Undisclosed Locations—Update

This morning we mentioned that Syed Haris Ahmed has been indicted and charged with providing material support for terrorism, and that he was being kept at an undisclosed location. This afternoon, some details have been released, and they do not necessarily match with what was in the US Attorney’s Press Release. According to “an affidavit made public” today, Mr. Ahmed and another man “traveled to Canada to meet with Islamic extremists to discuss ‘strategic locations in the United States suitable for a terrorist strike.’”^[1] If this is true, either US Attorney’s Nahmias’s statement that “at no time [was the government] aware of immediate danger to the Atlanta area or the United States” is incorrect, or the affidavit is overstating the seriousness of the discussions. We suspect it is the latter because an FBI spokesman in Washington told the AP that “There is no imminent threat.”^[2]

The other man, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, is accused of making materially false statements, and he was arrested in Bangladesh and was en route to New York City to be arraigned. Since there is no extradition treaty between the United States and Bangladesh, and there was no information made public about any proceedings done under any of the numerous multilateral conventions which might have allowed extradition, Mr. Sadequee was either deported from Bangladesh, or was extrajudicially removed, as we have seen in the past with individuals from Mexico and Jordan.

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[1] Giovanna Dell’Orto, FBI Says 2 in Ga. Plotted Terrorism, Associated Press (via Minneapolis Star-Tribune), Apr. 21, 2006.
[2] Id.