AQIY’s webmaster? Update: Arrested in UAE
I certainly hope so. Their magazine is so lame anyway. All the other internet is censored, why not al Qaeda? Updates below.
Newsweek: Brooklyn ‘Computer Wiz’ Accused of Conspiring With Al Qaeda Affiliate in Yemen, Mark Hosenball
A New York-born man described by a law-enforcement official as a computer expert is at the center of the latest investigation into Americans who have tried and, in some but not all cases, succeeded in hooking up with Al Qaeda elements based overseas. Wesam el-Hanafi, a 34-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y., native, is one of two men indicted by Federal authorities in Manhattan on Friday on charges of conspiring to provide material support, including computer expertise, to Al Qaeda—more specifically to Yemen-based elements of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a spinoff of the now Pakistan-based terror network founded by Osama bin Laden.
A law-enforcement official familiar with the investigation, who asked for anonymity when discussing an ongoing case, says investigators viewed el-Hanafi as a “computer wiz” who connected with two significant, but as yet unidentified Al Qaeda operatives during a trip to Yemen in February 2008. The feds say that on that trip, el-Hanafi swore allegiance to Al Qaeda. Subsequently, according to the law enforcement official, he essentially became an I.T. consultant for the terror group, traveling back and forth multiple times between Yemen and Brooklyn and buying computer software and materials for Al Qaeda. Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement that el-Hanafi and a co-defendant, Sabirhan Hasanoff, “conspired to modernize al Qaeda by providing computer systems expertise and other goods and services.” Among the goods that the indictment also says el-Hanafi purchased online as part of the conspiracy are seven Casio digital watches. The indictment doesn’t say why he allegedly bought the watches, but U.S. investigators have said in the past that Al Qaeda has used Casio watches in bombs.
Much of the rest of the information released by the feds about the case, including the indictment, is sketchy, particularly regarding how investigators got onto the case. The indictment says the conspiracy began in November 2007, when Hasanoff, a 34-year-old dual Australian and American citizen who also lived in Britain, received $50,000 from a person identified only as unindicted co-conspirator number one (“CC-1″). Over the next 18 months, the indictment alleges that el-Hanafi and Hasanoff had numerous contacts with CC-1, asking the alleged co-conspirator, among other things, to pledge allegiance to Al Qaeda, to perform unspecified tasks for Al Qaeda, and to keep his or her passport clean of stamps because it would be more useful to Al Qaeda. Included in the press release on the case was a statement by New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly describing the indictment as “the result of the hard work and professionalism of the Federal prosecutors, FBI agents, and the NYPD detectives involved.” This sparked some speculation that CC-1 might be an undercover source or operative who originated with the New York cops, though an NYPD spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CBS News reported that el-Hanafi and Hasanoff appeared on Friday in federal court in Virginia and waived their right to a hearing there, facilitating their transfer to federal authorities in New York. The circumstances in which they were taken into custody also remain unclear: a person familiar with the case says that they only arrived in the U.S. from overseas on Friday; details of where they came from and how and why they arrived back stateside were not immediately available.
Daily News
Two dapper Brooklyn professionals were accused yesterday of being homegrown terrorist agents who pledged allegiance – and technical help – to Al Qaeda.
One is a computer engineer, the other an accountant. They sported French cuffs and polished shoes when they were hauled from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to the U.S. to face charges yesterday.
They have degrees from Baruch, impressive résumés, wives and children – and neighbors who never suspected a thing.
“There are people among us who are plotting with Al Qaeda,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said as charges were announced in Manhattan after a joint NYPD-FBI probe.
A federal indictment charged Wesam (Khaled) El-Hanafi, 33, and Sabirhan (Tareq) Hasanoff, 34, with trying to modernize an Al Qaeda cell in Yemen.
The vaguely worded court papers raise as many questions as they answer, but sources said the two were to act as technical attachés for Al Qaeda.
“They wanted to bring Al Qaeda into the 21st century, to give them the most up-to-date technology,” said a source briefed on the arrests.
Among their duties: buying seven digital Casio watches to be shipped overseas. The indictment doesn’t say why, but the timepieces have been used to make bombs.
“They were high-tech guys, and would have wanted more high-tech solutions, but were told to buy Casio because they worked the best – nothing fancier,” a law enforcement source said.
The papers suggest they collected passports for their cohorts, bought encryption software for secret Internet communication and took a $50,000 payoff from an unnamed co-conspirator.
Each is charged with one count of conspiring to provide material support to Al Qaeda.
Because they were extradited from Dubai – where both spent time – they were arraigned in federal court in Virginia, looking more like business travelers than jihadists. They will be brought to Manhattan next week.
El-Hanafi is a computer engineer. Born in Brooklyn, he went to Public School 200, Lafayette High School and Baruch, where he played on the basketball team.
He later worked for Lehman Bros. and was the pride of his Egyptian-born family, neighbors said.
“I know my husband and he’s a good man. He’s a perfect man,” El-Hanafi’s wife said at their Bath Beach home. “My husband is innocent. I’m positive he’s innocent. We’re stepping up for him.”
Hasanoff was born in Australia but raised in Brooklyn and Queens. He attended Abraham Lincoln High School and Baruch, where he headed the Alpha Gamma fraternity, sources said.
After graduation, he went to work for PricewaterhouseCoopers as an accountant, neighbors said. He’s married to an Afghan woman and they have two children. He owns a building in Queens, neighbors said.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/05/01/2010-05-01_two_brooklynites_accused_of_plotting_to_aid_al_qaeda_by_modernizing_a_cell_in_ye.html#ixzz0mgXTclr2
The brother in the UK, a computer security student, will apologize to Tortlett. Al Masiri affirms that the entire cell was rolled up.
Telegraph has more: Instead they believe the bomber, 22-year-old Ali as-Selwi, had been radicalised at a training camp run by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a relatively new Islamist terror group that has been established with the help of former Guantánamo Bay detainees.
Previously Western intelligence experts have been sceptical about the links between AQAP and al-Awlaki, 38, a radical Muslim cleric who was born in New Mexico and spent years as an imam in the US before moving to Yemen.
