Five missing Americans probed for terror links

[David]

AP


WASHINGTON – Five young American Muslims captured in Pakistan are under investigation for possible links to terrorism after their families found a disturbing farewell video the missing men left behind showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended.

Frantic relatives and worried FBI agents have been searching for the five men for more than a week, since their disappearance in late November. The missing men, ranging in age from 19 to 25, have family roots in the northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., area. One, Ramy Zamzam, is a dental student at Howard University.

Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case, said the five are believed to be under arrest in Pakistan.

On the heels of charges against a Chicago man accused of plotting international terrorism, the case is another worrisome sign that Americans can be recruited within the United States to enlist in terrorist networks.

Leaders of an Islamic American group said the families of the five men asked the FBI for help and were particularly disturbed to see the video message.

"One person appeared in that video and they made references to the ongoing conflict in the world, and that young Muslims have to do something," said Nihad Awad, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR.

"The video's about 11 minutes and it's like a farewell. And they did not specify what they would be doing. But just hearing and seeing videos similar on the Internet, it just made me uncomfortable," Awad said. The video has not been made public.

Before the men left, they did not seem to have become militant, a local imam said.

"From all of our interviews, there was no sign they were outwardly radicalized," said Imam Johari Abdul-Malik.

One of Zamzam's younger brothers, interviewed at the family's Alexandria, Va., apartment, said Zamzam has a 4.0 grade-point average and is "a good guy."

"He's a normal Joe," said the brother, identifying himself only by a nickname, Zam.

In Pakistan, police officer Tahir Gujjar said five Americans were picked up in a raid on a house in Sarghoda in the eastern province of Punjab. He did not identify them, but said three are of Pakistani descent, one is of Egyptian descent and the other has Yemeni heritage.

S.M. Imran Gardezi, press minister at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, said the men "are under arrest in Pakistan. The investigation is to see whether they had any links to any extremist groups." No charges have been filed.

Pakistani regional police chief Mian Javed Islam told The Associated Press that the men spent the past few days in the city of Sarghoda, which is near an air base about 125 miles (200 kilometers) south of the capital, Islamabad.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Rick Snelsire said officials there were aware of the reported arrests, but could not confirm them.

Pakistan has many militant groups based in its territory and the U.S. has been pressing the government to crack down on extremism. Al-Qaida and Taliban militants are believed to be hiding in lawless tribal areas near the Afghan border.

In Washington, a spokeswoman for the FBI's local office said agents have been trying to help find the men.

"The FBI is working with the families and local law enforcement to investigate the missing students and is aware of the individuals arrested in Pakistan," said the spokeswoman, Katherine Schweit. "We are working with Pakistan authorities to determine their identities and the nature of their business there if indeed these are the students who had gone missing."

She said the investigation continues, declining to comment further.

According to officials at CAIR, the five left the country at the end of November without telling their families.

After the young men left, at least one phoned his family still claiming to be in the United States, but the caller ID information suggested they were overseas.

The families, members of the local Muslim community, took their concerns to CAIR, which put them in touch with the FBI and got them a lawyer, the group said.

A Howard University spokesman confirmed Zamzam was a student there but declined further comment.

Samirah Ali, president of Howard University's Muslim Student Association, said the FBI contacted her last week about Zamzam, and told her he had been missing for a week.

Ali said she's known Zamzam for three years and never suspected he would be involved in radical activities.

"He's a very nice guy, very cordial, very friendly," Ali said, adding that he has a bubbly personality. "It really caught me off guard."

[revwardoc]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34358278...d_central_asia

Pakistani militants rebuffed U.S. volunteers
Official says al-Qaida-linked group wary of Americans' lack of references

SARGODHA, Pakistan - Five American Muslims arrested in Pakistan had asked two extremist organizations for training to fight U.S. troops, but were rebuffed because they lacked references from trusted militants, a Pakistani official said Thursday.

U.S. officials in Pakistan had visited the men in custody, after their disappearance late last month prompted a frantic search by friends and family and an investigation by worried counterterrorism officials.

Regional police chief Javed Islam said the men wanted to join militants in Pakistan's tribal area before crossing into Afghanistan and said they met with a banned military organization, Jaish-e-Mohammed in Hyderabad, and with representatives of a related group, Jamat-ud-Dawa, in Lahore.

Another law enforcement official, Usman Anwar, the local police chief in the eastern city of Sargodha, told The Associated Press that the five are "directly connected" to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

"They are proudly saying they are here for jihad" or holy war, Anwar said.

But extremists turned down the Americans because they did not speak Urdu, the national language, and were deemed too Western in demeanor, a Pakistani police official told The New York Times.

The men, who are described as close friends from the Washington suburbs, had contacted a Pakistani militant through YouTube before landing in Pakistan on Nov. 30, The New York Times reported.

A key break in the case came not from federal agents or spies, but parents worried their sons may have made a terrible decision.

Farewell video
The families, based in the Washington area, were particularly concerned after watching what is described as a disturbing farewell video from the young men, showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended.

"One person appeared in that video and they made references to the ongoing conflict in the world and that young Muslims have to do something," said Nihad Awad, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. The video has not been made public.

After the disappearance of the five men in late November, their families, members of the local Muslim community, sought help from CAIR, which put them in touch with the FBI and got them a lawyer.

The missing men range in age from 19 to 25. One, Ramy Zamzam, is a dental student at Washington's Howard University. Pakistani police officer Tahir Gujjar identified the other four as Eman Yasir, Waqar Hasan, Umer Farooq and Khalid Farooq.

The detained U.S. nationals admitted that Khalid Farooq brought them to Pakistan with a promise to help them hold meetings with Pakistani militant leaders, a U.S. intelligence official told NBC News.

The officer said the group traveled to Haiderabad district in Sindh province, and Faisalabad in Punjab.

‘Jihadi training’ effort
In Faisalabad, the Americans held a meeting with local leaders of Jaish-e-Mohammad at which they expressed their desire to visit the tribal areas along the Afghan border and get some militant training.

According to the Pakistani intelligence officer, leaders of Jaish-e-Mohammad were suspicious about their activities and reportedly refused to help the American nationals.

"Their aim was to visit the tribal areas and get jihadi training," explained the intelligence officer.

He said they were trying to ascertain from the detainees who had brought them to Pakistan and what their plan was after getting militant training in the tribal areas.

"Most probably they wanted to cross into Afghanistan and fight against the U.S.-led occupying forces," the intelligence officer told NBC News.

The men have not been charged. It was not clear if they had been appointed local lawyers.

The local police chief, Anwar, said officers seized a laptop, jihadi literature and maps of Pakistani cities from the men.

They were arrested Wednesday at a four-bedroom house in Sargodha linked to Jaish-e-Mohammed, Pakistani officers said. Islam said investigators are sharing their findings with FBI officials now in Sargodha.

[David]

AP


WASHINGTON – Five young American Muslims arrested in Pakistan met with representatives of an al-Qaida linked group and asked for training but were turned down because they lacked references from trusted militants, a Pakistani law enforcement official said Thursday.

U.S. officials in Pakistan have now visited the men in custody, after their disappearance late last month prompted a frantic search by friends and family and an investigation by worried counterterrorism officials.

"We have had access to the five detainees," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters Thursday at an unrelated news conference. She called the move "part of the usual outreach" of the U.S. government and declined further comment.

Javed Islam, a regional police chief in Pakistan, said the men wanted to join militants in the country's tribal area before crossing into Afghanistan and said they met with a banned military organization, Jaish-e-Mohammed in Hyderabad, and with representatives of a related group, Jamat-ud-Dawa, in Lahore.

Another law enforcement official, Usman Anwar, the local police chief in Sargodha, told The Associated Press that the five are "directly connected" to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

"They are proudly saying they are here for jihad" or holy war, Anwar said.

The men used the social networking site Facebook and the Internet video site YouTube to try to connect with extremist groups in Pakistan, said S.M. Imran Gardezi, the press minister at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington. When they arrived in Pakistan, they took that effort to the street.

"They were trying to link up to some groups, but there is no evidence for now that there was a definite plan," Gardezi said.

Local Pakistanis became suspicious of the young men and tipped off police, he said. Police arrested the group in a home belonging to the uncle of one of the men. Gardezi said the uncle had past ties to extremist groups.

Gardezi said the men have not been turned over to the FBI and said Pakistan intended to carry out its own legal process.

Another break in the case came not from federal agents or spies, but parents worried their sons may have made a terrible decision.

The families, based in the northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., area, were particularly concerned after watching what is described as a disturbing farewell video from the young men, showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended.

"One person appeared in that video and they made references to the ongoing conflict in the world and that young Muslims have to do something," said Nihad Awad, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. The video has not been made public.

After the disappearance of the five men in late November, their families, members of the local Muslim community, sought help from CAIR, which put them in touch with the FBI and got them a lawyer.

The men range in age from 19 to 25. One, Ramy Zamzam, is a dental student at Howard University. Pakistani police officer Tahir Gujjar identified three of the others under arrest as Eman Yasir, Waqar Hasan, and Umer Farooq.

Farooq's father, Khalid Farooq, also was detained. Pakistan police officials say the elder Farooq had a computer business in Virginia and shuttled between the U.S. and Pakistan. Investigators are still trying to establish what role — if any — he played in the men's alleged activities, officials said.

The men were arrested at a house in Sargodha linked to Jaish-e-Mohammed, Pakistani officers said. Islam said investigators are sharing their findings with FBI officials now in Sargodha.

On the heels of charges against a Chicago man accused of plotting international terrorism, the case is another worrisome sign that Americans can be recruited within the United States to enlist in terrorist networks.

President Barack Obama declined to talk specifically about the case Thursday, but said, "We have to constantly be mindful that some of these twisted ideologies are available over the Internet."

Obama, in Oslo, Norway, to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, also praised "the extraordinary contributions of the Muslim-American community, and how they have been woven into the fabric of our nation in a seamless fashion."

A Virginia Muslim leader said the five men did not seem to have become militant before they left the U.S.

"From all of our interviews, there was no sign they were outwardly radicalized," said Imam Johari Abdul-Malik.

Pakistan has many militant groups based in its territory and the U.S. has been pressing the government to crack down on extremism. Al-Qaida and Taliban militants are believed to be hiding in lawless tribal areas near the Afghan border.

According to officials at CAIR, the five left the country at the end of November without telling their families.

After the young men left, at least one phoned his family still claiming to be in the United States, but the caller ID information suggested they were overseas.

A Howard University spokesman confirmed Zamzam was a student there but declined further comment.

Samirah Ali, president of Howard University's Muslim Student Association, said the FBI contacted her last week about Zamzam, and told her he had been missing for a week. Ali said she's known Zamzam for three years and never suspected he would be involved in radical activities.

"He's a very nice guy, very cordial, very friendly," Ali said.

One of Zamzam's younger brothers, interviewed at the family's Alexandria, Va., apartment, said Zamzam has a 4.0 grade-point average.

"He's a good guy," the brother said, identifying himself only by a nickname, "Zam." "He's a normal Joe."

[David]

AP


ISLAMABAD – Five young Americans detained in Pakistan over alleged terrorist links will most likely be deported, a local police chief said Friday.

The men have allegedly told investigators they tried to connect with al-Qaida-linked militant groups in Pakistan and were intending to cross the border into Afghanistan and fight U.S. troops there.

The men were said to have used the social networking site Facebook and Internet video site YouTube to try to connect with extremist groups in Pakistan. When they arrived in Pakistan, they took that effort to the street.

They were reported missing by their families in the Washington, D.C., area a week ago after one of them left behind a farewell video showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended.

Pakistani police detained them this week — along with one of their fathers — in Sargodha, a town in the eastern province of Punjab.

Regional police chief Javed Islam said the men had yet to be charged with any crime but they would "most probably" be deported. He declined to say how long police could hold them before they were charged.

A senior government official in Punjab said the five were being questioned first, and the overall legal process could take weeks.

"They are under investigation. We need to establish their links," Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah told The Associated Press. "We are getting information that they had plans to travel to the tribal areas. We need to know which people they wanted to see and what their contacts were."

U.S. officials, including some from the FBI, have visited the men in custody. A consular official saw them on Friday, the U.S. Embassy said. It did not give more details, citing privacy laws.

Amir Sherazi, a member of the team interrogating the men, said they were being questioned in five separate cells.

"They are in good health. They are eating," he said in a telephone interview.

The case has fanned fears that Americans and other Westerners — especially those of Pakistani descent — are traveling to Pakistan to join up with al-Qaida and other militant groups. It comes on the heels of charges against a Chicago man of Pakistani origin who is accused of surveying targets for the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India.

Police have said those detained included three Pakistani Americans, two Ethiopian Americans and an Egyptian American named Ramy Zamzam who is a dental student at Howard University. The others were identified as Waqar Hussain Khan, Umer Farooq, Ahmad Abdul Minni and Aman Hassan Yamer. Pakistani officials have given various versions of their names and the spellings could not be confirmed.

Farooq's father, Khalid Farooq, also was detained. Pakistan police officials say the elder Farooq had a computer business in Virginia and shuttled between the U.S. and Pakistan. Investigators are still trying to establish what role — if any — he played in the men's alleged activities, officials said.

According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy group that helped bring the case of the missing men to the FBI's attention, the five left the country at the end of November without telling their families.

After the young men left, at least one phoned his family still claiming to be in the United States, but the caller ID information suggested he was overseas.

Islam, the police official, said Thursday the five men wanted to join militants in Pakistan's tribal areas before crossing into Afghanistan. He said they met representatives from the al-Qaida-linked Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group in the southeastern city of Hyderabad and from a related group, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, in Lahore, but were turned away because they were not trusted.

Pakistan has many militant groups based on its territory and the U.S. has been pressing the government to crack down on extremism. Al-Qaida and Taliban militants are believed to be hiding in the lawless tribal belt near the Afghan border.

In August, police arrested a group of foreigners, including a Swede who had spent time in Guantanamo Bay prison camp, close to the Afghan border region and publicly accused them of al-Qaida links. They were held for over a month before being released and put on a plane out of the country.













In this five-combo photo released by Sargodha Police Department on Friday, Dec. 11, 2009, arrested American Muslims, from left, Waqir Hussain Khan, Ramys Zamzam, Umar Farooq, Ahmad Abdulminni, Aman Hasan Yamer are seen in Sargodha, Pakistan. Pakistani police say five young American Muslims detained over alleged terrorist links are most likely to be deported.