‘Limousine owner was FBI informant in terror sting’
NEW YORK (AP) — The owner of a limousine company in the crash that killed 20 people was someone already familiar to US law enforcement.
The company is owned by Pakistani immigrant Shahed Hussain, according to federal transport records.
Before the tragedy, authorities knew him best as a paid government informant in the investigation of domestic terrorist threats after the Sept. 11 attacks.
In a related development, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the limo has failed inspection and wasn’t even supposed to be on the road.
On top of that, the driver “did not have the appropriate driver’s license to be operating that vehicle,” Cuomo said.
The startling revelations brought more anguish to those grieving the deaths of the victims in the quaint town of Schoharie. At least one victim seemed worried about the condition of the limo, according to text messages shared with the New York Times.
As more details emerge about the apparent broken rules, investigators are also wondering whether the unusual structure of the limo may have contributed to this mass tragedy.
Meanwhile, Hussain’s company, Prestige Limousine, said Monday it is investigating what caused Saturday’s crash and has met with state and federal authorities. A lawyer for the company wouldn’t comment further.
In 2009, the government credited Hussain with rooting out radical Muslims in an elaborate sting at a mosque in Newburgh, a city north of New York.
He drove a BMW and other luxury vehicles provided by the FBI to maintain his cover. He also made hundreds of hours of video and audio tapes of the defendants picking targets for jihad and ranting against Jews.
His cooperation resulted in the conviction of four men in a thwarted plot to attack synagogues and shoot down military planes. But Hussain’s work also came under attack by defense lawyers and civil liberties groups as entrapment.
They portrayed him as a master manipulator who entrapped a crew of aimless nobodies while earning $96,000 for his work.
Even US District Judge Colleen McMahon said at sentencing that she was not proud of the government’s role in the plot.