Mosque Leaders Tried to Sell Shoulder-Fired Missiles to Felon Working For US Government

Associated Press | August 6 2004

Comment: As is the case with most of these operations, the 'sting' is nothing of the sort and is in fact a cover to clear the way for government sponsored terrorism. The most famous example of this is the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, where the FBI ensured the terrorists used real and not fake explosives.

TWO leaders of a mosque in Albany, New York state were arrested on charges stemming from an alleged plot to purchase a shoulder-fired missile that would be used to assassinate the Pakistani ambassador in New York, according to court papers filed today.

The men have ties to a group called Ansar al-Islam, which has been linked to al-Qaeda, according to two federal law enforcement authorities speaking on condition of anonymity. US officials have said that Ansar's members are thought to be affiliated with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant whose network is blamed for attacks on US forces and their allies in Iraq.

The arrests came as FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agents executed search warrants at the Masjid As-Salam mosque and two Albany-area residences late yesterday and early today. The men were identified as Yassin Aref, 34, the imam of the mosque, and Mohammed Hoosain, 49, one of the mosque's founders. Hoosain also owns the Little Italy Pizzeria in Albany, court documents said.

The Albany case was not related to the Bush administration's terror alerts over the weekend indicating that al-Qaeda may be plotting attacks against US financial buildings, officials said. Some have criticised the decision to issue the warning, which was largely based on intelligence that was several years old.

A Justice Department news conference with Deputy Attorney General James Comey and a Federal Bureau of Investigation official was scheduled in Washington to discuss the case.

According to law enforcement officials, the two are being charged with providing material support to terrorism by participating in a conspiracy to help someone they believed was a terrorist purchase a shoulder-fired missile. The person was in fact a convicted felon working undercover for the government to reduce his prison sentence.

The informant told the men he was associated with Jaish-e-Mohammed, an Islamic extremist group in Pakistan that the US government considers a terrorist organisation. According to court records, the informant told the pair that the missile would be used to kill the Pakistani ambassador in New York.

No missile ever changed hands.

The informant approached Mr Hoosain in November 2003 during a meeting that was secretly videotaped, according to an affidavit by FBI agent Timothy Coll.

The informant told Mr Hoosain he imported weapons and ammunition from China, shipped equipment to New York and that Islamic fundamentalists used such weapons to shoot down airplanes. The informant told Hoosain he earned $US50,000 ($71,100) from the sale of each missile.

Mr Coll said Mr Hoosain smiled when he saw a photograph of a shoulder-fired missile and said he could earn substantial amounts of money from such imports, which are illegal. Mr Coll said the two "then further discussed religion."

A month later, during a secretly videotaped meeting at Mr Hoosain's pizzeria, the informant proposed giving Mr Hoosain $50,000 ($71,100) to launder on the informant's behalf with the understanding that Mr Hoosain could keep $US5000 ($A7110), Coll said.

Mr Hoosain agreed to make it appear he had earned the money from rental properties. Mr Hoosain recruited Mr Aref, an imam at the mosque, to witness the laundering transactions.

The wives of the two suspects denied their husbands were involved in any terror plot.

"It's totally wrong and totally false and totally a lie," Mr Hoosain's wife, Mossamat, said in a telephone interview.

She said more than a half-dozen agents stormed the family's apartment at about 1.30am (3.30pm AEST), just as her husband returned from New York City where he had gone to buy a plane ticket to Bangladesh for her mother.

Mr Aref's wife, Zuhor Jalal, said the FBI came to her home about 2am and told her they had her husband in custody. They took her and her three young children to a hotel then searched their home.

Ms Jalal said she and her husband are natives of Kurdistan and lived in Syria for five years before coming to America.

"We come for freedom and job," she said.

This is the second FBI sting operation involving an alleged attempt to purchase a missile. Last August, a British arms dealer was arrested in New Jersey and charged with trying to sell a shoulder-fired missile to an undercover agent posing as a Muslim terrorist bent on shooting down a US airliner.