Assem Hammoud

Assem Hammoud (Arabic: عاصم حمود‎), aka Amir Andalousi, a Beirut native, is an alleged Al Qaeda operative living in Lebanon who was charged with plotting a mission to blow up the PATH train tunnels beneath the Hudson River between New Jersey and lower Manhattan, New York City, United States with a team of suicide bombers with backpack explosives.

Some U.S. counterterrorism officials cast doubt on the significance of the alleged plot and some authorities questioned first reports that appeared in the New York Daily News, that terrorists sought to flood Lower Manhattan and the Financial District by bombing tunnels. They said there was no evidence that the plotters had taken any actions, such as buying explosives or sending money. Two U.S. counterterrorism officials, speaking to The Washington Post, discounted the ability of the conspirators to carry out an attack.

He was arrested by the Lebanese Armed Forces, a division of the Internal Security Forces (ISF), in the Mouseitbeh area of west Beirut on April 27, 2006. The announcement of his capture was made July 7, 2006 by FBI Assistant Director Mark J. Mershon. Press reports on Tuesday, March 17, 2009, advised that he had been released on bail back in June, 2008.