Possible Terrorist Nest Being Investigated in Brooklyn Yeshiva Post
Authorities busting a suspected ID thief in Brooklyn stumbled upon a possible terrorist nest full of al Qaeda news clippings, chemical manuals and weapons literature.
Cops made the disturbing find last week Thursday evening after a landlord found the photocopied IDs inside the apartment of a former tenant on Classon Avenue inProspect Heights and dialed 311.
The tenant, Hisham Khaleel, 35, had been evicted.
Responding officers found 13 copied licenses, all of which appeared to belong to customers from the Vanderbilt YMCA on East 47th Street in Manhattan, where Khaleel worked briefly as an unarmed security guard.
They also found news clippings about al Qaeda, literature on chemical purchasing and processing, an owner's manual for a Beretta handgun, a reference guide for modern airplanes, a video on rifle-shooting fundamentals and a sniper's manual.
Cops also uncovered lab glassware catalogs and a book, "Hostile Planet: The Essential Guide to Surviving Natural Disasters, Pandemics and Terrorist Attacks."
Khaleel's former co-worker Pierre Andre Leonard, 35, said the suspect worked for six months on the 3-11 p.m. shift.
"He didn't hang with the crew," he said, adding that Khaleel seemed to disappear one day.
Khaleel was awaiting arraignment last week Friday in Brooklyn Supreme Court on charges of criminal possession of stolen property and unlawful possession of personal identification.
However, sources said the materials found in the apartment had piqued probers' interest, and a full-scale investigation was under way.
Authorities busting a suspected ID thief in Brooklyn stumbled upon a possible terrorist nest full of al Qaeda news clippings, chemical manuals and weapons literature.