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| Terror Networks |
| THE COMPUTER BIG |
| 2004-08-07 |
August 7th, 2004 -- A British man used the Internet in the United States to raise money and promote terrorism — and had a copy of an attack plan to use against an American naval battle fleet, U.S. prosecutors said yesterday as they sought his extradition. "Weakness: they have nothing to stop a small craft" armed with rocket-propelled grenades, said the never-used attack plan, which contained classified information on the fleet's size, composition and planned movements, court documents charge. The existence of the chilling 2001 document was revealed in a London courtroom, where U.S. federal prosecutors asked a British judge to extradite alleged terror Webmaster Babar Ahmad to Connecticut. "I don't want to go," Ahmad told a court clerk. Asked if he understood the charges against him, the married father of two told the judge, "Not really. It's all a bit confusing to me." Prosecutors say the case is actually very straightforward — Ahmad is a terror booster who used Internet providers based in Connecticut and Nevada to promote "material support of terrorism," to conspire "to kill persons in a foreign country," to support the Taliban, and to launder money. The criminal complaint says that in addition to helping the al Qaeda-sheltering Taliban in Afghanistan, Ahmad also supported militant Islamic guerrilla fighters in Chechnya through his Web site, azzam.com. And he had links to the e-mail account of a Chechen terror leader behind the October 2002 Moscow theater siege in which more than 100 people died, prosecutors said. The site was named after Abdullah Azzam, the mentor of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. The complaint quotes the site, which has been shut down, as saying it was established "to propagate the call for Jihad . . . to 'incite the believers' and secondly to raise some money for the brothers." It also declared that "the best way of helping Jihad and the Mujahedeen is by actually going to the lands of Jihad and physically fighting" — and an offshoot of the site offered tips on how to get into Afghanistan to fight against U.S. forces in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the complaint says. The site also offered how-to advice on directing money to the Taliban, what sort of equipment terrorists were in need of, and how believers could prepare themselves for waging holy war. "Muslims must use every means [at] their disposal to undertake military and physical training for Jihad," the complaint quotes the site as saying. "It is suggested that individuals read up on certain topics, including sniper training, mine/counter mine operations, mortars, and combat skills for soldiers." The most disturbing charges in the complaint center around the classified Navy battle fleet information, which investigators discovered on a floppy disk inside Ahmad's parents' home during a raid this past December. The document detailed planned movements of a battle group that included the San Diego-based USS Benfold, and a drawing of the group's formation when it was to pass through the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East, the affidavit said. It also detailed the ships' vulnerabilities to attacks by small boats. "The document states that the battle group was scheduled to pass through the Straits on April 29, 2001 at night, under a communications blackout, and explicitly describes the group's vulnerability to a terrorist attack," the complaint says. "Navy officials have confirmed the battle group composition, the dates and locations of the movements . . . are accurate and were classified at the time this document appears to have been written." The battle group was never attacked — but a sailor on one of the ships in the group, the USS Benfold, had been exchanging e-mails with Ahmad, the complaint says. Lt. Ohene Gyapong, a U.S. Navy spokesman, would not release the sailor's name and said there's no tie between the sailor and the classified documents. Officials said they don't know how much money Ahmad was able to raise — but they do know of two U.S. citizens, one in Connecticut and one in New Jersey, who contributed. Their names were not released, though their identities are known. The arrest came after a 21/2-year investigation — and investigators learned Ahmed was planning on fleeing his native England. He faces life in prison if convicted. Ahmad's sister, who declined to give her name, said her brother is "innocent" (Sure he is ..) |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #4 HIT! |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-08-07 11:56:04 PM |
| #3 Whoa! Weird why did I say D-11? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-08-07 7:19:44 PM |
| #2 Asked if he understood the charges against him, the married father of two told the judge, "Not really. It’s all a bit confusing to me." So I guess we'd call this guy a "minormind"? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-08-07 7:10:04 PM |
| #1 B-18 |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-08-07 7:07:48 PM |