1997 Brooklyn bombing plot

Last updated

1997 Brooklyn bombing plot
Location Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York City, United States
Coordinates 40°40′36.1″N73°59′1.8″W / 40.676694°N 73.983833°W / 40.676694; -73.983833
DateJuly 31, 1997
4:40 am
Attack type
 Police raid due to planned suicide pipe bombings
Deaths0
Injured3 (the police officer and both suspects)
PerpetratorsGazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer

On July 31, 1997, officers from the NYPD Emergency Service Unit raided an apartment in Brooklyn, New York City, after being warned of a planned bombing. Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer and Lafi Khalil, both Palestinian illegal immigrants were shot and apprehended during the raid, which located two pipe bombs in the apartment. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Mezer, who confessed to having planned to bomb a train on the New York City Subway, received a life sentence for the plot which included charges of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, while Khalil was acquitted for charges related to the bombing plot and sentenced to three years in prison for immigration fraud. [1] [2] [3]

Raid and prosecution

Two days before the police raid, on July 29, the United States Department of State received a letter that threatened a series of bombings throughout New York City unless Islamic militants including Omar Abdel-Rahman, Ahmed Yassin and Ramzi Yousef were released from prison. [2] [3] [4] On July 30, Abdelrahman Mosabbah approached the NYPD and the FBI, warning of bombings being planned in his apartment by two roommates. [1] [2] According to Mosabbah, his roommates wanted "to follow up on Jerusalem," a reference to the double-suicide bombing of the Mahane Yehuda Market the same day. [5] At 4:40 a.m., July 31, NYPD officers raided the apartment; one officer was assaulted by Mezer attempting to detonate a bomb, following which both Mezer and Khalil were shot and rushed to hospital. [1] [2]

In the raid, police found two pipe bombs, made with black powder and filled with nails for shrapnel, as well as a draft of the letter sent to the State Department and detailed plans indicating a plot to bomb a commuter bus and the Atlantic Avenue subway station. [1] [3] [4] The bombs having toggle switches and lacking any timers or remote detonating devices suggested that suicide bombings had been planned. [2] [3] Anti-Semitic material was also found in the apartment, and Mezer later claimed that he wanted to "martyr" himself and kill "as many Jews as I could take." [1] [2] [6] According to a local Nigerian shop owner, the men were Muslims who "drove cars with bumper stickers saying 'I love the Koran'," and who "talked about Islam a lot." [7] Their apartment block was described by The New York Times as a "dilapidated two-story house on the semi-industrial fringes of Park Slope," wherein the suspects went "unnoticed in a shabby neighborhood where recent immigrants from the third world crowd many to a room." [7] About 100 residents of the local apartment blocks were evacuated following the discovery of the bombs, and the subway system was temporarily interrupted forcing thousands of people to take buses. [5]

On August 20, Mezer and Khalil were indicted for four criminal counts, namely "conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, intentional use and carry of a firearm, knowingly and intentionally conspiring to use and carry a firearm, and intentionally possessing/obtaining a counterfeit alien registration receipt card." [1] Mezer confessed to the plot, claiming the bombing had been planned for 8:00 a.m., being thwarted by the police raid just hours away. [1] On July 23, 1998 Mezer was sentenced to life, while Khalil was acquitted for the plot, receiving a 120-month maximum prison term for forged immigration documents. [1] [3] When the verdict was announced, Mezer jumped to his feet while waving a Quran in his hand and shouting "Allahu akbar". [8]

Aftermath

The incident received particular attention due to the fact that Mezer had entered the United States illegally through the northern border from Canada, even after having been caught by border patrol agents several times. A special investigation was released by the Office of Inspector General in March 1998 entitled "Bombs in Brooklyn, How the Two Illegal Aliens Arrested for Plotting to Bomb the New York Subway Entered and Remained in the United States." [9] The case was later also mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report released in July 2004. [3]

After Canada refused to take back Abu Mezer he was paroled into the United States in June 1996 because of a lack of detention space along the northern border. One expert noted that by releasing him into the country, "the INS effectively made the northern border meaningless. That is, being captured on the border produced exactly the same result as if he had successfully slipped across the border undetected." [10]

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramzi Yousef</span> Pakistani terrorist convicted of 1993 World Trade Center bombing

Ramzi Ahmed Yousef is a convicted terrorist who was one of the main perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the bombing of Philippine Airlines Flight 434; he was also a co-conspirator in the Bojinka plot. In 1995, he was arrested by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and U.S. Diplomatic Security Service at a guest house in Islamabad, Pakistan, while trying to set a bomb in a doll, then extradited to the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi</span> American Muslim activist

Abdul Rahman Al-Amoudi, better known as Abdurahman Alamoudi, is a former American Muslim activist known for founding the American Muslim Council. He pleaded guilty to financial and conspiracy charges in 2004, which resulted in a 23-year prison sentence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in New York City</span>

Crime rates in New York City have been recorded since at least the 1800s. The highest crime totals were recorded in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the crack epidemic surged, and then declined continuously from around 1990 throughout the 2000s. As of 2023, New York City has significantly lower rates of gun violence than many other large cities. Its 2022 homicide rate of 6.0 per 100,000 residents compares favorably to the rate in the United States as a whole and to rates in much more violent cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans.

Shahawar Matin Siraj is a Pakistani-American who was convicted in 2006 of terrorism conspiracy, regarding a plot to bomb a New York City Subway station in Manhattan. Siraj worked at an Islamic bookstore in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Over a period of several months in 2004 he was recorded by an FBI informer Osama Eldawoody regarding a plot to plant a bomb in the 34th Street–Herald Square station. According to the New York City Police Department, Siraj was "extremely impressionable due to severe intellectual limitations" and never actually agreed to carry out an attack. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison in January 2007.

Terrorism in Australia deals with terrorist acts in Australia as well as steps taken by the Australian government to counter the threat of terrorism. In 2004 the Australian government has identified transnational terrorism as also a threat to Australia and to Australian citizens overseas. Australia has experienced acts of modern terrorism since the 1960s, while the federal parliament, since the 1970s, has enacted legislation seeking to target terrorism.

The 2007 Fort Dix attack plot involved a group of six radicalized individuals who were found guilty of conspiring to stage an attack against U.S. Military personnel stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2006 German train bombing attempts</span>

On 31 July 2006, two men placed two suitcases filled with bombs on regional commuter trains in Germany. Departing from the central station in Cologne, the bombs were timed to go off near Hamm or Dortmund and near Koblenz, and according to German investigators "would have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people ... on a much larger scale than the terrorist attacks on London subways and buses in July 2005." However, due to faulty construction, the bombs only failed to ignite, even as the detonators worked. According to the German prosecutor, at the time Germany had "never been closer to an Islamist attack than in this case."

Christopher Paul is an American al-Qaeda militant, who has pleaded guilty to acts of terrorism. According to public data search, he is due to released on May 22, 2024 from RRM Cincinnati.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrorism in the United States</span>

In the United States, a common definition of terrorism is the systematic or threatened use of violence in order to create a general climate of fear to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change. This article serves as a list and a compilation of acts of terrorism, attempts to commit acts of terrorism, and other such items which pertain to terrorist activities which are engaged in by non-state actors or spies who are acting in the interests of state actors or persons who are acting without the approval of foreign governments within the domestic borders of the United States.

The 1991 Toronto bomb plot refers to an Islamist terror plot that sought to attack two Toronto buildings - the India Centre cinema and the Vishnu Hindu temple, it was the first 'homegrown' Islamic terrorist plot on Toronto.

Bryant Neal Vinas is an American convicted of participating in and supporting al-Qaeda plots in Afghanistan and the U.S.

The 2009 New York City Subway and United Kingdom plot was a plan to bomb the New York City Subway as well as a target in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Najibullah Zazi</span> Afghan member of Al-Qaeda (born 1985)

Najibullah Zazi is an Afghan-American who was arrested in September 2009 as part of the U.S. al Qaeda group accused of planning suicide bombings on the New York City Subway system, and who pleaded guilty as have two other defendants. U.S. prosecutors said Saleh al-Somali, al-Qaeda's head of external operations, and Rashid Rauf, an al-Qaeda operative, ordered the attack. Both were later killed in drone attacks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faisal Shahzad</span> American convicted terrorist incarcerated in a US federal prison

Faisal Shahzad is a Pakistani-American citizen who was arrested for the attempted May 1, 2010, Times Square car bombing. On June 21, 2010, in Federal District Court in Manhattan, he confessed to 10 counts arising from the bombing attempt. Throughout his court appearance, Shahzad was unrepentant. The United States Attorney indicated there was no plea deal, so Shahzad faced the maximum sentence, a mandatory life term.

The 2011 Manhattan terrorism plot was a conspiracy by two Muslim Arab-Americans to bomb various targets in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, United States. They had planned to attack an unspecified synagogue and one of them expressed interest in blowing up a church and the Empire State Building. New York City law enforcement arrested the two suspects, 26-year-old Ahmed Ferhani and 20-year-old Mohamed Mamdouh, in a sting operation on May 11, 2011. Their plot was motivated primarily by "hatred of infidels and anti-semitism" according to the authorities.

Zainab N. Ahmad is an American prosecutor with the United States Department of Justice who specializes in investigating and prosecuting terrorism. She served as an Assistant United States Attorney of the Eastern District of New York until 2017, successfully prosecuting several high-profile terrorism cases. In 2017, she was reassigned to the Special Counsel for the United States Department of Justice team.

Four suspects were arrested without charge by Australian Federal Police on 29 July 2017 in Sydney on suspicion of an Islamic State inspired plot to plant a bomb on an Etihad Airways flight departing Sydney on 15 July 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017 New York City Subway bombing</span> Terrorist attack on the New York City Subway

On December 11, 2017, a pipe bomb partially detonated in a corridor between the Times Square–42nd Street and 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal subway stations adjoining the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, injuring four people including the bomber. Mayor Bill de Blasio described the incident as "an attempted terrorist attack". The bomber was identified by police as 27-year-old Akayed Ullah, a Salafi Muslim immigrant from Bangladesh; he was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to life in prison in 2021.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Smith, Brent L. (2011). Pre-Incident Indicators of Terrorist Incidents: The Identification of Behavioral, Geographic and Temporal Patterns of Preparatory Conduct. DIANE Publishing. pp. 298–304. ISBN   9781437930610.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Martin, Gus (2011). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Terrorism, Second Edition. SAGE. pp. 562–563. ISBN   9781412980166.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Sloan, Stephen; Anderson, Sean K. (2009). Historical Dictionary of Terrorism. Scarecrow Press. pp. 91–92. ISBN   9780810863118.
  4. 1 2 Guidère, Mathieu (2017). Historical Dictionary of Islamic Fundamentalism. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 82. ISBN   9781538106709.
  5. 1 2 "New York train station may have been bomb target". CNN. July 31, 1997.
  6. ↑ "Train Bomb Plotter Given Life Sentence". Chicago Tribune. March 2, 1999.
  7. 1 2 "Arrested Men Often Seen, Little Known In Park Slope". The New York Times. August 1, 1997.
  8. ↑ "Palestinian convicted of New York bomb plot". BBC News. July 24, 1998.
  9. ↑ Smith, Lamar (2001). Law Enforcement at the Border Between the U.S. and Canada: Drug Smuggling, Illegal Immigration and Terrorism, Hearing Before the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives. DIANE Publishing. p. 19. ISBN   9780756708801.
  10. ↑ Steven Camarota, The Open Door: How Militant Islamic Terrorists Entered and Remained in the United States, 1993-2001, Center for Immigration Studies, May 2002. Available at: http://cis.org/node/3769
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.