Operation "Return To Sender"

AUG 24 - Authorities have arrested a New York man of Pakistani descent for broadcasting Hizbollah television station al-Manar.

Javed Iqbal,42, was arrested on Wednesday because his Brooklyn-based company HDTV Ltd. was providing New York-area customers with the Hizbollah-operated channel, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

It did not say how long Iqbal's company had been providing satellite broadcasts of al-Manar.

Iqbal used satellite dishes at his Staten Island home to distribute the broadcasts through his Brooklyn company called HDTV Limited.

Federal authorities searched HDTV's Brooklyn office and Iqbal's Staten Island home.

U.S. Treasury Department in March had designated al-Manar a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity, making it a crime to conduct business with it.

Iqbal's lawyer, Mustapha Ndanusa, called the accusations against his client "completely ridiculous" and said he was unaware of another instance in which someone was accused of violating U.S. laws by enabling people to obtain news outlets with a satellite dish.

"It's like the government of Iran saying we are going to ban the New York Times because we think of it as a terrorist outfit, or China saying we will ban CNN," said Farhan Memon, a spokesman for the law firm Ndanusa and Davis, which is representing Iqbal.

Iqbal, who moved to the United States from Pakistan when he was 18, was surprised by the arrest, Ndanusa said. Iqbal could face up to five years in prison if convicted.

Bail was set at $250,000 Thursday. The Prosecutor wanted the bail denied, suggesting that more charges were imminent. "The charge lurking in the background is material support for terrorism," he said.

The probe began after a tip from a confidential source in February, according to papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, reported Reuters today.

(DesPardes News Monitor)

'Unsophisticated' Desi passengers caused terror alert

A bearded South Asian in Shalwar Qameez (File Photo) NJ, AUG 24 - Twelve passengers of "South Asian appearance", speaking Urdu, sporting beards and dressed in Shalwar Qameez were handcuffed and taken into custody upon return to Amsterdam Airport after the pilot of Northwest Flight 0042 notified authorities of their "suspicious behavior".

Indian press reported that the suspects were Indian-born Muslims.

The 12 Desi passengers on board Mumbai-bound Northwest flight remain in custody for further questioning. By Dutch law, they can be detained for up to three days without formal charges.

Their "suspicious behavior" had triggered a terror alert and the India-bound Northwest Airlines passenger flight returned to its point of departure - Amsterdam escorted by two Dutch F-16 fighter jets.

The alert was sparked by "unsophisticated people", according to one news report, "unaware of their alarmingly inappropriate conduct on-board, which included cell-phone use during and after take-off, " reported ohmynews.com.

By a remarkable coincidence, Tim Nelson, who had tipped the FBI about Zacarias Moussaoui's behavior at a Minnesota flight school in 2001, was on board the Northwest flight, the Hong Kong based website added.

K-Qaeda ?

NEW JERSEY, AUG 11 - British police arrested 24 people in overnight raids and said they had foiled a plot to commit �mass murder� by blowing up several aircraft flying over the Atlantic Ocean to the United States.

Most of these suspects are second or third generation British citizens of Pakistani descent whose families hailed from war-torn Kashmir.

Militant groups have been fighting an insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir since 1989 and the conflict has cost over 60,000 lives.

On Thursday, Pakistan's government put Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, Lashkar-e-Taiba's founder, under house arrest. Authorities in Pakistan and Washington would not say whether that house arrest was connected to the UK plot, or to recent terrorist acts in India including the deadly Mumbai bombings last month, reported LA Times today.

Meanwhile, US authorities have cautioned that there isn't yet evidence of a direct link between the plotters and Al-Qaeda. "We're not convinced this particular operation is connected to the al Qaeda chain of command," Charles Allen, Chief of Intelligence for the Department of Homeland Security, told reporters on Thursday afternoon.

These officials believe the 29 members were divided into multiple cells and planned to break into small groups to board the nine planes, says news reports.

The decision to arrest these suspects in Britain was directly linked to similar arrests a few days ago in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, reported Dawn today.

And AP quoted an unnamed Pak intelligence official as saying an Islamic militant arrested near the Afghan-Pakistan border several weeks ago helped in "unearthing the plot".

The plan was to smuggle peroxide-based liquid explosive and detonators onto nine different planes from four carriers � British Airways, Continental, United and American � that fly direct routes between the U.K and the U.S. and blow them up mid-air.

Two or three local people suspected in the plot were arrested in Karachi and Lahore, the Pakistani intelligence official also told AP.

The US has raised the threat level for British-US passenger flights to �red�, its top level, for the first time. The US has also banned liquids and gels from flights.

Pakistani sentenced to 30 years in USA

JULY 21 - A Pakistani man convicted of participating in an Al-Qaeda plot to blow up gasoline stations in the United States was sentenced to 30 years in prison by a US federal judge on Thursday.

Uzair Paracha had been found guilty in November, 2003, after a two-week trial, on five charges, including conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

The prosecution at the trial had relied largely on Paracha's confession to FBI agents which he later recanted, saying that it had been secured under pressure and insisting he had no connection with Al-Qaeda.

Paracha's argument was dismissed by the US district court judge who said Paracha was fully aware of who he had been dealing with. (AFP)

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