A federal jury in Toledo, Ohio, has convicted three men for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and attempting to engage in a conspiracy to fight against U.S. forces in Iraq. Mohammad Zaki Amawi, 28, Marwan Othman El-Hindi, 45, and Wassim Mazloum, 27, were charged with planning to travel to Iraq after training in the use of weapons and explosives. They face maximum sentences of life in prison. Defense attorneys at the trial said that the FBI had entrapped the men by using a confidential informant who was referenced in court documents only as "The Trainer." The three men, two U.S. citizens originally from Jordan and one U.S. resident from Lebanon, had been living in the Toledo area for about a year before they were arrested. Amawi was born in the United States and also has Jordanian citizenship. El Hindi is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Jordan, and Mazloum is a U.S. legal permanent resident from Lebanon.
The government alleged in the trial that Amawi was the leader who provided the other men with an instructional guide on developing explosive compounds. The evidence submitted at the trial included a video called "Martyrdom Operation Vest Preparation," which included step-by-step instructions for designing an explosive vest, with techniques such as packing steel pellets and ball bearings into the explosives for shrapnel. During the trial, the government also showed the jury pictures of Amawi lying with his eyes closed in a wooden box resembling a coffin, which the government alleged could have been used for propaganda if he had undertaken his mission and had been killed.
According to U.S. counterterrorism officials, the operation was believed to be the first case in the U.S. of a domestic cell that was plotting attacks against U.S. soldiers in Iraq. In the superseding indictment, the Justice Department also brought charges against El Hindi's cousins, Zubair Ahmed and Khaleel Ahmed. They are to face trial early next year.
Following the verdict, C. Frank Figliuzzi, special agent in charge of the FBI's Cleveland field office, said, "This case demonstrates the stark reality of homegrown terrorism. If a plot like this can be developed in Toledo, Ohio, it can happen anywhere. With radical extremists in our midst, the FBI works day and night with our law enforcement and intelligence partners to pursue suspected terrorists and their supporters."