A Somali jihadist has been charged with plotting an attack on a Columbus, Ohio mall. From NBC4columbus.com, with thanks to Looney Tunes:
According to the FBI, Nuradin M. Abdi, a 32-year-old Somali national, was indicted and charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaida and two counts of fraud and misuse of government documents.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said that in March 2000, Abdi re-entered the United States from Africa, using a fraudulent immigration document. According to the FBI, one of his co-conspirators was Iyman Faris, a convicted al-Qaida operative, who picked him up from an airport.
Upon their return to the Columbus area, Abdi, Faris, and other co-conspirators, allegedly initiated a plot to blow up a Columbus-area shopping mall. It is also alleged that in pursuit of this plot, Abdi received bomb-making training from one of the co-conspirators.
The indictment alleges that on April 27, 1999, Abdi applied to immigration officials for a travel document, allowing him to leave the United States and later return. Abdi indicated in the application that he intended to visit Germany and Saudi Arabia.
The FBI alleges that Abdi’s true destination was to attend a military-style terrorist training camp in Ethiopia. According to a detention motion, Abdi sought training in radio usage, weapons, guerilla warfare and explosives.
The FBI stated in a detention motion that Abdi’s purpose in seeking training was to ready himself to participate in violent Jihad conflicts overseas and to lend support to activities that his al-Qaida co-conspirators might ask him to perform in the United States.
You’ll never guess the reaction from his family:
Abdi’s cousin, Asha Yassin Hassan, said that Abdi was targeted because he is a Muslim.