Tag Archives: FBI

U.S. portrays NY bomb suspect as jihadist who praised bin Laden

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) personnel search an address during an investigation into Ahmad Khan Rahami, who was wanted for questioning in an explosion in New York, which authorities believe is linked to the explosive devices found in New Jersey

By Daniel Trotta

NEW YORK, Sept 20 (Reuters) – Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged the Afghan-born man suspected of weekend bombings in New York and New Jersey with 10 counts including use of weapons of mass destruction, portraying him as a jihadist who begged for martyrdom and praised Osama bin Laden.

The suspect, Ahmad Khan Rahami, bought bomb components on eBay, made a video of himself testing out homemade explosives, and kept a journal expressing outrage at the U.S. “slaughter” of mujahideen in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Palestine, federal officials allege.

“Inshallah (God willing), the sounds of bombs will be heard in the streets. Gun shots to your police. Death to your
oppression,” Rahami, who came to the United States at age 7, wrote in a journal he was carrying when arrested.

Rahami was apprehended on Monday in Linden, New Jersey, after a shootout with police that left him with multiple gunshot wounds. He was listed in critical but stable condition on Tuesday, and police had not yet been able to interview him in depth, New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill said.

Federal prosecutors from separate districts in New York and New Jersey charged him with four and six counts respectively.

In addition to leaving the bomb that exploded on Saturday evening in the Manhattan district of Chelsea that wounded 31 people, they allege he planted a pipe bomb on the New Jersey shore that injured no one when it exploded on Saturday morning.

He also is accused of planting another pressure-cooker bomb in Chelsea that failed to explode, and multiple devices at a train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey. One of those exploded as a bomb squad robot attempted to defuse it.

The charging documents and accompanying sworn statements from Federal Bureau of Investigation agents offer the first official explanation of what they believe to be the bomber’s motive.

As the charges were made public, the White House for the first time said it appeared the attacks were an act of
terrorism. Earlier in the investigation, officials had withheld such an assessment until they could discern a motive.

“It does appear this was an act of terrorism,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said during a press briefing in New York City.

At least one victim in the Chelsea blast was knocked unconscious and another hospitalized to remove ball bearings
from her body, metal fragmentation from her ear and wood shards from her neck, the charging documents say.

Surveillance video from the bomb scenes and fingerprints on unexploded devices also point to Rahami, according to the documents.

The three counts of using weapons of mass destruction, one from New York and two from New Jersey, each carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

In addition to the federal charges, New Jersey state prosecutors from Union County have charged Rahami with five
counts of attempted first-degree murder for firing at police officers and two second-degree weapons counts.

JIHADI JOURNAL

Other parts of Rahami’s journal praise “Brother” Osama bin Laden; Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Muslim cleric and leading al Qaeda propagandist who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011; and Nidal Hasan, the U.S. Army psychiatrist who shot dead 13 people and wounded 32 at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009.

“I beg … for shahadat (martyrdom) and inshallah this call will be answered,” he wrote in a passage expressing concern about getting caught.

Video found on a family member’s mobile phone dated two days before the bombings and taken near his home in New Jersey showed him lighting a fuse that igniting incendiary material packed in a partially buried cylinder.

An eBay account linked to Rahami bought a precursor chemical used in explosives, circuit boards and ball bearings that matched the explosives and remnants collected at the crime scenes, the documents said.

Investigators also traced mobile phones used in the bombs to Rahami and said he played jihadist videos from social media.

Earlier on Tuesday Rahami’s father said he had reported concerns about his son being involved with militants to the Federal Bureau of Investigations two years ago.

The FBI acknowledged it had investigated Rahami in 2014, but found no “ties to terrorism” and dropped its inquiry.

His father, Mohammad Rahami, briefly emerged on Tuesday from the family’s restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey, about 20 miles (30 km) west of New York City, telling reporters, “I called the FBI two years ago.”

The FBI said in a statement that it began an assessment of the younger Rahami in 2014 based on comments his father made about his son after “a domestic dispute.”

“The FBI conducted internal database reviews, interagency checks, and multiple interviews, none of which revealed ties to terrorism,” the FBI said.

(Additional reporting by Joseph Ax and Mica Rosenberg in Elizabeth, N.J., Mark Hosenball and Julia Edwards in Washington and Jeffrey Dastine an dChristine Prentice in New York; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Alan Crosby)

FBI detects breaches against two state voter systems

A padlock is displayed at the Alert Logic booth during the 2016 Black Hat cyber-security conference in Las Vegas, Nevada,

By Jim Finkle and Dustin Volz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The FBI is urging U.S. election officials to increase computer security after it uncovered evidence that hackers have targeted two state election databases in recent weeks, according to a confidential advisory.

The warning was in an Aug. 18 flash alert from the FBI’s Cyber Division. Reuters obtained a copy of the document.

Yahoo News first reported the story Monday, citing unnamed law enforcement officials who said they believed foreign hackers caused the intrusions.

U.S. intelligence officials have become increasingly worried that hackers sponsored by Russia or other countries may attempt to disrupt the November presidential election.

Officials and cyber security experts say recent breaches at the Democratic National Committee and elsewhere in the Democratic Party were likely carried out by people within the Russian government. Kremlin officials have denied the allegations of Moscow’s involvement.

Concerns about election computer security prompted Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to convene a conference call with state election officials earlier this month, when he offered the department’s help in making their voting systems more secure.

The FBI warning did not identify the two states targeted by cyber intruders, but Yahoo News said sources familiar with the document said it referred to Arizona and Illinois, whose voter registration systems were penetrated.

Citing a state election board official, Yahoo News said the Illinois voter registration system was shut down for 10 days in late July after hackers downloaded personal data on up to 200,000 voters.

The Arizona attack was more limited and involved introducing malicious software into the voter registration system, Yahoo News quoted a state official as saying. No data was removed in that attack, the official said.

(Writing by David Alexander; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Canada security questioned after FBI tip thwarts attack

Police photograph of taxi where suicide bomber detonated in Canada

By Andrea Hopkins

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Aaron Driver first came to the attention of Canadian officials in late 2014 after he voiced support for Islamic State on social media. In 2015, the Muslim convert was arrested for communicating with militants involved with attack plots in Texas and Australia. Early this year, he agreed to a court order known as a peace bond that restricted his online and cell phone use.

Yet it took a tip from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to alert Canadian intelligence officials to what police say was an imminent attack Driver was planning on a major Canadian city.

Driver, 24, died after he detonated an explosive device in the backseat of a taxi as police closed in and opened fire, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in Ottawa.

The RCMP said Driver, one of only two Canadians currently subject to a peace bond, was not under constant surveillance before the tip from the FBI came on Wednesday morning.

Driver’s father, Wayne Driver, questioned why authorities did not intervene more decisively earlier. He said he wished his son had been forced into a de-radicalization program.

“I don’t think [the peace bond] was very effective at all. I mean, look at the outcome,” Driver’s father told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

“Why wasn’t he on some kind of parole where he had to report a couple times a month instead of never?”

RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mike Cabana said that even when, as in Driver’s case, there is enough evidence for a court-ordered terrorism-related peace bond, the tool cannot really prevent an attack.

“Our ability to monitor people 24 hours a day and 7 days a week simply does not exist. We can’t do that,” Cabana told reporters at a news conference in Ottawa.

Phil Gurski, a former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) analyst and now a risk consultant, said it takes about 20 to 40 officers in multiple surveillance teams to watch a suspect.

“It is not like Hollywood films where it is one car following one guy,” said Gurski. “So you have to start prioritizing.”

With Driver’s death, one Canadian resident remains under a terrorism-related federal peace bond, a type of restraining order issued by a provincial judge. According to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, nine more such orders are pending, nine have already expired, and three applications for peace bonds have been withdrawn.

LIMITS TO PEACE BONDS

Driver’s peace bond required him, among other things, to get permission before purchasing a cell phone, stay off social media websites and refrain from communications with members of Islamic State and other radical groups.

After Driver’s foiled attack, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said peace bonds have limits.

“Those issues will obviously need to be very carefully scrutinized,” he said in an interview with CBC.

While some 600 RCMP officers and staff were transferred from organized crime, drug and financial integrity files to the counter-terrorism beat in recent years, critics of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new Liberal government have argued that not enough money is being spent to fight terrorism.

The 2016 budget provided C$35-million over five years to combat radicalization, but little in the way of new funding for the RCMP or CSIS.

Trudeau was elected in October 2015 pledging to end Canada’s combat role against Islamic State and roll back some of the security powers his Conservative Party predecessor had implemented.

Ray Boisvert, a former assistant director of intelligence at CSIS, said Driver was likely on an increasingly long list of so-called “B-listers” – people known to law enforcement, but considered lower risk than others and not followed regularly.

“The problem today, of course is that a target can go from mildly radicalized to highly ‘weaponized’ in a matter of weeks – or sooner,” Boisvert, who left CSIS in 2012 and is now a security consultant to private firms, said in an email.

Mubin Shaikh, a former undercover operative with CSIS, told Reuters he considered Driver a threat back in 2015, in part because he was a Muslim convert.

“That’s a red flag,” he said on Thursday.

In October 2014, a Canadian Muslim convert shot and killed a soldier at Ottawa’s national war memorial before launching an attack on the Canadian Parliament. The same week, another convert ran down two soldiers in Quebec, killing one.

Shaikh, now a Canadian counter-terrorism and national security consultant, said law enforcement officers walk a fine line in determining which Islamic State sympathizers are just talkers, and which represent an actual threat to Canada.

“You don’t know who is going to be the one guy who is not just talking but may take action,” he said. “It’s better to assume that they are going to be a threat.”

(Additional reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal, Leah Schnurr in Ottawa, Ethan Lou in Toronto, Rod Nickel in Winnipeg; Editing by Sue Horton, Diane Craft and Frances Kerry)

Washington D.C. police officer charged with helping Islamic State

By Julia Harte

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Metro transit police officer in Washington, D.C. was arrested on Wednesday morning on charges he attempted to provide material support to Islamic State, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

In July, Nicholas Young, who lives in Virginia, sent codes for gift cards worth $245 to an FBI informant. The gift cards were intended for mobile-messaging accounts that Islamic State uses to recruit its followers. Young believed the informant was an acquaintance of his who was working with the militant group, court records said.

The 36-year-old Young, who had worked for the transit authority since 2003, had been on the radar of U.S. law enforcement since 2010, according to an affidavit in the complaint filed in federal court in Virginia on Tuesday.

Metro authorities said Young was fired immediately after his arrest on Wednesday.

In 2014, he met several times with an undercover agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation as an eager recruit of Islamic State, according to the affidavit, and advised the agent about how to evade law enforcement as he left the United States to join the militant group.

“Metro transit police alerted the FBI about this individual and then worked with our federal partners throughout the investigation,” said Metro general manager Paul Wiedefeld.

“Obviously, the allegations in this case are profoundly disturbing,” Wiedefeld said.

(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

U.S. counterterrorism agents arrest Michigan man with explosives

By Laila Kearney

(Reuters) – Federal counter terrorism agents have arrested a 29-year-old Michigan man accused of illegally purchasing an arsenal of explosives and other devices capable of mass casualties, according to a criminal complaint filed this week.

Sebastian Gregerson, a Detroit resident who also goes by the name Abdurrahman Bin Mikaayl, was arrested on Monday by officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s counter terrorism squad, according to the complaint.

Gregerson is accused of unregistered possession of a destructive device and the unlicensed receipt of explosive materials, the complaint said.

His court-appointed attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.

The FBI began its investigation in April 2015, when an anonymous informant alerted the agency that Gregerson said he was in possession of grenades and bazookas, the complaint said.

Over the past 16 months, Gregerson bought weapons, ammunition and tactical gear including a car pistol holster, hundreds of rounds of ammunition for an AK-47 rifle and commercial-grade road spikes to disable vehicles, the complaint said.

He also bought several training manuals and subscriptions to publications about how to evade capture and “survive dangerous situations,” it said.

In recorded phone conversations with an undercover FBI agent, Gregerson discussed making homemade grenades and ways to attack buildings and law enforcement by using the explosive devices, the complaint said.

It was not clear from the complaint whether Gregerson said he planned to carry out such an attack.

Gregerson was arrested on Sunday, when he met with undercover agents at a gas station and traded a Beretta M9 handgun as payment for several grenades, the complaint said. He was not licensed to receive explosive materials, it said.

Gregerson is scheduled for a detention hearing on Thursday at the Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse in Detroit, court documents said.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by David Gregorio)

FBI,Homeland Security chief preparing for violence at political conventions

U.S. security chiefs testify before a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington

By Julia Edwards

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers on Thursday that they were preparing their agencies for the possibility of violence, both from unruly demonstrators and terrorists, at the upcoming Republican and Democratic nominating conventions.

Speaking before the House Homeland Security Committee, Johnson said he was concerned that demonstrations at the events could get out of hand.

In an interview with Reuters following his testimony, Johnson said he knew of no specific or credible threat to either convention but that it was important to be prepared.

Johnson said the Department of Homeland Security would be sending more than 3,000 personnel to each convention.

Recent clashes between attendees and protesters at rallies for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have led to physical assaults and arrests.

The Republican National Convention being held July 18-21 in Cleveland and the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia from July 25-28 follow a string of high-profile shootings.

In June, an Islamic State sympathizer committed the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, killing 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Last week, five police officers in Dallas were killed by a black man angry about police shootings of unarmed black men.

Comey told the committee that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was monitoring the threat of violence at the conventions “very, very carefully.”

“Anytime there is a national spotlight on a political event in the United States, there is a risk that groups that aspire to do just that, engage in acts of domestic terrorism, will be attracted,” Comey said.

(Reporting by Julia Edwards; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

FBI director says four arrested in last month for ISIS plots

FBI Director Comey testifies before House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in Washington

ASHINGTON (Reuters) – The FBI has arrested four people within the last month in order to disrupt Islamic State-inspired plots, FBI Director James Comey told a panel of U.S. lawmakers on Thursday.

At the same hearing, U.S. National Counterterrorism Director Nicholas J. Rasmussen said Islamic State’s ability to carry out attacks in Iraq, Syria has not significantly diminished even as the militant group has lost ground militarily.

(Reporting by Julia Edwards; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Document spells out FBI rules to get journalists’ phone records: article

FBI headquarters

By Dustin Volz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Bureau of Investigation is allowed to seek journalists’ phone records with the approval of two government officials through a secretive surveillance process that does not require a warrant, The Intercept website reported on Thursday, citing a classified document.

The document, which The Intercept published without citing sources, was described as a classified appendix of the FBI’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (DIOG) and was dated Oct. 16, 2013. The related document is at http://bit.ly/295HIpY.

Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the document.

FBI spokesman Christopher Allen said in an emailed reply to a Reuters request for comment, “We post a redacted version of the DIOG on our website. I am not in a position to comment or authenticate any other version.” Allen referred to an FBI website regarding the agency’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide. http://1.usa.gov/1QleO9n

“Because the DIOG governs sensitive operations and investigations, not all of its contents can be released,” Allen wrote.

“As a result I am not able to comment on how, or whether, the DIOG is updated as laws, Guidelines, or technology change. However, the FBI periodically reviews and updates the DIOG as needed,” he said.

Allen said the FBI’s DIOG remained consistent with guidelines from the U.S. attorney general.

The Intercept is an online publication launched in 2014 by First Look Media, which was created and funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. The editors are Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill, who were all involved in breaking the Edward Snowden story.

The Intercept reported that, according to the document, pursuing a journalist’s call data with a national security letter requires the consent of the FBI’s general counsel and the executive assistant director of its national security branch, in addition to normal chain-of-command approval.

A national security letter is a type of government order for communications data sent to service providers. It is usually issued with a gag order, meaning the target is often unaware that records are being accessed.

There are several proposals in Congress to broaden the scope of national security letters, or NSLs. Privacy advocates, however, have said the authority is used too often, circumvents judicial oversight and lacks adequate transparency safeguards.

The Intercept reported that an added layer of review by the U.S. Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for national security is necessary to use an NSL to seek a journalist’s records if they are being sought “to identify confidential news media sources.”

National security letters have been available as a law enforcement tool since the 1970s. But their frequency and breadth expanded under the USA Patriot Act enacted shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

The FBI made 48,642 requests for data via NSLs in 2015, according to a Justice Department memo seen by Reuters in May.

Currently, national security letters can only compel sharing of phone billing records, according to a 2008 legal memo written by the U.S. Justice Department. Still, the FBI has used the letters since then to request internet records during national security investigations.

The U.S. Senate last week fell two votes short of advancing legislation that would broaden the type of records the FBI can compel a company to hand over under an NSL to include email metadata and some browsing history.

(Reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Dan Grebler, Toni Reinhold)

Southeast Asian Islamic State unit being formed in southern Philippines: officials

By Randy Fabi and Manuel Mogato

JAKARTA/MANILA (Reuters) – Southeast Asian militants who claim to be fighting for Islamic State in the Middle East have said they have chosen one of the most wanted men in the Philippines to head a regional faction of the ultra-radical group, security officials said on Thursday.

The claim was made in a video that was recently posted on social media, possibly last week, a military intelligence official in the Philippines told Reuters.

The video is significant, experts say, because it shows that Islamic State supporters are now being asked to stay home and unify under one umbrella group to launch attacks in Southeast Asia, instead of being drawn to the fight in the Middle East.

Authorities in the region have been on heightened alert since Islamic State claimed an attack in the Indonesian capital Jakarta in January in which eight people were killed, including four of the attackers.

In the 20-minute video seen by Reuters, young men and some children in military fatigues are shown carrying and training with weapons, and holding Islamic State flags. A section of the video showed some of these men engaging in gunbattles in jungles but it was not clear where and with whom.

The video also showed three men apparently being executed, but it was not clear where and who they were.

The authenticity of the video and when it was taken could not be independently verified.

In the video, a man authorities in Malaysia have identified as Mohd Rafi Udin, a Malaysian militant currently in Syria, says in Malay: “If you cannot go to (Syria), join up and go to the Philippines.”

In the video, Udin also urges Muslims to unite under the leadership of Abu Abdullah, a Philippine militant leader who pledged allegiance to Islamic State in January.

Abu Abdullah, also known as Isnilon Hapilon, is a leader of the Philippine militant group Abu Sayyaf. He is on the FBI’s most wanted list for his role in the kidnapping of 17 Filipinos and three Americans in 2001 and carries a bounty of $5 million.

The video was released to mark Islamic State’s acceptance of allegiances from jihadists in the Philippines, the first formal recognition of a Southeast Asian group, said Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, chief of Malaysia’s police counter-terrorism unit.

“This video is not just propaganda, but is a serious threat. We are definitely expecting more attacks in this region,” Pitchay told Reuters.

Hapilon is known to be based in the interior hills of the island of Basilan in the Mindanao region of the southern Philippines. In April, at least 18 Philippine soldiers were killed and 53 wounded in an attack on his followers on the island.

KIDNAP GANG

For decades, Abu Sayyaf has been known for extortion, kidnappings, beheadings and bombings, and is one of the most brutal Muslim rebel factions in the south of the largely Christian Philippines.

The group has posted videos on social media sites this year pledging allegiance to Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.

The latest video appears aimed at recognizing Hapilon as the Southeast Asian leader of the group, anti-terrorism experts said.

“I think this is a very significant video,” said Sidney Jones, a Jakarta-based security expert. “This acknowledges support from Indonesia and Malaysia.”

“It suggests there will be more efforts to get people to actually go to Mindanao to launch operations from there.”

The Jakarta attacks in January were claimed by Islamic State. But the attack did not bear the hallmarks of other spectacular strikes by the radical group – the militants lacked sophisticated weaponry and were amateurish in the execution.

Some security officials fear a more organized and better trained militant group could launch far deadlier attacks in the region.

But Philippine military officials dismissed these concerns, saying the video was just propaganda and should be ignored.

“People should not be bothered by this,” said Philippine military spokesman Restituto Padilla “Authorities are working on this. They can be identified, and they can be hunted down.”

(Additional Reporting by Rozanna Latiff in Kuala Lumpur and Kanupriya Kapoor in Jakarta; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

drcolbert.monthly

Senate votes down proposal to expand FBI surveillance powers

FBI at the Pulse

By Dustin Volz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted down a Republican-backed proposal to expand the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s secretive surveillance powers after the mass shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub last week.

The measure followed the Senate’s rejection on Monday of four measures that would have restricted gun sales.

During Wednesday’s vote, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell switched his vote to ‘no,’ giving himself the opportunity to bring the measure up for consideration again as soon as later this week.

The legislation would broaden the type of telephone and internet records the FBI could request from companies such as the Google unit of Alphabet Inc and Verizon Communications Inc without a warrant. Opponents, including some major technology companies, have said it would threaten civil liberties and do little to improve national security.

The legislation before the Senate on Wednesday, filed as an amendment to a criminal justice funding bill, would widen the FBI’s authority to use so-called National Security Letters, which do not require a warrant and whose very existence is usually a secret.

Such letters can compel a company to hand over a user’s phone billing records. Under the Senate’s change, the FBI would be able to demand electronic communications transaction records such as time stamps of emails and the emails’ senders and recipients, in addition to some information about websites a person visits and social media log-in data.

It would not enable the FBI to use national security letters to obtain the actual content of electronic communications.

The legislation would also make permanent a provision of the USA Patriot Act that lets the intelligence community conduct surveillance on “lone wolf” suspects who do not have confirmed ties to a foreign terrorist group. That provision, which the Justice Department said last year had never been used, expires in December 2019.

The bill had been expected to narrowly pass but it fell two votes short of the required 60.

The future of the Senate proposal in the House of Representatives was also uncertain, given its alliance between libertarian-leaning Republicans and tech-friendly Democrats that has blocked past efforts to expand surveillance.

Privacy groups and civil liberties advocates accused Republicans this week of exploiting the Orlando shooting to build support for unrelated legislation.

Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, criticized Senate Republicans for “pushing fake, knee-jerk solutions that will do nothing to prevent mass shootings or terrorist attacks.”

Though Republicans invoked the Orlando shooting in support of the bill, FBI Director James Comey has said Omar Mateen’s transactional records were fully reviewed by authorities who investigated him twice for possible extremist ties.

Comey said there was “no indication” Mateen belonged to any extremist group and that it was unlikely authorities could have done anything differently to prevent the attack.

(Reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Bernard Orr)