| by B.Raman
( October 19,
2012, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The media has reported as follows regarding
the arrest of a Bangladeshi national in the US on a charge of plotting to carry
out an act of terrorism on behalf of Al Qaeda in the US:
“Quazi Mohammad
Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, was arrested on Wednesday (October 17,2012) and faces
charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to
provide material support to al Qaeda.
“ Nafis appeared
in a Brooklyn court on Wednesday. The criminal complaint against him said he
had entered the United States in January and that he had said he was in contact
with members of al Qaeda overseas. The complaint said he had travelled by van
with a man to a New York warehouse where Nafis assembled what he thought was a
1,000-pound (450-kg) bomb.
“ The man he
believed to be an accomplice was in fact an undercover agent working for the
FBI and the explosives were not in working condition. He was arrested later in
a hotel . Nafis had been a business student at North South University, a
prestigious private institution in Bangladesh, before leaving to study computer
science in the United States. His father, a senior vice president of a private
bank, said Nafis was the more religious of his two children, but in no way a
fanatic.”
2. Other details
available through media briefing by the US authorities indicate as follows: “
Nafis actively sought out other Al Qaeda contacts in the US to help him carry
out a terror attack. One of the individuals he had attempted to recruit was a
source for the FBI.FBI agents and the New York Police closely monitored Nafis
as he attempted to implement his plan.” He wanted to blow up the Federal
Reserve building in New York.
3. Even though
the criminal complaint filed against Nafis in the Brooklyn court alleged that
he “was in contact with members of Al Qaeda overseas”, no details of these
contacts have been given. All that one knows is that Nafis wanted to recruit a
person in New York, who was, in fact, a source of the FBI. He reported the
matter to the FBI and on their instructions introduced Nafis to an FBI
operative.
4. It would seem
that all the subsequent meetings of
Nafis were with this FBI operative who posed as close to Al Qaeda and
that this FBI operative arranged for him what he described as explosives which,
in fact, were not. All the discussions of Nafis took place not with an Al Qaeda
member, but with the FBI operative who posed as an Al Qaeda facilitator. It is
not clear to what extent the ideas for the attack such as the selection of the
target etc came from Nafis and to what extent these were planted in his mind by
the FBI operative in order to make out a case for arresting him.
5. No other
arrests have been made. This would indicate that he was not part of any
terrorist sleeper cell. The FBI has not produced any evidence so far to show
that Nafis was already in touch with Al Qaeda when he was in Bangladesh or that
he had travelled to Pakistan to meet jihadi terrorists for undergoing any
training. This is not the way Al Qaeda operates----send a novice without any
training to the US to procure explosives and blow up important buildings.
6. This appears
to be one of those counter-terrorism sting operations being used by the FBI
since 9/11 for preventing identified elements with a radical bent of mind from
taking to terrorism. It is quite likely the FBI will keep him in custody for
some months, enter into a plea bargain with him under which he will be made to
confess before the court, get him sentenced and then deport him to Bangladesh
on the ground that he co-operated with the FBI in the investigations.
7.Such
counter-terrorism sting operations as a way of controlling terrorism are not
encouraged by courts in other countries, but in the US convictions are awarded
by courts in such operations despite their dubious legality.
8. One should
not over-state the significance of this arrest.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For
China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com
Twitter @SORBONNE75)
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