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INITIATIVE
Domestic Terrorism Post-9/11 (2001-2011)
During the ten years following September 11th, 2001 there were over 100 incidents of "home-grown" or domestic terrorism in the United States. To provide a valuable resource on this topic, the Crime Commission has compiled an extensive database of incidents including attacks, plots, support for, membership in, or connections with a terrorist organization. While information about terrorist incidents are available elsewhere, both on and off the Internet, the Crime Commission's database is unique in providing a centralized, concise, user-friendly, and visually engaging informational resource on domestic terrorism. read more »
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January 20, 2004
Minnesota
Mohammed Abdullah Warsame
Support: Personnel
Al Qaeda
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Canadian citizen supplies U.S. border information to Al Qaeda
Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, a legal U.S. resident and Canadian citizen from Somalia, was indicted in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota on January 20, 2004, on charges that he had been providing support to Al Qaeda for several years.
In the spring of 2000 Warsame had traveled to Afghanistan to attend an Al Qaeda training camp held outside Kabul. While there, Warsame also attended lectures given by Osama bin Laden. In April 2002 Warsame moved to Minneapolis, MN, continuing to keep in contact with individuals he had met in Afghanistan and Pakistan and providing Al Qaeda with information such as points of entry to the American border.
In May 2009 Warsame pleaded guilty to providing support to a terrorist organization. In July 2009 the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota sentenced Warsame to seven years and eight months in prison, but Warsame was given credit for the more than five years he spent in custody, primarily in solitary confinement, before his trial began. On October 7, 2010, he was released from prison and deported to Canada.
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February 12, 2004
Washington
Ryan G. Anderson
Support: Material
Al Qaeda
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National Guardsman conspires to pass classified military information to Al Qaeda
On February 12, 2004, U.S. citizen Ryan G. Anderson, an American soldier who attempted to provide military information to Al Qaeda, was arrested and taken into military custody at U.S. Army Garrison-Fort Lewis.
Anderson converted to Islam during college and changed his name to Amir Abdul Rashid, which he used when visiting extremist Islamic chat rooms. Anderson frequented these sites looking for Al Qaeda contacts but instead caught the attention of a concerned citizen, who posed as an Islamic extremist over the internet, gauging Anderson's interest in terrorism. When the citizen discovered Anderson was a National Guardsman, she alerted federal investigators. FBI agents contacted Anderson, posing as members of a terrorist organization. Anderson offered to provide information concerning U.S. military capabilities and weaponry, such as the vulnerabilities in tanks. On February 8, 2004, investigators arranged a meeting with Anderson. When asked who he believed they were, Anderson replied, "Al Qaeda."
Anderson was court-martialed on September 3, 2004, and sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiring to provide information to a terrorist organization.
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April 2004
New York, NY
Mohammed Junaid Babar
Support: Material
Al Mujahiroun,
Al Qaeda,
Syed Hashmi
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NYC man with links to 7/7 London bombers smuggles supplies to Al Qaeda
Mohammed Junaid Babar, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Pakistan, was arrested in April 2004 on charges that he smuggled money and supplies to Al Qaeda personnel in Pakistan, and provided assistance related to the July 7, 2005, bombing plot in the United Kingdom.
Babar grew up in Queens, NY. A week after the 9/11 attacks, Babar traveled to Pakistan, where he delivered money and equipment including night vision goggles to a senior Al Qaeda official. In July 2003 Babar also attended a terrorist jihad training camp in Pakistan. Babar came to the FBI's attention when he said he wanted to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan during a filmed interview in Islamabad, Pakistan in November 2001. In April 2004 Babar returned to the U.S. He is also an acquaintance of Syed Hashmi.
On June 2, 2004, Babar pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. In December 2010 he was sentenced to time served in prison after spending less than five years in federal custody. Federal sentencing guidelines recommended a sentence of 30 to 70 years. The lenient sentence was imposed because of his cooperation with the FBI, prosecutors and foreign governments.
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June 10, 2004
Columbus, OH
Nuradin Abdi
Support: Material
Al Qaeda,
Iyman Faris,
Christopher Paul
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Ohio man provides support to terrorists
On June 10, 2004, Nuradin Abdi, an illegal immigrant from Somalia, was named in a sealed indictment in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio for conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.
Abdi also collaborated with Iyman Faris and Christopher Paul, who were also convicted on terrorism-related offenses. In court, Abdi claimed he gave stolen credit card numbers to Paul so he could purchase equipment for Al Qaeda.
Abdi pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists on July 31, 2007, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The court sentenced Abdi to 10 years in prison on November 27, 2007. At his trial, Abdi gave testimony against Paul, who later pleaded guilty to conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in a terrorist attack and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
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August 4, 2004
Albany, NY
Yassin Aref,
Mohammed M. Hossain
Support: Material
None Confirmed
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Two arrested for supporting assassination plot against Pakistani diplomat
The FBI arrested Yassin Aref, an Iraqi refugee, and Mohammed M. Hossain, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Bangladesh, on August 4, 2004, for money laundering and supporting what they believed to be an assassination plot against a Pakistani diplomat.
In an FBI sting operation, an undercover agent became acquainted with Hossain, who ran a pizzeria in Albany, NY. The agent offered to loan Hossain $50,000 to make improvements on his pizzeria, telling him the money came from selling a missile launcher that would be used to kill a Pakistani diplomat in New York. He also told Aref and Hossain he was a member of Pakistani Islamic extremist group Jaish-e-Mohammed and showed them a missile launcher he claimed to have smuggled into the U.S. Knowing this, Hossain signed a contract to repay the $50,000 loan with Aref as his witness. The sting was designed to catch Aref, who had come to the attention of authorities in the summer of 2003 when his name was found in a notebook at a terrorist camp in northern Iraq.
In October 2006 a federal jury convicted Aref and Hossain for participating in the terrorist plot. On March 8, 2007, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York sentenced both Aref and Hossain to 15 years in prison.
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August 5, 2004
Chicago, IL
Gale Nettles
Plot: Bomb
Anti-Government
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Illinois man plots to bomb a Chicago federal building
Illinois resident and U.S. citizen Gale Nettles was arrested on August 5, 2004, for plotting to blow up the Everett McKinley Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago. Nettles planned to use a truck bomb filled with ammonium nitrate fertilizer, the same material used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Nettles reportedly planned the attack because he was angered that a federal court convicted him of counterfeiting. In spring 2004 an undercover FBI agent supplied Nettles with 2,000 pounds of a harmless fertilizer that resembled ammonium nitrate. Nettles was only able to store 500 pounds of this fertilizer, so on the morning of August 5, 2004, he sold the remaining 1,500 pounds of fertilizer to another undercover agent posing as a member of a terrorist organization. The FBI arrested Nettles later that day.
Gale Nettles was convicted in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on September 15, 2005, for plotting to bomb the federal building, and for attempting to provide a member of Al Qaeda with explosive materials. On January 12, 2006, Nettles was sentenced to eight consecutive 20-year prison terms.
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August 27, 2004
New York, NY
James Elshafay,
Shahawar Matin Siraj
Plot: Bomb
None Confirmed
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Brooklyn men conspire to bomb Herald Square/34th Street subway station in New York City
James Elshafay and Shahawar Matin Siraj were arrested in New York on August 27, 2004, for plotting to bomb the Herald Square/34th Street subway station in Manhattan.
The New York Police Department was monitoring Siraj, an illegal immigrant from Pakistan who worked in an Islamic bookstore in Brooklyn, because of his tirades against Americans. A paid NYPD informant often met with Siraj and Elshafay, a U.S. citizen and high school dropout, at the Brooklyn bookstore to discuss their desire to blow up various bridges and subway stations. After the informant told Elshafay and Siraj that his supposed terrorist organization could supply them with explosives, the two conspirators examined the Herald Square station for security cameras to find the most efficient way to plant explosives.
Elshafay pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in October 2004 to conspiracy to damage or destroy a subway station by means of an explosive, and agreed to testify against Siraj. In January 2007 the court sentenced Siraj to 30 years in prison. In March 2007 the court sentenced Elshafay to five years in prison.
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October 25, 2004
Tennessee
Demetrius "Van" Crocker
Plot: Chemical Weapon
White Supremacy
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White supremacist plots to kill African-Americans in Tennessee
Farmer and U.S. citizen Demetrius "Van" Crocker was arrested on October 25, 2004, after an FBI sting operation found that he sought to use explosives in a plot to kill minorities.
After Crocker told an undercover informant that he admired Adolf Hitler and wanted to detonate a Sarin gas bomb outside a courthouse, use poisoned marijuana to kill African-American residents of Jackson, TN, and spray mustard gas on African-American neighborhoods, the FBI set up a sting operation. In October 2004 Crocker bought what he believed to be explosives and a canister of Sarin from an undercover agent.
Immediately after the purchase, the FBI arrested Crocker. He was accused of attempting to obtain chemical weapons, attempting to receive explosives in interstate commerce with the intent to destroy property, and receiving stolen explosives. On November 28, 2004, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee found Crocker guilty on all five counts and sentenced him to 30 years in prison.
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