islamic thinkers society in new york city. it has a radical anti-american message. you see this flag here? one that doesn t fit at the selden mosque, but the group is entirely legal. as much as islamic thinkers society might put out an extremist message it seems they go right up to the line with the first amendment. freedom of expression, yeah. in this country. i got the message out there of what i have to do so there s really nothing that they can do to me. i happen to understand united states law and constitution and these things and i exercise my rights. counterterrorism officials say that it is through the islamic thinkers society that bryant begins to develop his ideas about jihad and wanting to fight u.s. troops. in a sense they re almost bug lights for aspiring jihadists, they ve got an anti-western, anti-democratic, anti-u.s., pro-al qaeda message.
is helping the group with their plans to return home. those are your headlines this hour. i m don lemon. on september 10th, 2007, bryant neal vinas flew from here, new york, to lahore, pakistan. it had been five years since he d been a u.s. army recruit. a little less since he converted from catholic to muslim. now he was on his way to afghanistan to attack u.s. troops. bryant s never been to the region before. but one of his radical friends in new york, ahmed kaiyum, the acting student is from pakistan. they make arrangements to fly there around the same time. my flight got delayed for a few days and he arrived in lahore before me. kaiyum claims that bryant s
she says they lost touch with bryant when he moved into this house to live with his father and his father s soon-to-be wife. but it was an uneasy arrangement. his father says bryant couldn t come to terms with his plan to remarry. unhappy living with his father, no longer speaking to his mother, bryant was losing the stability of family, losing the sense of belonging. turning to new friends for emotional support, searching for a new identity. it was here that bryant would make a new friendship that would lead all the way to the al qaeda camps in pakistan. it was to be a long journey, and at the time, neither he nor his new buddy had any idea what the relationship would lead to. i just never thought he would have done something like this. it would begin with bryant s seemingly insatiable curiosity.
describes what happens next. within weeks, it seems like he s involved with military action, guerilla action out there. he joins the militants on a mission to attack u.s. bases in afghanistan. in his interrogation, bryant describes hauling weapons to a mountaintop, then aborting the mission as u.s. aircraft closed in. his trajectory, you know, he s shown his ability to sort surprise us in terms of his really, his desire and eagerness to get into the fight overseas. according to what bryant later tells investigators, he is soon asked to become a suicide bomber and he accepts. he may have viewed it as potentially some type of test to vet him as to whether he was really serious about this. you re going to go through multiple paths, multiple doors, if you will, before someone says okay, we think we kind of, sort of, maybe trust this person.
i come here to zarrini s parent s house near the selden mosque in long island. if ahmed is in there, then behind those windows could be the secret to bryant s radicalization. i don t see ahmed, but i do meet his father. thank you. you have a very good day. you too. thank you. good luck. mr. zarrini tells me, ahmed is not home. he s out of the country. but we get a tip that ahmed is not abroad. so we wait and within a few hours, a car goes by. that s him. that s him! that s ahmed. in it, ahmed and his father. later that day, i return to the house. well, ahmed zarrini s father just admitted to me that he lied to me earlier in the day when he told me that ahmed wasn t around. he admits now that his son was in fact inside the house. i am told ahmed refuses to meet me or answer any of my questions. but while i m searching for him, i stumble across someone who will talk.