The Feds charged Uzair Paracha last week with providing cover for a suspected Qaeda terrorist in the United States. But they didnât reveal their suspicion that Paracha and his father have ties to senior members of Al Qaeda, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Paracha — possibly through his father, Saifullah — may have been recruited by Mohammed, or âKSM,â as the Feds call him. NEWSWEEK has learned that the FBI believes Parachaâs role was to help maintain the cover of a key Qaeda operative based in Baltimore who was planning attacks in the United States after 9/11.
| Uhhh... Y'mean Baltimore, as in downtown is 15 minutes from me? Something about that idea bothers me... |
After his capture by American and Pakistani forces in March, Mohammed told U.S. interrogators about a web of possible âsleeper agentsâ he had set up inside America. He had deliberately recruited operatives who had easy entry to U.S. territory as green-card holders (like Paracha) or even U.S. citizens. Mohammed said one element of his sleeper network involved using Parachaâs fatherâs import-export firm as a cover for smuggling explosives into the United States, according to an FBI report on Mohammedâs interrogations obtained by NEWSWEEK. Shortly after Mohammed started talking, U.S. investigators rounded up some of the suspects identified by the Qaeda chief, including Paracha — who was hanging out at his fatherâs company office in Manhattanâs garment district — and Iyman Faris, a Columbus, Ohio, truckdriver whom Mohammed had assigned to surveil the Brooklyn Bridge and then to buy acetylene torches that could be used to cut its suspension cables.
| "Morris, there's a man sitting on one of the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge trying to cut it with an acetylene torch." |
Last week, after holding Paracha since late March as a âmaterial witness,â the Feds charged him with providing support to Al Qaeda, including conspiring with two unidentified Qaeda operatives to acquire ID papers that would help one of the terror suspects enter the United States. According to a government source and Parachaâs lawyer, the suspect whom Paracha is accused of helping with the ID papers is Majid Khan, a former Baltimore resident now in custody overseas, whose family owned gas stations in Maryland.
| I hope they're not Shell stations... |
According to FBI documents, Mohammed told interrogators that he and Khan had planned to simultaneously blow up the underground storage tanks of several gas stations.
| I wonder if they're done working on my car yet? Maybe I should pick it up anyway... |
Though his lawyer says Paracha is not a terrorist and was unaware of any planned attacks,
| "No, no! Certainly not! Nothing of the sort! Lies! All lies!" |
he concedes that Paracha did phone U.S. immigration authorities on Khanâs behalf — a call that prosecutors allege was part of an attempt to keep Khanâs U.S. immigration status regular so he could get back into the country. Parachaâs father has not been heard from since his arrest in Pakistan last month. Farhat Paracha insists neither her husband nor her son was involved in terrorism.
"They're just pickin' on m'boy 'cuz he's so dangerous handsome!" |
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