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Bronx
Wanna-Be Terrorists May Have
Been Dummies, But
Some Are Deadly Dangerous
When the Big One comes, it
will come with a smile.
NY
Daily News 5/24/09
Take a memorial weekend
stroll past 240 W. 35th St.
if you need a reminder how
the truly dangerous guys
operate.
Uzair Paracha did not rant
about bombing synagogues and
killing Jews as did the four
bozos just arrested for a
plot involving what turned
out to be weapons of mass
deception, dummies for
dummies supplied by the FBI.
Paracha worked at a low-cost
clothing import firm on W.
35th St. that his father
co-owned with a Jewish
American. The fifth-floor
offices had mezuzahs by the
entrance and the doorways
inside.
While the four bozos never
met an actual terrorist,
Paracha twice sat down with
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed,
mastermind of the 9/11
attacks. The first meeting
was in February 2003 at the
clothing company's office in
Karachi. The second took
place soon after at a
Karachi ice cream shop.
Mohammed asked Paracha to
help a particular gentleman
gain entry to America. The
gentleman hoped to poison
drinking water and blow up
the storage tanks at a
series of gas stations.
Paracha returned to New York
and continued working on W.
35th St. He also had begun
his part of the scheme when
Mohammed was arrested in
Pakistan.
Any good New York City
detective could have gotten
Mohammed to talk without
waterboarding. So nobody
should claim that something
so monumentally un-American
as torture was justified
when he gave up the plot in
which Paracha played a role.
Paracha was arrested in
March 2003 at the office
amidst the mezuzahs. He had
an instruction sheet from Al
Qaeda marked with little
stars.
"Always call from a pay
phone," one instruction
read.
Mohammed also told the
authorities the meetings had
been arranged by Paracha's
father. Sailfullah Paracha
was subsequently arrested
while heading to Thailand
for a legitimate meeting
with a clothing buyer for
Kmart.
The father admitted meeting
Osama Bin Laden prior to
9/11, but insisted it
involved "charity work." He
is presently being held at
Guantanamo.
By Mohammed's account, the
elder Paracha at one point
suggested Al Qaeda go
nuclear. That may be
waterboard-induced hooey,
for Al Qaeda had been
seeking enriched uranium
since at least 1998.
"For the purpose of
developing nuclear weapons,"
court papers note.
The pile of ready-made
nuclear weapons is no doubt
a prime motivator in Al
Qaeda's current campaign to
destabilize Pakistan.
Should Al Qaeda get its
hands on one, you can be
sure that the truly
dangerous guys who smuggle
it into New York will be
nothing like the four bozos.
One Al Qaeda operative
testified at the embassy
bombings trial that the
training included how to
travel without arousing
suspicion. He was told to
shave his beard, wear
Western clothing and pack
such nonfundamentalist items
as cologne and cigarettes.
"You have to be nice and
smile," he said.
In yesterday's sunny glory,
I took a stroll past 240 W.
35th St. I recalled how
Paracha's office mates
remarked after the arrest
how friendly he had been,
how he had always worn hip
Western clothes.
I heard a siren and saw
FDNY's Rescue 1 racing up
Eighth Ave. on a job. I
remembered the outstanding
firefighters that company
lost on 9/11.
I then saw a long line of
police cars with their roof
lights flashing, going on
another practice run in
preparation for another
terrorist attack. The cops
lost equally outstanding
people.
This Memorial Day weekend,
firefighters and cops remain
on the domestic frontline,
along with you and your kids
and everyone else in this
city.
The arrest of the bozos will
likely deter other wanna-bes,
but we should not mistake
them as the true face of
terror.
When the Big One comes, it
will come with a smile.
mdaly@nydailynews.com |
