McNabb in the News (7/8/06)

Senior Principal Douglas McNabb was a guest on BBC Radio 4’s The Today Programme where he discussed the Extradition Act of 2003 as it relates to the NatWest Three.

Subway Bomb Plot—New York City

Just weeks after the “Seas of David” “terrorist” group in Florida was arrested for allegedly plotting to blow up the Sears Tower, United States officials are saying that they have disrupted a plot by foreigners to bomb the New York City subway.^[1] According to new reports, “FBI agents monitoring Internet chat rooms used by extremists learned in recent months of the plot to strike a blow at the city’s economy by destroying vital transportation networks.”^[2] Monitoring internet chat rooms was also the method used by Canadian authorities to break up an alleged terrorist cell in that country.

Senator Charles Schumer noted the alleged plot was discovered “when it was just in the talking phase,” which means that it is “unclear how far along the planning was.”^[3] As officials stated after the Seas of David arrests, there is no imminent threat to the United States.^[4] Representative Peter King, who has called for the prosecution of the New York Times for discussing classified information, commented on the arrests, saying that “there was nothing imminent, but it was being monitored for [a] long period [of] time,” and that “it would have been better if this had not been disclosed.”^[5]

The alleged plot was first detailed in the New York Daily News,^[6] and the plot apparently involved bombing the Holland Tunnel “in hopes of causing a torrent of water to deluge lower Manhattan.”^[7] And according to the story’s sources, this plot “is more advanced than the Miami Seven.”^[8] Other sources, however, point out that bombing the Holland Tunnel would not flood the financial district, because the financial district is above the Hudson River, and that the plot did not actually target the Holland Tunnel.^[9]

One individual, Amir Andalousli, has apparently been arrested by Lebanese authorities, but extraditing him legally from that country will be difficult, as we discussed in February. Extradition and prosecution may not be the point, however, because he was arrested several months ago, and “US agents were allowed to take part in the interrogation of Andalousli.”^[10] Other individuals across the globe are currently being sought by the United States.^[11]

According to one source, the “’lone wolf’ conspiracy” allegedly received pledges of financial support and assistance from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi before he was killed in Iraq last month.^[12]

The news of the plot comes one year to the day that London’s transportation system was attacked by suicide bombers, killing 52 people.^[13]

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[1] Mark Sherman, FBI Disrupts New York City Tunnel Plot, AP (via Yahoo!).
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Allison Gendar et al., Bomb Tunnel, Flood City, Daily News, Jul. 7, 2006.
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] Sherman, supra note 1.
[10] Id.
[11] Plotters Sought to Bomb New York Tunnel, Reuters, Jul. 7, 2006.
[12] FBI Foils Plot to Bomb New York’s Holland Tunnel: Report, AFP (via Yahoo!) (citing Gendar, supra, note 6), Jul. 7, 2006.
[13] Philippe Naughton et al., A Year On, Britain Remembers the 7/7 Victims, The Times (UK), Jul. 7, 2006.

Osama bin Laden—Increased Activity

Communications from Osama bin Laden, including video and audio messages posted on the internet, have drastically increased over the past month.^[1] At the same time this is happening, it has been revealed that the CIA has shut down its unit that is tasked with capturing bin Laden.^[2]

Reflecting the view that Al Qaeda is “no longer as hierarchical as it once was,” the unit, known as Alec Station, “was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the CIA Counterterrorist Center.”^[3] This does not mean that finding Osama bin Laden does not remain a high priority; it simply means that there is a “belief that the agency can better deal with high-level [terrorism] threats by focusing on regional trends rather than on specific organizations or individuals.”^[4]

In the past month, however, Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, have released at least six new communiqués.^[5] It is unclear, however, whether the increased activity suggests that “another major attack is imminent.”^[6] Some US officials “believe a complicated mix of factors is behind the outpouring: a desire to show that al Qaeda is still potent; a new sophistication in the use of propaganda; and finally, sheer coincidence as several different messages have all surfaced within a short time span.”^[7] Nonetheless, the threats are taken seriously.

In related news, we mentioned a month ago that Mogadishu had been taken over by Islamic rebels who have been combating the Somali warlords for control over the capitol. There are now allegations that “non-Somalis have joined with Islamic extremists in Somalia.”^[8] According to the AP, a one-hour-long “recruiting video issued by members of the fundamentalist Islamic movement in Somalia shows Arab radicals fighting alongside the local extremists in Mogadishu, and invites Muslims from around the world to join in their ‘holy jihad.’”^[9] The videotape was apparently produced as a recruitment tool, and if it is accurate, seems to suggest that there is an “Arab camp north of Mogadishu,” and a “senior member of the Islamic group, Yusuf Indohaadde, is filmed walking among” Somali militiamen.^[10] It will be quite interesting to see what the fallout of the tape is.

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[1] Caroline Drees, Bin Laden Shows New Life in Tapes, Reuters, Jul. 6, 2006.
[2] Mark Mazzetti, CIA Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden, NY Times, Jul. 4, 2006.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Drees, supra note 1.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] Video: Somalia Becoming New Haven for Al-Qaida, AP (via St. Petersburg Times), Jul. 7, 2006.
[9] Id.
[10] Id.

McNabb in the News (7/6/06)

Senior Principal Douglas McNabb has been quoted in a Telegraph article about the NatWest Three.

The FBI Marshal Service will fly them to Houston, where they will be fitted out in orange jumpsuits, handcuffs, chains around their waist and manacles around their legs.

On the next business day, they will appear before a federal judge for a bail hearing before they are sent to the Houston Federal Detention Centre. They are certain not to get bail because, after their extensive protests in Britain, any judge would consider them a definite flight risk.

…

Only then will they be sent on to the Houston centre for an indefinite period on remand.

"Remand prisoners in the Houston Federal Detention Centre tend to be tried within two or three months," said Douglas McNabb, a leading … lawyer who has studied the case closely.

"But the NatWest Three will probably be on remand for a year or more because the case is so complicated and involves so many documents and witnesses in the UK."^[1]

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[1] Harry Mount, Three Face Total Lockdown in a Wire Cage, Telegraph (UK), Jul. 6, 2006.