The Masjid As-Salam mosqe in downtown Albany, N.Y., is seen Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004. Federal agents and Albany police raided the mosque Wednesday night, Aug. 4. (AP Photo/Jim McKnight)
Posted on 08/05/2004 6:18:03 AM PDT by Lady GOP
ALBANY, N.Y. — Federal agents and Albany police raided a Muslim mosque overnight Wednesday and arrested two men for helping someone they thought was a terrorist, a law enforcement official confirmed to FOX News on Thursday.
A block of downtown Albany (search) was sealed off with armed officers for several hours after the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agents executed search warrants at the Masjid As-Salam mosque (search) and two Albany-area residences, officials said.
Yassin Muhhiddin Aref, 34, the Imam of the mosque, and Mohammed Mosharref Hoosain, the 49-year-old founder of the mosque, were arrested early Thursday morning. They are accused of reaching out to someone they thought was a terrorist trying to get a shoulder-fired missile to down planes in the United States.
FOX News learned from a law enforcement official, however, that that person was not a terrorist, and actually it was all a sting operation. The two men are accused of agreeing to help launder money to pay for the missile.
The men have ties to a group called Ansar al-Islam (search), which has been linked to Usama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terror network, two federal law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
"The men have ties to a [terror] group called Ansar al-Islam "
This is the same group that had a training base on northern Iraq before the war.
The article should note that it is a terror group, not just a group. What a singing group?
For God's sake lock em up and then get them out of here!
Two down but how many more to go? Oh well chalk one up for the good guys!
This should have gone unreported. Now this sting will be harder to use.
Interesting.
Religion of Peace Alert!!!
good find miss!
"Federal agents and Albany police raided a Muslim mosque..."
If you're going to get rid of an infestation, you have to get rid of the nest. A mosque isn't a holy place, it's a nest. So, I guess RAID is appropriate.
They will just accue Bush of lying if some of this stuff isnt reported.
I know. But covert activities need to be covert.
Well they were caught but there is always a chance someone will be doing something and not get caught.
Solution: Place panties over their heads and hang their @$$ from a light post in front of the mosque. Let them rot there.
It is time to get very serious with these perps.
And Jerold Nadler is on Fox still proclaiming the suspect timing of the terror alert...
The Masjid As-Salam mosqe in downtown Albany, N.Y., is seen Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004. Federal agents and Albany police raided the mosque Wednesday night, Aug. 4. (AP Photo/Jim McKnight)
Jabba the hut
Reporting *LIVE* from Albany. The governor is headed up to the Capitol to give a news conference later this morning.
Two sides to every coin. I like covert myself. Probably the Cold War Warrior in me.
Sick people.
Fair enough. Let's split the difference and say that they should have leaked information indicating that a whole bunch of actual bad-guy arms dealers and buyers were really working for the US, and let their customers/suppliers kill them for us.
True, but it will also make it harder for the bad guys to launder money.
This can't be! Islam is a peaceful religion...
Tell me it ain't so! And an Imam to boot!
Looks like an ideal location for a Chinese restaurant!
This brings back my memories of 9/11, it's unbelievable that the Dems have already forgotten about this horrific tragedy.
Sure, you bet, OK, uh huh.
According to John kerry, we are not safer under Bush.
(snicker)
Islam is a religion of Peace.
Jund al-Islam
Soldiers of God
Strength
About 700 members.
Additional Info
According to some reports, the group has received $600,000 from al-Qaeda, and a delivery of weapons and Toyota Land Cruisers. There are also reports stating that Ansar al-Islam received $35,000 from the Mukhabarat branch of Iraqi Intelligence Service, in addition to a considerable quantity of arms. The leader of Ansar al-Islam, Mullah Krekar has been captured in September of 2002.
Three arrested in missile-smuggling case
August 13, 2003
excerpt:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A man who authorities say plotted to sell a surface-to-air missile to what he thought was a Muslim extremist is expected to appear in a New Jersey courtroom today after being nabbed with two others Tuesday in an elaborate FBI sting operation.
Send them to Cuba
Vermin.
Damn. You have an evil mind. And I mean that as a compliment.
Check out the video link:
WATCH THE VIDEO
More Information
Mosque raided, two arrested
The FBI has arrested two men after an overnight raid of a Muslim mosque on Central Avenue in Albany. FBI officials will hold a news conference this afternoon in Washington, DC regarding the Albany raid.
http://www.capitalnews9.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=87602
Hey you have a covert mind too. But now you leaked the plan! ; )
Gee, I hope we're not making the muslim community FEEL badly again.
Every Mosque is a terrorist cell.
Well, "peace" (according to Mohammedans) means submission to Mohammedanism.
When they say "we want peace" they're saying "You better convert."
after the branding irons and jumper cables!!
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=273076
Mohammed Hossain
Last updated: 9:18 a.m., Thursday, August 5, 2004
Editor's note: As part of its recently published special report on Albany's Central Avenue, the Times Union featured a profile of Mohammed Hossain, one of the suspects arrested Thursday during an FBI raid of the Masjid As-Salam mosque in Albany. Here is the text of that story.
Mohammed Hossain's journey to owning Little Italy pizzeria began in an unlikely place: Bangladesh.
Hossain and his wife, Mossamat, emigrated with their 1-year-old son, Abuhamza, from Bangladesh in 1985 in search of opportunity to lift themselves out of grinding poverty.
Their native tongue is Bengali and they arrived in this country knowing little English. Hossain worked as a dishwasher in diners, where he learned Greek and English. He gradually moved up to a position in the kitchen, with throwing pizzas being part of his repertoire. Nine years of saving allowed the family to rent a small storefront and open a pizzeria he called Little Italy in 1994. Adapting the menu to the neighborhood, they added fried chicken, hamburgers, beef patties, gyros and sweet potato pie. They eventually bought the building and moved into an apartment above the pizzeria with their five children.
When the kids -- who attend Annur Islamic School in Schenectady -- aren't using booths in the pizzeria as study tables, they do small jobs for their parents.
Except for a brief post-Sept. 11 backlash, business has grown steadily, and the couple has bought at public auction and fixed up income properties off Central Avenue.
''I'm proud to be an American,'' Hossain says. ''When I was in high school in Bangladesh, I looked at a map of America and I dreamed of coming to this great land. Since I've been here, opportunity has kissed my feet. Hard work has done the rest.''
Hossain has one regret he hopes to rectify soon.
''I'd like to sell the pizza shop and the houses and let my wife go back to college to get her Ph.D.,'' he says. She arrived in this country with a graduate degree in sociology but couldn't find work in that field, he explains.
''I feel guilty every day of my life,'' Hossain says. ''She has a master's degree and she works all day in a pizza shop. She should be out helping someone. Or teaching. I want to give her the chance to continue her education.''
I use extra starch on my laundered money. Makes the bills nice a stiff like ATM money.
There will be more.
That was my point. This wasn't the first and it won't be the last.
Many more!
Holy cow.
That place is literally two blocks from the neighborhood in Albany where I used to live (Washington Square).
I used to walk by that place all the time. Its on Central Avenue. I used to kinda get the willies every time I walked by it. Its pretty much an empty room where I assume Muslim men gather to do their 5 times a day prayer rituals.
I believe the store next door (with the yellow sign) is an Arab grocery store, which I think is connected with the mosque next door. The 'mosque' is literally an empty store in a commercial district, with apartments above it.
Wow thats very informative. Thanks for the video link.
Whenever I point this out to people who've never studied the language (I minored in Arabic in college about thirty years ago and have forgotten most of whatever I knew - but this little factoid stuck in my mind) I feel a lot like the guy at the end of the Twilight Zone episode shouting "It's a cook book!".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.