Busted Jihadis Targeted Landmarks In Washington, Atlanta, Canada
ATLANTA - Two U.S. men charged with aiding terrorists met with a group of terror suspects in Canada, and shot videos of Washington, D.C., landmarks that were later found on a computer belonging to another terror suspect in Britain, an FBI agent testified Monday.
The disclosures by FBI agent Mark Richards came during a hearing in the case of Ehsanul Sadequee and Pakistani-born Syed Ahmed, both U.S. citizens, who are accused of undergoing training to carry out a “violent jihad” against civilian and government targets, including an air base in suburban Atlanta.
Authorities say the men wanted to plan attacks for “defense of Muslims or retaliation for acts committed against Muslims.” They have pleaded not guilty to providing material support to terrorists and related conspiracy counts. No trial date has been set.
The terror sweep in Ontario in June 2006 involved an alleged plot to bomb buildings there. Charges against the suspects included participating in a terrorist group, importing weapons and planning a bombing.
Canadian authorities allege the 14 men and four youths were part of an al-Qaida-inspired cell. Prior to the arrest, some of the men allegedly purchased three tonnes of ammonium nitrate for a bomb. In September, the Crown decided to halt the preliminary hearing for the adults and proceed directly to trial.
At the time of the sweep, authorities said Ahmed and Sadequee had been in contact with some of the Canadian suspects via computer.
But Richards said at Monday’s hearing that the two men also met in Toronto in 2005 with some of the people arrested in a terror sweep there a year later. Richards also said videos of the U.S. Capitol building and other Washington landmarks that were taken by Ahmed and Sadequee were later found on a computer in the United Kingdom belonging to a terror suspect there who has since been convicted.
In Monday’s hearing, Ahmed asked a judge to throw out tapes of his interviews with investigators or abide by an alleged agreement not to prosecute him.
Ahmed’s lawyer, Jack Martin, argued that the agents who questioned Ahmed over five days in 2006 promised him immunity if he cooperated.
But Richards testified Monday that no promises or threats were made to Ahmed, and he noted Ahmed was not in custody at the time of the interviews, which occurred at Ahmed’s home, a hotel and an FBI office. Richards also said that Ahmed was not truthful during some of the interviews.
The hearing was expected to last three days. It was not immediately clear when the judge would rule on Ahmed’s request.
If Muslims can target the White House in the name of Allah, equality would allow us to target Mecca in the name of God. Lord knows if we did, we’d turn Mecca and a 100-mile swath of Arabian desert into a glass parking lot. Muslims remind me of 6-year-old boys playing with weapons they are far too young to understand the ramifications of. Like little boys, they’ll thrash around with their cool toys until they kill themselves (and a number of hapless bystanders). Then I remember they aren’t children and I shudder.
January 14th, 2008 at 5:43 pmFor sure Humble. The crap they believe just shows me they
January 15th, 2008 at 7:33 amare the stupidest humans around. I think we should nuke Mecca, medina, and see how they like it! However before we nuke Medina (city in A-Rap speak) we should send in a ranger/SF unit to steal MoHamMan’s body and than nuke that shit hole. we could burn his cropse and feed it to pigs.