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Behind the scenes with NPR counterterrorism reporter
The FBI, wiretaps, anthrax, al Qaida and mysterious disappearances of Somali youth in Minneapolis all placed prominently in a talk that National Public Radio counterterrorism correspondent Dina Temple-Raston delivered at a North Campus luncheon yesterday for supporters of WBFO 88.7 FM, UB’s National Public Radio affiliate.
In a whirlwind 45-minute lecture at the Center for Tomorrow, Temple-Raston, author of “The Jihad Next Door: The Lackawanna Six and Rough Justice in the Age of Terror,” treated her audience to the story behind her stories, describing how she covered her beat and made decisions as a journalist.
She focused on her experiences reporting on such subjects as the alleged recruitment of young Somali-Americans in Minneapolis by al Shabab, a Somali Islamist group; the case of Najibullah Zazi, an airport shuttle driver accused of involvement in a potential terrorist plot against U.S. targets; and the struggle of Charles Ivins to accept that his brother, Army scientist Bruce Ivins, could have sent anthrax-laden letters to members of Congress and news organizations.
Her presentation was filled with behind-the-scenes tidbits about her job. She told listeners that she made mistakes while working on the Zazi story, revealing on air, for instance, when the FBI had begun wiretapping Zazi—information that could help Zazi’s defense team and complicate the bureau’s case against their suspect.
In discussing Charles Ivins with WBFO’s sustaining donors, who lunched on chicken salad while she talked, Temple-Raston described how Charles Ivins initially turned her down for an interview, but later opened up after she spent several weeks keeping him up to date on developments in the government’s case against his brother, who had committed suicide. Charles Ivins finally agreed to meet her, and when he did, she showed him documents containing evidence against Bruce Ivins. Later, Temple-Raston said, Charles Ivins would tell her that, “The moment I realized that Bruce had done it, I was with you.”
Temple-Raston’s story about the vanishing Somalis also ended in heartbreak. Her coverage began with a tip from a source at the FBI, who clued her in on the disappearances, telling her they were linked to terrorism. As Temple-Raston interviewed relatives of teens who had gone missing, she discovered that their departures had been sudden and unexpected. The mother of one teenager said her son, Burhan Hassan, wanted to go to medical school.
“She had no idea that anything was wrong...and then he’s gone,” Temple-Raston said.
She discovered that Hassan was in Somalia, but that he was planning to leave al Shabab and meet his mother in Nairobi, Kenya.
“It looked like I was going to go with them, and I was actually going to have the story of one of the kids from the Minneapolis area coming back to Minneapolis and talking about al-Shabab and how he was recruited in America, and this would be this great story,” she said.
The meeting in Kenya never took place. Hassan was reported killed in Mogadishu.
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