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Apr
06
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On March 26, federal authorities arrested Raja Lahrasib Khan, a taxi cab driver in Chicago born in Pakistan for allegedly having ties to Al-Qaeda and planning to bomb a stadium, The Washington Post reports.
Khan has been tied to Ilyas Kashmiri, a high-level Al-Qaeda operative in Pakistan who recruited another Chicago Muslim for a plot to kill the author of cartoons in Sweden mocking Mohammed. Recently, two American women were arrested as part of a larger plot to kill the same author.
The court papers state that Khan was recorded describing a plot to attack a U.S. stadium in August, describing the sound of the explosives as “boom, boom, boom, boom.”
The India Times reports that an FBI sting operation helped lead to Khan’s arrest. He told an undercover agent that he met with Ilyas Kashmiri in 2008 in northwestern Pakistan. Khan is also accused of planning to give money to Kashmiri. FoxNews.com says that Khan told the agent that he has known Kashmiri for 15 years.
Khan also said that Kashmiri told him that Osama Bin Laden is in good health and is still acting in a leadership capacity, according to OneIndia News.
“…these charges, once again, affirm that law enforcement must remain constantly vigilant to guard against domestic support of foreign terrorist organizations,” a statement from U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald reads.