Thread: After Bombings, Few Signs of Similar Attacks in U.S.

www.nytimes.com

August 1, 2005
After Bombings, Few Signs of Similar Attacks in U.S.
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and ERIC LIPTON

WASHINGTON, July 31 - Scouring leads from Queens to Oregon, federal investigators have found little hard evidence to suggest that anyone in the United States was involved in the recent spate of terrorist attacks overseas or that any follow-on attacks against American targets are being planned, officials said.

The officials, who spoke anonymously because they were not allowed to comment about investigations that are under way, said there had been an expansion of the surveillance of extremists and a redoubling of efforts to interview people in custody and show them photographs of plotters in the attacks.

"There's obviously been stepped-up activity," a Justice Department official said. "We've been shaking the trees since Sept. 11, but when you have something like we've seen the last couple of weeks in London, you have to shake the trees a little harder."

At the Homeland Security Department, investigators checked immigration records to see if any of the suspects had traveled to the United States, officials said. The department has also been looking over reports from around the country on suspicious individuals crossing the border or any sightings of people in off-limits areas around transit systems or other potential targets.

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents have pursued leads regarding possible connections to suspected extremists and Qaeda sympathizers in Oregon, Virginia, New York and other locations, officials said.

Law enforcement officials compared the intensified effort to the F.B.I.'s response to the Madrid train bombings last year.

But the Madrid bombings also provided a cautionary tale when Brandon Mayfield, a Muslim lawyer in Portland, Ore., was mistakenly arrested after his fingerprint was erroneously linked to the bombings. Law enforcement officials said they were mindful in the London investigation of the need to establish clear links before moving against suspects in the United States.

Although some of the American connections have proved intriguing - in Queens, a man convicted of supporting Al Qaeda, Mohammed Junaid Babar, said he recognized a photo of a London plotter - no clear evidence has emerged to suggest a link to American plotters or plans for an attack here, officials said.

Nevertheless, American law enforcement and intelligence officials said they remained deeply concerned about the prospect of an attack on American soil.

Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, said last week that the attacks in London and Egypt should remind all Americans to be vigilant and prepare for the worst.

American officials said that once they have a better sense of who was behind the London attacks - and whether the plotters were directly linked to Al Qaeda - they will be in a better position to conclude whether the events overseas signaled an increased threat.

"We're not totally sure what we're dealing with yet," a senior Justice Department official said. "But if the dots aren't there, they just aren't there, and there may be only so much of a trail to follow."

The Homeland Security Department has said since the July 7 bombing that it "does not have any specific credible information indicating that Al Qaeda or any other terrorist organizations are plotting a similar attack on the transit systems here in the United States," said Brian Roehrkasse, a department spokesman.

In New York City, as officials have begun searching bags on mass transit systems and have contacted regional suppliers of chemicals like those used to make the London bombs, local authorities emphasized that there was no information about an active threat.

Mr. Babar, a Pakistani-American who pleaded guilty in June 2004 to providing material support to Al Qaeda, has attracted perhaps the most intense interest.

Last year, he admitted that he had helped set up a training camp in Afghanistan and that "some of the people who attended the jihad training camp had ideas about, you know, plotting against some targets in the United Kingdom," according to a court transcript.

British authorities last year discovered plots to bomb pubs and train stations in Great Britain, arresting eight Britons of Pakistani origin and seizing 1,300 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which can be used to make explosives.

Mr. Babar has now told investigators that he recognized a picture of Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, one of the bombers killed in the July 7 attacks. But Mr. Babar has been in jail in the United States for more than a year, making it unlikely that he would have had any advance knowledge of the most recent attacks.

Germaine Lindsay, a British resident born in Jamaica who was another of the four bombers in the July 7 attacks, had relatives living in the United States, including his grandfather, Austin McLeod, who lives in the Boston area.

Investigators interrogated Mr. McLeod and others who may have come into contact with Mr. Lindsay. "I have seen him one time in my life," Mr. McLeod said last week. "I have never seen him again."

Investigators also have been examining the ties to the United States of a 31-year-old British man, Haroon Rashid Aswat, who was wanted for questioning in connection with the London bombings. Investigators believe that Mr. Aswat has met Osama bin Laden and trained at camps run by Al Qaeda.

Mr. Aswat is also suspected of having been involved with a Seattle man, James Ujaama, in trying in late 1999 and early 2000 to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Ore. He was recently found in Zambia and is now in custody, American officials said.

Federal investigators have also tried to determine if there are any connections between the London bombings and defendants in the so-called Virginia jihad case, in which prosecutors said a group of young men had trained to provide assistance to anti-American militants overseas.

The Virginia men had ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group in Pakistan that European investigators suspect may have been involved in planning the London attacks.

But Joseph Price, a lawyer for Randall T. Royer, one of the defendants in the Virginia case, said he did not believe the F.B.I. had contacted Mr. Royer about possible leads. "I would think that there would be absolutely no connection," Mr. Price said.

Oh but they forget about the what is happening in our country. I think they think that terrorism, must have several hundred killed or wounded. They are not considering the everyday thing like what MS-13 Gang does on a daily bases. If you start looking at the crime rates. In my opinion. I look at like the little 9 year old girl that was raped here in Cincinnati a few weeks ago. I classify that tourism. I look at illegal taking our taxes for there benefits as economical terrorism. I look at what my own congressman will admit too. That 25 percent of our jails are now holding, illegal aliens that have committed, rapes, murders, armed robberies, as terrorism