Evidence seized during the arrest nearly two weeks ago of a top al-Qaida terrorist leader and an associate in Pakistan has sparked investigations in Detroit and other U.S. cities of possible local links to terror cells, a law enforcement official said Tuesday. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, declined to tell The Detroit News what the FBI was investigating here. A television network report said documents, computer hard drives and cellular telephones seized March 1 from a home in Rawalpindi, Pakistan — where Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his aide, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hisawi, were staying — may document the financing of terrorist operations. FBI spokeswoman Dawn Clenney said the bureau’s Detroit office had “absolutely no comment” on the report. Several other federal officials interviewed by The News said the FBI has received new leads in recent days, but wouldn’t say if they were attributable to the arrest of Mohammed and al-Hisawi. NBC reported that the material “triggered new investigations of possible al-Qaida operatives in eight U.S. cities, including New York and Detroit.” Arab Americans in Metro Detroit said they are skeptical of the possibility that new information about terror cells in the United States might have been discovered. “We don’t know what is genuine and what isn’t,” said Imad Hamad, regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. “Every week, there is a new allegation. There are a lot of false allegations.” Full Story
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