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Sources: Faris under surveillance before approached about cooperating
From Kelli Arena
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal agents had al Qaeda operative Iyman Faris under surveillance for "a time" before they approached him in March about cooperating with the government, federal law enforcement sources said. One official said agents had determined that the Ohio-based truck driver was "a good candidate to flip," or turn against al Qaeda and begin providing information to the United States, though sources would not explain what led them to that conclusion. Faris represents the first public case in which a suspected al Qaeda operative not already in custody was approached by agents seeking cooperation. Once Faris agreed to cooperate, sources said, he was instructed to fly from his home in Ohio to Virginia to turn himself in. The plea deal the government reached with Faris was handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, just outside Washington. Faris was given "comfortable accommodations" and not held in a jail or prison, said sources, who would not say where he stayed. Those sources said the 34-year-old Kashmir-born man who first entered the United States in 1994 had access to his cell phone and was allowed to come and go, but was kept under tight surveillance. The goal, the sources said, was not to raise suspicion among possible accomplices. Officials said Thursday that Faris has pleaded guilty to helping plot simultaneous terrorist attacks to collapse the Brooklyn Bridge and another unspecified attack in Washington. The attacks, planned for sometime in 2002, were never carried out, though Faris had inspected the 116-year-old bridge and agreed to buy materials for cutting its cables and derailing the train. They said he first made contact with al Qaeda members in Pakistan and met with the group's leader, Osama bin Laden, in Afghanistan about a year before the terrorist group's September 11, 2001 bombings of New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing some 3,000 Americans. Faris faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and fines up to $500,000. Sentencing is scheduled for August 1. On Friday, FBI Director Robert Mueller said the Faris arrest was "a result of our working together" with U.S. intelligence services and other nations' governments, according to a report from The Associated Press. In a speech before The National Press Club, Mueller said little doubt exists that bin Laden still lives, and the United States must continue to be vigilant for new attacks.
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