And Then There Was One

Since the 9/11 attacks, the US has gone after al Qaeda all around the globe, and those efforts have paid off. The group is now down to essentially one recognizable face - Ayman al Zawahiri, who was Osama bin Laden's right hand man since the group came into existence.

Zawahiri is believed to be in the frontier provinces of Pakistan, and he's probably spending most of his time trying not to get caught by US spymasters who have the quite lethal UAVs at their disposal.

As a result, according to senior U.S. counterterrorism officials, there now remains only one leader of any consequence in al Qaeda and that is Ayman al Zawahiri, the tetchy Egyptian surgeon who became the head of the group following the death of its founder, Osama bin Laden, in a U.S. Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan in May 2011.

Zawahiri, presumably, is keenly aware of the fate of so many of his longtime colleagues in al Qaeda. He will be expending considerable energy not to end up on the business end of a missile fired by a CIA drone if he, too, is hiding in the Pakistani tribal regions where the drone strikes have been concentrated.

Meanwhile, Zawahiri faces an almost impossible task to follow through on al Qaeda's main mission: attacking the United States, or failing that, one of its close allies.
Al Qaeda hasn't conducted a successful attack in the West since the bombings on London's transportation system on July 7, 2005, and of course, the group hasn't succeeded in attacking the United States for more than a decade.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula remains committed to carrying out attacks against the US and its interests around the world but hasn't managed to successfully carry out the kind of high profile attacks that the group was known for previously. Attempts to take down airlines have failed, though the group only has to do so once in order to achieve its aims.

It's a far cry from the 9/11 attacks and the terror group's largest effort since the 9/11 attacks was in the London subway bombings in 2005.

The group remains committed to carrying out attacks, but the threat has morphed into concerns about lone wolf individuals or groups - terrorists who share goals but aren't directly tied to al Qaeda or Zawahiri.

Just because there are lesser known terrorists (though that list still includes Adam Gadahn and Adnan G. El Shukrijumah) involved in the group doesn't mean we should discount the threat. We need to recognize the work done to get to this point, and the hard work ahead in trying to keep the nation safe from these terror groups and individuals who are intent upon doing harm to the US. At the same time, the risks from a successful attack are quite low to most Americans.

A Norwegian Connection In Subway Bomb Plot In US and UK

In addition to the indictment handed down yesterday against Adnan Shukrijumah, it looks like authorities in Norway have arrested three people in connection with a plot that appears to have links with the US subway bomb plot led by Najibullah Zazi and a similar plot in Britain.

The three men, whose names were not released, had been under surveillance for more than a year. Officials believe they were planning attacks with portable but powerful bombs like the ones at the heart of last year's thwarted suicide attack in the New York City subway.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has called that one of the most serious terrorist plots since 9/11. On Wednesday, prosecutors revealed the existence of a related plot in Manchester, England.

Officials believe the Norway plan was instigated by Salah al-Somali, al-Qaida's former chief of external operations, who was in charge of plotting attacks worldwide until he was killed in a CIA drone airstrike last year.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. The Norwegian Police Security Service said only that the three were arrested on suspicion of "preparing terror activities."

Al-Somali has been identified in U.S. court documents as one of the masterminds of the New York subway plot. Two men have pleaded guilty in that case, admitting they planned to detonate explosives during rush hour. A third man awaits trial.

Officials said it was not clear the men had selected a target for the attacks but they were attempting to make peroxide bombs, the powerful homemade explosives that prosecutors say were attempted in both New York and England.

U.S. and Norwegian counterterrorism officials worked closely together to unravel the Norwegian plot, officials said. Janne Kristiansen, the head of the Police Security Service, traveled to the U.S. this spring to discuss some of the closely held intelligence that been gathered in the case.

So why was Norway chosen? Well, Norway has a contingent of 500 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO ISAF.

Much more likely is that it is yet another outgrowth of the cartoon jihad sparked by the publication of a series of Mohammad cartoons in a Danish newspaper, Jyllands Posten, which caused riots in many Islamic countries and embassies of several nations were torched, including the Norwegian embassy in Syria, primarily because the Scandanavian countries were seen as being of a similar mind about the publication and freedom of speech that it represents.

UPDATE:
So how did Shukrijumah get implicated? Well, it looks like Zazi cooperated with federal authorities to the extent that they're even considering putting him and fellow terrorist Zarein Ahmedzay into witness protection.

Federal Judge Raymond Dearie agreed yesterday to unseal the cooperation agreements. Medunjanin's co-defendants - Zazi, who was the New York plot's pointman, and Ahmedzay - both apparently may get a sweet deal.

Zazi and Ahmedzay could have their life sentences reduced and enter the witness protection program if the Justice Department agrees with prosecutors' recommendations. Zazi could also receive the "S" visa.

New Charges Announced in NYC Subway Bomb Plots Against Adnan Shukrijumah

New charges are being announced against Adnan Shukrijumah in connection with the plot to blow up New York City subways.

Law enforcement officials say Adnan Shukrijumah will be named in an indictment in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday.

Shukrijumah has eluded the FBI for years and remains at large. He is among the top candidates to be al-Qaida's next head of external operations, the man in charge of planning attacks worldwide.

Authorities believe Shukrijumah met with a would-be suicide bomber in a plot that Attorney General Eric Holder called one of the most dangerous since 9/11.

This is in connection with the terror plot involving Najibullah Zazi and his cohorts.

The U.S. citizens were arrested in September 2009 before, prosecutors said, they could carry out a trio of suicide bombings in Manhattan. Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay have pleaded guilty and admitted planning to detonate homemade bombs on the subway during rush hour. A third man, Adis Medunjanin, awaits trial.

Counterterrorism officials believe Ahmedzay, and perhaps the other two men, met Shukrijumah at a terror camp in Pakistan.

After 9/11, Shukrijumah, 34, was seen as one of al-Qaida's best chances to attack inside the U.S. or Europe, captured terrorist Abu Zubaydah told U.S. authorities. Shukrijumah studied at a community college in Florida but when the FBI showed up to arrest him as a material witness to a terrorism case in 2003, he already had left the country.

In 2004, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft called Shukrijumah a "clear and present danger" to the United States. The U.S. is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

UPDATE:
The NYC subway plot is also being connected to a similar plot in England.

NYC Terror Plot Had Connections With Al Qaeda's Adnan Shukrijumah

It had been suspected that the terror plot involving Najibullah Zazi involved suspected terrorists overseas, particularly in Pakistan, but it is now confirmed that among those being sought is one of the more dangerous al Qaeda operatives.

U.S. counterterrorism officials have linked one of the nation's most wanted terrorists to last year's thwarted plot to bomb the New York City subway system, authorities said Wednesday.

Current and former counterterrorism officials said top al-Qaida operative Adnan Shukrijumah met with one of the would-be suicide bombers in a plot that Attorney General Eric Holder called one of the most dangerous since the 9/11 terror attacks.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have named Shukrijumah in a draft terrorism indictment but on Wednesday the Justice Department was still discussing whether to cite his role. Some officials feared that the extra attention might hinder efforts to capture him.

Shukrijumah's involvement shows how important the subway bombing plot was to al-Qaida's senior leadership. Intelligence officials believe Shukrijumah is one of the top candidates to become al-Qaida's next head of external operations, the man in charge of planning attacks worldwide.

I'm curious as to the reasoning why the indictment will somehow make it more difficult to capture him when he's already being sought with a $5 million reward for his whereabouts via the Rewards for Justice program and is on the FBI's Most Wanted List.

Shukrijumah has been linked to several other plots, including one in 2004, in which it was alleged that he had scouted sites in New York City and the Panama Canal.

The Widening JFK Terror Probe Investigation

The New York Times insisted that the JFK terror plot was not a situation worthy of front page attention. Their misjudgment continues to shine through on the issue, as reports continue to show that the investigation is widening and that law enforcement is trying to track down multiple individuals around the world in relation to the plot. The name of Adnan Shukrijumah continues to pop up in relation to this investigation. That would be significant considering that he's an integral part of al Qaeda's ongoing war against the US.

Of course, those individuals were mentioned in the court filings, namely as Individuals A through G. The four arrested thus far are likely only the tip of this latest iceberg.

We've also learned more about the informant; quite possibly too much information as his name and phone number were provided. It would appear that his phone number is to a New York metro area telephone exchange.

Al Qaeda Involved in JFK Terror Plot?

According to FoxNews, one of the hoped for goals of the ongoing investigation into the four men charged in connection with the JFK terror plot was an al Qaeda leader who had a $5 million bounty on his head and was al Qaeda's nuclear weapons expert:

Al Qaeda's reported nuclear whiz kid — a "tantalizing terror figure" with a $5 million bounty on his head — was the figure investigators had hoped to snag in their 18-month probe of a plot to blow up a New York airport, the New York Post reported Monday.

The name of Adnan Gulshair el-Shukrijumah, reportedly the man Usama bin Laden tapped to lead a previous plot to detonate nuclear bombs simultaneously in several U.S. cities, came up at several points in taped conversations during the probe, law-enforcement sources familiar with the investigation told the paper.

Those living near the pipeline aren't entirely satisfied with the thwarted plot because security concerns remain:

"The pipeline is a ticking time bomb because anyone can go down there at any time," a retired city worker who lives a block from the pipeline in Brooklyn, Morton Pupko, said.

The pipeline's operator, Buckeye Partners, has said that in the event of an attack, sections of the 40 miles of pipeline that run between Linden, N.J., and Queens could be isolated easily by shutoff valves.

The president of Accufacts Inc., a company that investigates oil and gas pipelines, Richard Kuprewicz, said an explosion in the pipeline would probably extend for hundreds or thousands of feet, not miles.

Consider that there are sections of the pipeline that pass under densely populated areas of the City, and the potential for a catastrophic attack with mass casualties is a possibility, despite the safeguards built into the pipeline.


Meanwhile, I wonder whether the reports over the past several months about how the Port Authority was working on a deal with the New York and New Jersey governors on a plan to have National Guardsmen operate in the Port Authority's PATH system was not tangentially connected to the ongoing terror investigation.

Having the National Guard bolster the Port Authority police in the PATH system would free up Port Authority police to operate at JFK airport and shift resources to the areas that were likely to be affected by a terror plot. When the plan to station National Guardsmen in the PATH system was announced, the Port Authority pointed out that there were no specific threats against the PATH system that had been made, but it would seem logical that such a move would enable the shift in resources to where it was needed.

And speaking of PATH and other rail and subways systems in the NY metro area, the NYPD is calling for a total order maintenance sweep of all cars in the system to improve security:

While it is unclear exactly how much funding the New York City Police Department spends on counterterrorism, the department is leading a $30 million program funded by the Department of Homeland Security to create a 50-mile perimeter barring nuclear weapons from the city, investigating the importation of chlorine, which can be used in the manufacturing of deadly bombs, and deploying a counterterrorism unit into the streets and the subways of the city every day.

Adding to the department's counterterrorism efforts, officers from the city's police department and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority are now performing a counter-terrorism reconnaissance program, known as "total order maintenance sweeps," or TOMS, at Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road commuter stations. The sweeps, where a patrol of officers inspects each train car on every train that pulls into a commuter station, are being implemented randomly across the city.

"Attacks in London against the mass transit system there demonstrated how planning and bomb assembly took place outside of London," Mr. Kelly said. "The Madrid commuter rail bombings showed how commuter trains approaching the central city were also targeted. NYPD presence on Metro-North and LIRR trains is just one more element in widening counterterrorism coverage and cooperation among neighboring jurisdictions and agencies."

Elsewhere, the unindicted coconspirator in ABSCAM, Rep. John Murtha, thinks that the latest terror plot is a response to the US involvment in Iraq. Murtha apparently hasn't been paying attention to the facts. Defreitas specifically stated that he wanted to attack the US and JFK airport because he claimed to have seen US weapons being shipped to Israel where they could be used against fellow Muslims. That was included in the complaint against the four accused men. Murtha either ignores the facts, is lying, or both.

UPDATE:
According to the FBI, Shukrijumah appears to have gone to Pakistan, where he's likely joined up with al Qaeda elements. As Allah notes, if they had captured Shukrijumah, it would have been an intel bonanza and tactical victory on par with the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

UPDATE:
One of the curious aspects of the coverage of this story is the abject failure of the New York Times to provide above the fold coverage to a story with great import to the New York metropolitan region. Every other paper in the region has devoted at least one day of front page coverage to the story, if not more (see nj.com, northjersey.com, nysun.com, nypost.com, nydailynews.com, and nynewsday.com for a sampler). The New York Times, instead buried the story on the inside pages of the paper. Most curious. Even if the New York Times believes the plot wasn't going to cause as much damage as FBI investigators believed or that experts considered the threat to destroy miles of pipelines that snaked through the New York metro area to be remote, the fact that the FBI was hoping to nab a major al Qaeda figure should have rung some bells.

UPDATE:
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UPDATE:
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly says that explosives were available to the JFK plotters:

"Did they have explosives in their possession? No. But clearly, there were explosives available in Guyana," Kelly said.

Kelly said the four Muslim suspects made repeated trips between the U.S., Guyana and the Caribbean while plotting the JFK terror plot. Several of the trips were made to try to win support from Jamaat al Muslimeen, an extremist Muslim group in Trinidad and Tobago, Kelly said.

"We don't know exactly what this case could have changed into, could have morphed into, if they were able to successfully create a partnership with this militant group," Kelly said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Kelly, who has assigned 1,000 cops to fight terrorism, said it was only a matter of time before the alleged mastermind, Russell Defreitas, 63, of Brooklyn, got his hands on explosives.

"They tried to get money, and they tried to get explosives," Kelly said. "I think the investigators took this case down at the appropriate time."

UPDATE:
Say hi for the video - tapes of the last encounter between Defreitas and the informant before Defreitas was taken into custody have been released.

UPDATE:
One of the things that has gone rather unremarked upon is that there are quite a few references to unnamed individuals. James Robbins notes:

Reading the indictment against the four would-be JFK airport bombers, Russell Defreitas, Abdul Nur, Kareem Ibrihim and Abdul Kadir, I was struck by the phrase “together with others” which frequently followed their names. It is on page 1, page 2, page 3, twice on page 4. In the course of the document we are introduced to these others, known only as Individuals A-G. There must be some legal rationale why we can’t know their identities. It surely can’t be to conceal from the Individuals that we know what they were up to; they must have figured out who is which letter by now. But until we know who Messrs. A-G are, we can’t know the extent of the network, or the magnitude of the threat.

Of the six, the most interesting are A and E. “A” is one of the ringleaders of the plan, playing a key role in conceptualizing and promoting it. Yet for some reason, he was not indicted. “E” is even more important — a businessman in Georgetown Guyana, who funds jihadists on their missions and comes across in the indictment as extremely knowledgeable in matters of terrorism. It seems as though he has done this many times before. He served as a mentor for the prospective attackers, but eventually pulled out of the plan when he thought it might be compromised. Good instincts.

Terror Plot Thwarted at JFK Airport?

Four men have been charged in a terror plot to blow up jet fuel storage tanks at JFK Airport in New York City. One of the four may have worked at the airport:

According to NewsChannel4's Jonathan Dienst, sources said federal investigators have made arrests in an alleged terror plot on Kennedy Airport.

Four people have been charged. One is in custody in New York.

Sources said the plot involved a plan to blow up a jet-fuel pipeline at JFK setting off a potential massive explosion.

Law enforcement officials said the plot may involved a former airport worker.

This situation is developing, and a press conference is scheduled for this afternoon.

UPDATE:
Some background statistics on JFK Airport and the aviation gas facilities:

JFK has a total storage capacity of 32 million gallons. It features:
- 62 tanks in bulk storage and 40 tanks in satellite
- 50 miles of underground pipe
- Five piers
- Transfers of fuel to nine unit terminal buildings (UTB) through 28 separate fuel systems
- Fuel tank farms protected by high pressure foam systems
- More than one billion gallons of fuel were dispensed in 2002.

An attack on the fuel tank farm could lead to a major shutdown of air operations at the airport, beyond the initial need to close the airport to traffic due to the fire and smoke.

Aerial imagery of the airport here.

UPDATE:
Buckeye Pipe Line Company is a major jet fuel provider at the airport.

The NYT reports that three have been arrested and a fourth is still being sought:

Three people were arrested and one other was being sought Saturday in connection to a plot to set off explosives at John F. Kennedy International Airport, officials close to the investigation said.

The plot, which never got past the planning stages, did not involve airplanes or passenger terminals, according to the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the arrests had not yet been announced.

UPDATE:
The FoxNews report indicates the target was a pipeline that feeds the JFK airport fuel tank farm:

Sources said the plot involved a plan to blow up a jet-fuel pipeline at JFK setting off a potential massive explosion.

Details were to be given out at a 1 p.m. news conference.

The pipeline takes fuel from a facility in Linden, N.J., to the airport. Other lines service LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport.

UPDATE:
Hot Air, LGF, and QandO are all blogging the developing situation.

UPDATE:
Don Surber wonders how the feds found out about the plot. Good question. I am betting that it was some astute civilian observer who noted something out of order and called in the feds who launched an investigation, much as the Fort Dix Six were discovered by a Circuit City store clerk.

UPDATE:
Identities of some of those involved have been made public:

A senior law enforcement official told FOX News that of the three arrests, one was in New York and two were in Trinidad. The New York suspect has been identified as Russell Afreitas, a former JFK employee who allegedly planned to attack the airport's fuel supply because he thought he could do more damage than attacking a passenger terminal. Afreitas is a Muslim U.S. citizen from Guyana.

In carrying out the alleged plot, Afreitas unknowingly recruited an FBI informant, and surveillance on Afreitas began.

One of the other suspects arrested in Trinidad was identified as Abdul Kabir, a member of Parliament of Guyana.

Very curious.

UPDATE:
The names of the four involved are: Russell Defreitas, Abdul Nur, Kareem Ibrihim and Abdul Kadir. Hot Air points out that there's one al Qaeda bigwig who has connections to Trinidad and has been itching to hit at the US for some time, though CBS claims that the four do not have ties to al Qaeda.

No, they have ties to another Islamic terrorist group, the Jamaat al-Muslimeen.

Via nj.com: CNN claims that the plot was a level below the Fort Dix plot in that no explosives had been purchased and no set date had been made for the attack.

UPDATE:
More detail on the steps taken by the plotters in furtherance of an attack:

The official said the plotters had conducted surveillance on giant jet fuel tanks at JFK and the Buckeye pipeline that runs from New Jersey to the airport. They had taken surveillance video of the targets and took it to Trinidad to review the tape, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the arrests were not yet announced.

UPDATE:
WNBC:

Sources said the plot involved putting explosives inside the fuel pipeline but realized that “it was not technically feasible.”

Other jihadis have attempted to put together terrorist attacks against other facilities around the country, including one that would have attacked the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge in order to destroy the bridge. That too was considered not a feasible way to destroy the bridge. However, it did raise concerns that someone might try again, and the anchorages for the bridge were made more secure.

The same jihadis involved in this current plot could just have easily decided to directly attack the tank farm or one of the points on the pipeline where it might cause serious damage to the surrounding area.

UPDATE:
Possible ties to al Qaeda after all?

FBI agents feared but never confirmed the three men accused of plotting to attack John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York were linked to one of the most wanted al Qaeda leaders, Adnan Shukrijumah, known to have operated out of Guyana and Trinidad.

Officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com that they heard repeated references to “Adnan” during the extensive wiretaps conducted on the suspects’ telephone conversations, including calls to Guyana and Trinidad.

There is a $5 million reward for information on Shukrijumah, who officials consider extremely dangerous because of the years he spent living in the Miami area and his known ties to al Qaeda. Some of the 9/ll hijackers attended a south Florida mosque run by Shukrijumah’s now deceased father.

UPDATE:
Ed Morrissey points out there are possible ties to Germany, which for the observant among us, was where Mohammad Atta and the 9/11 gang set the wheels of that attack in motion.

Others blogging: Bill's Bites, Junkyard Blog, Suitably Flip, Jammie Wearing Fool, Counterterrorism Blog, Jay Tea at Wizbang, and Blogs of War.

UPDATE:
Here's a copy of the complaint. Strangely enough, none of the major left-leaning blogs have threads devoted to this subject. Very curious.

UPDATE:
The Justice Department also released a statement on the matter.