Minh Quang Pham, 32, will appear in federal court in New York on Thursday to answer charges of providing support and receiving training from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000...
(AQAP), a statement said.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Pham had traveled "surreptitiously" to Yemen from Britannia in late 2010 and spent six months in the country receiving instruction from al-Qaeda operatives.
"During the half year he spent in Yemen, Pham allegedly vowed to wage jihad... and provided material support to high-level AQAP members, almost always brandishing a Kalashnikov rifle," Bharara said in a statement.
Federal Bureau of Investigation official Andrew McCabe said Pham had "received military-style training and possessed weapons to commit crimes of violence" on behalf of al-Qaeda.
Pham was jugged
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
at London's Heathrow Airport upon his return to Britannia from Yemen in July 2011. A search of his belongings discovered electronic files setting out his links to AQAP as well as a live round of armor-piercing ammunition capable of being used in a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
He faces five separate charges under his U.S. indictment, including counts of receiving military training from al-Qaeda and providing material support to the group.
If found guilty on all counts he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
AQAP was formed in 2009 after a merger between Lions of Islam in Yemen and Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
. The group has been linked to a string of attacks since its formation, including the Charlie Hebdo
...
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...massacre in Gay Paree in January.
The group was also behind an attempt to blow up an American airliner over Michigan on Christmas Day in 2009.
| The New York Times adds: |
...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000...
; and provided it with "expert advice and assistance in photography and graphic design of media," an indictment charges. In Yemen, he worked with an American citizen who helped produce Inspire, an English-language online magazine published by the group.
| Subsequently, as reported by Ynet: |
A Vietnamese man who was extradited this week to the United States has pleaded not guilty
"Wudn't me."
to charges that he supported al-Qaeda. Minh Quang Pham made the plea during an arraignment Wednesday in federal court in New York.
| According An Nahar, it was to have been Thursday. Clearly somebody got impatient. |