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FBI raid in Brookline

By adamg on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 8:59am

This just in, from the UHub inbox:

I drove past the Harvard St Mobil gas station at 198 Harvard St, Brookline and the whole place was swarming with Brookline Police and FBI agents.

Photo from across the street.

Related to the Watertown raid. Channel 4 tweets the raids are related to the money trail that may have been involved with the failed Times Square car bombing, rather than being a search for co-conspirators - and that there could be more raids.

Neighborhoods: 
Brookline
Free tagging: 
Harvard Street


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Comments

By issacg on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 9:57am.

Scooped Boston.com by 33 minutes - not bad, folks.

I must have just missed this, as I passed through the hood on the way to work. Any chance this is only about price gouging? The place is notorious for having the highest priced fuel around!

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By anon on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 10:10am.

They needed to sniff out the "money trail" that led to toy clocks taped to non-explosive manure? Did they check under the couch cushions? In a piano bar tip jar? Are they scouring the Mobil's "take a penny, leave a penny" dish for prints?

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By FlyingToaster on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 10:17am.

... to buy the SUV on Craigslist. And drive to Pennsylvania to buy M-88s (which wouldn't kill rats when dropped down a storm sewer, folks, honestly).

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By anon on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 11:12am.

Thanks for identifying the gas station. For a moment there I thought that Shimon's Service Station was a Pakistani Taliban front.

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By anon on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 11:55am.

I live at the other end of Marion (the station is at the intersection of Marion/Harvard) but I've never bought gas there either because of the price.

But to think I was wondering what was up with the choppers this morning and figured it was aerial filming for something. Had no idea it was for this.

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By adamg on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 12:10pm.

WBUR's Andrew Phelps provides the minute-by-minute reporting - and map of locations where raids are going on (as I type, still just Watertown and Brookline, but more are coming).

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By Kaz on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 1:52pm.

The latest info is that a silver sedan parked at the gas station (employee car?) is linked to the Watertown address. The car was the target of the search warrant and not the gas station as a whole.

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By adamg on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 1:58pm.

Somebody who gets her car serviced at the Mobil station reports:

Okay, turns out it's Elias (my mechanic and owner of Village Mobil on Boylston St) Audy's son's Mobil station on Harvard St that is being investigated; an employee, the owner of a silver car, to be exact. Elias Audy is an award-winning, highly respected businessman here in Brookline, known for his charitable work and kindness. He and his family are Christians from Lebanon. I love Elias. Too bad his name and family are dragged into this.

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By adamg on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 2:03pm.

Granted, from his own Web site, but still impressive.

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By adamg on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 2:25pm.

Except that he knew of the raids a few days ago. He's having a press conference as I type this (in a Panera in Woburn); maybe he's saying more.

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By anon on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 2:30pm.

Great value!

What brings you to Panera in Woeburn on this most newsy of days?

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By Kaz on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 3:20pm.

Funny place to hold a press conference. You'd think a Panera closer to the State House would be easier for him to get in and out.

/s

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By adamg on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 6:10pm.

I was in the Panera killing time between a meeting in Dorchester and a meeting in Woburn.

For what it's worth, the Woburn Panera consistently has godawful WiFi (as in all three times I've been there, it's been near useless). If you are there and need to get online, look for the Wayport or Waypath (forget which) SSID. It's actually the access point at a McDonald's and works fine.

Now typing this in the new Panera in West Roxbury, where the WiFi is just fine.

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By Pete Nice on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 6:15pm.

$7 sandwich with the amount of meat that probably costs 7 cents. Soups aren't bad though.

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By roadman on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 4:51pm.

wi-fi is "free".

Personally, I'll take a decent sandwich over "free" computer access anytime. After all, that's what restaurants are supposed to do - serve decent and filling food!

And I have to laugh every time I hear one of those new Mickey's ads touting their free wi-fi. It's not going to change the fact the food is lousy.

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By anon on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 10:08am.

I haven't seen that - is it on Center? VFW?

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By adamg on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 10:20am.

By the Shaw's, a couple doors down from where Finagle-a-Bagel used to be.

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By Anonymous on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 11:19am.

here

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By amanda on Wed, 06/09/2010 - 6:20pm.

http://amandawildnotes.blogspot.com/2010/06/here-l...

hawala: an informal (traditional) value ($) transfer system, used mainly in the Middle East, South Asia, North Africa, and Horn of Africa

Faisal Shahzad: accused of plotting a bomb explosion in Times Square in May of 2010

Aftab Ali Khan: a gas station attendant working for Elias Audy of Cypress Automart in Brookline. Was arrested in connection with said plot and is now being deported on charges of violation of immigration law. He has not been charged criminally in relation to the bomb plot.

evidence connecting him to alleged bomber: a piece of paper and an envelope with Shahzad's phone #, found in Khan's home

I just want to say how much it bothers me that a man is being deported whose only crime was to participate in a community-based, informal, traditional exchange network. If Shahzad had accessed money through Bank of America, do you think the government would be closing down BoA?

Now Khan's immediate future is unclear and troubled, because officials and government, incapable of recognizing the cultural context and circumstances involved in hawala, viewed participation in this system as suspicious. Though Khan was not charged criminally, this set off a domino-effect of bureaucratic intervention that led to a closer scrutiny of Khan's immigration status than would otherwise have happened. The guy probably feels totally hopeless now. And for certain there are spoiled citizens of the US who are guilty of all kinds of things, but never face scrutiny or punishment.

And this story will be buried under the news, life will go on, but the fate of this 27 year old's life just set off on an unhappy trajectory.

Sources:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusett/arti...

http://www.universalhub.com/2010/fbi-raid-brookline

http://www.cypressauto.com/about.html

http://www.necn.com/pages/landing_politics?blockID...

http://www.10news.com/money/23550433/detail.html

http://wcbstv.com/local/faisal.shahzad.terrorism.2...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawala

http://www.universalhub.com/2010/fbi-raid-brookline

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