Apartments in Flushing and Whitestone were raided by antiterrorism agents from the FBI recently, after a Colorado man linked to Al Qaeda spent the night at one of them – and counterterrorism officials are warning cops around the country to be on the lookout for evidence of homemade bombs.
In the wee hours of Monday, September 14, member’s of the NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) conducted the raids “as part of an ongoing investigation” according to a police spokesperson.
Several men were reportedly taken away in handcuffs, but, although authorities seized cell phones and computers, no arrests were reported.
At least 15 cops and FBI agents broke down the door of a fifth-floor apartment at 41-18 Parsons Boulevard at about 2 a.m. according to reports.
Agents had obtained an emergency search warrant on Sunday night “to look for bomb-making components, explosive powders, gels, TNT and fuses,” sources reportedly said.
One resident, Afghan national Naiz Khan, reportedly said he was questioned at the scene and a second time at JTTF headquarters in Brooklyn, asking specific questions about a friend of his named “Najibullah.”
Khan said the man moved six months ago, but showed up “out of the blue” near Flushing’s Masjid Hazrat-I-Abu Bakr mosque on Thursday, September 10.
“He walked up behind me while I was walking to the mosque and tapped on my back. He needed a place to stay,” Khan reportedly said. “He stayed one night.”
Khan also reportedly said that agents questioned him about two other men who attend that mosque, along with his four roommates.
Two of the roommates operate pushcarts, as did “Najibullah,” who claimed that he was back to resolve a permit issue, according to Khan.
JTTF agents also raided the home of Khan’s parents at 29-49 137th Street in the Mitchell-Linden section of Flushing, where they searched and swabbed surfaces, according to reports.
Khan’s sister, Anila, 17, was quoted as saying, “There were three guys with big bags swabbing everything. They went into our bedrooms, our closets, our drawers, even our purses. We were really scared.”
“This is our country,” Naiz Khan reportedly said after learning of his family being raided. “We’re going to be citizens soon. We work here, we live here, we love this country as much as you.”
A Bosnian couple and their two adult children were also reportedly detained.
The raids were triggered by a massive FBI probe on a Denver-based cell “plotting another attack on the scale of 9/11,” according to published reports.
Hundreds of FBI agents there are reportedly conducting round-the-clock surveillance on five suspects – including the former Flushing resident who visited just days ago.
On Monday, members of Congress were briefed in Washington by JTTF and FBI agents, including Director Robert S. Mueller, according to officials. The investigation included phone and email intercepts authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, including wiretaps to eavesdrop on Arabic and Pashto-speaking targets.
“There was nothing imminent,” according to Senator Chuck Schumer, who called the raids “preventive.”
Nevertheless, a “former senior counterterrorism official” is quoted as saying, “The FBI is seriously spooked about these guys planning another 9/11,” and calling the case “the real thing.”
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly reportedly said that the investigation was substantive, and veteran counterterrorism officials reportedly claimed JTTF agents “felt they had no choice but to act.”
Reports suggest that the FBI is “furious” at Kelly over the raid, because they wanted to “wait and determine what the Colorado cell was planning.”
However an informed source was quoted as saying, “They weren’t about to do something today or tomorrow, but the feeling was ‘Let’s move in before they carry something out’.”
Despite reports of a rift between the NYPD and the FBI, an investigator involved in the case reportedly said Kelly would “act too soon rather than act too late.”
Repeated calls by The Queens Courier to the New York office of the FBI were not returned.
While Congressmembers were being briefed, local civic leaders were urging calm. John Choe, Co-President of the Mitchell-Linden Civic Association and local leader Martha Flores-Vazquez called a press conference in front of the Parsons Boulevard Building.
“We urge our community to remain calm and wait for the results of the ongoing federal investigation before jumping to conclusions,” Choe said.
