CHICAGO – After more than a week of declining comment, federal agents shortly before 10 a.m. today, Tuesday, released the details of terrorism-related charges against two Chicagoans.
Both David Coleman Headley, 49, a U.S. citizen who changed his name in 2006 from Daood Gilani, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, also known as Tahawar Rana, are associated with the Kinsman meat packing plant that federal officials raided on Oct. 18.
The arrests involve their alleged roles in conspiracies to provide material support and/or commit terrorist acts against overseas targets, including a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.
“The criminal complaints unsealed today have exposed a serious plot against overseas targets by two Chicago-based men working with Pakistani-based terrorist organizations,” David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a U.S. Department of Justice press release.
There is no danger posed to Grundy County nor the general Chicagoland area, the FBI stressed.
The FBI also said the charges are unrelated to recent terror-plot arrests in Boston, New York, Colorado, Texas and Central Illinois.
Rana, a native of Pakistan and Canadian citizen, owns several businesses, including First World Immigration Services of Chicago, and others in New York and Toronto.
The FBI also said Rana owns a farm – apparently the meat packing plant operating as First World Management in Kinsman, which is used to provide halal meat for Muslim customers and a grocery store in Chicago.
Rana was charged in one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorism conspiracy involving Headley and at least three others in Pakistan.
Rana and Headley each face a maximum of 15 years in prison for conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism.
Additionally, if convicted, Headley could serve life in prison for conspiracy to murder of maim persons abroad.
Both men have been held in federal custody since their arrests.
Prior to the 10 a.m. announcement today, federal officials would not even confirm that the men were in custody.
Nor would FBI officials as late as mid-morning Tuesday confirm whether possible terrorist activity could be suspect in the Kinsman slaughterhouse raid of 10 days ago.
Around 8:45 a.m. today, in fact, FBI spokesman Frank Bochte said there was nothing new in the investigation, and that he wished he could provide more information.
“If there was information we thought would shed light on the safety of the citizens, we certainly would,” he added, saying he was aware three nuclear generating stations are located within about 15 miles of Kinsman.
“We realize this is generating a lot of media interest, and we hope to have something to share with them.”
Bochte could not give a timeline, saying it was dependent on the Department of Justice.
Sheriff Terry Marketti had, however, indicated more information could be forthcoming today.
He said the FBI had contacted him late Monday to indicate that some documents were to be unsealed following a federal court hearing today and that more information on the case would be provided at that time.
Beyond that, the sheriff said Tuesday, he had not been given any additional information on the case.
The Sunday, Oct. 18, raid on First World Management meat locker in Kinsman, the former Rodosky Meat Packing Plant, was part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation involving several law enforcement departments.
Some witnesses reported the raid included dozens of law enforcement vehicles, two helicopters and a small surveillance airplane.
FBI spokesman Cynthia Yates said the next day that no arrests were made, nor charges filed, at the time of the raid.
However, a published report in Monday’s Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto, Canada, referred to the meat packing plant as an Islamic slaughterhouse owned and operated by Pakistanis from Chicago.
“Including its owner, who is now in jail under mysterious circumstances,” the Globe report states.
Both the Globe and the Chicago Tribune, in a published report in Tuesday’s edition, identify the slaughterhouse owner as Tahawar Hussain Rana, 48, Chicago, arrested at his home the day of the raid, and incarcerated in the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago.
A check of the correctional center’s Web site last Friday confirmed a man by that name was in custody, but it did not indicate the charges against him.
Bochte noted Friday there were no public documents indicating anyone involved in the incident was in custody at the time.
Both on Monday and today he would not confirm the person in custody was the meat packing plant owner.
“I can’t say more than we’ve already said,” he noted.
Bochte on Monday said he could not comment on why there were no publicly filed charges naming Rana.
He also said he could not comment as to whether the slaughterhouse was illegally operated, or whether the FBI raided an immigration consultancy in Chicago at the same time, which may possibly have been operated by Tahawar Hussain Rana.
The Chicago Tribune today also reported the FBI arrested a second Chicagoan on Saturday, Oct. 3., who supposedly was involved in an international terrorist plot with Western European targets, but did not identify the man or the source of the information.
That man was apparently David Coleman Headley.
Ryan Vanderbilt, aide for 11th District Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson, D-Crete, said Monday he contacted both federal and local law enforcement officials about the lack of information being made public in the incident.
“They have no new information except this is an ongoing investigation,” he noted. “Congresswoman Halvorson is concerned about the situation.”
Christina Mulka, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, said Tuesday the senator's office does not comment about ongoing investigations.
Herald Writer Michael Farrell contributed to this report.