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34-575: Ali H. Soufan (born 1971) is a Lebanese-American former FBI agent who was involved in a number of high-profile anti-terrorism cases both in the United States and around the world. A 2006 New Yorker article described Soufan as coming closer than anyone to preventing the September 11 attacks and implied that he would have succeeded had the CIA been willing to share information with him. He resigned from

68-981: A Maronite Cathedral the center of one of two eparchies for Maronite Lebanese in the United States, the other being in Los Angeles. Lebanese Americans are categorized as White for census purposes. Easton, Pennsylvania ; Utica, New York ; South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ; San Diego, California ; Jacksonville, Florida ; Sterling Heights , Michigan ; Los Angeles County ; San Francisco, California ; Peoria, Illinois ; Grosse Pointe, Michigan ; Miami, Florida ; Wichita, Kansas ; Bloomfield, Michigan ; Fall River, Massachusetts ; Worcester, Massachusetts ; Boston, Massachusetts ; Springfield, Massachusetts ; Methuen, Massachusetts ; Lawrence, Massachusetts ; Salem, New Hampshire ; Cleveland, Ohio ; Lansing, Michigan ; East Grand Rapids, Michigan ; Albuquerque, New Mexico ; Tulsa, Oklahoma ; St. Clair Shores, Michigan ; Toledo, Ohio ;

102-582: A book recently published by former CIA official Jose Rodriguez . Rodriguez's duties included supervising the CIA's enhanced interrogation program. Soufan strongly disputed Rodriguez's claims that the CIA's enhanced interrogation program was effective at securing reliable, useful information. Soufan questioned whether the marked differences in Rodriguez's description of al-Nashiri's role in the USS Cole bombing from that of

136-411: A box of documents delivered by Jordanian intelligence officials prior to the investigation, sitting on the floor of the CIA station, which contained maps showing the bomb sites. His find "embarrassed the CIA", according to a 2006 New Yorker profile of him. In 2000, he was made the lead investigator of the USS Cole bombing . When given a transcript of the interrogations of Fahd al-Quso , he noticed

170-662: A close working relationship with FBI counter-terrorism agent John P. O'Neill , who was killed on September 11. While in Yemen investigating the September 11th attacks, Soufan received intelligence that the CIA had been withholding for months. According to The New Yorker , "Soufan received the fourth photograph of the Malaysia meeting—the picture of Khallad, the mastermind of the Cole operation. The two plots, Soufan instantly realized, were linked, and if

204-527: A driver and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden . Soufan testified before his military tribunal that Hamdan was a hardened terrorist who had possessed advance knowledge of the September 11th attacks . He also obtained a confession from Ali al-Bahlul , an al-Qaeda propagandist and bin Laden media secretary accused of making a video celebrating the Cole attacks, and testified at his military tribunal as well. Soufan resigned from

238-662: A reference to a one-legged Afghan named "Khallad", whom he remembered as a source identified years earlier as Walid bin 'Attash ; this helped the FBI to track down Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri . Following the September 11th attacks , Soufan was one of only eight FBI agents in the entire country who spoke Arabic , and the only one in New York City . Colleagues reported that he would sit on the floor with suspects, offer them tea, and argue over religion and politics in fluent Arabic, while drawing out information. Soufan has been described as having had

272-472: A relative. In 2005, Soufan approached a Florida doctor, Rafiq Abdus Sabir , pretending to be an Islamist militant, and asked him whether he would provide medical treatment to wounded al-Qaeda fighters in the Iraq War . When Sabir agreed to provide medical treatment, he was arrested and sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment for supporting terrorism. Soufan obtained a confession from Salim Hamdan , accused of being

306-860: Is President of the Center, while Naureen Chowdhury Fink is the Executive Director. Jamal Khashoggi , a journalist with The Washington Post , and an expatriate from Saudi Arabia , who had stirred the ire of the Saudi government, was a friend of Soufan's. When Khashoggi was assassinated in October 2018, Soufan helped erect a memorial to him in Washington DC. In May 2020, CIA officials contacted Soufan to inform him they were monitoring al-Qaeda militants who were plotting against him. He also started to receive threatening messages via social media. Cybersecurity experts hired by

340-562: Is in the Bay Ridge section. Once predominantly Christian, the Lebanese in Bay Ridge are today equally split between Muslims and Christians. South Paterson , New Jersey historically had a large Lebanese Christian population dating back to the 1890s, but only a few remain, and the neighborhood has largely been replaced by Palestinian immigrants. Brooklyn holds a significant Lebanese community, with

374-576: Is the CEO of The Soufan Group and founder of The Soufan Center, "a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving as a resource and forum for research, analysis, and strategic dialogue related to global security issues and emergent threats." Soufan is a Phi Kappa Theta alumnus and winner of the Kennedy award in 2018. In 2023, an honoree by the Carnegie Corporation of New York 's Great Immigrant Award . Soufan

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408-558: The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex ; El Paso, Texas ; Austin, Texas ; San Antonio, Texas and Houston, Texas also have sizeable Lebanese communities. The Arab American Institute reports the top five states where Lebanese Americans reside are: Michigan (11%), California (9%), Ohio (6%), Florida (6%), and Massachusetts (5%). for a more thorough list, click here Lebanese diaspora : Europe Overseas Middle East [REDACTED] Media related to Lebanese diaspora in

442-468: The 1920s. Many immigrants settled in northern New Jersey , in towns such as Bloomfield , Paterson , Newark , and Orange . Some immigrants set out west, with places such as Detroit , Cleveland , Toledo , and Peoria gaining a large number of all Lebanese immigrants. Others bought farms in states like Texas , South Dakota , and Iowa . Many came via the United Kingdom , including a large number on

476-456: The 1980s. He was approached by undercover FBI agent Ali Soufan , who pretended to be a member of al-Qaeda wanting to set up medical care for injured fighters. Sabir was arrested on May 28, 2005, at his home in the Villa San Remo gated community , where he had lived for the previous two years. Sabir is a friend of Tarik Shah , a New York jazz musician and martial-arts expert who

510-695: The American population, as of the American Community Survey estimations for year 2007, and 32.4% of all Americans who originate from the Middle East. Lebanese Americans have had significant participation in American politics and involvement in both social and political activism. The diversity within the region sprouted from the diaspora of the surrounding countries. There are more Lebanese outside Lebanon today than within. The first known Lebanese immigrant to

544-522: The CIA had not withheld information from him he likely would have drawn the connection months before September 11th." He was tasked with the "intensive interrogation" of Abu Jandal over the course of five days in Yemen, during which time Jandal gave up the names of a number of members of al-Qaeda . It was his questioning of Mohammed al-Qahtani that led to the terrorism charges against Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri in Chicago, whom al-Qahtani had mentioned as being

578-400: The CIA's interrogation, which included rougher treatment than the FBI had used. However, in turn, Thiessen's argument is contradicted by the 2008 Department of Justice's Inspector General Report, which quotes FBI sources stating that "Zubaydah was responding to the FBI's rapport-based approach before the CIA assumed control over the interrogation, but became uncooperative after being subjected to

612-851: The CIA's techniques." Soufan's argument was also supported by the CIA Inspector General's 2004 Report into the program. After investigating claims about the effectiveness of enhanced interrogation techniques, the report stated that while the regular interrogation approach achieved many successes, "measuring the effectiveness of the EITs, however, is a more subjective process and not without some concern." The Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility report, published July 29, 2009, states that "the CIA Effectiveness Memo provided inaccurate information about Abu Zubaydah's interrogation." The CIA memo stated that "Zubaydah's reporting led to

646-612: The FBI in 2005 after publicly chastising the CIA for not sharing intelligence with him which could have prevented the attacks. In 2011, Soufan published a memoir which includes some historical background on al-Qaeda : The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda . In 2017, he published Anatomy of Terror: From the Death of Bin Laden to the Rise of the Islamic State . He

680-745: The FBI in 2005 and founded the Soufan Group. He continues to be frequently called upon to serve as an expert commentator. Soufan was a former member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council . On May 14, 2009, Soufan testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee for its hearing on torture. The hearing followed President Barack Obama's declassification of what is known as the " torture memos ". Most notably, Soufan claimed in his testimony that his interrogation of Abu Zubaydah had resulted in actionable intelligence, such as

714-538: The Soufan Group determined the social media threats were orchestrated not by al-Qaeda, as the CIA claimed, but by the same Saudi government officials who had targeted his friend Jamal Khashoggi, prior to assassinating him. In the Hulu miniseries The Looming Tower (2018), based on Soufan's time in the FBI, he is portrayed by actor Tahar Rahim . In the 2019 film The Report , he is portrayed by Fajer Al-Kaisi . Lebanese-American Lebanese Americans comprise 0.79% of

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748-783: The United States at Wikimedia Commons Rafiq Abdus Sabir Rafiq Abdus Sabir is an American doctor convicted of supporting terrorism, for agreeing to provide medical treatment to insurgents wounded in the US-led Invasion of Iraq . Born in New York City , Sabir was raised by his mentally ill mother after his father abandoned the family. He graduated from Columbia University and worked as an emergency room physician in Boca Raton, Florida , (including at Glades General Hospital ) and Saudi Arabia , paying off $ 750,000 in medical school debts, living with his common-law wife , Arlene Morgan, and their two sons. He converted to Islam in

782-504: The United States due to fears of persecution, and populations of Druze and atheists also exist. This information has been distributed by all American organizations, including the Arab American Institute and the United States census team. The United States is the second largest home of Druze communities outside the Middle East after Venezuela (60,000). According to some estimates there are about 30,000 to 50,000 Druzes in

816-614: The United States was Antonio Bishallany, a Maronite Christian, who arrived in Boston Harbor in 1854. He died in Brooklyn , New York in 1856 on his 29th birthday. Large scale-Lebanese immigration began in the late 19th century and settled mainly in Brooklyn and Boston , Massachusetts . They were marked as Syrians; almost all of the immigrants were Christians. Upon entering America, many of them worked as peddlers. The first wave continued until

850-550: The United States, with the largest concentration in Southern California . Most Druze immigrated to the U.S. from Lebanon and Syria. Dearborn, Michigan has the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States, at over 40%. The rest of Metro Detroit has an even larger population of Lebanese residents. Brooklyn, New York has one of the oldest Lebanese populations in America, dating over 125 years; one large center

884-540: The arrest of Padilla on his arrival in Chicago in May 2003." However, the OPR report states, "In fact Padilla was arrested in May 2002, not 2003," and so "the information 'leading to the arrest of Padilla' could not have been obtained through the authorized use of EITs." In 2020, the CIA declassified more of his memoir, which was reprinted in a revised edition. On May 8, 2012, Bloomberg News published an op-ed by Ali Soufan criticizing

918-516: The identity of convicted terrorist José Padilla ; and that thereafter, when waterboarding was performed on Abu Zubaydah , the flow of intelligence stopped. Soufan's statement contradicts the one made in the "torture memos", which were intent on making a legal case in favor of—and justification for—the use of waterboarding and other so-called " enhanced interrogation techniques " (EITs). Soufan re-stated his claims in an April 22, 2009, op-ed for The New York Times entitled "My Tortured Decision", which

952-483: The ill-fated liner RMS Titanic . The second wave of Lebanese immigration began in the late 1940s and continued through the early 1990s, when Lebanese immigrants had been fleeing the Lebanese Civil War . Between 1948 and 1990, over 60,000 Lebanese entered the United States. Since then, immigration has increased to an estimated 5,000 immigrants a year. Those who now settle are predominantly Muslim , in contrast to

986-523: The oath was simply repeating Arabic that was read to him by the FBI agent, he hadn't understood what was being said, and that the agent's primitive Arabic resulted in words like "al-Qaeda" being mispronounced and undecipherable, as demonstrated in audiotapes played for the courtroom. Federal prosecutor Karl Metzner argued that since Sabir had lived in Saudi Arabia for several months, he must be able to speak Arabic. Other evidence argued by Metzner included

1020-493: The predominantly- Christian population of immigrants of previous waves. Christians still comprise a majority of Lebanese in America and in the diaspora of around 14 million Lebanese people living outside Lebanon. Most of the Lebanese immigrants during the first and the early part of the second waves were Christians . Muslims followed in large numbers beginning in the late 1960s. Among the minority, there are Shia and Sunni Muslim communities. A number of Jews fled Lebanon for

1054-432: The prosecution would undermine the case against al-Nashiri. Soufan wrote that al-Nashiri was the bombing's mastermind; Rodriguez disputed that al-Nashiri was not intelligent enough to be a "mastermind". In 2017 Soufan founded The Soufan Center (TSC), "an independent non-profit center offering research, analysis, and strategic dialogue on global security challenges and foreign policy issues...". As of 2021, Michael G. Masters

Ali Soufan - Misplaced Pages Continue

1088-559: Was born in Beirut , Lebanon in 1971. He comes from a Sunni Muslim family. He graduated from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania in 1995, receiving his B.A. in political science . He later graduated from Villanova University in 1997, receiving his M.A. in political science . He is an admirer of the poet Khalil Gibran . In 1999, Soufan was called to Jordan to investigate the Jordan Millennium Bombing plot . Here he discovered

1122-515: Was convicted of agreeing to provide training to Iraqi insurgents. Shah pleaded guilty and agreed to serve 15 years in prison and was the one who gave the FBI Sabir's name as a "co-accomplice". Brooklyn bookstore owner Abdulrahman Farhane and Washington D.C. cabdriver Mahmud al-Mutazzim received 13 and 15 years' imprisonment, respectively, in the same FBI sting operation . Shah and Sabir swore Bayat together, though Sabir later claimed that since

1156-518: Was published shortly after the memos were released, and similarly two months later. According to one of President George W. Bush's speechwriters, Marc Thiessen , writing in the National Review in October 2009, both Soufan's testimony and his April 2009 op-ed in The New York Times are contradicted by CIA documents that state that Abu Zubaydah revealed the actionable intelligence only during

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