The Demise and Afterlife of the ‘Detroit Sleeper Cell’ Case
By ERIC LICHTBLAU, NYT
This week’s Retro Report video tells the story of the “Detroit Sleeper Cell,” the first terrorism trial after 9/11. Here, a reporter who covers terrorism for The Times recalls the charged atmosphere at the time and the consequences for the Justice Department.
When news broke a week after the Sept. 11 attacks that three foreign-born men were arrested in Detroit in a terrorism investigation, all of us covering the story had the same thought: this must be part of the “second wave” of attacks everyone in Washington was predicting.
Weeks later came Attorney General John Ashcroft’s pronouncement that the men might have actually known about the Sept. 11 attacks ahead of time.
More troubling, the F.B.I.'s search of a ramshackle apartment where the men were staying had turned up expired airport IDs, extremist Islamic audiotapes, a homemade video of Las Vegas landmarks and an odd sketch of what looked like a military base.
News crews rushed to Detroit, and the media gave the suspects that ultimate badge of infamy — their own nickname. The three, as well as a Chicago man, were called “the Detroit Sleeper Cell,” later joined by “the Lackawanna Six,” “the Shoe Bomber,” the “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh and other post-9/11 terrorist threats.
(More here.)
This week’s Retro Report video tells the story of the “Detroit Sleeper Cell,” the first terrorism trial after 9/11. Here, a reporter who covers terrorism for The Times recalls the charged atmosphere at the time and the consequences for the Justice Department.
When news broke a week after the Sept. 11 attacks that three foreign-born men were arrested in Detroit in a terrorism investigation, all of us covering the story had the same thought: this must be part of the “second wave” of attacks everyone in Washington was predicting.
Weeks later came Attorney General John Ashcroft’s pronouncement that the men might have actually known about the Sept. 11 attacks ahead of time.
More troubling, the F.B.I.'s search of a ramshackle apartment where the men were staying had turned up expired airport IDs, extremist Islamic audiotapes, a homemade video of Las Vegas landmarks and an odd sketch of what looked like a military base.
News crews rushed to Detroit, and the media gave the suspects that ultimate badge of infamy — their own nickname. The three, as well as a Chicago man, were called “the Detroit Sleeper Cell,” later joined by “the Lackawanna Six,” “the Shoe Bomber,” the “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh and other post-9/11 terrorist threats.
(More here.)
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