, BosniaHerzegovina, Britain,
Denmark and Sweden.
The investigation began as separate probes into what authorities believed
were localized cells of militant Muslim young men who shared an interest in
radical ideology on the Internet and, to a lesser extent, in local mosques
and training camps
Canadian authorities have charged the suspects with various
terrorism-related offenses and allege that they had accepted delivery of
three tons of the fertilizer ammonium nitrate, which can be combined with
fuel to make an extremely powerful bomb.
The Toronto Star, citing unnamed sources, reported that the fertilizer was
delivered to the suspects as part of an undercover police sting. When the
deal was completed, the anti-terrorism task force moved in to arrest the
suspects, the newspaper said. Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokeswoman
Michele Paradis would not comment on the report.
Los Angeles Times, June 5, 2006
---
MIAMI _ FBI agents backed by state and local law enforcement cordoned off
an area of Liberty City, Fla., and made several arrests on Thursday as part
of what U.S. officials called a significant terror-related investigation.
There was no immediate threat to Miami, officials said. Formal details on
the raid, which apparently focused on a warehouse, were to be released by
U.S. officials at news conferences set for Friday in Miami and Washington.
About 20 FBI agents arrived on the scene. They were backed up by state and
local police officers.
In a prepared statement, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami said the
arrests were made "as part of an ongoing investigation into a
terrorist-related matter.
"The individuals arrested posed no immediate threat to our community."
One law enforcement source said authorities arrested seven people who
allegedly were conspiring to conduct attacks in the United States _ but
that there was no immediate threat.
Five of those arrested are U.S. residents, one is a resident alien and one
is an illegal alien, the source told the Miami Herald on condition of
anonymity.
Citing an investigation before Thursday's raid, the source said the group
talked about an attack on the Sears Tower in Chicago and the FBI building
in Miami _ but that they had no "overt explosives or other things."
The group thought that they "were doing (the attacks) in conjunction with
al-Qaida" but were really dealing with" undercover law enforcement, the
official said.
It was "pretty much talk, we were on top of them," the source said.
Miami Herald, June 22, 2006
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