NEW YORK -- Federal prosecutors on Thursday revealed charges that accuse a Tunisian man who had lived in Canada with applying for a visa "to remain in the United States to facilitate an act of terrorism." 

The charges name Ahmed Abassi, a native of Tunisia who had been living in Canada.  Prosecutors say he came to New York in mid-March. 

Federal investigators say he met with the men involved in a plot -- first revealed in mid-April -- to attack an Amtrak passenger train from New York to Toronto.  They say the plotters discussed blowing up a bridge at Niagara Falls to cause the train to plunge into the gorge below. 

Canadian authorities announced in mid-April that the plot had been stopped. They disclosed then that they had arrested two men -- Chaieb Esseghaier of Montreal, a 30-year-old Tunisian graduate student who is reported to have guerrilla warfare training and is described as the ringleader, and Raed Jaser of Toronto, 35, a school bus driver.

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Federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York said Thursday that Abassi was arrested 17 days ago. The fact that word of his arrest was withheld indicates he was likely providing some information about the plot to investigators. 

He is charged with fraudulently applying for a work visa "in order to remain in the United States to facilitate an act of international terrorism," according to a statement from the Justice Department. 

Authorities in Canada said in April that an al Qaeda facilitator in Iran had worked with Esseghaier, and also that the train they intended to target was an Amtrak train originating in New York's Penn Station. 

"Esseghaier was simply a bad guy, and dangerous. This guy was purely evil," said one investigator, and had scientific training and the technical ability to make chemical bombs. 

Law enforcement officials say Esseghaier met Abassi during a trip to New York. But they say the meeting did not go well.  Abassi, they say, thought he should be the person in charge. As a result of the failure to get along, Abassi did not have a role in the derailment plot. Authorities did not spell out any further the basis for the visa fraud charge beyond saying it was to facilitate an “act of terror.” 

The FBI has covertly monitored the activities of the two Canadian men, their contact with overseas Al Qaeda facilitators and others, and their possible connection to others who could be linked to the plot. 

"What Mr. Abassi didn't know was that one of his associates, privy to the details of the plan, was an undercover FBI agent," said George Venizelos, the FBI Assistant Director in Charge of the New York office. 

The yearlong covert investigation involved electronic and physical surveillance. Authorities emphasize, however, that this was no sting operation.  It was, they say, a significant terror plot, once which failed to get more notice because of the Boston Marathon bombings. 

Esseghaier and Jaser made their initial court appearances in Canada in April. They are charged with conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to interfere with transportation and participating in terrorist group activities. Esseghaier told the court that the Criminal Code of Canada “is not a holy book” and did not apply to him.

Richard Esposito is senior executive producer of the NBC News investigative unit; Jonathan Dienst is WNBC chief investigative reporter and NBC News contributing correspondent in New York City; Pete Williams is NBC News justice correspondent.

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Updated at 2:30 p.m. ET: A Texas man pleaded guilty Wednesday to plotting to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, acknowledging he agreed to hire what he thought was a drug dealer in Mexico last year for $1.5 million to carry out the attack with explosives at a Washington, D.C., restaurant.

Manssor Arbabsiar, 58, entered the plea to two conspiracy charges and a murder-for-hire count in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Judge John F. Keenan repeatedly asked Arbabsiar whether he intended to kill the ambassador. Arbabsiar, a U.S. citizen who holds an Iranian passport, said he did.

"I take responsibility for my actions," Arbabsiar said.

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Arbabsiar also admitted he agreed to help transfer more than $100,000 through a New York bank to help further the plot. 

When Arbabsiar's arrest was announced last year, President Barack Obama's administration accused the Iranian government of being behind the planned assassination of Ambassador Adel al Jubeir in Washington.

The press attache at Iran's mission to the United Nations then called the accusation "baseless."

"Mr. Arbabsiar’s plea today confirms what our investigation had already uncovered: that he plotted to murder the Saudi Ambassador with members of Iran’s elite Qods Force," said FBI Acting Assistant Director Mary Galligan. "The FBI remains ever vigilant toward acts of terror both here and abroad."

Authorities say Arbabsiar earlier admitted his role in a $1.5 million plot to kill the ambassador at a restaurant by setting off explosives. 

See the original story at NBCNewYork.com | More from NBCNewYork.com

Sentencing is scheduled Jan. 23. Arbabsiar faces up to 25 years in prison. A trial had been scheduled for January.

Arbabsiar, who lived in Corpus Christi, Texas, for more than a decade, said he went to Mexico last year to meet a man named Junior, "who turned out to be an FBI agent." He said that he and others had agreed to arrange the kidnapping of ambassador Al-Jubeir, but Junior said it would be easier to kill the ambassador.

Arbabsiar has been held without bail since he was arrested Sept. 29, 2011 at John F. Kennedy International Airport. He was brought into court Wednesday in handcuffs. He spoke English and did not use a translator, despite saying he understood only about half of what he read in English. Bearded and bespectacled, he smiled several times during the proceeding, including in the direction of courtroom artists who were seated in the jury box when he entered court.

Defense lawyers say Arbabsiar suffers from bipolar disorder.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Kim said that if the government had proceeded to trial, it would have presented a jury with secretly recorded conversations between Arbabsiar and a confidential source, along with Arbabsiar's extensive post-arrest statement to authorities and emails and financial records.

Authorities have said they secretly recorded conversations between Arbabsiar and an informant with the Drug Enforcement Administration after Arbabsiar approached the informant in Mexico and asked his knowledge of explosives for a plot to blow up the Saudi embassy in Washington. They said Arbabsiar later offered $1.5 million for the death of the ambassador.

A second person, Gholam Shakuri, was charged in the plot but remains at large in Iran.

The Justice Department said Shakuri is an Iran-based member of Iran’s Qods Force, which is a special operations unit of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that is said to sponsor and promote terrorist activities abroad.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara stated: “As was originally charged, and as Arbabsiar has now admitted, he was the extended murderous hand of his co-conspirators, officials of the Iranian military based in Iran, who plotted to kill the Saudi Ambassador in the United States and were willing to kill as many bystanders as necessary to do so. Arbabsiar traveled to and from the United States, Mexico and Iran and was in telephone contact with his Iranian confederates while he brokered an audacious plot. The audacity of the plot should not cause doubt, but rather vigilance regarding others like Arbabsiar, who are enlisted as the violent emissaries of plotting foreign officials. This office will continue to pursue the co-conspirators in this plot and others in Iran or elsewhere who try to export murder. Thanks to the great work of the FBI, DEA and the prosecutors in this office, Mr. Arbabsiar must now answer for his conduct.”

Pete Williams is NBC News' justice correspondent. Jonathan Dienst is WNBC's chief investigative correspondent. Shimon Prokupecz is a WNBC investigative producer.    

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By Robert Windrem and Jim Miklaszewski
NBC News

National security officials told NBC News that the continuing cyber attacks this week that slowed the websites of JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are being carried out by the government of Iran. One of those sources said the claim by hackers that the attacks were prompted by the online video mocking the Prophet Muhammad is just a cover story.

A group of purported hackers in the Middle East has claimed credit for problems at the websites of both banks, citing the online video mocking the founder of Islam. One security source called that statement "a cover" for the Iranian government's operations.

The attack is described by one source, a former U.S. official familiar with the attacks, as being "significant and ongoing" and looking to cause "functional and significant damage." Also, one source suggested the attacks were in response to U.S. sanctions on Iranian banks.

The consumer banking website of Bank of America was unavailable to some customers on Tuesday, and JPMorgan Chase on Wednesday had the same problems, which multiple sources linked to a denial-of-service attack, in which a website is bogged down by a large number of requests. A Chase spokesman said Wednesday that the consumer site was intermittently unavailable to some customers, but did not acknowledge then that there was an attack. On Thursday, Chase said slowness continued but was resolved by late afternoon Eastern Time. Bank of America acknowledged on Tuesday that its site had experienced slowness, but would not say what caused it.

Senior U.S. officials acknowledge that Iranian attacks have been the subject of intense interest by U.S. intelligence for several weeks. Last week, the Joint Chiefs of Staff's Intelligence Directorate, known as J-2, confirmed continuing Iranian cyber attacks against U.S. financial institutions in a report described as "highly classified." The report was posted on internal classified U.S. government sites last Friday, September 14.

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Because of the level of classification, the officials refused to provide or confirm any specifics on these attacks. However, one official noted that Iran's uranium enrichment program had been the target of the STUXNET worm in 2010. The worm was reportedly developed by the U.S. and Israel. "The Iranians are very familiar with the environment,” quipped the official.

 

A conservative website, FreeBeacon.com, initially reported on the Pentagon analysis, quoting it as saying,  “Iran’s cyber aggression should be viewed as a component, alongside efforts like support for terrorism, to the larger covert war Tehran is waging against the west.” U.S officials did not deny the FreeBeacon report when queried by NBC News.

A financial services industry group,  the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, warned U.S. banks, brokerages and insurers late Wednesday to be on heightened alert for cyber attacks. FS-ISAC also raised its raised the cyber threat level to "high" from "elevated" in an advisory to members, citing "recent credible intelligence regarding the potential" for cyber attacks as its reason for the move.

The former head of cyber-security for the White House testified Thursday that “we were waiting for something like this from Iran.”  Frank Cilluffo, who served as Special Assistant to the President for Homeland Security under President George W. Bush, is currently an associate vice president at George Washington University and heads the Homeland Security Policy Institute. Cilluffo testified in a previously scheduled appearance before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Homeland Security, saying “the government of Iran and its terrorist proxies are serious concerns in the cyber context. What Iran may lack in capability, it makes up for in intent.  They do not need highly sophisticated capabilities—just intent and cash—as there exists an arms bazaar of cyber weapons, allowing Iran to buy or rent the tools they need or seek.”

The statement by the purported Muslim hackers, posted on Tuesday on Pastebin, an online bulletin board, reads in full: "In the name of Allah the companionate the merciful. My soul is devoted to you Dear Prophet of Allah. Dear Muslim youths, Muslims Nations and are noblemen. When Arab nations rose against their corrupt regimes (those who support Zionist regime) at the other hand when, Crucify infidels are terrified and they are no more supporting human rights. United States of America with the help of Zionist Regime made a Sacrilegious movie insulting all the religions not only Islam. All the Muslims worldwide must unify and Stand against the action, Muslims must do whatever is necessary to stop spreading this movie. We will attack them for this insult with all we have. All the Muslim youths who are active in the Cyber world will attack to American and Zionist Web bases as much as needed such that they say that they are sorry about that insult. We, Cyber fighters of Izz ad-din Al qassam will attack the Bank of America and New York Stock Exchange for the first step. These Targets are properties of American-Zionist Capitalists. This attack will be started today at 2 pm. GMT. This attack will continue till the Erasing of that nasty movie. Beware this attack can vary in type. Down with modern infidels. Allah is the Greatest. Allah is the Greatest."

There was no report of an attack on the New York Stock Exchange.

Also on Thursday, the U.S. disclosed that it has  bought $70,000 worth of air time on seven Pakistani television channels to air an ad which shows President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denouncing the anti-Islamic video. In the ad, President Obama says, "Since our founding the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths. We reject all efforts to denigrate religious beliefs of others." Clinton appears after Obama and says, "Let me state very clearly that the United States has absolutely nothing to do with this video. We absolutely reject its contents. America's commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation."

Pakistan was added Wednesday to the State Department's list of countries to which Americans should avoid travel, joining Lebanon and Tunisia, following protests across the Middle East and North Africa and the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which American Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed. 

Robert Windrem is a senior investigative correspondent for NBC News. Jim  Miklaszewski is the chief Pentagon correspondent for NBC News. Patti Domm, executive news editor at CNBC and CNBC.com, contributed to this report.

Analysis: 'Manufactured outrage' behind Middle East protests

 

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WASHINGTON -- Osama bin Laden's death sent al-Qaida into a decline that will be hard to reverse, the United States said on Tuesday in a report that found terrorist attacks last year fell to their lowest level since 2005.

Describing 2011 as a "landmark year," the United States said other top al-Qaida members killed last year included Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, reportedly the militant organization's No. 2 figure after bin Laden's death, and Anwar al-Awlaki, who led its lethal affiliate in Yemen.

"The loss of bin Laden and these other key operatives puts the network on a path of decline that will be difficult to reverse," the State Department said in its annual "Country Reports on Terrorism" document, which covers calendar year 2011.

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The report attributed the killings, which included the May 2011 raid in which U.S. commandos shot bin Laden in Pakistan, to improved cooperation on counterterrorism. But it also said al-Qaida is adaptable and poses "an enduring and serious threat."

While saying there were no terrorist attacks in the United States last year, the report asserted that the U.S. government remains concerned about "threats to the homeland," citing the foiled 2009 Christmas Day attempt by the Nigerian "underwear bomber" who sought to blow up a Detroit-bound aircraft.

The report included a statistical annex prepared by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) that showed the overall number of terrorist attacks worldwide fell to 10,283 last year from 11,641 in 2010.

Panetta: Only a 'small handful' of top al-Qaida targets left

The number of worldwide fatalities fell to 12,533 last year from 13,193 the year before, according to the statistics, which NCTC issued in a report published on June 1.

That was the lowest level since 2005, when there were more than 11,000 attacks and more than 14,000 fatalities. The general decline in terrorism-related fatalities -- which peaked at more than 22,000 in 2007 -- reflects, in part, less violence in Iraq.

The report added: 

Sunni extremists accounted for the greatest number of terrorist attacks and fatalities for the third consecutive year. More than 5,700 incidents were attributed to Sunni extremists, accounting for nearly 56 percent of all attacks and about 70 percent of all fatalities ... Secular, political, and anarchist groups were the next largest category of perpetrators, conducting 2,283 attacks with 1,926 fatalities, a drop of 5 percent and 9 percent, respectively, from 2010.

The State Department report said that as al-Qaida's "core has gotten weaker," affiliated groups have gained ground, citing al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula as a particular threat and voicing concern about al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

It also reported an increase in terrorist attacks in Africa, due largely to Nigeria's Boko Haram militant group, as well as in the Western Hemisphere, which it attributed chiefly to FARC insurgents in Colombia.

Daniel Benjamin, the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism, said last year was also significant for the "Arab Spring" of popular protests and what he described as its rebuff to al-Qaida's ideology.

"We saw millions of citizens throughout the Middle East advance peaceful public demands for change without any reference to al-Qaida's incendiary world view," he said, adding that upheavals also present risks.

"Revolutionary transformations have many bumps in the road," he added. "Inspiring as the moment may be, we are not blind to the attendant perils."

The report cites Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria as state sponsors of terrorism.

It added: 

Al-Qaida and its affiliates and adherents are far from the only terrorist threat the United States faces. Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, continues to undermine international efforts to promote peace and democracy and threatens stability, especially in the Middle East and South Asia. Its use of terrorism as an instrument of policy was exemplified by the involvement of elements of the Iranian regime in the plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in Washington, a conspiracy that the international community strongly condemned through a UN General Assembly resolution in November.

It highlighted that Syria was "mired in significant civil unrest for most of 2011" but "continued its strong partnership" with Iran.

The report added:

Syria has laws on the books pertaining to counterterrorism and terrorist financing, but it largely used these legal instruments against opponents of the regime, including political protesters and other members of the growing oppositionist movement.

The State Department also highlighted other forms of violent extremism around the world -- including attacks by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that killed at least 88 people; anarchists in Greece and Italy targeting government offices, foreign missions and symbols of the state; as well as dissident Republican groups in Northern Ireland.

The National Counterterrorism Center's annex also highlighted:

• Attacks on government facilities decreased by about 43 percent from 2010, from 796 attacks to 453 attacks in 2011.
• There was a sharp increase in the number of attacks directed at energy infrastructure, including fuel tankers, fuel pipelines and electrical networks, rising from 299 attacks in 2010 to 438 attacks in 2011.
• The number of attacks directed at public places declined in each of the past five years, from a high of 4,121 attacks in 2007 to 2,186 attacks in 2011.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON -- A federal grand jury has indicted two men, one from Iran and the other from China, on charges of conspiring to send materials from the United States to Iran for the purpose of enriching uranium, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday.

Using a Chinese company as a go-between to avoid trade sanctions, the men tried for three years to obtain U.S. materials, such as high-strength steel, that could be used in an Iranian nuclear program, the department said.

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Iranian citizen Parviz Khaki was arrested in May in the Philippines, while the other man, Zongcheng Yi of China, remains at large, the department said.

The two men succeeded in illegally exporting lathes and nickel-alloy wire from the United States to China and then to Iran around June 2009, according to the indictment filed by the Justice Department.

It said the men purchased the materials from U.S. companies without divulging the ultimate destination. They also did not have export licenses required for shipments to countries such as Iran that are under U.S. sanctions.

Other attempts to obtain materials failed, the indictment says.

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Khaki allegedly began talking with an undercover U.S. federal agent in 2009, including in e-mails in which he tried to acquire radioactive source material. The e-mails continued into 2011, the indictment says.

Lisa Monaco, assistant attorney general for national security, said the indictment "sheds light on the reach of Iran's illegal procurement networks and the importance of keeping U.S. nuclear-related materials from being exploited by Iran."

"Iranian procurement networks continue to target U.S. and Western companies for technology acquisition by using fraud, front companies and middlemen in nations around the globe," Monaco said in a statement.

The 24-page indictment was handed up by a grand jury in Washington on Thursday and released on Friday. It does not name the U.S. companies that Khaki and Yi allegedly approached.

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Updated at 6 p.m. ET: A Weston, Fla., family has won a landmark $323 million court decision against Iran and Syria, six years after their son was killed by a suicide bomber in Tel Aviv. When they’ll see the money is another matter.

A U.S. federal judge awarded Tuly and Cheryl Wultz the judgment against Iran for financially supporting the Islamic Jihad movement and Syria for allowing the group to train in its territory. The lawsuit was filed by an Israeli advocacy group on behalf of the family. The award includes $300 million in punitive damages.

Tuly Wultz remembers like it was yesterday how the terrorist looked moments before the April 17, 2006, blast that killed his son, Daniel, when they were vacationing in Israel. They were having lunch in Tel Aviv when the suicide bomber approached, standing 2 feet away from Daniel Wultz, 16.

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Read the original story at NBCMiami.com

“I tried to jump on Daniel but he already detonated and the bomb was over 40 pounds of explosives,” Tuly Wultz recalled in an interview with NBC Miami. He was severely injured, and his son and 10 other people were killed in the attack by an Islamic Jihad militant.

“My heart is still bleeding for Daniel. I’ll never be recovered from that,” the father said.

Daniel Wultz died from his injuries on May 14, 2006.

On Monday, the sixth anniversary of his death, his parents received word of the court victory.

Wultz Attorney Robert Tolchin told msnbc.com that with the court judgment in hand his clients can seek Iranian and Syrian assets to collect the award.

Tolchin said he couldn’t be specific, but he would explore “various avenues.”

“There is a lot of litigation by people seeking the turnover of Iranian assets,” Tolchin said. “The Iranians have kept U.S. courts busy.”

The case was brought under a special provision of federal law that allows U.S. citizens to take court actions against foreign states providing support for terrorism.

As in the Wultz case, Iran often does not fight against a judgment, but hires major U.S. firms to fight the collection of the award, Tolchin said.

Syria, on the other hand, did fight the claim and was represented in court by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

"This is a sad result following from a tragic incident," Clark told msnbc.com. "Compensation should come from persons clearly responsible who committed the act. The idea that you can become a multimillionaire by getting some friend or relative killed is not terribly healthy."

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Clark said he defended Syria only over the issue of it being a sovereign state that should face the same protection from lawsuits as all states, which are considered equal under United Nations principles.

There were no facts to support the idea that Syria or Iran were present or had advance knowledge of the Tel Aviv bombing, Clark said.

He took issue with the federal law that allows a few Americans injured by terrorist acts to be paid “a lot of money” when thousands more, especially soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, cannot have the same access to compensation when they are hurt by roadside bombs or in other non-combat attacks.  

"Iran and Syria are foreign states with substantial wealth and that have expended significant resources sponsoring terrorism," wrote Judge Royce C. Lamberth in his ruling.

"Barbaric acts like the April 17, 2006 suicide bombing have no place in civilized society and represent a moral depravity that knows no bounds."

The Wultzes say they are pleased with the decision, which they say is just one step towards justice and a way to ensure their son’s death was not in vain.

“This judgment was important because it’s the first time that there’s a judgment that concerns terrorism against Syria,” Cheryl Wultz said.

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Four months after Iranian-born medical researcher and activist Gelareh Bagherzadeh was gunned down in her car just yards away from her family’s home in west Houston, authorities are hoping the offer of a sizable cash reward will help solve her killing.

At a press conference Tuesday, the Houston chapter of Crime Stoppers announced it was increasing a cash reward to $200,000 for information leading to an arrest or charges in the case. It’s the largest cash reward ever offered for a Crime Stoppers tip not only in Houston, but in the nation.

“We don’t want to wait for justice in this case,” said Katherine Cabaniss, executive director of Crime Stoppers of Houston.

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Houston Police Sgt. J.C. Padilla said investigators still have no motive in Bagherzadeh’s slaying and haven’t ruled anything out. “The more we talk to people, the more we realize we need the community’s help,” he said.

The 30-year-old Bagherzade was shot to death Jan. 16 while in her car, just yards away from her family’s townhome in the well-to-do Galleria area. Police said at the time that Bagherzade was on her cellphone talking to her ex-boyfriend when someone outside the car shot her in the head through the passenger-side window.

The boyfriend told police he heard a loud thud and then a screeching noise. The victim's car crashed into a neighbor’s garage door.

Bagherzadeh moved to the U.S. several years ago and was studying molecular genetic technology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Bagherzadeh was known for speaking out on behalf of Iranian women’s civil rights. She was an active member of SabzHouston, a Houston-based group that was formed to protest the 2009 election results in Iran. The group contends the results, which declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the landslide winner, were a sham.

Bagherzade's slaying is perplexing because her purse and other belongings were left untouched in the car, and she had no known enemies.

Police have said there’s no evidence she was shot because of her Iranian activism, but that hasn’t stopped a slew of unsubstantiated rumors from surfacing online that she was assassinated -- by Iranian government agents, by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency or  by some other nefarious group.

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“It has been four months since my sister was senselessly killed behind our house," Ali Bagherzadeh, the victim’s brother, said at Tuesday's press conference. "As a community we should be outraged at the loss of a talented and beautiful person."

The previous largest reward offered by Crime Stoppers was $100,000 for tips in the 2003 bludgeoning deaths of four young people in the Clear Lake area, also in Houston. Someone came forward in 2006 with a tip that helped solve that case, Cabaniss said.

"The cash reward in that case was offered for three years. The significance of that is that we recognize that sometimes it takes time for the person who knows who the shooter is to make the phone call that solves the case," Cabaniss told msnbc.com. “We are hoping that in this case it doesn't take years for justice to be served. We remind the person who knows who the shooter is that one phone call today is worth $200,000. One name, one shooter, $200,000.”

Crime Stoppers is a nonprofit group that offers cash rewards to people who provide anonymous tips that lead to an arrest of people responsible for a crime. The first Crime Stoppers program was formed in 1976 in Albuquerque, N.M. Today, there are Crime Stoppers programs across the U.S. and around the world.

The organization says that it has paid more than $92 million in rewards and that its tips have led to nearly 612,000 arrests.

Anyone who has any information about the Bagherzadeh case is urged to call the Crime Stoppers hot line at (713) 222-8477 or submit tips online at www.crimestoppers.org. Tips can also be sent by text message: text TIP610 plus your tip to CRIMES (274637). All tipsters remain anonymous.

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