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| Terror Networks & Islam |
| How a Queens man got to an al-Qaeda summit |
| 2005-07-20 |
| When senior al-Qaida officials called a clandestine summit in a remote region of Pakistan in early 2004, an American eager to earn his terrorist stripes was waiting in the wings. By his own admission, Mohammed Junaid Babar traveled to the province of Waziristan to supply cash and military equipment to the terror network _ a key moment in an odyssey that began in Queens and ended in a federal lockup in Manhattan, where Babar has emerged as a possible link to al-Qaida in the terrorist bombings in London. At the request of British investigators, the FBI has questioned Babar, 30, about suspected ties between the July 7 attacks and a foiled plot in 2004 by a Pakistani cell to use fertilizer bombs to blow up pubs, restaurants and train stations for which Babar provided support, law enforcement officials in New York told The Associated Press. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, confirmed reports that Babar claimed to know one of the London suicide bombers, Mohammed Sidique Khan, when shown a picture of him. But the officials declined to discuss whether he provided any further information that would be useful to investigators. Babar, while pleading guilty to terrorism charges and agreeing to cooperate with the government last year, admitted organizing a "jihad training camp" that provided instruction on explosives. "I was aware that some of the people who attended the training camp had ideas about ... plotting against some targets in the United Kingdom," he told a judge, according to a transcript of his guilty plea. Before the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Babar's life was unremarkable. The grandson of Pakistani immigrants, he grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Queens. In interviews with journalists in Pakistan before his arrest, Babar said he once was a contented Yankee fan and computer programmer earning $70,000 a year. But the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan radicalized him. On Sept. 11, his mother escaped from the ninth floor of one of the World Trade Center towers. Babar's loyalty, though, was "to the Muslims, not the Americans," he said in an interview broadcast on Canadian television. He also announced his intention to fight U.S. forces in Afghanistan. "I'm willing to kill Americans," he said in the interview. Babar quit his job and in the fall of 2001 went to Pakistan, where he hoped to join the Taliban. It was unclear if he ever made it into Afghanistan. But in 2003 Babar became aligned with members of the Pakistani terror cell in London, providing them aluminum powder and attempting to buy them ammonium nitrate "with the knowledge that it was going to be used for a plot somewhere in the U.K.," he said during his plea. The 2004 plot was foiled when British authorities arrested eight suspects and seized 1,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer _ a key ingredient in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing _ from a storage locker in London. At his plea, Babar also admitted establishing a pipeline for money and supplies such as night-vision goggles, sleeping bags and waterproof socks for al-Qaida operatives fighting along side the Taliban. In early 2004, he said, he went to Waziristan, where "handed over money and supplies to a high-ranking al-Qaida official." The official has not been identified. According to news reports quoting U.S. and Pakistani officials, including President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Babar's visit coincided with a summit there of terrorists plotting various attacks in the West. Investigators believe some of those who attended later scouted prominent financial targets in the United States at the behest of Osama bin Laden, the reports said. In April 2004, Babar returned to New York, where he had been put on a terror watch list based on his inflammatory remarks in news reports. Police and FBI agents put him under surveillance and eventually arrested him. At the time of his capture, the homegrown terrorist was en route to a school to become a taxi driver. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #3 I just don't like the idea of my bud Babar being drug into this mess. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-07-20 18:26 |
| #2 Personally, I think anyone with the name Mohammed anywhere in his name ought to be suspect. Don't mean to sound xenophobic but we have had to deal with terrorism from people with names like Mohammed for 30 years or more. |
| Posted by: John Q. Citizen 2005-07-20 17:16 |
| #1 I do hope this is a phonic spelling. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-07-20 15:52 |