A suspected terrorist in U.S. custody has been cooperating with authorities and has suggested al Qaeda was planning more attacks in the United States, ABC News has learned. Mohammed Junaid Babar, a Pakistani-American, has been held in New York’s federal detention center in lower Manhattan since April 2004. U.S. officials believe Babar, who was arrested in Queens, N.Y., was helping finance a group of Pakistani terrorists in London and plotting a series of bombings and assassinations.
The terror cell Babar is allegedly associated with in London was under British surveillance for months, according to officials. Members of the terror cell spoke openly of launching attacks and purchased nearly a ton of ammonium nitrate, one of the key ingredients used in the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people. Babar was arrested by the FBI after British authorities alerted U.S. officials to Babar’s possible connection to the alleged plot. "Your reaction is going to be immediate, and has to be," said Jack Cloonan, a former FBI counterterrorism agent. "Because if you’re linking this person on our end, the United States to this group, are we saying is there somebody else here who is planning something here." The FBI is currently working to verify information received from Babar about alleged plans for future attacks. Investigators are also trying to determine if he has any associates in the United States. |