NYT, pg1: Bin Laden Sent Suspect (Issa al-Hindi) to U.S., Officials Say

[DeepModem Mom]

THE OVERVIEW
Bin Laden Sent Suspect to U.S., Officials Say
By DOUGLAS JEHL and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

Published: August 7, 2004


WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 - American intelligence officials now believe that Issa al-Hindi, the alleged Qaeda operative now in British custody, was dispatched to the United States in early 2001 by the mastermind of the Sept. 11 plot at the direction of Osama bin Laden to case potential targets in New York City, senior government officials said Friday.

The officials said that Mr. Hindi was the same person as the figure identified in the Sept. 11 commission report as Issa al-Britani. The account of Mr. Hindi's being dispatched to New York was based on claims by the mastermind, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, while in American custody, the report said. But American officials said on Friday that it is consistent with other evidence that Mr. Hindi headed a three-man team that surveyed the New York Stock Exchange and other buildings in New York, probably in early 2001.

Senior government officials said that Mr. Hindi - the name is thought to be an alias - was believed to have visited the United States several times in 2000 and 2001, the same period in which reconnaissance of financial institutions in New York, New Jersey and Washington that was discovered last week is believed to have taken place.

The Joint Terrorist Task Force of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York Police Department was working on Friday to track Mr. Hindi's movements in New York, focusing on where he lived, anyone with whom he might have come into contact and how long he was there. One law enforcement official said investigators had identified some people in photographs that were included in the surveillance package and those people were being interviewed....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/07/politics/07terror.html

[shraby]

1. How much of this shit are

they making up?

[DeepModem Mom]

2. NYT has had at least one page-one story, sourced by "officials"...

each day since the latest terror alert (and since the day they broke the story that the intel was old). "Officials" seem to be continuing to justify that alert.

[thebigidea]

3. just how many "masterminds" does Al-Qaeda have, anyway?

BUSH: "Gee, Dick - maybe we should get us one of those uh... masterminds."

CHENEY: (glares silently)

[shraby]

4. And how many senior officials

does al Queda have anyway???? Seems every one they get is a senior official. Also how many 20th hijackers were there? I've lost count.

edited to add.

[thebigidea]

5. the shoebomber is probably an "Assistant Manager" by now

[w13rd0]

7. Now they get titles too...

...According to captured senior al Queada Secretary of North American Outreach via Cyberspace, Illami bin Sufate, the new modus operandi is the use of exploding rhesus monkeys to attack key parts of the light rail system in Townsville.

[saigon68]

6. LOL PRICELESS

Another Chimpism!!!!

[0007]

8. "Very very slippery

American officials cautioned that Mr. Hindi was "a very, very slippery individual" who was "very concerned about surveillance" and known to use many aliases, which cover more than a page in a document seen by one law enforcement official. Under his alias, which means the Indian, he is the author of a book published by an Islamic bookstore in London, Maktaba al Ansaar, under the title of "The Army of Madinah in Kashmir."

A law enforcement official said that one passage in the book offered a statement to the effect "that in order to get the West's eyes off of the Middle East, we're going to have to hit them in their economy." cough cough

At a hearing in London on Friday, Mr. Ahmed expressed opposition to an extradition request by the United States. An American lawyer presented evidence that Mr. Ahmed, who has been arrested and released by the British authorities on terrorism charges in the past, had been found last December to be in possession of sensitive documents showing the position of American warships in the Persian Gulf during 2001 among other things." cough cough