From AP, with thanks to Mohamed Ibn Guadi:
NEW YORK — A Yemeni sheik accused of funneling millions of dollars to terrorist networks warned U.S. agents that “Allah will bring storms” to America because of his arrest, according to newly filed court papers.
Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad made the remark last year after a German court ordered him extradited to the United States to face charges he helped finance al-Qaida and Hamas, prosecutors said in the Brooklyn federal court documents.
The statements _ spoken in English to agents taking al-Moayad from Frankfurt to New York on Nov. 16, 2003 _ counter defense claims that he has no command of the language, prosecutors allege.
“Allah is with me,” he allegedly told a detective. “I am Mohammed al-Moayad. Allah will bring storms to Germany and America.”
Prosecutors have previously alleged al-Moayad was overheard boasting about his relationship with Osama bin Laden, saying in Arabic that bin Laden “tells me that I’m his sheik.”
The government papers were filed in response to defense motions asking a judge to bar from al-Moayad’s upcoming trial portions of transcripts of tapes recorded during a sting operation at a hotel in Frankfurt.