The Friends You Keep...

Former Obama intelligence official secures bail for NYC lawyer accused of Molotov cocktail attack on NYPD vehicle

She told the judge that the firebombing suspect is her 'best friend'

THOMAS URBAIN/AFP via Getty Images

 PAUL SACCA

A former high-level Obama administration intelligence official has guaranteed the bail for the New York City lawyer who is accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at an NYPD vehicle. Salmah Rizvi, who worked in both the Departments of State and Defense, told the judge that the firebombing suspect is her "best friend."

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Urooj Rahman was one of three people arrested this weekend, who were accused of trying to destroy NYPD vehicles. According to charging documents, Rahman tossed a Molotov cocktail at an empty police cruiser that was parked outside the 88th Precinct station house in Fort Greene around 1 a.m. Saturday.
Surveillance video captured Rahman getting into a tan van driven by Colinford Mattis, a furloughed associate of the York-based law firm Pryor Cashman and a member of Community Board 5 in East New York. Police arrested the two suspects after a brief chase in Brooklyn. In the van, police found a lighter, a bottle filled with toilet paper, and a gas tank.

Rahman was also accused of distributing incendiary devices to other rioters. Rahman and Mattis were charged with intentionally damaging a police vehicle with fire and explosives. They both face mandatory minimum sentences of five years and a maximum of 20 years in prison. Rahman's bail was set at $250,000.
Rahman, 31, is registered as an attorney in New York state and graduated from Fordham University School of Law. Rahman is friends with Rizvi, who served in the Defense Department and State Department during the Obama administration and currently an associate at the law firm Ropes & Gray, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon.
"Urooj Rahman is my best friend, and I am an associate at the law firm Ropes & Gray in Washington, D.C.," Rizvi told the judge, according to a transcript of the proceedings. "I earn $255,000 a year."
Rizvi agreed to be a surety for Rahman's bail, making her liable for the entire $250,000 amount if Rahman fails to obey the court's orders. U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie granted Rahman bail due to the "willingness of family and friends to sign on as suretors," according to Law360.
"The conduct was reckless, it was violent, it was completely lawless," Judge Brodie said of the firebombers, who both attended New York University Law School.
"We don't believe this is the time to be releasing a bomb-thrower like the defendant into the community," federal prosecutor Ian Richardson said.
"Home detention secured by the financial well-being of his entire family and several high-earning colleagues and friends should be an adequate deterrent to further danger to the community," Judge Steven Gold said.
Rahman will be detained at home and fitted with a GPS monitoring device. Mattis, the Princeton-educated attorney, was also approved for release on $250,000 bond and home detention, pending trial.
According to her biography on the Ropes & Gray's website, "Salmah is an associate in the litigation & enforcement practice group."
"Salmah also maintains an active civil rights and human rights pro bono practice, focused on prison reform, LGBTQ equality, and immigration," the site adds. "She represents asylum seekers at various stages of litigation."
The Washington Free Beacon also noted that Rizvi received scholarship funds from the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, which was founded by the now-deceased brother of billionaire and left-wing financier George Soros.
While attending New York University School of Law, Rizvi was a fellow at the Palestinian-based legal organization Al-Haq, which was founded to challenge the "legal status of Israel as an occupying power."
Rizvi also received a scholarship supported by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR has been criticized for its ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Before her legal career, Rizvi worked as an analyst for the U.S. Departments of State and Defense. Rizvi's biography on the Islamic Scholarship Fund website states: "Salmah also worked full-time for the U.S. Departments of State and Defense as a lead linguist and analyst, mastering multiple foreign languages including Arabic, Urdu, Punjabi and gaining expertise in international security and diplomacy. Her high-value work would often inform the President's Daily Briefs."
The next hearing is June 12.

Trump Wins Another

Americans say ‘yes’ to bombings, even with no clear plan

Posted on April 13, 2017 by Sam Rolley

Personal Liberty Poll

Exercise your right to vote.

President Donald Trump’s emotional “beautiful babies” justification for unconstitutional military assaults passes muster with a majority of Americans even though many believe chaos to be the inevitable result.

That’s according to polling data from Pew which finds that Americans are just about as likely to express support for the recent U.S. attack on Syria as they are to express concern that there’s no real plan to deal with the consequences of instability in the country.

From the organization: “By a wide margin (58% to 36%), Americans approve of the U.S. missile strikes against Syria in response to reports of the use of chemical weapons by Bashar al-Assad’s government. By a comparable margin (61% to 32%), the public says that Donald Trump does not have a clear plan for dealing with the situation in Syria.”

Among Republicans, support for the missile strike is far higher at 77 percent. A majority of Republicans polled by Pew (61 percent) are also confident that Trump has a workable plan moving forward.

That, however, has more to do with partisan support for the administration than any news of a plan provided by the Trump White House. The blind partisan support for Trump’s recent bombing is further evidenced by the president’s previous condemnation of U.S. intervention in Syria during the Obama administration. Trump’s earlier criticisms of efforts to undermine the Syrian government’s power within its own borders were championed by many GOP voters during the election as a clear departure from the foreign policy style advocated by Hillary Clinton.

Al Queda Methods Move To Boston

Pressure Cooker Bombs Used by al-Qaida for Years

Tuesday, 16 Apr 2013 09:40 PM

By Todd Beamon

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The pressure cooker bombs that were used in the Boston Marathon attacks have been a staple of al-Qaida for years — and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has known about their use by terrorists since at least 2004.

“The pressurized cooker is the most effective method,” said an article in the first issue of al-Qaida’s magazine, Inspire, published in July 2010.

The English-language magazine is published online, according to The Washington Free Beacon.

“Glue shrapnel to the inside of the pressurized cooker then fill the cooker with inflammable material,” the article said. A small light bulb can be used as a detonator, according to the al-Qaida article.

The report continued: “Place the device in a crowded area. Camouflage the device with something that would not hinder the shrapnel such as cardboard.”

“You need to also include shrapnel,” the article said, according to the Free Beacon. “The best shrapnel are the spherical shaped ones.”

Also, “sniffing dogs are not trained to recognize them as bomb-making ingredients,” the article said.

“In one or two days the bomb could be ready to kill at least 10 people,” the article said. “In a month you may make a bigger and more lethal bomb that could kill tens of people.”

The article then explained that two types of explosions can be made from kitchen materials — chemical and mechanical blasts — and the story revealed how to make a pipe bomb from match heads and sugar.

According to the FBI, the two bombs that killed three and injured 176 — including 17 who remain in critical condition — near the finish line of the 26.2-mile Boston Marathon were fashioned from pressure cookers and packed with metal shards, nails and ball bearings to inflict maximum carnage.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard DesLauriers said that pieces of black nylon and fragments of ball bearings and nails were recovered, The Associated Press reports, and that authorities believed the bombs were placed in dark-colored backpacks or bags.

A source close to the investigation told the AP that the bombs were made in 1.6-gallon pressure cookers, one containing shards of metal and ball bearings, the other packed with nails — and both stuffed into duffel bags.

The Boston Globe reported on Tuesday that investigators recovered a circuit board that they believed was used to detonate the bombs.

The explosives, placed on the ground within 100 feet of each other, were detonated about 12 seconds apart, the Globe reports.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security has been on notice about pressure cooker bombs since 2004 — six years before the al-Qaida article was published, The Washington Post reports.
According to an internal DHS memo published on Tuesday in the Post, the bombs were described as “a technique commonly taught in Afghan terrorist training camps.”
The memo then outlines many of the details disclosed in the al-Qaida article:

“Typically, these bombs are made by placing TNT or other explosives in a pressure cooker and attaching a blasting cap at the top of the pressure cooker. The size of the blast depends on the size of the pressure cooker and the amount of explosive placed inside.

“Pressure cooker bombs are made with readily available materials and can be as simple or as complex as the builder decides,” the DHS memo continued. “These types of devices can be initiated using simple electronic components including, but not limited to, digital watches, garage door openers, cell phones or pagers.

“As a common cooking utensil, the pressure cooker is often overlooked when searching vehicles, residences or merchandise crossing the U.S. Borders,” the memo added.
Similar pressure cooker explosives were used in Afghanistan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan, according to a July 2010 intelligence report by the FBI and Homeland Security, the AP reports.

Also, one of the three devices used in the May 2010 Times Square attempted bombing was a pressure cooker, the report said.

“Placed carefully, such devices provide little or no indication of an impending attack,” the 2010 report said.

The 2004 DHS memo mentioned plots that had been foiled in France and Jammu, India, the Post reports.

In 2006, seven pressure cooker bombs killed more than 200 people in the Mumbai train attacks in India, according to the Post.

Besides the pressure cookers, Rep. Peter King suggested that al-Qaida may well be enlisting Americans in a possible wave of new attacks.

© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

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