Most of the stories about the foiled plot by a Pakistani man in Canada to go to New York and kill Jews only say he mean to attack a "Jewish center" in Brooklyn.
Typical was the New York Times coverage.
A Pakistani citizen was arrested in Quebec this week and accused of plotting to kill “as many Jewish civilians as possible” in New York City on or near the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israelis, according to a Justice Department complaint unsealed Friday.Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, who lived in Canada, tried to cross the border with the intention of traveling to New York, where he planned to carry out a mass shooting at a Jewish center in Brooklyn, in support of the Islamic State, prosecutors said.“New york is perfect to target jews,” he wrote to an associate, according to the filing, adding, “We could rack up easily a lot of jews.”He also boasted that his plan would be “the largest Attack on US soil since 9/11,” the filing said.
The Jewish Press and COL Live both state that the target was Lubavitch (Chabad) World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway, one of the most famous Jewish addresses in America.
The complaint does not specify the target. All it says is that he planned to attack "Location 1." But a careful reading of the complaint shows that 770 was almost certainly Khan's target.
First of all, before deciding on New York City as the best place to attack Khan discussed other targets:
5. Starting in or around late July 2024, MUHAMMAD SHAHZEB KHAN, a/k/a “Shahzeb Jadoon,” the defendant, began communicating with the UCs [undercovers] on a second encrypted messaging platform (“Encrypted Platform-2”). During those conversations, KHAN told UC-1, in sum and substance, that KHAN and a U.S.-based ISIS supporter (“Associate-1”) had been actively attempting to create “a real offline cell” to carry out a “coordinated assault” in a particular U.S. city (“City-1”) using AR-style rifles, and invited UC-1 to join in their cause to “target[] Israeli Jewish chabads . . . scattered all around [City-1].”
And later:
KHAN stated that “u guys will even have to attend some s[yn]agogue or chabad sessions . . . to check the insides of [t]he buildings.”
Clearly, Chabad was in his sights. The complaint later corroborates the idea that Chabad headquarters, were thousands of Jews attend prayer services, was the target he had in mind:
....The following day, on or about August 21, 2024, KHAN told the UCs, “Brothers . . . we are going to nyc to slaughter them Inshalah.” KHAN also sent the UCs links to a video depicting members of the Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn, a video depicting Location-1, and a link to a Google map showing Location-1. KHAN also stated “Allah make us successful” and told the UCs that Location-1 has “[t]he most any Jews gather anywhere” and that “[Location-1] [is] the ultra orthodox hasidic jews world headquarters” and the “largest in the world.”
The only major Hasidic groups that have their headquarters in Brooklyn are Chabad, Satmar, Bobov and a couple of much smaller groups. Khan's mentioning Chabad in his earlier discussions with the undercover agents strongly indicate that Chabad was indeed the target.
A terror attack against Chabad on Yom Kippur, which was one of the ideas Khan mentioned, would have been catastrophic.
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