The Associated Press reports a federal grand jury indicted three Ohio men on charges they planned attacks on U.S. military personnel in Iraq. The men were arrested over the weekend.
According to Toledo's WTOL TV, the suspects are Mohammad Zaki Amawi, Marwan Othman El-Hindi, and Wassim Mazloum. Amawi is a citizen of the US and also a citizen of Jordan. El-Hindi is a naturalized American citizen who was born in Jordan. Mazloum is a legal permanent resident of the US, who came here from Lebanon.
The indictment accuses Mazloum of offering to use his car dealership as a cover for traveling to and from Iraq so that he could learn how to build small explosives using household materials.
Prosecutors say the three conspired to wage a "holy war" against the United States and coalition forces in the Middle East.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says it was work by the F.B.I. and the Toledo Joint Terrorism Task Force that led to the indictments.
In remarks prepared for the Ohio terrorism indictments press conference Attorney General Alberto Gonzales offered this snapshot of the charges:
-The three defendants educated themselves on how to make and use explosives and suicide bomb vests. The materials included both plastic explosives and nitroglycerine.
-The three carried out their own jihad military training exercises, which included the use of firearms and the shooting of weapons; one sought mortar training.
-The three defendants also conspired to provide material support including money, training, communications equipment, computers or personnel, including themselves, to co-conspirators in the Middle East.
-The three also planned to use a business to justify travel to Iraq and conspired to establish a dummy nonprofit tax education organization to raise funds for the jihad.
-Amawi also downloaded a video from a “mujahideen web site” which included step-by-step instruction on how to use a suicide bomb vest and passed this information on to another individual.
-Amawi also made verbal threats to kill or inflict bodily harm against the President of the United States.
Count 1 of the indictment, alleges the three reportedly conspired to recruit and train others for a violent jihad against United States forces and US allies in Iraq. They also reportedly put together the funding needed for the operation, collected the equipment needed, and even traveled together to a local indoor shooting range for target practice.
Count 2, alleges the men planed to kill US citizens abroad in addition to service members.
The indictment is available here.
This another that we are indeed at war and there are terrorists here and abroad that mean us harm. As President Bush has said:
“We are safer … but we're not yet safe. America remains at risk – so we must remain vigilant. We will stay on the offense, we will hunt down the terrorists, and we will never rest until this threat to the American people is removed.”
UPDATE: More at the The Counterterrorism Blog, which in this related post asks whether immigration fraud was committed by these terrorist wannabees. Still more at RightWinged, The Strata-Phere and Flopping Aces.
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