Iyman Faris

Last updated

Iyman Faris (a.k.a. Mohammad Rauf; [1] born June 4, 1969) is a Pakistani (formerly American) citizen [2] [3] who served for months as a double agent for the FBI before pleading guilty in May 2003 of providing material support to Al Qaeda. A United States citizen since 1999, he had worked as a truck driver and lived in Columbus, Ohio. As of September 2003, Faris was the "only confessed al Qaeda sleeper caught on U.S. soil." [4] In 2003 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for providing material support to Al-Qaeda. [5] In February 2020 an American federal court revoked Faris' US citizenship. [6] [7] In August 2020, he was released from a federal prison in Illinois. [8]

Contents

Faris was detained in Ohio two weeks after Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was arrested in Pakistan on March 1, 2003. While installed as a double agent for the U.S. government, Faris sent messages to his terrorist commanders by mobile phone and email from an FBI safe house in Virginia. A senior Bush administration official said, "He was sitting in the safe house making calls for us. It was a huge triumph." [9]

Early history

Iyman Faris was born in 1969 in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. [10] Faris came to the United States as a young man in 1994 on a student visa but never enrolled in school. [11] In 1995, he married Geneva Bowling. Faris became a U.S. citizen in 1999. [10] [12]

He returned to Pakistan the following year, in 2000. His father had just died and his five-year marriage was ending. His ex-wife later said he had suffered from hearing imaginary voices and sudden bouts of believing that somebody was choking him. [4]

Faris admitted to having met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. While in the region, Faris was asked to investigate the possibility of using an ultralight aircraft as an "escape plane" for bin Laden. He used an internet cafe in Karachi, Pakistan to research planes, buy cellphones and 2000 sleeping bags for training camps. [1]

While living in Ohio, Faris had been counseled by a local imam for thoughts of suicide. After threatening to jump off a bridge, he was hospitalized for a psychiatric evaluation. [4] Faris' five-year marriage ended in 2000.

Brooklyn Bridge plot

In late 2001, while in Pakistan, Faris went to a travel agency to have some expired airline tickets to Yemen re-issued for several unknown colleagues. He claimed to be a preacher from Tablighi Jamaat, a missionary group. [13]

In early 2002, Faris was introduced to an operative identified only as "C-2". He learned of a plot allegedly involving the simultaneous destruction of the Brooklyn Bridge by cutting through cables with blowtorches, and a second group that would derail a train in Washington D.C. Faris' investigations into obtaining the necessary tools for the dual-operation involved asking a friend where he might purchase welding equipment, and researching the structure of the bridge on the internet. He concluded that the operation was unlikely, and allegedly sent a message back to Pakistan calling off the plot, stating that "The weather is too hot". [4]

Working for FBI

On March 19, 2003, Faris was visited by two FBI agents and an anti-terror officer, who confronted him with testimony from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed about his contacts with al-Qaeda, and the results of an intercepted telephone call. Faris was reportedly accommodating, and agreed to let the agents search his apartment the following day. [14]

Confronted by the FBI in April, Faris confessed. He agreed to cooperate with the FBI and work as a double agent, reporting to them. He was ordered to leave his home in Columbus and was assigned to a safe house in Virginia, from which he would appear to continue discussions with his contacts, reporting the information back to the FBI.

During this period, Faris told the agents that Majid Khan, a Baltimore youth who worked at his father's gas station, had referred to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as an "uncle" and spoken of a desire to kill Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf. He later totally recanted this in a written statement provided in 2007 to Khan's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, saying his accusation was "an absolute lie," and he had been coerced into making the claims. [15]

The United States took Khan into custody in Pakistan and sent him to a CIA black site in Afghanistan, where he was interrogated, allegedly tortured and held for several years. In September 2006, he was transferred to military custody at Guantanamo Bay as a high-value detainee. [15]

Criminal charges

The Department of Justice charged Faris in federal court with terrorism charges. On May 1, 2003, in a plea bargain, Faris pleaded guilty to both charges: providing material support and resources to Al Qaeda and conspiracy for providing the terrorist organization with information about possible U.S. targets for attack. [16] The documents relating to the charges were not unsealed until June 19, 2003. Shortly after, the Department of Justice announced that it had used Faris as a double agent, who had worked under orders from the FBI. [9] Faris is the "only confessed al Qaeda sleeper caught on U.S. soil." [4]

On September 25, 2003, Faris sought to withdraw his guilty plea, claiming that while he admitted to meeting with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he had been seeking information about al-Qaeda for a book he wanted to write. He argued that Mohammed had given false information to authorities as revenge, for Faris had refused to be recruited into al-Qaeda by his lieutenant. The appeal was rejected. [17] On October 28, 2003, Faris was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment by District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema. [16]

According to the New York Times , the Brooklyn Bridge plot [5] was uncovered with assistance from the NSA eavesdropping program. [18] The Times delayed publishing the story for a year ostensibly at the request of the government. [19] The story was one of several that appeared in December 2005 by Eric Lichtblau and James Risen that won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting awarded by Columbia University. [20]

Faris' new lawyer, David B. Smith, announced that he was looking into a lawsuit against George W. Bush, who personally authorized the wiretaps. [21]

In 2004, the Department of Justice charged Nuradin Abdi in a bomb plot. It reported that Abdi had said that Faris had picked him up from the Columbus airport. [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nawaf al-Hazmi</span> Saudi Arabian terrorist and hijacker

Nawaf Muhammed Salim al-Hazmi was a Saudi Arabian terrorist. He was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which they crashed into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khalid Sheikh Mohammed</span> Pakistani member of al-Qaeda (born 1964)

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is a Pakistani Islamist militant held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp under terrorism-related charges. He was named as "the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks" in the 9/11 Commission Report. He is often referred to by his initials, KSM.

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

Ramzi Ahmed Yousef is a Pakistani 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.

The Benevolence International Foundation (Benevolence International Fund in Canada, was a purported nonprofit charitable trust based in Saudi Arabia. It was determined to be a front for terrorist group Al-Qaeda and was banned by the United Nations Security Council Committee 1267 and the US Department of the Treasury in November 2002. The BIF's chief executive officer Enaam Arnaout began a ten-year sentence in 2003 after pleading guilty for racketeering in a U.S. federal court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adnan Gulshair el Shukrijumah</span> Al-Qaeda member

Adnan Gulshair el Shukrijumah was a citizen of Saudi Arabia and a senior member of Al-Qaeda. He was born in Saudi Arabia and grew up in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walid bin Attash</span> Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainee (born 1978)

Walid Muhammad Salih bin Mubarak bin Attash is a Yemeni prisoner held in extrajudicial detention at the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camp and is suspected of playing a key role in the early stages of the 9/11 attacks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abderraouf Jdey</span> Canadian citizen (born 1965)

Abderraouf bin Habib bin Yousef Jdey is a Canadian citizen, who was found swearing to die as a shaheed (martyr) on a series of videotapes found in the rubble of Mohammed Atef's house in Afghanistan in 2002.

Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeiee was an al-Qaeda terrorist, sentenced to death in 2004 by a Yemeni court for his part in the 2002 attack on the French tanker Limburg. Al-Rabeiee escaped custody in February 2006, with 22 other inmates, but was killed 1 October 2006 in San‘a’, along with another al-Qaeda suspect identified as Mohammed Daylami.

On September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists took control of four commercial aircraft and used them as suicide weapons in a series of four coordinated acts of terrorism to strike the World Trade Center in New York City, The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and an additional target in Washington, D.C. Two aircraft hit the World Trade Center while the third hit the Pentagon. A fourth plane did not arrive at its target, but crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after a passenger revolt. The intended target is believed to have been the United States Capitol. As a result, 2,977 victims were killed, making it the deadliest foreign attack on U.S. soil, exceeding Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, which killed 2,335 members of the United States Armed Forces and 68 civilians. The effort was carefully planned by al-Qaeda, which sent 19 terrorists to take over Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 aircraft, operated by American Airlines and United Airlines.

Alexandria City Jail is a jail facility at 2001 Mill Road, Alexandria, Virginia, US serving several courts and police agencies in Northern Virginia, including the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan was a fugitive wanted in the United States as a participant in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings. He was alleged to have purchased the Toyota and Nissan trucks used in the attacks, flying out of Nairobi to Karachi, Pakistan five days before the assault was launched. Swedan was on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list since its inception in October 2001. He was born in Mombasa, Kenya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh</span> British Islamist (born 1973)

Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh is a British Pakistani terrorist. He became a member of the Islamist jihadist group Harkat-ul-Ansar or Harkat-ul-Mujahideen in the 1990s, and later of Jaish-e-Mohammed and was closely associated with Al-Qaeda.

Majid Shoukat Khan is a Pakistani who was the only known legal resident of the United States held in the Guantanamo Bay Detainment Camp. He was detained after returning to his native Pakistan to visit his wife and was captured by Pakistani authorities, who handed him over to the CIA. In 2012, Khan pled guilty to conspiracy and the murder of 11 innocent civilians in the 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta, Indonesia, and for the attempted assassination of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

Christopher Paul is an American al-Qaeda militant, who has pleaded guilty to acts of terrorism. He is currently serving a 15-year prison term arising from those charges.

Mohammed Mansour Jabarah is a Kuwaiti convicted of terrorism-related offences. Jabarah was active in al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah circles, and was arrested in 2002.

This page lists trials related to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

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

Najibullah Zazi is an Afghan-American who was arrested in September 2009 as part of the 2009 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.

At around 9:30 pm on September 11, 2001, George Tenet, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) told President George W. Bush and U.S. senior officials that the CIA's Counterterrorism Center had determined that Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda were responsible for the September 11 attacks. Two weeks after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Federal Bureau of Investigation connected the hijackers to al-Qaeda, a militant Salafist Islamist multi-national organization. In a number of video, audio, interview and printed statements, senior members of al-Qaeda have also asserted responsibility for organizing the September 11 attacks.

Uzair Paracha is a Pakistani citizen previously convicted of providing material support to al-Qaeda by a court in New York City in 2005. He received a 30-year prison sentence which was voided 18 years later, with his judge stating that letting his conviction stand was a "manifest injustice". In March 2020 the American government gave up on taking Uzair to trial again and he was released and repatriated after being imprisoned for 17 years.

References

  1. 1 2 "Ohio trucker joined al Qaeda jihad", CNN
  2. ↑ "Iyman Faris". globalsecurity.org. Archived from the original on 23 April 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
  3. ↑ McPhee, Michelle (20 June 2003). "BROOKLYN BRIDGE PLOT Al Qaeda, Ohio trucker sought to destroy span". Daily News (New York) . Retrieved 16 June 2011.[ dead link ]
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Pierre Thomas (September 8, 2003). "Officials Search for Terrorist Next Door". ABC News.
  5. 1 2 Eric Lichtblau (Oct. 29, 2003), "Trucker Sentenced to 20 Years in Plot Against Brooklyn Bridge", The New York Times
  6. ↑ "Judge strips terrorist of citizenship at government request". AP NEWS. 2020-02-05. Retrieved 2021-02-08.
  7. ↑ "Justice Department Secures Denaturalization of Convicted Terrorist Who Sought to Help al Qaeda Destroy the Brooklyn Bridge". www.justice.gov. 2020-02-04. Retrieved 2021-02-08.
  8. ↑ "Convicted terrorist who used to work in Columbus released from federal prison". wkyc.com. 28 August 2020. Retrieved 2021-02-08.
  9. 1 2 "Daily Telegraph". Telegraph.co.uk. June 23, 2003. Archived from the original on November 1, 2005.
  10. 1 2 "Kashmiri's arrest to put pressure on Pakistan". Dawn. 21 June 2003. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
  11. ↑ Officials Search for Terrorist Next Door, ABC News, September 8, 2003
  12. ↑ Ryan, Jason (3 June 2008). "Ohio Al Qaeda Member Admits WMD Plot". ABC News. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
  13. ↑ Susan Sachs (July 14, 2003). "Muslim "missionary" (sic) group draws new scrutiny in U.S." The Muslim News. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007.
  14. ↑ Daniel Klaidman (June 23, 2003). "Al Qaeda in America: The Enemy Within". Newsweek. Archived from the original on October 3, 2003. Retrieved December 26, 2015.
  15. 1 2 Eric Rich (May 16, 2007). "Terrorism suspect alleges mental torture". Washington Post.
  16. 1 2 "Iyman Faris Sentenced For Providing Material Support To Al Qaeda]". usdoj.gov. October 2003.
  17. ↑ "Man Tied to al-Qaeda Renegs Guilty Plea" [ permanent dead link ]
  18. ↑ James Risen and Eric Lichtblau (Dec. 16, 2005), "Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts", The New York Times
  19. ↑ David Folkenflik (Dec. 16, 2005), "'Times' Held Story on U.S. Surveillance for a Year", NPR
  20. ↑ (2006), "James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times", Pulitzer.org
  21. ↑ Eric Lichtblau and James Risen (Dec. 28, 2005), "Defense Lawyers in Terror Cases Plan Challenges Over Spy Efforts", The New York Times
  22. ↑ Wanja Eric Naef (June 14, 2004). "Somali Native Charged in a Bomb Plot, Ashcroft Says". iwar.org.uk.
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.