NYPDs Counterterrorism Analytic Unit

Inspire magazine, an English-language journal published by Al Qaeda, included in its summer edition what amounted to a “Friends and Foes” list. There, on Page 4, following the letter from the editor (“We survive through jihad and perish without it”), were pictures of, and quotations from, kindred spirits like Faisal Shahzad, who pleaded guilty in a plot to detonate a car bomb in Times Square, and, perhaps surprisingly, David Letterman, who was praised for recent criticism of former President George W. Bush. Among the magazine’s “foes” were Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates; Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France; and King Abdullah II of Jordan. Then there was Mitchell D. Silber, a studious and mild-mannered former financier who grew up in Atlantic Beach, N.Y.

Mr. Silber (“I guess I was flattered in a strange way”) may seem an unlikely choice to occupy that space with a terrorist, a television star, a cabinet secretary, a European head of state and an Arab potentate. He is not, after all, a boldface name. Rather, he is a 40-year-old father with a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University who says his main hobby is reading deeply on the Middle East. What landed Mr. Silber on that list was his leadership of a little-known counterterrorism team deep within the crime-fighting structure of the New York Police Department.

Formally known as the Analytic Unit of the department’s Intelligence Division, the team was created in 2002 as part of the city’s response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It stands as a unique experiment in breaking traditional law-enforcement boundaries, comprising two dozen civilian experts — lawyers, academics, corporate consultants, investment bankers, alumni of the World Bank and the Council on Foreign Relations and even a former employee of the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan. The team serves as the Police Department’s terrorism reference arm: available on demand to explain Islamic law or Pakistani politics to detectives in the field.

Read more...

Arrest of 'Easter bombers' led to international al-Qaeda network

When MI5 received a tip-off about a possible al-Qaeda cell in the north west of England last year, the security service had no inkling it was about to smash a terrorist plot to cause mass murder on both sides of the Atlantic. Over the following weeks and months agents would gather evidence which left no doubt that Muslim fanatics were not only planning to blow up shopping centres in Manchester, but were also connected to a planned attack on New York’s transport network which would have been the worst US atrocity since 9/11. Operation Pathway, as the investigation was codenamed, began in February last year, when MI5 began looking at a Muslim man in his forties living in the inner-city area of Cheetham Hill, Manchester.

The man was working in a hair products company where he had access to bomb making materials, causing instant concern. His roommate, Abid Naseer, had arrived in Britain from Pakistan on a student visa two years earlier, exploiting a system he knew well from working at an office in Pakistan where he handed out advice for John Moores University in Liverpool. Once in Britain, Naseer, 24, and his co-conspirators dropped out of their courses and began work as a security guard, maintaining their student status by signing up for bogus courses at the Manchester College of Professional Studies. MI5 noted that Naseer and others spent a lot of time at the Cyber Net café in Cheetham Hill, and GCHQ began monitoring their emails. Analysts believed the emails were in code and that Naseer was telling an al-Qaeda contact in Pakistan about the availability of different bomb-making materials, substituting girls’ names for chemicals.

Read more...

9/11 suspects face New York trial

The alleged 9/11 mastermind will be transferred from Guantanamo to New York for a trial in which the death penalty will be sought, the US has confirmed. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others would be tried in a civilian court near Ground Zero, the attorney general Eric Holder said. Five other Guantanamo detainees would face military trials, The move is part of US President Barack Obama's efforts to close Guantanamo, but some relatives of 9/11 victims say they oppose a federal court trial.

"Today I am announcing that the Department of Justice will pursue prosecution in federal court of the five individuals accused of conspiring to commit the 9/11 attacks," Mr Holder told a news conference. “I am absolutely convinced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be subjected to the most exacting demands of justice, I fully expect to direct prosecutors to seek the death penalty against each of the alleged 9/11 conspirators."

Four men - the two Yemenis, a Saudi and a Pakistani-born Kuwaiti - will face trial alongside Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of helping finance and plan the attacks of 11 September 2001 in which nearly 3,000 people were killed. Responsibility for the case will go to the Southern District of New York, with proceedings taking place at a court not far from where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center fell.

Read more...

New York Crime Drops 70% since 1990

“If the murder rate stayed where it was in 2001, there would have been 760 additional homicides in New York City,” in the last eight years. “History tells us 90% of the victims would have been minorities from low income neighborhoods.”

“Since 1990, as crime has fallen by more than 70%, admissions from New York City into state prisons has also fallen by 57%, from more than 16,000 in 1990 to fewer than 7,000 in 2008. What we’re showing is that success in fighting crime can lead to smaller, not larger, prison populations.”

Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his commissioners, of course, first rescued the city by proving law enforcement could prevent crime. Almost as remarkable is that Mayor Bloomberg has managed to drive the crime rate even lower.

The result, after 16 years of pressure and innovation, is that New York is by far the safest big city in America. Major crime, including murder and rape, has been cut by 76%, including an 11% drop this year. Since 1993, stolen car reports are down by an incredible 90%.

Noting the department might stop 600,000 people this year, an increase of 100,000 over 2008, Commissioner Raymond Kelly said: “This is a proven law enforcement tactic to fight and deter crime; one that is authorized by criminal procedure law.”

Read more...