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Judicial Watch Sues DOJ for Records Regarding Suspicious 2014 New Year's Day Explosion at Apartment Building in Minneapolis Muslim Neighborhood

Documents already obtained by Judicial Watch raise serious questions about source of explosion, cursory local investigation, barring of ATF agents from investigating

Contact: Jill Farrell, Judicial Watch, 202-646-5188

WASHINGTON, April 2, 2015 /Standard Newswire/ -- Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) to obtain records regarding its response to the January 1, 2014, explosion of an apartment building in the largely Muslim Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The FOIA lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Judicial Watch v U. S. Department of Justice (No.1:14-cv-02212)).

The FOIA lawsuit, filed after the DOJ failed to respond to a March 12, 2014, FOIA request to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), seeks:

    Any and all records regarding, concerning or related to the investigation of the January 1, 2014 explosion and fire at the Cedar-Riverside apartment complex in Minneapolis, Minnesota, based on searches of the FBI's Electronic Case File system, Central Records System and Electronic Surveillance records, as well as any cross-referenced files concerning the explosion and fire.

At 8:16 a.m. on New Year's Day in Minneapolis, a building at 516 Cedar Avenue containing a grocery store and several apartments exploded, killing three people and injuring 13. All of the apartments were occupied by single men. Many were hurt while jumping out of the burning building's windows in order to escape the carnage.

The building was owned by Garad Nor, the owner of a money-transfer company, who had initially been implicated as a terrorist financier by the U.S. Treasury Department. According the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

    But within months of the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. agents raided and blocked the accounts of five Minneapolis money-transfer operations, including his company Aaran Money Wire Service Inc.

    Nor, who also goes by the name Garad Jama, was in Dubai the day he learned through CNN that his name was listed among 62 individuals and organizations that the U.S. government said had helped fund Osama bin Laden.

    He returned immediately to defend himself, and nine months later, after he sued several members of then-President George W. Bush's cabinet, Nor's name was finally removed from the United Nations list of entities believed to have terrorist ties. The U.S. Treasury Department unfroze his business' assets.

The apartment building was also adjacent to the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Civic Center, a mosque, which lists the Muslim Brotherhood as a contact on its website "Links" page. Immediately after the blast, FBI spokesman Kyle Loven said the agency was aware of the explosion, "but it would be sheer speculation to theorize what may have occurred here as far as any mosque or any other business in the area." Within 48 hours, the FBI denied any terrorist activity was associated with the explosion.

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