Jihadist weapons stockpile in the USA?
A member of a U.S. based Islamic terrorist organization, Muslims of America (MOA) was arrested last week in New York when authorities discovered he had a large cache of weapons inside a storage unit. A source inside MOA says the weapons were intended for the group’s headquarters in Hancock, NY known as “Islamberg.”*
The suspect, 64-year old Ramadan Abdullah, was previously arrested in 1977 when he and an associate botched an attempt to rob a candy store in Brooklyn resulting in the murder of a Ali Shawish.
While investigating the robbery/murder police searched Abdullah’s Brooklyn home and found 14 pounds of gunpowder, three pipe casings, fuses and chemicals used in bomb-making, such as potassium cyanide, sodium nitrate and aluminum nitrate. It was enough material to construct 50 bombs.
Abdullah was charged with murder and possession of explosives, but the charge was drastically reduced to a “minor misdemeanor weapons possession.” (It is suspected he offered up some intelligence in exchange for leniency.)
On May 31, Abdullah was arrested again after trying to steal four boxes of ammunition from a local Gander Mountain store. When police questioned him about the purpose of the ammo, his answers made them suspicious, and they obtained a search warrant for a storage locker he was renting in the town of Union.
During that search, police found a large assortment of weaponry including:
- 8 assault weapons
- 4 loaded handguns
- 1 loaded shotgun
- 2 rifles
- 64 high-capacity ammunition feeding devices
- flak jackets
- 1,000s of rounds of ammunition, including .50-caliber armor-piercing rounds
Searches of other residences linked to Abdullah turned up another loaded handgun, more high-capacity ammunition feeding devices and ammunition, including .38-caliber rounds.
Abdullah is heavily involved with the MOA, which was identified as a terrorist group in a 1999 U.S. State Department report. A later FBI report warns that MOA “possesses an infrastructure capable of planning and mounting terrorist campaigns overseas and within the U.S.”
Abdullah is an “elder” within MOA and often visits the group’s compound in Islamberg to spend time with other members but does not live inside the commune. He has also provided firearms instruction to the group.
*Islamberg is a remote 70-acre compound in which more than 100 Muslims live in seclusion, following the teachings of its radical founder, cleric Sheikh Syed Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani who has alleged ties to terrorism. (Note: Gilani also was the man American reporter Daniel Pearl was going to see when he was abducted and beheaded in Pakistan in 2002.)
Federal authorities say Gilani is also one of the founders of Jamaat al-Fuqra, a terrorist organization believed to be responsible for dozens of bombings and murders across the U.S. and abroad. The group was linked to the planning of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and 10 years earlier a member was arrested and later convicted for bombing a hotel in Portland, Oregon.
Shoe bomber Richard Reid has been linked to the group, along with convicted D.C. sniper John Allen Muhammad.
MOA claims to have 22 “Islamic villages” in 12 states across America, typically in rural areas which have been used as guerrilla training compounds. The group also has a history of committing acts of terrorism and crimes including murder, gun smuggling, narcotics trafficking and money laundering.
Stay tuned next week for a closer look at these communities.
