A small group of FBI agents huddled outside a Home Depot store in Atlanta in January 2006, watching a young man suspected of being linked to terrorists as he walked out the door with materials that could be used to make a bomb.
They knew Syed Haris Ahmed had researched bomb-making techniques online and shaved his head, as some jihadis have done before an attack. However, they had to make a quick decision faced by other terror investigators across the country: They could swoop in and keep him from potentially building a bomb, which could leave them with a case too weak to win a conviction. Or they could keep building a stronger case — and risk a potential terror attack.
“If we have a terrorist event, we could solve what happened. But that means we’ve lost,” said Rick Maxwell, an assistant special agent in charge in Atlanta. “What we want to do is prevent them.
It’s much more difficult, but that’s our goal,” he said.
In the end they held off, relying on federal explosive experts who told them the PVC pipe was not enough to create a dangerous explosive. They also sent local police pretending to be on a routine call to question Ahmed about the piping, which they determined was being used for a school project.
Ahmed and co-defendant Ehsanul Islam Sadequee — both US citizens — were ultimately convicted of terror-related charges earlier this year, and federal prosecutors said the case exemplified their strategy of snuffing out potential plots in their earliest stages. Sentencing was scheduled yesterday.
However, federal investigators have a mixed record when other terrorist plots are broken up early. Five Muslim immigrants were convicted last year of conspiring to kill US soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey, but they were acquitted of attempted murder after prosecutors acknowledged they were likely months away from acting.
Meanwhile, the FBI has recently been criticized for not launching a deeper investigation into Army Major Nidal Hasan, who is accused of shooting and killing 13 people Nov. 5 at Fort Hood, Texas _ even though agents had intercepted at least 18 e-mails between him and a radical Muslim cleric.
The way the bureau handled information about Hasan before the rampage is under review.
Pursuing charges before all the evidence is in hand can backfire — suspects have sued authorities before, claiming they were falsely imprisoned victims of witch hunts, said Jeffrey Addicott, director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St Mary’s University in San Antonio.
It can also confine prosecutors, who may only have enough evidence to charge suspects with lesser crimes like identity theft and lying to federal investigators rather than conspiracy to commit murder or providing material support to a terrorist group.
Addicott, though, said he’s noticed investigators have been more cautious in the past few years.
“I think the reason we were a bit trigger-happy was Sept. 11, but we’re starting to get more patient,” he said.
The Atlanta terror investigation started as many do: with a tip about Sadequee.
Investigators found a string of anti-US rhetoric, possible links to suspected terrorists in foreign countries and an e-mail sent by Sadequee in 2001 in which he said he wanted to join the Taliban in Afghanistan.
< It was enough to delve deeper in the case. Eventually, the FBI dispatched four surveillance teams to track Ahmed, Sadequee and others believed to be involved. The lead investigators were working weekends, holidays and could hardly sleep through the night without getting an update. Greg Jones, the FBI’s agent in charge in Atlanta, was getting daily briefings on the case. As many as 150 people worked to slowly gather evidence that Sadequee met other extremists as he delved deeper into online forums devoted to violent jihad, Jones said. One was Ahmed, a former Georgia Tech student. Authorities said the two took a bus to Toronto in March 2005 and met with at least three other subjects of a federal investigation to discuss possible attack sites. A month later, the pair drove Ahmed’s pickup truck to Washington, D.C., to videotape 62 choppy clips of U.S. landmarks. One of the videos, which was eventually played for jurors, showed the two driving as Sadequee said: “This is where our brothers attacked the Pentagon.” Authorities made their move in early 2006, arresting Ahmed in March and Sadequee a month later in Bangladesh. In separate trials, both sought to portray their online discussions about jihad as empty talk. Sadequee, who like Ahmed represented himself at trial, said he never considered following through on the boastful chatter. “We were immature young guys who had imaginations running wild,” Sadequee told jurors in his closing arguments in August. “But I was not then, and am not now, a terrorist.” When the two were convicted over the summer, a wave of relief washed over the investigators. But Jones said they wouldn’t have waited if they knew something was going to happen. “Public safety wins out every time,” Jones said. “The slightest hint that an individual possesses something that can harm or kill, you let the case go to hell.”
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
RSS