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| Texas-born al Qaeda suspect pleads not guilty in New York |
| 2015-06-05 |
| [Al Ahram] A US citizen accused of traveling to Pakistain to train with al Qaeda pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to terrorism charges in federal court in New York on Thursday. Texas-born Muhanad Mahmoud Al Farekh spoke only briefly during a short court appearance in Brooklyn, confirming to a US judge that he understood the indictment against him and his rights. Prosecutors said Farekh was at least partially radicalized by the online sermons of Anwar al-Awlaki ... Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, zapped in Yemen, al-Awlaki was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Yemen. He was an Islamic holy man who was a trainer for al-Qaeda and its franchises. His sermons were attended by three of the 9/11 hijackers, by Fort Hood murderer Nidal Malik Hussein, and UndieboomerUmar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He was the first U.S. citizen ever placed on a CIA target list... , the US-born bully boy preacher associated with 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... who was killed in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... in a 2011 US drone strike. That was the first instance in which the United States targeted and killed an American citizen with a strike, prompting criticism from civil liberties advocates that the act was unlawful. Farekh studied at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, according to prosecutors. Around 2007, he and two other students, Ferid Imam and an unnamed person, decided to travel to remote tribal areas along Pakistain's border with Afghanistan and train with al Qaeda, US authorities said. Imam also provided training at an al Qaeda camp in Pakistain in September 2008 to Najibullah Zazi and two other men later convicted of plotting a suicide kaboom attack in the New York City subway system, according to the US Justice Department. Imam's whereabouts are unknown. The criminal complaint against Farekh said that two cooperating witnesses in his case were also involved in the subway plot. Farekh faces charges of providing material support to gunnies as well as attempting and conspiring to provide such support. He faces up to life in prison if convicted. |
| Posted by:Fred |