UPDATE 5-New York Homes Searched in Terrorism Probe

This is an update to the "New York Residences Raided in Terrorism Probe" post.

UPDATE 5-New York homes raided in terrorism probe


* No imminent danger, congressmen say

* Focus on one man who met with people in Queens

* Apartment shared by five Afghan men searched - witness

* Militant ideology sympathetic to al Qaeda detected - NYT

By Edith Honan

NEW YORK, Sept 14 (Reuters) - New York City police and the FBI raided homes in the borough of Queens early on Monday as part of an investigation into suspected terrorism, focusing on one man who has been under surveillance, officials said.

Authorities searched at least two apartments including one shared by five Afghan men, taking some of them in for questioning, said one man who was questioned.

Members of U.S. Congress briefed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation said there was no imminent danger.

"There was nothing imminent, and they are very good now at tracking potentially dangerous actions and this was preventive," said Charles Schumer, a U.S. Senator from New York who was among those briefed by FBI officials.

A man who identified himself as Amanullah Akbar, a 30-year-old taxi driver, said the FBI raided the apartment he shares with four other Afghan men at 2:30 a.m. (1630 GMT)

He was brought in for questioning and released and said he had no idea why his home was targeted, adding that he believed one of his roommates was arrested.

A neighbor said she saw FBI agents armed with what she called machine guns storm the apartment building, and that one of them emerged carrying a box.

"It was scary. I wasn't going to stop the FBI and ask them what was going on," said Melissa Khan, 28.

NYPD and FBI officials provided few details, calling it part of an ongoing investigation of the joint terrorism task force.>

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NYPD Rewords Report That Some say Insulted Muslims

The NYPD and the LAPD, two of the country's largest police departments have taken a common path on the threat of Islamic terrorism. They both have decided to alter the way they do things, because not "offending" Muslims is apparently what is most important. Unfortunately it is obvious that the authorities of our country are not going to learn a thing from the mistakes that the UK has made.

NYPD rewords report that some say insulted Muslims
By TOM HAYS

NEW YORK — The New York Police Department has revised a highly touted report on the threat of homegrown terrorism in response to complaints that it was an insult to law-abiding, observant Muslims.

A coalition of Muslim groups on Wednesday applauded the two-page clarification tucked into "Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat" — a study first circulated in law enforcement circles and on the Internet in 2007. The new wording says the NYPD "understands that it is a tiny minority of Muslims who subscribe to al-Qaida's ideology of war and terror."

The clarification also calls the city's Muslim community "our ally," and "as such, the NYPD report should not be read to characterize Muslims as intrinsically dangerous or intrinsically linked to terrorism, and that it cannot be a license for racial, religious, or ethnic profiling."

Despite welcoming the changes, the New York-based Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition accused the NYPD of not doing enough to publicize them. Also, the study still has passages that "criminalize religious behaviors," said Aliya Latif of the New York office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a coalition member.

Police officials have denied the report stereotypes Muslims, even in its original form. The changes merely "make explicit what was already implicit" regarding the departments' respect for the community, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.

The study was based on an analysis of a series of domestic plots thwarted since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It was prepared by senior analysts with the NYPD Intelligence Division who traveled to Hamburg, Germany; Madrid and other overseas spots to confer with authorities about similar cases.

The report concluded that homegrown terrorists often were indoctrinated in local "radicalization incubators," including cafes and bookstores, that are "rife with extremist rhetoric."

The report warns that potential terrorists "are not on the law enforcement radar." They "look, act, talk and walk like everyone around them," it adds.

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MOA to NYPD, Take off Shoes Upon Entering Mosques

Once again we see Muslims telling non-Muslims what needs to be done to cater to Islam.
This article leaves me with a couple of questions.
1.Are the officers supposed to stop and take off their shoes if they are chasing a suspect and he or she runs into a Mosque?
2.How long will it be until all female officers are required to wear headscarves when they are entering a Mosque? Which is required in parts of the UK.

NYPD Reaches Out to Muslim Community Ahead of Ramadan
by Bob Hennelly


NEW YORK, NY August 11, 2009 —The NYPD is preparing for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan by keeping the lines of communication open with the Muslim community, including some of its own officers. WNYC's Bob Hennelly has more.

REPORTER: This year, as in years past, the NYPD is offering the City's Muslim congregations additional support and protection during their month-long period of fasting and prayer.

Detective Ahmed Nasser leads the NYPD's Muslim Officers Association. He says the additional training non-Muslim officers get, can help them establish a better relationship with the neighborhoods they patrol.

NASSER: We tell officers that you have to be mindful that when you enter a house of worship, Muslims do kneel and bow and put their head on the floor, so it is required that you remove your shoes out of respect.

REPORTER: The NYPD held a seminar with Muslim community leaders yesterday, to discuss security during Ramadan, which is August 22nd through September 19th. For WNYC I am Bob Hennelly.

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NYPD Prepares for Mumbai Style Attacks

After seeing just how easily a terrorist attack like the recent ones in Mumbai can take place, the NYPD is taking steps to train their officers to be able to fight back with full force.
All rookies will now be trained to handle a M4 machine gun. It is good to see that the threat of Islamic terrorism is being taken so seriously and that the good guys are training for the situation, because the bad guys are too.


CITY COPS PREP FOR 'MUMBAI'
MACHINE-GUN TRAINING

By LARRY CELONA and ANDY GELLER
December 8, 2008
In the aftermath of the deadly Mumbai terror attacks, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has come out with guns blazing - with a plan to get all 1,000 rookie cops ready to use heavy artillery in time for New Year's Eve, The Post has learned.


The NYPD wants all 1,000 Police Academy recruits trained to use M4 automatic machine guns - which are now carried only by the 400 cops in its elite Emergency Service Unit - in time for the holiday celebration in Times Square.

The recruits currently at the academy will get three days of training to familiarize them with the weapon, police said.

The department also plans to train its 2,000 officers in the Organized Crime Control Bureau. They include narcotics, vice, gang- and auto-crime cops. That means five times as many cops will be able to use these powerful weapons as now.

"In the event of multiple terrorist attacks, these other units will be deployed to supplement Emergency Services," said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

Kelly had proposed training other cops in the use of the weapon, a compact version of the M16 combat assault rifle used by the military, during previous "tabletop exercises" that dealt with responding to multiple terrorist attacks, Browne said. The final decision to undertake the training was made after the three-day Mumbai, India, assault, which began Nov. 26.

In the carnage in the city formerly known as Bombay, 10 terrorists carrying automatic rifles and grenades attacked a railway station, a market, a restaurant popular with foreigners, two luxury hotels and a Jewish center.

At least 195 people were killed and 295 wounded. The dead included 18 foreigners, among them six Americans.

Police sources said NYPD brass decided to train the members of the current academy class because they are all in one place and it is easier than bringing them back for instruction once they are in the field.

The recruits' three-day training is being called "familiarization" because it is shorter than the two weeks Emergency Service officers receive on such weapons. However, those cops also get training in other heavy weapons during that time.

The recruits' instruction will be carried out at the police range at Rodman's Neck in The Bronx.

There is no intelligence Times Square will be a target on New Year's Eve. The area will be on high alert, but has been so for every year since the millennium.

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