Thread: IL-2nd man tied to terror plot,Islamic meat plant raid

2nd Chicago man tied to terror plot
Man taken into custody at O'Hare was allegedly to meet with people linked to terrorist organizations

Pakistan By Hal Dardick and Jeff Coen



October 27, 2009


The FBI this month arrested a second Chicago man allegedly involved in an international terrorist plot with Western European targets, the Tribune has learned.

The man was taken into custody Oct. 3 before he boarded a flight at O'Hare International Airport to Philadelphia, the first stop on a trip to Pakistan, where he planned to meet people with known ties to terrorist organizations that have carried out fatal attacks that resulted in the deaths of U.S. citizens, a source said. He has not been charged.

After that arrest, dozens of FBI agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Oct. 18 raided a Grundy County meat-processing plant that specializes in Islamic foods.

The owner of the plant, Tahawar Hussain Rana, also of Chicago, was arrested at his North Side home the same day as the raid on First World Management Services in Kinsman, northwest of Dwight. Agents seized records from the plant, as well as a related North Side business also raided the same day, said the source, who is familiar with the investigation.

Rana financially supported the man involved in the terrorist plot, as well as the man's family, the source said. The man was on Rana's payroll but did little if any legitimate work, the source said.

U.S. Bureau of Prisons records show that Rana is incarcerated in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a federal jail in downtown Chicago. There are no public court records indicating he has been charged with criminal wrongdoing.

The FBI confirmed the raid at the Kinsman plant but little else at the time, while the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago has declined to comment.

No one answered the door Monday at the Rana residence in the 6000 block of North Campbell Avenue, a street made up mostly of bungalows. Neighbors said the family was quiet and kept to itself. One man living nearby who asked not to be identified said he had not seen the family since FBI vehicles showed up at the home on the day of the raid.

hdardick@tribune.com

jcoen@tribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi- ... 5535.story

Related :

http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-967161-.html#967161

2 Chicago men accused of plotting terrorist attacks outside US, including at Danish newspaper


10:04 a.m. CDT, October 27, 2009


CHICAGO (AP) — Prosecutors say two Chicago men planned terrorist attacks against overseas targets, including at a Danish newspaper that published cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed.

Prosecutors say David Coleman Headley traveled to Denmark to identify potential targets for a terrorist attack and that Tahawwur Hussain Rana helped arrange Headley's travel.

Headley and Rana were charged in separate criminal complaints filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

Headley is charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts involving murder and maiming outside the United States. He and Rana are both charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorism conspiracy.

The 2005 Jylands-Posten newspaper cartoons caused outrage throughout the Muslim world.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/sns ... 7376.story

2 Chicago men accused of plotting terrorist acts
October 27, 2009 9:42 AM

Terrorism-related charges were filed against two Chicago men today, accusing them of plotting against targets in Western Europe, including "facilities and employees" of a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that sparked riots in the Muslim world.

Charged are David Coleman Headley, 49, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48.

Headley was described as an American citizen who changed his name from Daood Gilani. He was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts involving murder and maiming outside the U.S. and one count of conspiracy to provide material support to the conspiracy, according to a release from the U.S. attorney's office.

Rana, a native of Canada, was charged with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign conspiracy involving Headley and three other individuals.

Both men remain in federal custody, officials said.

The Tribune reported in its Tuesday editions that the FBI had arrested a Chicago man -- identified today as Headley -- earlier this month for allegedly being involved in an international terrorist plot with Western European targets.

Headley was taken into custody Oct. 3 before he boarded a flight at O'Hare International Airport to Philadelphia, the first stop on a trip to Pakistan. He planned to meet people with known ties to terrorist organizations that have carried out attacks that have killed U.S. citizens, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

Among the alleged targets in the case were Danish newspapers.

After that arrest, dozens of FBI agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Oct. 18 raided a Grundy County meat-processing plant that specializes in Islamic foods.

Rana, the owner of the plant, was arrested at his North Side home the same day as the raid on the First World Management Services plant in Kinsman, a farming town northwest of Dwight.

Agents seized records from the plant, as well as a related North Side business also raided that day, said the source, who is familiar with the investigation.

Rana financially supported the man involved in the terrorist plot as well as the man's family, the source said.

-- Jeff Coen

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009 ... -acts.html

2 Chicago Men Charged in Terror Plot Over Muhammad Cartoons
Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Two Chicago men are charged with planning terrorist acts against overseas targets, including a Danish newspaper that sparked riots in the Muslim world when it published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, prosecutors said Tuesday.

David Coleman Headley, 49, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, were charged in separate complaints filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Headley told FBI agents that the initial plan called for an attack against the newspaper building in Copenhagen, but he later proposed just killing the paper's cartoonist and former cultural editor, according to an FBI affidavit released Tuesday.

The charges were unsealed nine days after the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force conducted a massive raid on an Islamic butcher shop in the tiny rural town of Kinsman, Ill., that left residents stunned. The halal butcher is one of a few businesses owned by Rana.

Prosecutors say Headley traveled to Denmark twice this year to identify potential targets for a terrorist attack, and that Rana helped arrange Headley's travel, concealing the true nature of his trips.

Headley, who changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006, is charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts involving murder and maiming outside the United States, and could face life in prison if convicted.

He and Rana are both charged with plotting to provide material support to a foreign terrorism conspiracy, a charge that could net Rana 15 years in prison. Headley is a U.S. citizen; Rana is a native of Pakistan and a citizen of Canada, though he resides primarily in Chicago.

Headley was arrested Oct. 3 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on his way to Pakistan — where federal officials charge he was planning to meet with representatives of the Pakistan-based terrorist groups Lakshar-e-Taiba and Harakat ul-Jihad Islami (HUJI), a group tied to Al Qaeda.

He told FBI agents following his arrest that he received training from Lakshar-e-Taiba while in Pakistan and had worked with Ilyas Kashmiri, a local chief of HUJI.

On Oct. 18, two weeks after Headley's arrest, the Joint Terrorism Task Force searched four locations in Illinois and arrested Rana at his home in Chicago. The JTTF also searched Headley's home and Rana's immigration business in Chicago, as well as the halal butcher operation Rana owns in Kinsman.

Prosecutors charge that Headley has "corresponded extensively" in coded communications with Pakistani terrorists regarding what he called the "Mickey Mouse Project" — planned attacks on the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, and its employees.

The Danish Security and Intelligence Service, or PET, said it and the FBI worked together to thwart the plot and that an attack was not imminent.

"PET and the FBI assess that the arrests and the uncovering of the terrorist plans have reduced the risk of an attack. PET and the American authorities however are continuing their intensive investigation in order to mitigate this threat," said agency head Jakob Scharf.

Headley's attorney, John Theis, said he had no comment. Rana's attorney, Patrick Blegen, said that his client "is a well respected businessman in the Chicagoland community."

"He adamantly denies the charges and eagerly awaits his opportunity to contest them in court and to clear his and his family's name," Blegen said. "We would ask that the community respect the fact that these are merely allegations and not proof."

When federal agents arrested Headley on Oct. 3, they found a memory stick with 10 short videos of sites in Denmark, including the two offices of Jyllands-Posten, the inside and outside of Copenhagen's central train station and a nearby military barracks, according to their affidavit.

Officials charge that Rana purchased plane tickets for Headley's frequent travels around Europe and Pakistan over the past year, helped him engage in e-mail contact to further his plans and employed Headley in what may have been a cover operation, as Headley appears to have done little or no actual work for Rana's immigration business.

E-mails between Headley and a member of Lakshar-e-Taiba show that the terrorist group also asked him to visit India to help plan an attack there, the complaint says. Lakshar-e-Taiba was responsible for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai that killed more than 170 people.

Federal prosecutors said there was no imminent danger in the Chicago area, but the charges underscore the continuing threat of terrorism on U.S. soil and overseas.

"This case is a reminder that the threat posed by international terrorist organizations is global in nature and requires constant vigilance at home and abroad," said David Kris, assistant attorney general for National Security.

The cartoons that prosecutors say inflamed Headley appeared in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in 2005. The 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad triggered widespread protests throughout the Islamic world and threats from extremist groups. Headley wrote online that the images "disposed him toward violence," the complaint alleges.

One cartoon showed Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban. Any depiction of the prophet, even a favorable one, is frowned on by Islamic law as likely to lead to idolatry.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569780,00.html

2009-10-26
Illinois Meat Plant Owner Charged With Financing Terrorists (Updated)

Updates, Oct. 27:
Prosecutors: Chicago man spoke of terror plot‎

Two men arrested in Chicago for planning to attack Jyllands-Posten - Islam in Europe


CHICAGO - With Exclusive Photos (below) - Remember the recent story about the mysterious raid of an Illinois goat meat plant? Sure you do. A UPI headline on October 20 read, "Raid on Illinois slaughterhouse a mystery." Accounts from locals in Kinsman, Illinois say there were about 100 federal agents involved in the raid, with snipers at the ready and men paraded out of the plant at gunpoint.

The Chicago Tribune pontificated, laughably, that the affair had something to do with immigration. Everyone else felt, correctly, that the reaction was too much for a simple immigration issue. Everyone else was right. Indeed, the owner of the plant, a northside Chicago resident named Tahawar Hussain Rana, has been charged with financing terrorists bent on carrying out operations in Europe. Rana is a Pakistani-Canadian residing in Chicago. The Tribune redeems itself with its October 27 article. An excerpt:

The owner of the plant, Tahawar Hussain Rana, also of Chicago, was arrested at his North Side home the same day as the raid on First World Management Services in Kinsman, northwest of Dwight. Agents seized records from the plant, as well as a related North Side business also raided the same day, said the source, who is familiar with the investigation. Full article...

The Morris Daily Herald reports that "After more than a week of declining comment, federal agents shortly before 10 a.m. today, Tuesday [Oct. 27], released the details of terrorism-related charges against two Chicagoans. Both David Coleman Headley, 49, a U.S. citizen who changed his name in 2006 from Daood Gilani, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, also known as Tahawar Rana, are associated with the Kinsman meat packing plant that federal officials raided on Oct. 18. The arrests involve their alleged roles in conspiracies to provide material support and/or commit terrorist acts against overseas targets, including a Danish newspaper [Jyllands-Posten] that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005." [Emphasis added.]

On October 21, Chicago News Bench visited Rana's home in the West Ridge neighborhood (aka "West Rogers Park"), and also the halal grocery store that he owns on Devon Avenue. We did not contact Rana, but a neighbor said he saw "many FBI agents" in the alleys and on the street at 6:00 a.m. on Sunday, October 18. The neighbor said he counted "29 boxes" being carried out of Rana's house by FBI agents. Rana's house, a run-down hovel with a messy yard and too many satellite dishes on its roof, was dark with all curtains drawn when we photographed it at midday. See our exclusive photo slideshow below.

We then visited the grocery store that Rana owns. He was not in, we were told. Catering to this heavily Muslim neighborhood, Rana's "Chicago Grocers" at 2122-24 W. Devon is halal and zahiba (hand cut according to Islamic tradition). The place was filthy, as you can see in our video here.

West Rogers Park is a den of criminal activity, much of the worst of which is Islam related. This is a fair statement: Rana is a Muslim who was, allegedly, funding Islamic terrorists. West Ridge is also the home of the infamous Sunrise Equities scandal, in which hundreds of investors were ripped off by Salman Ibrahim and his cohorts when they fled the country in the middle of the night. Most of those investors were Muslims and trusted Ibrahim's "shariah compliant" firm to help them make money. Investors were left wondering where their life savings had gone. Ibrahim and his Sunrise Equities conspirators are still fugitives.


http://rogersparkbench.blogspot.com/200 ... -with.html