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Peoria is part of an al-Qaeda sleeper circuit
Former West Peorian Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri has been locked up as an enemy combatant, but his terrorist comrades continue to work in central Illinois.
Al-Marri was identified by Khalid as al-Qaeda’s point man in the US. Him being jugged in December 2001 probably severely damaged their network here in the US and has likely helped to prevent al-Qaeda from reconstituting its infrastructure enough to launch additional attacks.
Peoria and Champaign are part of a seven-city "circuit" that moves and disperses terrorists to specific sites across the nation, says Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy. McCoy got that information at a recent FBI conference in Springfield. He shares that snippet of intelligence not to panic central Illinois, but to stress what the FBI told police at the conference: America, including much of its law-enforcement community, has not taken seriously enough the threat of al-Qaida in this country. "Police and Americans don’t understand," McCoy says. "... They hate you. ... They are so focused on what they’re doing, time is no object. They’re patient."

The speaker at the police seminar was an FBI interrogator who served in the Lebanese military and speaks several dialects of Arabic. Those qualifications helped him to question 150 terrorism-related detainees at Guantanamo Bay. During his seminar, the FBI agent mentioned Peoria a handful of times in reference to al-Marri, the Bradley University graduate student arrested by the FBI in late 2001 at the West Peoria apartment he shared with his family. Federal authorities allege the Qatari national had direct ties to Osama bin Laden, Sept. 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and alleged Sept. 11 money man Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawawi. Al-Marri was charged in federal court with running a credit-card scam to fund al-Qaida. But last June, President Bush named al-Marri an enemy combatant, one of just three nationwide, a designation that pulled him out of the civilian court system, put him under military control and stripped him of most Constitutional rights.
That caused the ACLU to turn inside out...
After the FBI seminar, Sheriff McCoy introduced himself to the speaker/agent who then told McCoy about a "circuit" that runs from the West to East coasts. The terrorists enter the United States in San Francisco and Los Angeles, then move to Phoenix, then Denver. From there, some head to Peoria and Champaign. Some terrorists remain in those communities, while others head on to New York City. McCoy says he and the agent did not get a chance to talk much more about the circuit. The agent did not specify the numbers of terrorists who may be working in central Illinois, nor did he say how the FBI is monitoring them. "One of the hard things is, you can’t infiltrate these groups," McCoy says. "They know all these guys. It’s not like you can go and say, ’I want to join your group.’ "
Thereby recruiting within known family or social circles, just like November 17 did. It keeps them from being infiltrated and helps to secure loyalty to the organization. We’ve seen that terrorism is a family affair again and again and again.
McCoy says Peoria and Champaign serve as ideal hosts for terrorists. Each city is home to a university with numerous Middle Easterners among the student body, thus enabling al-Qaida operatives to blend into each community. McCoy says al-Qaida ops in central Illinois have been performing work similar to al-Marri: raising money and working computers. That information dovetails with a June report in Newsweek magazine, which cited FBI sources in pegging the Midwest (specifically Peoria) as the brains of terrorist activity in America. McCoy says, "I’m not saying Peoria is condemned to die by terrorists. But we need to be vigilant."
Posted by: Dan Darling 2003-12-31
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=23588