WHOSE REALLY THE REAL SUPERMAN? COMPARE

THEY ARE WEARING THE SAME EXACT SHIRTS!!

  
HENRY CAVILL - STAR OF THE UPCOMING SUPERMAN MOVIE DEC. 2012

        

 TOM WELLING - SEPTEMBER 2010 - SMALLVILLE-10 SEASONS TOM WELLING - JUNE 4, 2001

 
 

Al-Qaida active in Latin America's 'Triple Frontier'

Security agencies are looking into reports that a frontier triangle linking Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay has become a nexus for al-Qaida activities with alleged armament and training of Latin American youths and planning of cross-border attacks.

No independent official confirmation of reports was immediately available but the Brazilian Veja magazine cited police and security forces that were alerted to the activities of at least 20 high-ranking operatives of three organizations -- al-Qaida, Hamas and Hezbollah.

Reports of possible Middle Eastern terror links with the area first emerged after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, re-emerged last year but were dismissed amid concerns the allegations would alienate and anger local communities of Arab descent, most of them Christian.

More recent reports cited activities by al-Qaida and Iran-linked groups that likely used connections among non-Christian Middle Eastern communities.

Community leaders countered previous allegations as inspired propaganda which, they warned, could damage inter-faith and inter-racial relations.

The reports also cited large quantities of cash changing hands and deals with arms suppliers, several of which are linked to supplies of weapons manufactured locally in Latin America.

Analysts said the reports still need to be treated with caution. A spate of recognitions by regional governments of a Palestinian state in borders before the 1967 war gave rise to speculation the Latin American states could be tilting toward the Palestinian position on ways of resolving the Arab-Israeli disputes.

The wave of recognitions hasn't affected the current Middle East stalemate, though it has raised the stakes in the diplomatic and political jockeying for influence between Israel and the Arab-Palestinian side.

The renewed allegations of terror links in the region again shifted the spotlight on Arab communities in the area. Brazil earlier discounted reports of suspect activities, pointing out that large money transfers between the local Arab communities and the Middle East was a normal activity that had gone on for years.

Veja said the intelligence agencies' interest was focused on Mohsen Rabbani, a former Iranian cultural attache at the Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires, in connection with 1992 and 1994 incidents targeting Argentina's Jewish communities.

Veja said Brazilian intelligence had tracked Rabbani's alleged role in recent travel to a meeting in Iran by more than 20 young men from the Sao Paulo area.

The magazine said other individuals of Arab descent were suspected of activities considered inappropriate and claimed that both the Lebanese Hezbollah organization and Palestinian group Hamas had set up operations in the border region.

The so-called Triple Frontier has long held reputation as South America's busiest contraband and smuggling hub with unbridled trade in arms, bootleg liquor, drugs and pirated software.

The area came under close surveillance by U.S., other international and regional intelligence agencies after 9/11.

Brazil latest base for Islamic extremists

With preparations for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro well under way, security experts have expressed fears that terrorists are “taking advantage” of weaknesses in the country’s laws.

Brazil has not passed any specific anti-terrorism legislation, does not recognize Hizbollah or Hamas as terrorist groups and disbanded the Federal Police’s anti-terrorism service in 2009.

Now, Veja, a weekly news magazine, has had access to reports compiled by the service as well as documents about the terrorist threat sent to Brazil by the FBI, CIA, Interpol and the US Treasury.

It says the papers show 21 men linked to Islamic extremist groups including al-Qaeda, have been using Brazil for various purposes including controlling inflows of money and planning attacks.

They include Khaled Hussein Ali, who was born in Lebanon but now lives in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city, from where he runs an internet cafe.

However, according to Veja he is also in control of an online communications arm of al-Qaeda called Jihad Media Battalion, which has a presence in 17 countries around the world and spreads communications from al-Qaeda leaders as well as publicising attacks.

Another of those named is Mohsen Rabbani, an Iranian wanted by Interpol as the suspected architect of bombings on Jewish targets in Buenos Aires in the 1990s that killed 114 people.

According to the documents, he frequently slips in and out of Brazil on a false passport and has recruited at least 24 youngsters in three Brazilian states to attend “religious formation” classes in Tehran.

“Without anybody noticing, a generation of of Islamic extremists is appearing in Brazil,” said Alexandre Camanho de Assis, who co-ordinates Brazil’s network of public prosecutors across 13 states.

The papers also show that the US Treasury described the poorly policed Tri-border area, where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet, as a “financial artery” for Hizbollah.

Daniel Lorenz, a former head of the Federal Police’s intelligence department and now Security Secretary for the Federal District, that includes the capital Brasilia, warned that Brazil risks being caught out.

“The terrorists are taking advantage of the fragility of Brazilian legislation,” he said.

Al Qaeda aqcuiring arms from Libya claims Algerian source-US asks Libyan opposition about Al Qaeda reports

The United States has raised concerns with the Libyan opposition about reports of al Qaeda obtaining weapons in eastern Libya, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Monday, April 4.

"We are aware of these reports too and it has been one of the topics of our conversation with ... the opposition forces," Toner told reporters. "We have made very clear our concerns and they have ... pledged that they will look into it."

A senior security source in neighboring Algeria told Reuters that Al-Qaeda is exploiting the conflict in Libya to acquire weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, and smuggle them to a stronghold in northern Mali.

Western governments have demanded that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi step down after his forces cracked down on a revolt against his rule, but some governments in the region are nervous that al-Qaeda could step into a power vacuum.

Toner said he did not know whether the U.S. government had its own information suggesting al-Qaeda was obtaining arms in Libya or whether its concerns were based on published reports.

Algeria, which has been fighting al-Qaeda's north African wing for years and closely monitors insurgent activity across north Africa and the Sahara, says there are already signs that this is happening.

Algeria's government has watched with concern as its eastern neighbors have been convulsed by popular uprisings, and is anxious that discontent over living conditions and limits on political freedoms could spark a similar revolt.

Security officials took the rare step of voicing their concerns about Libya to the foreign media because they are worried that events there could reverse their gains in keeping a lid on al-Qaeda inside the country.

The senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a convoy of eight Toyota pick-up trucks left eastern Libya, crossed into Chad and then Niger, and from there into northern Mali where in the past few days it delivered a cargo of weapons.

The weapons included Russian-made RPG-7 anti-tank rocket-propelled grenades, Kalashnikov heavy machine guns, Kalashnikov rifles, explosives and ammunition, he said.

He also said he had information that Al-Qaeda's north African wing, known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had acquired from Libya Russian-made shoulder-fired Strela surface-to-air missiles known by the NATO designation SAM-7.

"Several military barracks have been pillaged in this region (eastern Libya) with their arsenals and weapons stores and the elements of AQIM who were present could not have failed to profit from this opportunity" the official told Reuters

"AQIM, which has maintained excellent relations with smugglers who used to cross Libya from all directions without the slightest difficulty, will probably give them the task of bringing it the weapons," said the senior Algerian security official.

The official made no suggestion that the Libyan government was supplying weapons to al-Qaeda.

 

Security worries

Algeria has spent most of the past two decades fighting an Islamist insurgency inside its own borders. The violence has subsided, but officials believe instability in neighboring Libya could allow the insurgency to flare up again.

Security officials in north Africa and beyond say the best way to contain al-Qaeda is to keep a tight rein on the availability of weapons and stop insurgents crossing desert borders -- measures jeopardized by Libya's revolt.

Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, discussing the Libya conflict last week, said that the government was concerned about the implications for the fight against al-Qaeda.

The interior minister, Daho Ould Kablia, last month said that an AQIM operative was arrested in the Sahara desert after crossing the border from Libya.

Algeria's government opposed the Western-led military intervention in Libya, with Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci saying air strikes on Libya were "disproportionate."

 

Another Somalia?

Samer Riad, a journalist with Algeria's El Khabar newspaper who specializes in security issues, said there was a danger al-Qaeda could capitalize on the conflict in Libya in the same way it did in Somalia.

"Transforming Libya into a Somalia is very easy. All the coalition has to do is turn a blind eye to AQIM's activity in Libya now," he said.

The Algerian security official said al-Qaeda was exploiting disarray among forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi but had also infiltrated the anti-Gaddafi rebels in eastern Libya.

"We understand that AQIM is evolving with ease among the rebels and is taking advantage to acquire the most sophisticated weapons such as SAM-7s (surface-to-air missiles)," said the official.

Libya's rebel administration says suggestions it is linked to al-Qaeda are a "fallacy" which plays into the hands of Gaddafi, who has said the people who revolted against his rule are al-Qaeda militants.

But a senior NATO commander has acknowledged the presence of "flickers" of al-Qaeda among the anti-Gaddafi rebels in eastern Libya, though he stressed the group did not play a significant role.

The Algerian security official said Western states had to realize that if Gaddafi's government fell, al-Qaeda could exploit the resulting chaos to extend its influence to the Mediterranean coast, just a few km (miles) from Europe.

"If the Gaddafi regime goes, it is the whole of Libya -- in terms of a country which has watertight borders and security and customs services which used to control these borders -- which will disappear, at least for a good time, long enough for AQIM to re-deploy as far as the Libyan Mediterranean."

"The coalition forces must make an urgent choice. To allow chaos to settle in ... or to preserve the Libyan regime, with or without Gaddafi, to restore the pre-uprising security situation," the official told Reuters.

'Al-Qaeda snatched missiles' in Libya

AL-QAEDA'S offshoot in North Africa has snatched surface-to-air missiles from an arsenal in Libya during the civil strife there, Chad's President says.

Idriss Deby Itno did not say how many surface-to-air missiles were stolen, but told the African weekly Jeune Afrique that he was "100 percent sure" of his assertion.

"The Islamists of al-Qaeda took advantage of the pillaging of arsenals in the rebel zone to acquire arms, including surface-to-air missiles, which were then smuggled into their sanctuaries in Tenere," a desert region of the Sahara that stretches from northeast Niger to western Chad, Deby said in the interview.

"This is very serious. AQIM is becoming a genuine army, the best equipped in the region," he said.

His claim was echoed by officials in other countries in the region who said that they were worried that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) might have acquired "heavy weapons", thanks to the insurrection.

"We have sure information. We are very worried for the sub-region," a Malian security source who did not want to be named said.

AQIM originated as an armed Islamist resistance movement to the secular Algerian government.

It now operates mainly in Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger, where it has attacked military targets and taken civilian hostages, particularly Europeans, some of whom it has killed.

"We have the same information," about heavy weapons, including SAM 7 missiles, a military source from Niger said.

"It is very worrying. This overarming is a real danger for the whole zone," he added

"AQIM gets the weapons in two ways; people go and look for the arms in Libya to deliver them to AQIM in the Sahel, or AQIM elements go there themselves."

Elsewhere in the interview, Chad's president backed the assertion by his neighbour and erstwhile enemy Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi that the protests in Libya have been driven in part by al-Qaeda.

"There is a partial truth in what he says," Deby said.

"Up to what point? I don't know. But I am certain that AQIM took an active part in the uprising."

After years of tension between the two nations, which were at war during part of the 1980s, Deby has more recently maintained good relations with Gaddafi.

The Chadian leader described the international military intervention in Libya, launched a week ago by the United States, France and Britain, as a "hasty decision".

"It could have heavy consequences for the stability of the region and the spread of terrorism in Europe, the Mediterranean and the rest of Africa," he cautioned.

Deby denied assertions that mercenaries had been recruited in Chad to fight for Gaddafi, though some of the several thousand Chad nationals in Libya may have joined the fight "on their own".

Bin Laden 'seeks to join Arab revolts'

Reports that Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted fugitive with a $50 million U.S. bounty on his head, has broken cover to move around Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent weeks has raised concern he may be planning a new major attack on the West.

 

But a specialist with access to Islamist militants says the objective may be even more dangerous: merging al-Qaida's war against the West with the wave of uprisings across the Arab world that largely target regimes allied to the United States.

The Arab pro-democracy revolts have toppled Presidents Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and currently threaten President Ali Abdullah of Yemen, where al-Qaida is particularly active, and Moammar Gadhafi of Libya.

 

Trouble is brewing too in the Persian Gulf, where Saudi Arabia and its regional allies have dispatched troops to the island kingdom of Bahrain to support the Sunni monarchy against protesters.

Many see the hand of Shiite Iran in the swelling gulf violence, with toppling the U.S.-allied monarchy of Saudi Arabia, one of the world's leading oil producers, as the ultimate target.

These uprisings, stirred in part by economic hardship and demands for greater political freedoms from authoritarian regimes, weren't connected in any way to al-Qaida nor were the upheavals in Egypt, Syria, Jordan or North Africa.

But it may be more than coincidence that both Shiite Iran and al-Qaida, which comprises Sunni militants who embrace the extremist Salafist ideology of Islam, should find common cause in seeking the downfall of such regimes from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.

This suspicion is deepened by the indication that the key figures within al-Qaida who have engineered this apparent major shift in strategy include several top lieutenants of bin Laden who until a few months ago were in Iran.

They include jihadist ideologue Suleiman Abu al-Gaith, bin Laden's former spokesman, and operational commander Said al-Adel.

According to Syed Saleem Shahzad, Pakistan bureau chief of Asia Times Online who has unusual access to Islamist leaders in Pakistan allied with al-Qaida, Gaith and Adel overcame diehard jihadists who favored polarizing the Muslim world, a school of thought widely criticized by Islamic scholars and mainstream theologians.

"This appears to be the beginning of a new era for a broader struggle in which al-Qaida, through its Lashkar al-Zil (Shadow Army) will try to capitalize on the Arab revolts and the Palestinian struggle and also revitalize and redefine its role in Afghanistan," Shahzad wrote.

"While fears attached to bin Laden's unprecedented visibility and movement for a grand al-Qaida operation cannot completely be dismissed, it is more possible that al-Qaida will undertake both worldwide terror operations and join forces with mainstream Muslim groups."

 

The reports of bin Laden's treks across the Hindu Kush regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent weeks came from intelligence sources in those countries and Saudi Arabia.

Hard evidence of bin Laden's whereabouts has been in extremely short supply for years, although it was widely believed he was holed up in the tribal areas of northwestern Pakistan with his Egyptian deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

But in recent weeks, Shahzad reported, "intelligence officials believe they have top-grade accounts, as they come from the inner circles of militant camps.

"Officials are said to be 'stunned' by the visibility of bin Laden's movements and their frequency, in a matter of a few weeks."

These were unprecedented since bin Laden vanished into Pakistan after narrowly escaping capture by the Americans at Tora Bora in Afghanistan in late 2001.

His mysterious perambulations may indeed indicate he's up to something.

But if it's aimed at hooking up with the new revolutionaries of the Arab world it remains difficult to see how al-Qaida can exploit the Arab uprisings that were apparently ignited by non-jihadists.

These were overwhelmingly ordinary citizens fed up with high food prices, unemployment, state tyranny and a complete lack of political freedom, rather than inspired by the extremist ideology of bin Laden and Zawahiri.

Despite what Gadhafi says, there's been no evidence jihadists played any role in the uprising against him. He had, in fact, effectively crushed them.

But al-Qaida documents captured by U.S. forces in Iraq in 2007 showed that more Libyan jihadists fought there than any other non-Iraqi Arab group.

Where are those men now? 

 

Somalian terrorists might be among us

They could be the people on the bus seat across the aisle, or the neighbors: members of East African groups that a recently released government memorandum says are “ready to die for the cause.”

The FBI and Homeland Security Department don’t know where they all are. And it’s unclear if they know how many arrived.

But in a rare admission, a Justice Department memo and other documents obtained by the San Antonio Express-News say federal authorities know terror suspects are in this country and know who allegedly helped bring them here through Mexico and Texas: a Somali man in custody near San Antonio.

Last year, Houston-area news outlets reported that homeland security issued a vague bulletin to Texas law enforcement to be on the lookout for Mohamed Ali, a purported member of Somalia-based Al-Shabaab, which has aligned itself with al-Qaida and Osama Bin Laden.

The government in 2008 designated Al-Shabaab a terror organization. It’s part of an insurgency determined to set up an Islamic theocracy in Somalia and has made statements about its intent to harm the United States.

Locally, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force has been trying to retrace the steps and untangle the contacts of Ahmed Muhammed Dhakane.

He has been in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since entering the country from Mexico through Brownsville in March 2008 and later applying for asylum.

His case resulted from an earlier, unspecified terrorism investigation, records show.

Newly released public documents label Dhakane, 24, a “national security risk” and paint him as a facilitator of groups accused of funding terrorism. They also allege he smuggled potential terrorists here.

On Nov. 2, Dhakane pleaded guilty in San Antonio to two federal false statement charges: He admitted he mischaracterized how he entered the United States, and that he falsely claimed a woman was his wife so she also could enter the United States. He’s to be sentenced April 28.

But though he admitted lying to get into the country, Dhakane denied the more serious charges and is fighting the government’s claim that he was a former member of al-Barakat and Al-Ittihad Al-Islami, two groups listed by U.S. authorities as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” or SDGT.

Dhakane also scoffed when federal prosecutor Mark Roomberg told a judge in November that he had smuggled through Texas, or tried to smuggle, several East Africans with similar terrorism links.

Authorities declined to comment because Dhakane has not been sentenced. But in a memorandum obtained by the Express-News, the government seeks at least 20 years in prison for Dhakane, saying FBI agents caught him on tape boasting that he made as much as $75,000 in one day by smuggling Somalis.

And the memo said the subsequent statements Dhakane made to agents and in immigration court also helped identify him as a critical component in funding radical Islamic groups in Somalia, and as an unscrupulous smuggler.

“He admits that he knowingly believed he was smuggling violent jihadists into the United States with the full knowledge that if the decision was made by (the SDGT groups) ... these jihadists would commit violent acts in and against the United States,” the memorandum states.

Links to jihadists?

Neither Dhakane nor his federal public defender responded to interview requests.

“He was only convicted of the lesser offense of making false statements to federal authorities and none of the more serious acts,” noted Jeffrey Addicott, director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary’s University School of Law. “This fact reflects the policy of our government to essentially prosecute as early as possible regarding any hints of terror plots.”

He said, “On the other hand, there are obviously many untraced and probably untraceable individuals that have entered the U.S. from his efforts. Bottom line is that this case reflects the reality of how easy it is to enter the U.S. through the southern border and the fact that radical Islamic extremists have entered the nation and will continue to do so.”

Dhakane told FBI agents that he served as a “hawaladar,” a mover of funds outside the normal banking system, for al-Barakat. The government memo cites Dhakane’s asylum proceedings and said he worked for al-Barakat from 1997 through 2002, serving as director of money exchange and as a customer relations counselor.

Published reports say some officials have called Al-Barakat a Somali-based business conglomerate but former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill called it one of the “financiers of terrorism.”

He also worked for Al-Ittihad Al-Islami, or AIAI, a now-defunct money transfer entity suspected by American officials of helping help fund terrorism, the memo states.

Before the 9-11 attacks, Somalis sent millions of dollars to their home country and Dhakane told agents he processed many such transactions, some in excess of $100,000.

“The defendant told agents that he was personally responsible for ensuring that the money went to the appropriate AIAI sheikh or cleric, thereby earning their trust,” the memo said. “After 9-11, the defendant stated that the Somalis structured their money transfers to be $3,500 or less to avoid detection by the U.S. government.”

The memo said Dhakane was a human smuggler based in Brazil from June 2006 through March 2008, using a network of corrupt officials to get travel documents to move East Africans to the United States and other countries and teaching his clients how to make false asylum claims.

Among them were members of AIAI and the Islamic Courts, the clerical wing of the Somali insurgency.

They’re all the same to Dhakane, the memo says — he “does not distinguish between AIAI, the Council of Islamic Courts and the Al-Shbaab in that essentially the same individuals make up all three groups and only the U.S. government tries to classify them into different groups.”

Somewhere in U.S.

Five of Dhakane’s clients are listed in the memo — Mohamded Ma’alin, Mohammed Ereg, aka “Idris,” Hassan Yare and two whose last names authorities didn’t know: Adani and Abirizak, aka “Al Qaeda.”

Three of them are known to have entered the U.S., according to the memo.

• The document said Dhakane turned over Ma’alin to another smuggler, but he only made it as far as Bolivia.

• Dhakane smuggled Yare from Brazil to the United Kingdom, the memo states. It says Yare was a fighter and member of the Shiirkoole Islamic Courts, a division of the Islamic Courts.

• Adani, a supporter of the Islamic Courts, made it into the United States, but the memo doesn’t specify his current whereabouts.

• Ereg, who was an AIAI member, also is somewhere in the United States, the memo said, although it’s unclear how he got here. He paid Dhakane $2,000 but at first was sent back to Brazil upon arriving in Guatemala, the memo said.

• Finally, Dhakane helped smuggle Abirizak, a low-level operative for the Islamic Courts, to California, the memo said.

“Dhakane knew these were AIAI/Al Shabbaab supporters or fighters based on his conversations with them,” the memo said. “When asked to clarify this statement, the defendant stated that all of individuals are ready to die for the cause. Dhakane stated he did not know their exact reason for wanting to enter the United States, but cautioned that he believed they would fight against the U.S. if the jihad moved from overseas locations to the U.S. mainland.”

Somalia has been in chaos for decades. In 1991, opposing factions drove its president, Maj. Gen. Mohamed Siad Barre, out of power, resulting in the complete collapse of the central government and banking system.

The continuing violence and civil strife have driven more Somalis to other countries, including Yemen, Brazil and the United States.

Since asylum cases are confidential, it’s unclear what persecution Dhakane claims he would be subject to if he’s returned to Somalia. However, Dhakane could end up stuck in immigration limbo because he might not be able to be deported there, immigration lawyers say.

“At the moment, it’s almost impossible for someone to be returned there,” said Jonathan Ryan, executive director of San Antonio’s RAICES, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services. “Since there is effectively no government in Somalia, there is no ability to create travel documents. If U.S. officials deem a person a security risk, indefinite detention can happen.”

 

Alert Issued After Security Incident On Camp Pendleton after 3 Middle Eastern Men Tried To Enter Base Without Proper Authorization, Base Alert Says

One of the nation's largest military bases is reportedly under tighter security after three Middle Eastern men tried to enter without proper authorization.

 

10News learned the three men -- 40-year-old Afghani Ahmad Rahmani Naeem, 41-year-old Iranian Vahik Petrossian and 27-year-old Iranian Sengekdi Norvik Avanosian -- attempted to get into Camp Pendleton last weekend under what was considered suspicious circumstances.

 

On Wednesday, base officials said there was no threat, but others on the base told 10News security has been stepped up.

 

According to a Be On the Lookout (BOLO) alert issued to high-ranking Camp Pendleton officials, someone reported hearing hateful comments and terrorist threats from three men at a gas station in Oceanside Saturday.

 

Investigators at Camp Pendleton said the men asked the attendant for directions on how to get to Camp Pendleton before they left the gas station.

 

According to the alert, shortly after midnight Sunday, a rented silver Toyota Corolla driven by Naeem attempted to enter Camp Pendleton through the main gate. As it was being searched, Petrossian and Avanosian drove up in a black Mercedes, but were told to wait. Instead, they continued past the gate and onto the base. Following a short pursuit, the Mercedes was stopped and searched.

 

No weapons or contraband were found in the Mercedes, but base security noticed the air bag in the steering wheel of the Mercedes had been pulled out and re-attached with duct tape and had wires hanging free, the alert said.

 

According to the alert, Naaem told base security he was lost and was trying to go to Glendale. When interviewed, Petrossian and Avanosian said they were lost and trying to go to Glendale. The three men claimed not to know each other, the alert said.

 

Naaem, Petrossian and Avanosian were photographed and released after questioning, and a warning about the trio was posted to law enforcement.

 

However, later that morning about 8:30 a.m., Naeem returned in the Toyota and tried to get on the base again, saying he made a mistake and was trying to enter Interstate 5, the alert said. After his vehicle was searched, Naeem was issued a letter of debarment from the base and escorted to the freeway.

 

Since the incident, 10News learned high-ranking Camp Pendleton officials have notified other military bases and law enforcement of a potential threat.

 

According to a local security expert, that comes with good reason.

 

"I think after 9/11, anybody on any government facility should be worried," local expert John told 10News.

John, who does undercover security and anti-terrorism work for Eagle Eye Security Solutions, did not want to be identified.

 

He told 10News the Camp Pendleton incident sounds like a possible probe or dry run and said their visits raise a few red flags.

 

"Number one: they went on base twice. Their stories didn't stick, kinda wishy washy. Number two: the vehicle, the condition of the vehicle," said John. "They could have been probing the security, not just cameras, sensors, individual security from MPs. Three: [they] could have wanted to know what background checks would have produced."

 

A criminal background check on the trio conducted by the Department of Homeland Security found no "derogatory records" for the men. Additionally, the U.S. Border Patrol said the immigration statuses for the three men were confirmed and they did not appear on any terrorist watch databases.

 

Retired Lt. Col. Thomas Richards, who has seen many BOLO notifications during his service, told 10News, "BOLOS are fairly common. This has significance because Middle Eastern people were trying to get on a U.S. military active base."

 

Richards said the base holds many targets.

 

"They could have done a lot of damage ... to people, equipment, the base itself. There’s the Camp Pendleton airfield, lots of helicopters there, any number of barracks, repair facilities, industrial buildings, the Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital," Richards said.

 

He said the incidents may be a coincidence, but the military can't take a risk.

 

"It could have been an intelligence reconnaissance mission for them to look around the base and see what there is there to do damage to," said Richards.

 

Camp Pendleton base officials issued a statement, saying in part: "After further investigation, it was determined that the individuals involved were not a threat to MCB Camp Pendleton or any other military installation in the area. MCB Camp Pendleton officials are not investigating these incidents further."

 

13 Illegal Immigrants Arrested in California Wearing U.S. Marine Uniforms

The Camp Pendletion incident occured in the wake of another incident after a report that Border Patrol agents recently arrested 13 illegal immigrants disguised as U.S. Marines and riding in a fake military van, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said March 22.

The illegal immigrants were clad in Marine uniforms when they were apprehended at the Campo Border Patrol Westbound I-8 checkpoint at 11 p.m. on March 14 near Pine Valley, Calif., border officials said. Two U.S. citizens in the van also were arrested.

After the suspicious white van was subjected to secondary inspection, it was determined that the driver of the vehicle and its front seat passenger were U.S. citizens who were attempting to smuggle 13 illegal immigrants into the United States. All of the vehicle's occupants wore U.S. Marine uniforms, reportedly emblazoned with the name "Perez."

"This effort is an example of the lengths smugglers will go to avoid detection, and the skilled and effective police work and vigilance displayed everyday by Customs and Border Protection personnel," the agency said in a written statement.

The van used in the smuggling attempt, according to California's El Centro Border Intelligence Center, was a privately owned vehicle registered out of Yucca Valley, Calif., and was bearing stolen government plates that had been defaced. The center digit -- 0 -- was altered to read as an 8. Further research through multiple government agencies determined that the plate belonged to a one-ton cargo van registered to the U.S. Marine Corps.

The military referred inquiries back to Customs and Border Protection.

The van entered into the United States via Mexicali, Mexico, and proceeded to Calexico, Calif., where the U.S. Marine uniforms were donned, according to Homeland Security Today.

The Campo Border Station was constructed in June 2008 and is located roughly 28 miles east of San Diego Sector Headquarters in rural East San Diego County. It is responsible for securing approximately 13.1 linear miles of the U.S.-Mexico border and 417 square miles of surrounding territory. An estimated 7,000 vehicles pass through its two checkpoints daily, according to its website.

THE NEXT 9-11 IS IMMINENT - AND AT OUR DOORSTEP.

Al-Qaida has been unable to mount a major terrorist attack in the United States since 9/11 despite several attempts but recent reports indicate that the network's top commanders are determined to hit the Americans hard.

Four of these leaders -- Saif al-Adel, Mahfouz Ould Walid, Ilyas Kashmiri and Adnan al-Shukrijuma -- are reported to be in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan, plotting new attacks and recruiting operatives for special operations.

Adel, a veteran al-Qaida chieftain and former colonel in the Egyptian army's Special Forces, moved to Waziristan in 2010 from Iran, where he had been apparently restricted since 2002.
A close associate of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, alleged mastermind of 9/11, Adel, a 50-year-old Egyptian, is one of al-Qaida's senior strategists who sat on its military committee.

He has been linked to the Oct. 12, 2000, bombing of the USS Cole in Aden harbor that killed 17 sailors, and to the U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa Aug. 7, 1998, that killed more than 200 people.

Adel -- real name Muhammad Ibrahim Makkawi -- has a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head and is wanted in the United States for allegedly training the 9/11 suicide attackers.
Ould Walid, aka Abu Hafs the Mauritanian, is a veteran jihadist who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan in 1979-89.

Aged 36, he was a close adviser to Osama bin Laden before they became separated during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan following 9/11. He accompanied al-Adel from Iran.
Arab intelligence sources say that the hard-line clerics and senior Revolutionary Guards officers who oversaw Abu Hafs and al-Adel during their sojourn in Iran allowed them to operate with considerable freedom and have access to sophisticated electronic communications systems.
The Americans mistakenly reported in January 2002 that Abu Hafs, a key military planner in the al-Qaida hierarchy, had been killed in Afghanistan.

Saudi-born Adnan Shukrijuma, 35, is one of the few al-Qaida leadership cadre who has actually lived in the United States. That makes him a key figure in the reported efforts to plan attacks inside the United States.

He is a naturalized U.S. citizen. His family moved to Florida in 1985 where he studied computer engineering and started moving in Islamist circles before going underground following 9/11.
He has a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head but has eluded a global manhunt for a decade. Al-Qaida leader Abu Zubaydah, captured in Pakistan March 28, 2002, told CIA interrogators of several al-Qaida plots.

One involved "Jaafar the pilot" -- Shukrijuma in one of his many disguises -- who he said would deliver an "American Hiroshima" using radioactive bombs.

But it wasn't until Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who was captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, March 1, 2003, spilled the beans about the elusive Shukrijuma that the Americans realized he had lived right under their noses in Fort Lauderdale for years.

U.S. authorities say he was the mastermind behind a failed attack on the New York subway. The Long War Journal Web site, which monitors global terrorism, calls him al-Qaida's "chief of operations for North America."

Ilyas Kashmiri, a 45-year-old Pakistani, heads al-Qaida's Lashkar al Zil, or Shadow Army, an elite jihadist unit of seasoned fighters made up of Arabs, Central Asians and Pakistanis.

He was linked to David Coleman Headley, an American arrested for involvement in the November 2008 carnage in the Indian city of Mumbai in which 160 people were killed.

Headley also has been charged with conspiring to attack Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper that incensed jihadists by publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.

Kashmiri's operational signature is attacks by groups of highly trained gunmen as in Mumbai. He has threatened similar attacks in the West.

In a 2009 interview, Kashmiri said Mumbai "was nothing compared to what has been planned for the future."

According to Islamist sources, he joined the Pakistani-directed insurgency against India over divided Kashmir in his teens. By 1991, he was a key figure in Harkat-ul Jihad-i-Islami, one of the most ferocious of the Pakistani groups active in Kashmir.

He joined bin Laden in 2005 and is considered one of his most effective commanders and planners.
Kashmiri, who sports a red henna-dyed beard, is virtually unknown outside the intelligence community. But he's rated as a most dangerous adversary, deadly, highly innovative, bold and hard to track.

100 EUROPEANS FOR IMPENDING ATTACK??

European security authorities are concerned about reports that al-Qaida and its North African affiliate, determined to strike the United States and its allies, are recruiting European operatives able to blend into Western societies and evade capture.

France's Le Figaro newspaper recently cited French intelligence sources as saying that 100 such recruits are undergoing training in camps along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

The newspaper said French authorities were on alert for attacks and noted that 14 French citizens were among Europeans undergoing training by al-Qaida in late 2010.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared war on the jihadist group in North Africa, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, in July 2010 after it beheaded a 78-year-old French captive, Michel Germaneau.

He was killed after an abortive attempt by French Special Forces to rescue him in the Sahara Desert in Mali. Six AQIM fighters were shot dead in the attack.

AQIM has stepped up its attacks on French nationals in northwest African, kidnapping at least eight and killing three.

In January 2011, Osama bin Laden threatened attacks on France, "on different fronts, inside and outside of France."

The last major successful terrorist attack in France was in 1995, when Algeria's Armed Islamic Group, or GIA, from which AQIM emerged two years ago, carried out a bombing campaign against the transportation system and tourist sites.

The jihadists' most innovative, and potentially most lethal, operation in France was on Dec. 24, 1994, during the Algerian civil war.

Four GIA members in Algerian police uniforms hijacked a Paris-bound Air France Airbus 300 at Houari Boumedienne Airport in Algiers, killed three passengers and forced the pilot to fly the jetliner to Marseille.

There they ordered the aircraft loaded with fuel and planned to crash it into the Eiffel Tower in Paris -- a forerunner of al-Qaida's Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

The plot failed when French counter-terrorism police stormed the aircraft and killed all four hijackers.

In December 2010, police forces across Western Europe arrested dozens of suspects amid warnings of continent-wide terrorist attacks hatched in Pakistan. No major attack took place and there was speculation that authorities had been spooked by faulty intelligence.

But Western intelligence sources insist that al-Qaida is planning attacks in the West that go beyond the amateurish lone-wolf type of attacks that have occurred in recent months in the United States.

The report also supported the belief among Western intelligence services that the focal point of this threat is Pakistan, now the major battleground in the war against al-Qaida.

The increase in such activity observed in recent months has occurred at a time when al-Qaida has been re-energized by the gathering of a new field leadership comprising veteran commanders drawn from other regions, many with their eyes on hitting the West hard.

These include such notorious figures as Mohammed Ilyas Kashmiri, a 45-year-old Pakistani who fought India in Kashmir for years and now heads bin Laden's Lashkar-e Zil, or Shadow Army.

Kashmiri, who joined al-Qaida in 2005, is also closely connected to bin Laden's notorious Brigade 313, one of the key components of the Lashkar-e Zil. According to the CIA, "the footprints of Brigade 313 are now in Europe."

Al-Qaida's leadership cadre has also been reinforced by the return of veteran commanders such as Saif al-Adel, an Egyptian, and other seasoned jihadists from Iran, where they were reportedly held under varying degrees of restriction since late 2001.

Adel, a former Egyptian Special Forces colonel and considered one of bin Laden's most able lieutenants, is reported to be currently operating in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan and planning major strikes against the West.

AL QAEDA TO UNLEASH WESTERN JIHADISTS

According to Syed Saleem Shahzad of Asia Times Online, who has access to jihadist circles in Pakistan and Afghanistan, reported in January 2011 that al-Qaida was planning to infiltrate white Westerners, all converts to Islam, into their home countries "to spread the flames of the South Asian war theater to the West."

Al-Qaeda began planning the operation in 2002, after the fall in late 2001 of the Taliban in Afghanistan, where the group had been given sanctuary. Al-Qaeda had regrouped in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area on the border with Afghanistan, and used this base to developed propaganda media structures to recruit in the West. (See The legacy of Nek Mohammed Asia Times Online, July 20, 2004.)

Now, after eight plus years, a picture is emerging that shows the failure of Western intelligence to asses the real pulse of their societies, and the inability of North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces to prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming the nerve center of al-Qaeda's terror operations.

Well-placed Taliban sources say that a group of Canadian militants is receiving jihadi training in al-Qaeda camps in North Waziristan for terror attacks in Canada, whose troops are a part of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

Arif Wazir, a local militant of Darpakhel in North Waziristan told Asia Times Online, "In the first stage of their journey, the Canadians went to Afghanistan in February 2010; there were 12 of them. After nine months, al-Qaeda's leaders decided to send them to North Waziristan and they reached Darpakhel in November last year.

"In Afghanistan they received basic jihadi training, while currently they are busy doing some special courses. Their main learning is how to use sophisticated weapons, and how to connect with local smuggling networks in North America. They are also learning how to use ordinary material like sugar and basic chemicals to make powerful explosives. These militants will then return to their country to execute al-Qaeda's plan of targeting big cities in Canada," the militant said.

According to available information, the Canadians joined the Egyptian militant organization Jihad al-Islami (JAI), which then helped them reach Afghanistan. The head of the group goes by the alias of Abu Shahid. The 30-year-old, who sports a golden beard, converted to Islam in 2007 and joined the JAI, with which he works to collect funds for the organization. Shahid is responsible for all of the activities of the Canadians in North Waziristan. According to Taliban sources, the 12 will remain in the tribal belt until it is felt that they are sufficiently trained to successfully carry out terror activities in Canada. Shahid apparently is confident he can recruit more Canadians.

The sources gave the names of some of the Canadians undergoing training. These could not be independently verified and include: Jeam Paull (local name Sadiq Ullah), Leman Langlois (Sana Ullah), James Richard (Abdur Rehman), Otto Paul (Abu Usman), Thomas (Abdullah) and Paul Gall (Hafiz Ullah).

Various militants of other nationalities are also being trained in North Waziristan, probably the most lawless part of Pakistan. Apart from Arab and Central Asian militants, one can find jihadis from the United States, Britain and Germany.

In October 2010, eight foreigners were killed in a US drone attack in the region. These included: Brusly (local name Fayaz), Gagarin Gill (Siraj), Smith (Jamal), Anderson (Waqas), Peterson (Shaheen), Walsh (Mustafa), Johnson (Wisal) and Peterson McKenzie (Usman). Prior to this attack, in September 2010 a senior German militant named Abdul Ghaffar was killed in a drone strike.

On December 15, 2010, another drone missile killed two Britain nationals in Darpakhel. They were identified as Stephen, age 48, and Darry Smith, aged 25. Stephen (Abu Bakkar), after converting to Islam, went to Afghanistan in 2009 and joined al-Qaeda. He was accompanied by the slain Smith (Mansoor Ahmed).

Earlier, in September 2010 last year, another British senior militant named Abdul Jabbar was killed by a drone attack in North Waziristan. He was planning to establish a Taliban wing in Britain for attacking Europe.

A HUGO CHAVEZ TERROR NEXUS??

President Obama’s recent trip to South America had showcased promising partnerships in Brazil and elsewhere. But one former U.S. official, his visit, however, should have also focused attention in the region and within his administration on the fact that Iran and Venezuela are conspiring to sow Tehran’s brand of proxy terrorism in the Western Hemisphere.

According to Roger Noreiga, a former ambassador to the Organization of American States from 2001 to 2003 and assistant secretary of state from 2003 to 2005, on Aug. 22, 2010, at Iran’s suggestion, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hosted senior leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in a secret summit at military intelligence headquarters at the Fuerte Tiuna compound in southern Caracas. Among those present were Palestinian Islamic Jihad Secretary General Ramadan Abdullah Mohammad Shallah, who is on the FBI’s list of most-wanted terrorists; Hamas’s “supreme leader,” Khaled Meshal; and Hezbollah’s “chief of operations,” whose identity is a closely guarded secret.

The idea for this summit sprang from a meeting between Iran’s ambassador to Syria, Ahmad Mousavi, and his Venezuelan counterpart, Imad Saab Saab, at the Venezuelan embassy in Damascus on May 10, 2010. According to the report received by Venezuela’s foreign minister, the two envoys were discussing a meeting between their presidents and Hezbollah’s leader, Hasan Nasrallah, when the Iranian suggested that the three meet Chavez in Caracas. That these infamous criminals left their traditional havens demonstrates their confidence in Chavez and their determination to cultivate a terror network on America’s doorstep.

According to information from within the Venezuelan regime, arrangements for the August conclave were made by Chavez’s No. 2 diplomat in Syria, Ghazi Nassereddine Atef Salame. Nassereddine is a naturalized Venezuelan of Lebanese origin who runs Hezbollah’s growing network in South America — which includes terror operatives and drug traffickers. A document obtained recently from a senior Venezuelan diplomat indicates that Nassereddine does business with four companies operated by Walid Makled, a cocaine smuggler indicted in the United States and detained in Colombia.

Makled has admitted his ties to the drug trade in a series of media interviews from jail.  He claims to have documents and videotapes proving the complicity of Chavez’s military commander, Henry Rangel Silva, and other Chavista cronies in cocaine smuggling.  Colombian authorities say they must return Makled to his native Venezuela to face a murder charge, and U.S. diplomats have concluded it is pointless to continue pressing for his extradition to face drug charges in New York. Yet the revelation that Makled can cast light on Nassereddine’s Hezbollah network should spur U.S. diplomats to renew their push for Makled’s extradition to the United States.

The danger posed by a network of terrorists in the Americas is very real. Last May, Muhammad Saif-ur-Rehm Khan, a Pakistani applying for a U.S. visa at the American Embassy in Santiago, Chile, was detained after guards detected traces of bomb-making materials on his hands. U.S. officials discovered Khan’s link to the Islamist group Jamaat al-Tabligh. It is not clear how much they shared with Chilean investigators. Lacking evidence to prosecute Khan, Chilean authorities released him in January, and he left the country bound for Turkey. A high-ranking Chilean source informed me that, before his arrest, Khan lived and associated with persons of Egyptian, Saudi and Lebanese background — many of whom carried Venezuelan passports. One of the officials accused of issuing such Venezuelan identity documents to suspicious foreigners is Chavez confidante Tarek Zaidan El Aissami. Also Venezuela’s interior minister, El Aissami is of Syrian descent; his father is known for having publicly praised Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden; and his brother, Firaz, is an associate of the cocaine smuggler Makled.

The threat posed by globe-trotting terrorists is ever-present. A U.S. security official told me in mid-January that two known al-Qaeda operatives were in Caracas planning a “chemical” attack on the U.S. embassy; on Jan. 31, the embassy was closed, and reports at the time cited “credible threats.”

A Venezuelan government source has told me that two Iranian terrorist trainers are on Venezuela’s Margarita Island instructing operatives who have assembled from around the region. In addition, radical Muslims from Venezuela and Colombia are brought to a cultural center in Caracas named for the Ayatollah Khomeini and Simon Bolivar for spiritual training, and some are dispatched to Qom, Iran, for Islamic studies. Knowledgeable sources confirm that the most fervent recruits in Qom are given weapons and explosives training and are returned home as “sleeper” agents.

U.S. authorities could act today to degrade Chavez’s ability to support terrorism and Tehran. There are money-laundering, drug-trafficking or Iran-specific statutes they could invoke. The question is whether they will respond swiftly and effectively enough to prevent a deadly attack.

37 ISLAMIC TERROR PLOTS FOILED IN THE UNITED STATES SINCE SEPTMEBER 11, 2001 ATTACKS

The focus of American newspapers when it comes to Islamist-inspired terrorism has been on plots discovered here, foiled and failed attacks on U.S. soil, the Guantanamo detainees, terrorist prosecutions, and military pre-emption in places like Pakistan and Yemen. And with good reason. When it comes to plots aimed at Americans on American soil, 2009 and 2010 have been busy years. In 2009, U.S. authorities foiled at least six terrorist plots against the United States, while in 2010 there have been plots to blow up planes, bomb Times Square, the Washington Metro, a Maryland military recruitment center, a public walkway outside Wrigley Field in Chicago, a Portland, Oregon, tree-lighting ceremony,  and others. Critics of the FBI are quick to point out that several of the arrests associated with these plots have a tint of “entrapment,” in that the Bureau seems to be using (in some cases) provocateurs to induce relatively amateurish and often immature individuals to move from the column of “would-be” to “actual” plotters.  In a number of instances, the Bureau appears to be throwing chum in the water and seeing what sharks start to circle.
The dilemma is that while the vast majority of Muslims in the United States are law-abiding, law enforcement’s task is to pre-empt a small percentage of radicalized Muslims from acting on their jihadist beliefs. As we learned from 9/11, London, and Madrid, it’s not good enough to clean up after an attack. But to pre-empt requires being “inside” the plotting circle, which can only be done if a) Muslims here are willing to report suspicious activities among fellow worshipers; b) local police and the FBI have reporting assets within the community as well; and c) can use that information to determine whether a jihadist in theory is willing to become a jihadist terrorist in practice. All in all, it’s a nasty business but necessary if plots are to be foiled.
Nor are we alone in this fight. News from Europe continues to be spiked with stories of pre-emptive arrests and new plots. Over the past two months, Europe has been on alert for a Mumbai-style attack during the holiday season. Germany, which to date has not suffered a major Islamist attack—although a few plots have come close to being pulled off—believes some 200 German Muslims have received training in terrorist camps along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and that four dozen more have made their way back into the country. (On a scale of one to ten for threat level, the head of the German federal police puts the current threat level at nine.) And there have been scores of arrests of suspected terrorists and their supporters in France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, and, most recently, the United Kingdom—topped off by a suicide car bombings in Stockholm by an Iraqi-born Swede who had lived, until recently, in England.
As a close reading of these cases also reveals, Europe’s police and intelligence agencies are not sitting on their heels waiting for plots to mature before stepping in. The risk simply is not worth it. In a recent book, Safety, Liberty and Islamist Terrorism: American and European Approaches to Domestic Counterterrorism, by Gary J. Schmitt, a former staff director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and was executive director of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board during President Ronald Reagan's second term; Schmitt states pre-emption is the name of the game both in the United States and abroad. So far, this strategy has not tipped over into anything approaching gross violations of citizen rights. But as the number of plots appears to continue to rise, there is no question that squaring the circle of combining effective policing within the bounds of the rule of law and secured civil liberties will get tougher and tougher.
President Barack Obama, however, took office determined to shed the idea of a war on terrorism. Besides an obvious change in lexicon—from the "global war on terror" to "overseas contingency operation" and from "terrorism" to "man-made disaster"—there were even more consequential actions, including the decision to prosecute foreign terrorists in U.S. civilian courts, dismantlement of the CIA's interrogation abilities, lackadaisical support for the PATRIOT Act, and an attempt to shut down Guantanamo Bay within President Obama's first year in the White House. The danger of this new attitude was revealed all too quickly by the near-miss airline bomb plot of Christmas Day 2009.
Undoubtedly, the nation wants to be successful in fighting terrorists. The U.S. counterterrorism system has worked successfully in the past, as demonstrated by the foiled plots, and it can work successfully in the future. But continued success requires the White House and Congress to work together to ensure that the military, law enforcement, and intelligence community have the tools they need to defend the country. At the same time, it is essential that the Administration lay out its counterterrorism strategy to the American people, including next steps for aviation security, visa security, and intelligence and information sharing.

Terrorism and the Obama Administration

Homeland security and counterterrorism were relatively unexamined issues during the 2008 presidential campaign. Terrorism was not in the forefront of Americans' minds; the downward-spiraling economy and lost jobs were understandably front and center.
The discovery of the Zazi plot in September 2009 served as the first in a series of wake-up calls to the nation on the state of national security. Najibullah Zazi was arrested after purchasing large quantities of chemicals from beauty supply stores in a plot to detonate TATP bombs on the New York City subway. This plot was considered extremely serious and was in the later stages of development when Zazi was apprehended—which made the plot deeply troubling to many Americans.
Shortly thereafter, in November 2009, were the Fort Hood shootings. This attack, perpetrated by Major Nidal Hasan, a U.S. Army psychologist, was not a foiled plot. Hasan went on a shooting rampage, killing 12 and wounding 31. Evidence demonstrates that he was in communication with al-Qaeda via the Internet before the attack and that the U.S. government had what should have been damaging intelligence on Major Hasan before the incident occurred.
While still questioning what led to the failure to act on the known intelligence in the case of the Fort Hood shootings, the U.S. experienced a near-miss attack on Christmas Day 2009. That day, Nigerian citizen Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab—whose own father had alerted U.S. consulate officials in Nigeria to his son's radical leanings—attempted to detonate a bomb on a Northwest flight landing in Detroit. His bomb failed to ignite, and passengers restrained him so that he could not try again.
The startling failure of authorities to connect the dots and bring together valuable pieces of information has led Americans to question whether authorities were doing what needed to be done to keep them safe. Specifically, questions center on whether the homeland security system worked, why it worked in the past, and whether it will work in the future.

Here is the list of 38 Islamic terror plots foiled inside the U.S. in the nine and half years since the 9-11 attacks:

1. Richard Reid, December 2001. A British citizen and self-professed follower of Osama bin Laden trained in Afghanistan, Reid hid explosives inside his shoes before boarding a flight from Paris to Miami on which he attempted to light the fuse with a match. Reid was caught in the act and apprehended on board the plane by the flight attendants and passengers. FBI officials took Reid into custody after the plane made an emergency landing at Boston's Logan International Airport.
In 2003, Reid was found guilty on charges of terrorism, and a U.S. federal court sentenced him to life imprisonment.

2. Jose Padilla, May 2002. U.S. officials arrested Padilla in May 2002 at O'Hare airport in Chicago as he returned to the United States from Pakistan, where he met with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and received al-Qaeda instructions and training. Upon his arrest, he was initially charged as an enemy combatant and for planning to use a dirty bomb (an explosive laced with radioactive material) in an attack against America.
Prior to his conviction, Padilla brought a case against the federal government claiming that he had been denied the right of habeas corpus (the right of an individual to petition against unlawful imprisonment). In a 5-to-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the case against him had been filed improperly. In 2005, the government indicted Padilla for conspiring against the U.S. with Islamic terrorist groups.
In August 2007, Padilla was found guilty by a civilian jury after a three-month trial. He was later sentenced by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to 17 years and four months in prison. Padilla continues to attempt to have his conviction overturned.

3. Lackawanna Six, September 2002. When the FBI arrested Sahim Alwan, Yahya Goba, Yasein Taher, Faysal Galab, Shafal Mosed, and Mukhtar al-Bakri, the press dubbed them the "Lackawanna Six," the "Buffalo Six," or the "Buffalo Cell." Five of the six had been born and raised in Lackawanna, New York. These six American citizens of Yemeni descent were arrested for conspiring with terrorist groups. They had stated that they were going to Pakistan to attend a religious training camp but instead attended an al-Qaeda jihadist camp.
All six pled guilty in 2003 to providing support to al-Qaeda. Goba and al-Bakri were sentenced to 10 years in prison, Taher and Mosed to eight years, Alwan to nine and a half years, and Galab to seven years. Mosed and Galab have since completed their sentences and have been released.
Recent reports indicate that Jaber Elbaneh, one of the FBI's most wanted and often considered to be a seventh member of the Lackawanna cell, has been captured in Yemen. It remains to be seen, however, whether he will be tried in the U.S., since the U.S. does not have an extradition treaty with Yemen.

4. Iyman Faris, May 2003. Faris is a naturalized U.S. citizen, originally from Kashmir, who was living in Columbus, Ohio. He was arrested for conspiring to use blowtorches to collapse the Brooklyn Bridge, a plot devised after meetings with al-Qaeda leadership including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The New York City Police Department learned of the plot and increased police surveillance around the bridge. Faced with the additional security, Faris and his superiors canceled the attack.
Faris pled guilty to conspiracy and providing material support to al-Qaeda and was later sentenced in federal district court to 20 years in prison, the maximum allowed under his plea agreement.

5. Virginia Jihad Network, June 2003. Eleven men were arrested in Alexandria, Virginia, for weapons counts and for violating the Neutrality Acts, which prohibit U.S. citizens and residents from attacking countries with which the United States is at peace. Four of the 11 men pled guilty. Upon further investigation, the remaining seven were indicted on additional charges of conspiring to support terrorist organizations. They were found to have connections with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and Lashkar-i-Taiba, a terrorist organization that targets the Indian government. The authorities stated that the Virginia men had used paintball games to train and prepare for battle. The group had also acquired surveillance and night vision equipment and wireless video cameras. Two more individuals were later indicted in the plot: Ali al-Timimi, the group's spiritual leader, and Ali Asad Chandia.
Ali al-Timimi was found guilty of soliciting individuals to assault the United States and sentenced to life in prison. Ali Asad Chandia received 15 years for supporting Lashkar-i-Taiba. Randall Todd Royer, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, Yong Ki Kwon, Khwaja Mahmood Hasan, Muhammed Aatique, and Donald T. Surratt pled guilty and were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three years and 10 months to 20 years. Masoud Khan, Seifullah Chapman, and Hammad Adur-Raheem were found guilty and later sentenced to prison terms ranging from 52 months to life. Both Caliph Basha Ibn Abdur-Raheem and Sabri Benkhala were acquitted at trial.

6. Nuradin M. Abdi, November 2003. Abdi, a Somali citizen living in Columbus, Ohio, was arrested and charged in a plot to bomb a local shopping mall. Abdi was an associate of convicted terrorists Christopher Paul and Iyman Faris and admittedly conspired with the two to provide material support to terrorists. Following his arrest, Abdi admitted to traveling overseas to seek admittance to terrorist training camps, as well as to having met with a Somali warlord associated with Islamists.
Abdi has since pled guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, one of the four counts for which he was indicted. He was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in jail per the terms of a plea agreement.

7. Dhiren Barot, August 2004. Seven members of a terrorist cell led by Barot were arrested for plotting to attack the New York Stock Exchange and other financial institutions in New York, Washington, and Newark, New Jersey. They were later accused of planning attacks in England. The plots included a "memorable black day of terror" that would have included detonating a dirty bomb. A July 2004 police raid on Barot's house in Pakistan yielded a number of incriminating files on a laptop computer, including instructions for building car bombs.
Dhiren Barot pled guilty and was convicted in the United Kingdom for conspiracy to commit mass murder and sentenced to 40 years. However, in May 2007, his sentence was reduced to 30 years. His seven co-conspirators were sentenced to terms ranging from 15 to 26 years on related charges of conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to cause explosion.

8. James Elshafay and Shahawar Matin Siraj, August 2004. James Elshafay and Shahawar Matin Siraj, both reportedly self-radicalized, were arrested for plotting to bomb a subway station near Madison Square Garden in New York City before the Republican National Convention. An undercover detective from the New York City Police Department's Intelligence Division infiltrated the group, providing information to authorities, and later testified against Elshafay and Siraj.
Siraj was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Elshafay, a U.S. citizen, pled guilty and received a lighter, five-year sentence for testifying against his co-conspirator.

9. Yassin Aref and Mohammad Hossain, August 2004. Two leaders of a mosque in Albany, New York, were charged with plotting to purchase a shoulder-fired grenade launcher to assassinate a Pakistani diplomat. An investigation by the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and local police contributed to the arrest. With the help of an informant, the FBI set up a sting that lured Mohammed Hossain into a fake terrorist conspiracy. Hossain brought Yassin Araf, a Kurdish refugee, as a witness. The informant offered details of a fake terrorist plot, claiming that he needed the missiles to murder a Pakistani diplomat in New York City. Both Aref and Hossain agreed to help.
Aref and Hossain were found guilty of money-laundering and conspiracy to conceal material support for terrorism and were sentenced to 15 years in prison.

10. Umer Hayat and Hamid Hayat, June 2005. Umer Hayat, a Pakistani immigrant, and Hamid Hayat, his American son, were arrested in Lodi, California, after allegedly lying to the FBI about Hamid's attendance at an Islamic terrorist training camp in Pakistan.
Hamid was found guilty of providing material support to terrorists and providing false statements to the FBI. He was sentenced to 24 years in prison for these acts. Umer's trial ended in a mistrial. He later pled guilty to lying to customs agents in his attempt to carry $28,000 into Pakistan and was sentenced to "time served."

11. Levar Haley Washington, Gregory Vernon Patterson, Hammad Riaz Samana, and Kevin James, August 2005. The members of the group were arrested in Los Angeles and charged with conspiring to attack National Guard facilities, synagogues, and other targets in the Los Angeles area. Kevin James allegedly founded Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh (JIS), a radical Islamic prison group, and converted Levar Washington and others to the group's mission. The JIS allegedly planned to finance its operations by robbing gas stations. After Washington and Patterson were arrested for robbery, police and federal agents began a terrorist investigation, and a search of Washington's apartment revealed a suspicious target list.
James and Washington pled guilty in December 2007. James was sentenced to 16 years in prison and Washington to 22 years. Patterson received 151 months, while Samana was found unfit to stand trial and was initially detained in a federal prison mental facility. He was later sentenced to 70 months in jail.

12. Michael C. Reynolds, December 2005. Michael C. Reynolds was arrested by the FBI and charged with involvement in a plot to blow up a Wyoming natural gas refinery; the Transcontinental Pipeline, a natural-gas pipeline from the Gulf Coast to New York and New Jersey; and a Standard Oil refinery in New Jersey. He was arrested while trying to pick up a $40,000 payment for planning the attack. Shannen Rossmiller, his purported contact, was a Montana judge who was working with the FBI. The FBI later found explosives in a storage locker in Reynolds's hometown of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Reynolds claimed that he was working as a private citizen to find terrorists.
Reynolds was convicted of providing material support to terrorists, soliciting a crime of violence, unlawful distribution of explosives, and unlawful possession of a hand grenade. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

13. Mohammad Zaki Amawi, Marwan Othman El-Hindi, and Zand Wassim Mazloum, February 2006. Amawi, El-Hindi, and Mazloum were arrested in Toledo, Ohio, for "conspiring to kill or injure people in the Middle East" and providing material support to terrorist organizations. The three men allegedly intended to build bombs for use in Iraq and verbally threatened attacks against President George W. Bush.[41] The investigation was begun with the help of an informant who was approached to help to train the group.
In June 2008, all three were convicted of conspiring to commit acts of terrorism against Americans overseas, including U.S. military personnel in Iraq, and other terrorism-related violations. Amawi was sentenced to 20 years, el-Hindi to 13 years, and Mazloum to approximately eight years.
14. Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, April 2006. Ahmed and Sadequee, from Atlanta, Georgia, were accused of conspiracy, having discussed terrorist targets with alleged terrorist organizations. They allegedly met with Islamic extremists in the U.S. and gathered videotape surveillance of potential targets in the Washington, D.C., area, including the U.S. Capitol and the World Bank headquarters, and sent the videos to a London Islamist group. Ahmed is said also to have traveled to Pakistan with the goal of joining Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Both men were indicted for providing material support to terrorist organizations and pled not guilty. In June 2009, a federal district judge found Ahmed "guilty of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists here and overseas. Ahmed was subsequently sentenced to 13 years in jail. Sadequee was also found guilty and sentenced to 17 years.

15. Narseal Batiste, Patrick Abraham, Stanley Grant Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin, and Rotschild Augustine, June 2006. Seven men were arrested in Miami and Atlanta for plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago, FBI offices, and other government buildings around the country. The arrests resulted from an investigation involving an FBI informant. Allegedly, Batiste was the leader of the group and first suggested attacking the Sears Tower in December 2005.
All of the suspects pled not guilty. On December 13, 2007, Lemorin was acquitted of all charges, but the jury failed to reach a verdict on the other six. The second trial ended in a mistrial in April 2008. In the third trial, the jury convicted five of the men on multiple conspiracy charges and acquitted Herrera on all counts. On November 20, 2009, the five were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to 13.5 years, with Batiste receiving the highest sentence.

16. Assem Hammoud, July 2006. Conducting online surveillance of chat rooms, the FBI discovered a plot to attack underground transit links between New York City and New Jersey. Eight suspects including Assem Hammoud, an al-Qaeda loyalist living in Lebanon, were arrested for plotting to bomb New York City train tunnels. Hammoud, a self-proclaimed operative for al-Qaeda, admitted to the plot. He was held by Lebanese authorities but was not extradited because the U.S. does not have an extradition treaty with Lebanon. In June 2008, Lebanese authorities released him on bail. He is awaiting trial before a Lebanese military court.

17. Liquid Explosives Plot, August 2006. British law enforcement stopped a terrorist plot to blow up 10 U.S.-bound commercial airliners with liquid explosives. Twenty-four suspects were arrested in the London area. The style of the plot raised speculation that al-Qaeda was behind it, but no concrete evidence has established a link.
The United Kingdom initially charged 15 of the 24 arrested individuals on charges ranging from conspiring to commit murder to planning to commit terrorist acts. Eventually, in April 2008, only eight men were brought to trial. In September, the jury found none of the defendants guilty of conspiring to target aircraft but three guilty of conspiracy to murder. The jury was unable to reach verdicts on four of the men. One man was found not guilty on all counts.

18. Derrick Shareef, December 2006. Shareef was arrested on charges of planning to set off hand grenades in a shopping mall outside Chicago. Shareef reportedly acted alone and was arrested after meeting with an undercover Joint Terrorism Task Force agent. FBI reports indicated that the mall was one of several potential targets, including courthouses, city halls, and government facilities. Shareef, however, settled on attacking a mall in the days immediately preceding Christmas because he believed it would cause the greatest amount of chaos and damage. Shareef was also found to have connections to convicted terrorist Hassan Agujihaad, who was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and later sentenced to 35 years in prison.

19. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, March 2007. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, captured in Pakistan in 2003, was involved in a number of terrorist plots and is one of the most senior bin Laden operatives ever captured. He is being held at the U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay. In March 2007, Mohammed admitted to helping plan, organize, and run the 9/11 attacks and also claimed responsibility for planning the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the bombings of nightclubs in Bali in 2002 and a Kenyan hotel. He has stated that he was involved in the decapitation of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and took responsibility for helping to plan the failed shoe-bomb attack by Richard Reid, along with plots to attack Heathrow Airport, Canary Wharf, Big Ben, various targets in Israel, the Panama Canal, Los Angeles, Chicago, the Empire State building, and U.S. nuclear power stations. He had also plotted to assassinate Pope John Paul II and former President Bill Clinton.
In December 2008, Mohammed and his four co-defendants (Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, and Walid Bin Attash) told the military tribunal judge that they wanted to confess and plead guilty to all charges.[61] The judge has approved the guilty plea of Mohammed and two co-defendants but has required mental competency hearings before allowing the other two conspirators to plead guilty. In November 2009, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that Mohammed would be relocated to the United States to face civilian trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, although this relocation has yet to occur.

20. Fort Dix Plot, May 2007. Six men were arrested in a plot to attack Fort Dix, a U.S. Army post in New Jersey. The plan involved using assault rifles and grenades to attack and kill U.S. soldiers. Five of the alleged conspirators had conducted training missions in the nearby Pocono Mountains. The sixth helped to obtain weapons. The arrests were made after a 16-month FBI operation that included infiltrating the group. The investigation began after a store clerk alerted authorities after discovering a video file of the group firing weapons and calling for jihad. The group has no known direct connections to any international terrorist organization.
In December 2008, five of the men were found guilty on the conspiracy charges but were acquitted of charges of attempted murder. Four were also convicted on weapons charges. The five men received sentences ranging from 33 years to life plus 30. The sixth co-defendant pled guilty to aiding and abetting the others in illegal possession of weapons and was sentenced to 20 months in jail.

21. JFK Airport Plot, June 2007. Four men plotted to blow up "aviation fuel tanks and pipelines at the John F. Kennedy International Airport" in New York City. They believed that such an attack would cause "greater destruction than in the Sept. 11 attacks." Authorities stated that the attack "could have caused significant financial and psychological damage, but not major loss of life."
Russell Defreitas, the leader of the group, was arrested in Brooklyn. The other three members of the group—Abdul Kadir, Kareem Ibrahim, and Abdel Nur—were detained in Trinidad and extradited in June 2008. Kadir and Nur have links to Islamic extremists in South America and the Caribbean. Kadir was an imam in Guyana, former member of the Guyanese Parliament, and mayor of Linden, Guyana. Ibrahim is a Trinidadian citizen, and Nur is a Guyanese citizen. The men pled not guilty to the charges and are awaiting trial.

22. Hassan Abujihaad, March 2008. Hassan Abujihaad, a former U.S. Navy sailor from Phoenix, Arizona, was convicted of supporting terrorism and disclosing classified information, including the location of Navy ships and their vulnerabilities, to Barbar Ahmad and Syed Talha Ahsan, the alleged administrators of Azzam Publication Web sites (the London organization that provided material support and resources to terrorists). Abujihaad was arrested in March 2007 and pled not guilty to charges of supporting terrorism in April 2007. In May 2008, he was convicted by a jury and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Both Babar Ahmad and Syed Talha Ahsan are being held in Britain on anti-terrorism charges and are fighting extradition to the U.S.
23. Christopher Paul, June 2008. Christopher Paul is a U.S. citizen from Columbus, Ohio. He joined al-Qaeda in the 1990s and was involved in conspiracies to target Americans in the United States and overseas. In 1999, he became connected to an Islamic terrorist cell in Germany, where he was involved in a plot to target Americans at foreign vacation resorts. He later returned to Ohio and was subsequently arrested for conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction—specifically, explosive devices—"against targets in Europe and the United States." Paul pled guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

24. Synagogue Terror Plot, May 2009. On May 20, 2009, the New York Police Department announced the arrest of James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams, and Laguerre Payen for plotting to blow up area Jewish centers and shoot down planes at a nearby Air National Guard Base. The four had attempted to gain access to Stinger missiles and were caught in the act of placing bombs in the buildings and in a car. (The bombs were duds, because undercover agents sold the four defendants fake explosives as part of an ongoing sting operation). All four men have pled not guilty and are awaiting trial.

25. Najibullah Zazi, September 2009 . Zazi, a 24-year-old Afghani, was arrested after purchasing large quantities of chemicals used to make a TATP bomb, the same type of weapon used in the 2005 bombing of the London Underground and the 2001 shoe-bomb plot. Zazi had traveled to Pakistan, where he received instruction in bomb-making and attended an al-Qaeda training camp. Zazi allegedly planned to detonate TATP bombs on the New York City subway.
Najibullah Zazi's father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, was also indicted for obstructing justice by helping his son cover up plans for his attack. Najibullah pled guilty and remains in jail, while Mohammed pled not guilty and has been freed on bail. Zazi's guilty plea was the result of a plea bargain, and he awaits sentencing on June 25, 2010, while Mohammed awaits trial.
At least three other individuals have since been arrested on allegations of traveling overseas with Zazi to receive terrorist training and making false statements to authorities. One of them, New York religious leader Ahmad Afzali, has pled guilty to charges of lying to federal agents about informing Zazi that he was being investigated by authorities. Zarein Ahmedzay has also pled guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction in the foiled plot.

26. Hosam Maher Husein Smadi , September 2009 . Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian, was apprehended in an attempt to plant a bomb in a Dallas skyscraper. Originally identified through FBI monitoring of extremist chat rooms, Smadi was arrested and charged after agents posing as terrorist cell members gave Smadi a fake bomb, which he later attempted to detonate. Smadi has pled not guilty, and trial is set to begin on June 7, 2010.

27 . Michael Finton , September 2009 . Finton, an American citizen, was arrested on September 23 by undercover FBI agents after attempting to detonate a car bomb filled with what he believed to be close to one ton of explosives outside of the Paul Findley Federal Building and Courthouse in downtown Springfield, Illinois. Evidence presented against Finton has shown that he expressed a desire to become a jihadist fighter and was aware that his planned attack would cause civilian injuries. He has been arrested on charges of attempted murder of federal employees and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Finton has since pled not guilty, although court orders for mental competency training have delayed the case.

28. Tarek Mehanna and Ahmad Abousamra, October 2009. Mehanna, previously indicted for lying to the FBI about the location of terrorist suspect Daniel Maldonado, was arrested on October 21, 2009, on allegations of conspiracy to kill two U.S. politicians, American troops in Iraq, and civilians in local shopping malls. Abousamra, his co-conspirator, remains at large in Syria. However, both were indicted on charges of providing and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, and conspiracy to provide false information to law enforcement.
The two men are not believed to be associated with any known terrorist organization. Both face sentences of up to life in prison if convicted.

29. The Christmas Day Bomber, 2009. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian engineering student living in London, boarded a plane from Nigeria to Amsterdam and then flew from Amsterdam to the U.S. when he attempted to detonate a bomb hidden in his underwear as the plane began to land. The device ignited but failed to detonate, and passengers moved quickly to stop Abdulmutallab from trying again, leading to his arrest by U.S. authorities upon landing in Detroit. The bomb, containing the explosives PETN and TATP, was similar to the failed device used by Richard Reid in 2001.
Media accounts following the plot indicate that Abdulmutallab admits involvement with al-Qaeda in Yemen. Abdulmutallab has since pled not guilty to six terrorism charges and remains in custody awaiting further trial.

30. Raja Lahrasib Khan, March 2010. Chicago taxi driver Raja Lahrasib Khan, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Pakistani decent, was arrested by the Chicago FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force for two counts of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. According to the charges, Khan was affiliated with Ilyas Kashmiri, leader of the al-Qaeda–linked extremist group Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami in Kashmir, and has previously been indicted in the U.S. on terrorism charges.
Khan originally transferred $950 to Pakistan, to be delivered to Kashmiri, and later attempted to send nearly $1,000 provided to him by an undercover agent to Kashmiri by having his son carry the money to England, where Khan then planned to rendezvous with him and carry the money the rest of the way to Pakistan. His son was stopped by government agents at Chicago O'Hare International Airport before leaving the country. The criminal complaint filed against Khan also alleges that he had discussed plans to bomb an unnamed sports stadium in the United States.
Khan has since pled not guilty. If convicted, Khan faces up to 15 years in prison for each count of providing material support.

31. May 1 2010 Times Square car bomb attempt and plot: A attempted evening car bombing in crowded Times Square in New York City failed when a street vendor saw smoke emanating from an SUV and called police. The White House has blamed Tehrik-e-Taliban the Pakistani Taliban for the failed attack and said Faisal Shahzad aged 30, an American of Pakistani origin who has been arrested in relation to the incident was working for the group. In July 2010, the Pakistani Taliban released a video featuring Shahzad in which he urged other Muslims in the West to follow his example and to wage similar attacks. On May 3 Shahzad was arrested at Kennedy Airport as he was preparing to fly to Dubai. The device was described as crude and amateurish but potent enough to cause casualties. On May 13 the F.B.I. raided several locations in the Northeast and arrested 3 on alleged immigration violations. Several suspects have bben arrested in Pakistan including the co-owner of a prominent catering firm used by the US embassy. On June 21 Shahzad plead guilty to 10 counts saying he created the bomb to force the US military to withdraw troops and stop drone attacks in a number of Muslim countries. Shahzad said he chose the location to cause mass civilian casualties because the civilians elected the government that carried out the allegedly anti Muslim policies. On October 4, 2010 Shahzad was sentenced to life in prison. During his sentencing, he threatened that “the defeat of the U.S. is imminent” and that “we will keep on terrorizing you until you leave our lands.” Shahzad planned on detonating a second bomb in Times Square two weeks later.

32. May 2010. Paul Rockwood Jr. a meteorologist who took official weather observations and his pregnant wife Nancy from King Salmon, Alaska compiled a list of 20 targets, including members of the military and media and had moved to the operational phase of their plan plead guilty to lying to FBI about the list and making false statements to the FBI. Under a plea agreement Mr. Rockwood will serve eight years in prison and three years probation while Ms. Rockwood will serve probation. Motive was revenge for alleged descecration of Islam.

33. September 20, 2010. Sami Samir Hassoun, 22, a Lebanese citizen living in Chicago, was charged with one count each of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted use of an explosive device after placing a backpack with what he thought was a bomb near Wrigley Field. Alleged plot was foiled by FBI informant. Hassoun discussed other ideas for mass destruction attacks with informant.

34. October 27, 2010. Farooque Ahmed, 34, a naturalized U.S. citizen indicted for conspiracy to bomb 4 Washington Metro stations with people he thought were al-Qaeda.

35. November 26, 2010. Mohamed Osman Mohamud a 19-year-old Somali-American is alleged to have attempted a car bombing at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon. The device was a dud created by the FBI. Motive is reported to be Jihad.

36. December 8, 2010. Antonio Martinez, also known as Muhammad Hussain arrested after a sting operation in an alleged plot to bomb a military recruiting center in Catonsville, Maryland. The 21 year old suspect is an American who converted to Islam. The suspect was reported to be upset that the military continues to kill Muslims.

37. February 24, 2011: Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari a 20 year old Saudi Arabian student arrested for building bombs to use in alleged terrorist attacks. Targets allegedly were home of George W. Bush, hydroelectric dams, nuclear power plants, nightclubs and the homes of soldiers who were formerly stationed at the Abu Ghraib prison. In Aldawsari's journal he wrote he was inspired by the speeches of Osama Bin Ladin. Alleged plot uncovered when supplier noticed suspicious purchases.