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Sources told CNN that Vinas has come away from his radical views and is cooperating willingly.
But, according to Juan Vinas, they masked their true reasons for inquiring about his son.
With such a prized asset in custody, authorities took extraordinary measures to keep Vinas' arrest secret.
U.S. counterterrorism officials will not comment on whether intelligence from Vinas helped with any specific strike.
On July 22, 2009, news broke of Vinas' arrest after federal authorities unsealed his guilty plea.
He was told Vinas was picked up by Pakistani police in a Peshawar market.
But Vinas and Othmani's accounts also suggest that al Qaeda may be having leadership problems.
Vinas made two trips to Cuba, gaining entry illegally, and spent several months there, according to Acevedo.
Yousef al Khattab, the chief ideologue of the Islamic Thinkers Society, said he feels betrayed by Vinas.
Acevedo said the websites contributed to Vinas' emerging conviction that the United States was at war with Islam.
On or around November 14, 2008, Vinas' al Qaeda conspiracy came to an end, according to court papers.
But as Vinas walked around the bustling bazaars of Peshawar, U.S. intelligence agencies were closing in on him.
On November 22, Vinas was arraigned in secret in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, on terrorism charges.
Vinas faces a maximum of life in prison but could receive a lower sentence if he continues to cooperate.
What officials do acknowledge, however, is that Vinas became a powerful resource in the U.S. war against al Qaeda.
Vinas, for his part, was arrested by Pakistani police in Peshawar in November 2008 and transferred into American custody.
After a tip from their U.S. counterparts, Pakistani security services arrested Vinas in Peshawar and transferred him into American custody.
For Vinas' mother and sister, the shock of his arrest has been replaced by terrible disappointment and flashes of anger.
"They made it sound like it was for a visa violation and that he would be deported, " Juan Vinas recalled.
After Vinas started cooperating, he provided "extremely helpful information" in targeting al Qaeda operatives in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
Cecilia Vinas and Hugo Reynaldo Penino were abducted by the armed forces in 1977 when Vinas was seven months pregnant.
And he told Vinas that preferably a white operative with Western travel documents would be tasked to carry out the attack.
Back in the United States, Vinas' father received a call from the FBI, saying that Pakistani authorities had apprehended his son.
That month, FBI agents visited Vinas' father, Juan Vinas, on Long Island, telling him they believed his son was in Pakistan.
The FBI agents then asked if they could search his son's computer and look through his e-mail, which Juan Vinas allowed.
The insider descriptions provided by Vinas and Othmani indicate that these violent extremists are as motivated as any of their predecessors.
Back on Long Island, Vinas approached his Muslim faith with renewed vigor.
Vinas' friend Qayyum said he learned of the arrest through the grapevine.
Other friends of Vinas', however, feel no anger about what he did.
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