Posted on 06/22/2003 8:21:09 PM PDT by blam
Captured al-Qa'eda man was FBI spy
By David Rennie in Washington
(Filed: 23/06/2003)
The American al-Qa'eda operative unmasked last week as having planned to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge was first detained in March, and has been used by the FBI for months as a double agent, it was reported yesterday.
Iyman Faris
US authorities waited until last week to announce a plea bargain struck with Iyman Faris, a Pakistani-born lorry driver ordered to scout out terror targets, including the New York landmark.
They did not say that Faris, who was also ordered to study ultralight aircraft, and the possibility of derailing a train into a chemical storage facility in Washington, had been under FBI control for months.
Justice Department officials told Time magazine that Faris was secretly detained about two weeks after the dramatic capture on March 1 in Pakistan of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, al-Qa'eda's chief of operations.
Installed in a safe house in Virginia, Faris sent messages to his terrorist commanders by mobile phone and email. "He was sitting in the safe house making calls for us. It was a huge triumph," a senior Bush administration official told Time.
After pleading guilty to offering material support to al-Qa'eda, Faris will be sentenced in August. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
ABC NEWS.go.com: "HIDE IN PLANE SIGHT Family of Possible 727 Pilot 'He Is Not A Terrorist" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Workers at Luanda Airport in Angola watched dumbfounded on May 25 as a Boeing 727 taxied down the runway and took off -- without permission. The plane -- which ABCNEWS has learned was refitted to haul diesel fuel tanks, making it a potential flying bomb -- has not been seen since. The man the U.S. government suspects of piloting the 727 is Benjamin Padilla -- a U.S. citizen from Florida. Padilla, too, has vanished, and his family is worried. "I am concerned that he might have been hijacked," Padilla's brother, Joseph, said in an exclusive interview with ABCNEWS.") (June 18, 2003) (Read More...)
VOA NEWS.com: "U.S., ANGOLA SEEK MISSING BOEING 727 JET" by Alex Belida (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Authorities in Africa and the United States are looking for a Boeing 727 jet missing from Angola since late last month under suspicious circumstances. The Boeing 727 has been missing since it took off under mysterious circumstances from Luanda airport in the southwest African country of Angola more than two weeks ago. U.S. government officials tell VOA it was last heard of requesting landing permission in the Seychelles off the coast of East Africa but never arrived there. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say the aircraft's disappearance looks like a criminal act. But with memories still fresh of the bloody September 11 terrorist plane hijackings in the United States almost two years ago, the officials say they have to remain open to the possibility that terrorism may be involved in the case of the vanishing 727. Authorities in Angola say the plane took off illegally on Sunday, May 25. The country's minister of transportation later indicated the aircraft's disappearance would lead to stepped up security at Luanda airport.") (June 11, 2003) (Read More...)
Maybe he was looking at 150 years.
Maybe he'll "die" shortly after getting to prison.
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