-
Residents stand outside the building in which NY City police and the FBI raided homes as part of an investigation that has tracked a man suspected of sympathizing with al Qaeda - Source: Reuters -
Related
New York City police and the FBI raided homes in the borough of
Queens as part of an investigation that has tracked a man suspected
of sympathizing with al Qaeda, officials said.
NYPD and FBI officials provided few details, calling it part of an
ongoing investigation by a joint terrorism task force, but members
of US Congress briefed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation said
there was no imminent danger.
Authorities launched the raids after a suspect they had under
surveillance met with people in Queens, the ethnically diverse
borough across the East River from Manhattan.
Neighbours at one apartment building, where the home of five Afghan
men was searched, described an operation in which heavily armed FBI
agents arrived in a phalanx of unmarked vehicles and stormed the
building in the early morning hours.
"It was scary. I wasn't going to stop the FBI and ask them what was
going on," said Melissa Khan, 28.
At another building, agents took away four Bosnians - a couple and
their two adult children - from an apartment they have shared for
three years, said John Choe, an aide to City Councilman John Liu
and a candidate for the seat in Queens that Liu is vacating.
At least two of the Bosnians appeared to have returned home by
Monday night.
A man who answered the door there refused to speak to reporters.
A neighbour who identified herself as Carol Lechner said she
believed a son of the couple, a student at Queens College, remained
in detention.
At the home of the five Afghanis, a man who identified himself as
Amanulla Akvari, a 30-year-old taxi driver, said the FBI raided the
apartment at 2:30 am local time.
He was brought in for questioning and released and said he had no
idea why his home was targeted; adding that he believed one of his
roommates was arrested.
Nothing imminent
"There was nothing imminent, and they (investigators) are very good
now at tracking potentially dangerous actions and this was
preventive," said Charles Schumer, a US Senator from New York who
was among those briefed by FBI officials.
Peter King, a Republican congressman from New York who was also
briefed, told ABC News: "He (the main suspect) was being watched
and concern grew as he met with a group of individuals in Queens
over the weekend."
That led the FBI to obtain search warrants, ABC quoted King as
saying.
"There is very good reason to believe that there is a connection to
al Qaeda or to al Qaeda supports. ... (They) would not have moved
as quickly as they did if they did not believe there was real
potential," King said.
The New York Times, citing an unnamed senior law enforcement
official, said authorities had uncovered a small group who espoused
a militant ideology aligned with al Qaeda.
Neither a specific plot nor a target of any planned attack had been
detected, but their activities had aroused enough suspicion to
obtain search warrants, the Times said.
New York City has been on high alert since the attacks of Septeber
11, 2001, and the recent anniversary has reminded many that the
city was targeted in the suicide hijackings that destroyed the
World Trade Center eight years ago.
The Twin Towers were also hit by a truck bomb attack in 1993 that
killed six people and wounded more than 1,000.
