by Matt Apuzzo
14. Modified Handschu Guidelines, second revised order and judgment, August 6, 2003, 288 F. Supp. 2d 411.
15. Ibid.
16. These figures come from NYPD documents from the time, including minutes from Handschu meetings and requests for approval to open terrorism enterprise investigations.
17. TIU Watch List, NYPD document, 2004. Obtained by authors.
18. Fred Burton and Scott Stewart, “Tablighi Jamaat: An Indirect Line to Terrorism,” Strafor Global Intelligence, January 23, 2008, www.stratfor.com/weekly/tablighi_jamaat_indirect_line_terrorism.
19. Handschu Committee Minutes, May 12, 2009. Obtained by authors.
20. Andy Newman with Daryl Khan, “Brooklyn Mosque Becomes Terror Icon, but Federal Case Is Unclear,” New York Times, March 9, 2003, www.nytimes.com/2003/03/09/nyregion/brooklyn-mosque-becomes-terror-icon-but-federal-case-is-unclear.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm.
21. Michelle Goldberg, “My Arab Street,” Salon, March 7, 2003, www.salon.com/2003/03/07/al_farooq.
22. Len Levitt, “Intel at Inception,” The Blog, Huffington Post, December 10, 2012, www.huffingtonpost.com/len-levitt/intel-at-inception_b_2271152.html.
23. United States v. Al-Moayad, United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, 03-1322, government exhibits Bates stamped 3500 MA-1 and 3500 MA-4.
24. Ibid.
25. TIU Watch List, NYPD document, 2004. Obtained by authors.
26. The meeting and the request to bug the mosque were described in interviews with former law enforcement officials.
27. Interview with former law enforcement official.
28. William Glaberson, “Focus Changes in Terror Case Against Sheik,” New York Times, January 20, 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005/01/20/nyregion/20sheik.html?pagewanted=print&position=&_r=0.
29. Opinion of US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, decided October 2, 2008, United States v. Al-Moyad, 05-4186.
30. Deputy Commissioner’s Briefing, March 9, 2009. “New Imam @ Al Farooq.” Obtained by authors.
31. Interview with Shamiur Rahman. The authors also reviewed Rahman’s cell phone photos sent to the NYPD.
32. Interviews with former law enforcement official.
33. Counterterrorism Intelligence Package, 2004. NYPD document obtained by authors.
34. Interview with former law enforcement officials involved in or briefed on the taping.
35. NYPD Intelligence Division, Central Analysis Research Unit, N.Y.P.D. Secret Intelligence Note: NYC Mosque Statements on Danish Cartoon Controversy, February 9, 2006, http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/documents/nypd/nypd_cartoons.pdf.
36. Goldman and Apuzzo, “With Cameras,” www.ap.org/Content/AP-In-The-News/2012/Newark-mayor-seeks-probe-of-NYPD-Muslim-spying.
37. Ibid.
38. Ibid.
39. NYPD Intelligence Division, Intelligence Analysis Unit, N.Y.P.D. Secret Intelligence Note: DD5S Referencing 10/11/06 Plane Crash into Building at 524 72nd Street, October 16, 2006, http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/documents/nypd/nypd_planecrash.pdf.
40. Eileen Sullivan, “NYPD Spied on City’s Muslim Anti-Terror Partners,” Associated Press, October 6, 2011, www.ap.org/Content/AP-in-the-News/2011/NYPD-spied-on-citys-Muslim-anti-terror-partners.
41. Andrea Elliott, “A Muslim Leader in Brooklyn, Reconciling 2 Worlds,” New York Times, March 5, 2006, www.nytimes.com/2006/03/05/nyregion/05imam.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ei=5088&en=b4ea067a0c307d39&ex=1299214800&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss.
42. Ibid.
43. Sullivan, “NYPD Spied,” www.ap.org/Content/AP-in-the-News/2011/NYPD-spied-on-citys-Muslim-anti-terror-partners.
44. Elliott, “A Muslim Leader,” www.nytimes.com/2006/03/05/nyregion/05imam.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ei=5088&en=b4ea067a0c307d39&ex=1299214800&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss.
45. William K. Rashbaum, “Trial Opens Window on Shadowing of Muslims,” New York Times, May 28, 2006, www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/nyregion/28tactics.html?pagewanted=all.
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid.
48. William K. Rashbaum, “Detective Was ‘Walking Camera’ Among City Muslims, He Testifies,” New York Times, May 19, 2006, www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/nyregion/19herald.html?pagewanted=all.
49. Andrea Elliott, “To Lead the Faithful in a Faith Under Fire,” New York Times, March 6, 2006, www.nytimes.com/2006/03/06/nyregion/06imam.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.
50. NYPD Intelligence Division, Strategic Intelligence Unit, Briefing Report, Buffalo, New York, January 2, 2009, http://nypdconfidential.com/columns/2012/120227.pdf.
51. Ibid.
52. Sullivan, “NYPD Spied,” www.ap.org/Content/AP-in-the-News/2011/NYPD-spied-on-citys-Muslim-anti-terror-partners.
53. “Abu Hamza Jailed for Seven Years,” BBC News, February 7, 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4690224.stm.
54. NYPD Surveillance Request, November 7, 2008. Document obtained by authors.
55. NYPD Surveillance Request, November 7, 2008. Document obtained by authors.
56. Deputy Commissioner’s Briefing, October 24, 2008. Document obtained by authors.
57. Deputy Commissioner’s Briefing, May 12, 2008. Document obtained by authors.
58. Ibid.
59. Modified Handschu Guidelines, second revised order and judgment, August 6, 2003.
60. Deputy Commissioner’s Briefing, October 24, 2008. Document obtained by authors.
61. The authors reviewed Rahman’s text message history with Hoban.
62. Goldman and Apuzzo, “Informant: NYPD Paid Me,” http://bigstory.ap.org/article/informant-nypd-paid-me-bait-muslims.
Nine: The American Who Brings Good News
1. Office of the Inspector General, report 02-38, A Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Counterterrorism Program: Threat Assessment, Strategic Planning, and Resource Management (Washington, DC: Office of the Inspector General, September 2002), http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/FBI/a0238.htm.
2. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, Law Enforcement, Counterterrorism, and Intelligence Collection in the United States, Prior to 9/11, Staff Statement 9, p. 6. http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/staff_statements/staff_statement_9.pdf.
3. Interviews with Davis and Olson.
4. Interview with current and former law enforcement officials.
5. David Kris and J. Douglas Wilson. National Security Investigations and Prosecutions. 2007 Thomson/West. Cited at §19:5.
6. Ashlee Vance and Brad Stone, “Palantir, the War on Terror’s Secret Weapon,” Bloomberg Businessweek, November 22, 2011, www.businessweek.com/magazine/palantir-the-vanguard-of-cyberterror-security-11222011.html.
7. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, Oversight and Review Division, A Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Use of Exigent Letters and Other Informal Requests for Telephone Records,” January 2010, p. 46, www.justice.gov/oig/reports/FBI/a0238.htm.
8. Interview with former senior CIA official.
9. American Al Qaeda: The Story of Bryant Neal Vinas, CNN, May 15, 2010, http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/bryant.neal.vinas/.
10. Vinas testimony, United States v. Medunjanin, United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, 10-cr-00019.
11. American Al Qaeda.
12. “U.S. Muslims Desecrate American Flag: Video Shows Group on Street Corner Declaring Islamic Dominance,” WorldNetDaily, June 8, 2005, www.wnd.com/2005/06/30701.
13. “Islamic Thinkers Society Calls for Genocide and Jihad on 34th Street,” Militant Islam Monitor.org, April 25, 2006, www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/1867.
14. American Al Qaeda.
15. NYPD Intelligence file entitled “Mahmoud Al-Ayyoub,” Undated. Obtained by authors.
16. American Al Qaeda.
17. Ibid.
18. Ray Kelly, “Defying the Inevitable,” New York Post, September 11, 2007.
19. Robert Windrem, Richard Engel, and Sam Singal, “A New Breed of ‘NYPD Blue’: Six Years After 9/11,
NYC Sets ‘Gold Standard’ in Counter-Terror Efforts,” NBC News.com, September 11, 2007, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20730904/ns/nbcnightlynews/t/new-breed-nypd-blue/#.UJ8uouOe8wg.
20. The authors reviewed a March 2009 document in which Vinas recounted for FBI and Belgian authorities his al-Qaeda training.
21. “NYPD Transformed Since 9/11 Attacks,” New York Daily News, September 10, 2008, http://articles.nydailynews.com/2008-09-09/news/17905319_1_police-commissioner-raymond-kelly-share-intelligence-al-Qaeda.
22. Deputy Commissioner’s Briefing, April 15, 2008. Obtained by authors.
23. NYPD Intelligence document entitled “Memorandum for the Record,” April 18, 2008. Obtained by authors.
24. Ibid.
25. “Documents Captured by the United States Army in an Al-Qaeda Safe House in Pakistan Expose the Ambivalent Relations Between Al-Qaeda and Iran . . .” Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, June 14, 2002, www.terrorism-info.org.il/Data/articles/Art_20348/E_109_12_196531746.pdf.
26. Interview with former senior CIA official.
27. Vinas testimony in Medunjanin trial, United States v. Medunjanin, United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, 10-cr-00019.
28. American Al Qaeda.
Ten: In the Wind
1. Accounts of the blowup between Shea and Ciorra were described in interviews with officials who witnessed it.
2. The Iranian Mission operation was described in Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo, “Consequences for Security as NYPD-FBI Rift Widens,” Associated Press, March 20, 2012, www.ap.org/Content/AP-In-The-News/2012/Consequences-for-security-as-NYPD-FBI-rift-widens. The consideration of charges against NYPD officials was described in interviews with former FBI, CIA, and Justice Department officials.
Eleven: Flight
1. Interviews with Davis and other law enforcement officials.
2. The bugging operation was described in interviews with Garcia, Olson, and Casey.
3. Details of the interview were memorialized in an FBI document known as a 302. It was obtained by the authors.
4. Details of the interview were taken from Azad’s testimony in Medunjanin’s trial, United States v. Medunjanin, United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, 10-cr-00019; and the FBI’s September 14, 2009, interview report obtained by authors.
5. United States v. Medunjanin, trial transcript, p. 191.
6. Karen Zraick, “A Man Under Watch, but Not Under Wraps, in a Terrorism Case,” New York Times, October 8, 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/nyregion/09surveil.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.
7. The conversation and other details about the Ohio operation were described in interviews with Figliuzzi and other current and former law enforcement officials.
Twelve: People Die to Come Here
1. Garrett Graff, “Homegrown Terror: Najibullah Zazi and Colorado’s Terrorist Ties,” 5280 (magazine), November 2011, www.5280.com/magazine/2011/11/homegrown-terror.
2. Ibid. Folsom is now deceased. His recollection of this first meeting is based on Graff’s article.
3. United States v. Mohammed Wali Zazi, United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, 10-CR-60, transcript, p. 648.
4. Naqib Jaji testimony, ibid.
5. Amanullah Zazi testimony, ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Meg Jones, “Oshkosh Native, FBI Agent Recalls Meeting Terrorist,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 25, 2012, www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/terror-within-inches-ac55b80-148988495.html.
8. John Frank, “History Supports McCain’s Stance on Waterboarding,” PolitiFact, December 18, 2007, http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2007/dec/18/john-mccain/history-supports-mccains-stance-on-waterboarding.
9. ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen “High Value Detainees” in CIA Custody (International Committee of the Red Cross, February 2007), http://assets.nybooks.com/media/doc/2010/04/22/icrc-report.pdf.
10. George Tenet, At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), p. 278.
11. Interviews with Davis and Olson.
12. Interview with Olson.
13. Graff, “Homegrown Terror,” www.5280.com/magazine/2011/11/homegrown-terror.
14. Mark A. Godsey, “Reformulating the Miranda Warnings in Light of Contemporary Law and Understandings,” Minnesota Law Review 90, no. 4 (2005–06): 781.
15. Graff, “Homegrown Terror,” www.5280.com/magazine/2011/11/homegrown-terror.
16. Zazi testimony in United States v. Medunjanin, p. 704 (“I knew beforehand, sir, that I’m screwed, and I was just trying to go and pretend that anything would happen, just blame me for it”).
17. Medunjanin 302, transcription date September 18, 2009. Obtained by authors.
18. Greg Miller, “How Many Security Clearances Have Been Issued? Nearly Enough for Everyone in the Washington Area,” Washington Post, September 20, 2011, www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/how-many-security-clearances-has-the-government-issued-nearly-enough-for-everyone-in-the-washington-area/2011/09/20/gIQAMW3OiK_blog.html.
19. All quotes and details from the phone call are described in Graff’s article in 5280.
20. A tape of Medunjanin’s 911 call was released at his trial.
21. Mosi Secret, “Prison for Father Who Lied About Terror Plot,” New York Times, February 10, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/11/nyregion/mohammed-wali-zazi-sentenced-for-lying-about-subway-bomb-plot.html.
Epilogue
1. Mitchell D. Silber, “How the NYPD Foiled a Plot to Bomb the Subways,” Wall Street Journal, May 4, 2012, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304743704577380403870893454.html.
2. Ibid.
3. Justin Elliott, “Fact-Check: How the NYPD Overstated Its Terrorism Record,” ProPublica, July 10, 2012, www.propublica.org/article/fact-check-how-the-nypd-overstated-its-counterterrorism-record.
4. James Freeman, “The Political War on the NYPD,” Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2013, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323501004578388311774675612.html.
5. Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman, “NYPD Messages to Muslim Informant: ‘Get Pictures,’ ” the Associated Press, May 20, 2012.
6. http://www.law.cuny.edu/academics/clinics/immigration/clear/Mapping-Muslims.pdf.
7. Though the CIA maintains that Hamilton’s name is classified, the authors were told this by several NYPD officials, including some who do not have security clearances. He worked in an unclassified office and identified himself to colleagues as a CIA officer. Asked about Hamilton’s job in 2011, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said, “It sounds right that he’s a special assistant to Cohen on loan from the CIA.” He subsequently emailed to clarify that nobody by that name worked for the NYPD.
INDEX
Abdelaziz, Ali, 153–54
Abu Bakr (Flushing mosque), 89, 94–95, 98, 99, 101, 102, 103, 104, 116, 174, 175, 176, 200, 233, 235
Abu Ghraib prison photographs, 102
Afghanistan: CIA plan to capture bin Laden in, 38
civil war in, 96–97
Lindh case and, 182
migration of people to U.S. from, 91–92
mujahideen in, 93, 95, 99, 101
Northern Alliance in, 96, 99
post-Soviet, 95–96
Soviet invasion of, 93–94, 95
as staging ground for bin Laden and al-Qaeda, 98–99
Taliban in, 96–97, 99, 101, 103–4, 218
U.S. invasion of, 13, 99–100, 101–2, 108, 212
Zazi-Ahmedzay-Medunjanin trip to, 9, 16, 89, 103–18, 204, 246, 247, 268–69
Afzali, Ahmad Wais: Ahmedzay and, 244
arrest of, 272
“Consent to Search” home of, 245
as “cooperative,” 175
deportation of, 275
guilty plea of, 275
JTTF questioning of, 243–45
Medunjanin and, 232, 244, 246
and NYPD Intel-JTTF relationship, 228–29, 270
and
NYPD Intel Zazi investigation, 174–75
raid on home of, 243
Sirakovsky relationship with, 174–76
Zazi family telephone calls to and from, 225–27, 228, 229, 231–32, 236, 245, 266, 282
Ahmad (Pakistani), 106–7, 110, 114, 116
Ahmad, Rauf, 260–61
Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, 23–24
Ahmedzay, Zarein: Afghanistan/Pakistan trip of, 9, 16, 89, 103–18, 204, 246, 268–69
Afzali and, 244
Afzali-Zazi telephone call and, 227
al-Qaeda interest of, 102
arrest of, 274
cover story for, 103, 104–5
and Denver police questioning of Zazi family, 226
disposal of bomb ingredients by, 199–200, 233
family of, 114, 116
FBI early interest in, 16
fears of, 199–200
financing of activities of, 103–4
FISAs for, 207
guilty plea and sentencing of, 274, 275
JTTF interview with, 268–69
JTTF investigation/surveillance of, 175–77, 209
lack of information about, 89, 221
legal case against, 236, 262, 267
martyrdom video of, 118
Medunjanin influence on, 100
NYPD Intel investigation of, 174, 176
Pakistani police and, 106
personal background of, 91–92, 98, 101
raid on home of, 243, 247, 248
suicide bombing and, 102, 109–10, 114
as Taliban supporter, 102
as taxi driver, 100
telephone records of, 205
and U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, 101–2
Zazi arrest and, 271
Zazi Bear Mountain State Park trip with, 118
Zazi confession and, 268
Zazi cross-country trip and, 59, 119
Zazi-FBI interview and, 269–71
Zazi first meets, 98
Zazi-Medunjanin pact with, 103–4
Al-Aman mosque (Middletown, New Jersey), 193
Al-Ansar Center (Brooklyn), 193–95
Al-Falah mosque (Queens), 182, 197, 211, 213
Al-Farooq (mosque), 184–85, 186, 197
Al-Ikhwa (Brooklyn mosque), 137, 185