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| Massachusetts: Local man charged with planning terror attacks | ||
| 2009-10-21 | ||
| A 27-year-old Massachusetts man conspired to kill two prominent U.S. politicians and carry out a holy war by attacking shoppers in U.S. malls and American troops in Iraq, federal prosecutors said Wednesday as they announced his arrest. Tarek Mehanna of Sudbury sought -- but never received -- training in terrorist camps and worked with others from 2001 to May 2008 on the conspiracy to "kill, kidnap, maim or injure" people in foreign countries and the politicans, authorities said. The politicians were members of the executive branch who are no longer in office, authorities said. They refused to give their names. Prosecutors said Mehanna conspired with two other men: Ahman Abousamra, who authorities say is now in Syria, and an unnamed man, who is cooperating with authorities in the investigation. The three men discussed their desire to participate in "violent jihad against American interests" and talked about "their desire to die on the battlefield," prosecutors said. Mehanna had "multiple conversations about obtaining automatic weapons and randomly shooting people in shopping malls," Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Loucks said. Their plan was thwarted when they could only get handguns, not automatic weapons, he said. Prosecutors would not say which malls had been targeted. They also hoped to attack U.S. troops stationed in Iraq. Mehanna's attorney, J.W. Carney Jr., did not immediately return calls for comment. Mehanna, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in November and charged with lying to the FBI in December 2006 when asked about the whereabouts of Daniel Maldonado, who is now serving a 10-year prison sentence for training alongside al-Qaida members to overthrow the Somali government. Mehanna told the FBI that Maldonado was living in Egypt and working for a Web site. But authorities said Maldonado had called Mehanna from Somalia urging him to join him in "training for jihad." Authorities said Wednesday that Mehanna and his conspirators had contacted Maldonado about getting automatic weapons for their planned mall attacks.
Tarek Mehanna (TEH'-rek meh-HAH'-nah) — a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in Boston, where his father is a professor — initially refused to stand for the judge before the terror charge against him was read at the brief hearing Wednesday. He finally did stand — tossing his chair loudly to the floor — only after his father urged him to do so. But when the three conspirators were unable to join terror groups in Iraq, Yemen and Pakistan, they found inspiration in the Washington-area sniper shootings and turned their interests to domestic terror pursuits while they plotted the attack on shopping malls, authorities said. Loucks said the men justified attacks because U.S. civilians pay taxes to support the U.S. government and because they are "nonbelievers." Court documents filed by the government say that in 2002 or 2003, Abousamra became frustrated after repeatedly being rejected to join terror groups in Pakistan — first Lashkar e Tayyiba, then the Taliban. "Because Abousamra was an Arab (not Pakistani) the LeT camp would not accept him, and because of Abousamra's lack of experience, the Taliban camp would not accept him," Williams wrote in the affidavit. Mehanna and Abousamra traveled to Yemen in 2004 in an attempt to join a terrorist training camp. Mehanna allegedly told a friend, the third conspirator who is now cooperating with authorities, that their trip was a failure because they were unable to reach people affiliated with the camps. The men, who had allegedly received tips on whom to meet from a person identified in court documents as "Individual A," said half the people they wanted to see were on "hajj," referring to the pilgrimage to Mecca in Islam, and half were in jail. "They traveled all over the country looking for the people Individual A told them to meet," authorities allege in the criminal complaint. Abousamra was rejected by a terror group when he sought training in Iraq because he was American, authorities said.
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| Posted by:Delphi |
| #3 I am getting so sick of reports like this. Two weeks before 9-11, a Canadian IP, under pressure from Bnai Br'th, dropped the website of the Islamic Center of North America (the dawah wing of the Islamic Society of NA), because they were promoting jihad training at Taliban/al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. (A US IP picked up the account). Five days after 9-11, the US President proclaimed that "islam is peace," after direct Oval Office consultation from the ISNA, a group that remains to this day under State Dept contract, viz consultation on "islamic affairs." (Easily verifiable). If the ISNA had not been perversely exhonerated, then the FBI could have accessed the phone connections to determine how deep was US muslim support for the enemy. That was never done. Fred Pruitt has pointed to the integral relationship between the ISNA and Jamaat-i-Islami (Pakistan). The ISNA's entire American leadership joined the JI in 1998, in inviting Osama bin Laden to attend the JI's convention. Bin Laden was too busy ducking 80 US cruise missiles to attend. Americans are paying for over a decade of selective indulgence of jihad elements. That makes sense to a moron. |
| Posted by: Bugs Slath3086 2009-10-21 15:41 |
| #2 Prosecutors said Mehanna conspired with two other men: Ahman Abousamra, who authorities say is now in Syria, and an unnamed man, who is cooperating with authorities in the investigation. Cooperating? What a lovely word. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-10-21 14:24 |
| #1 At least they aren't from Vermont. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2009-10-21 13:27 |