“NBC: U.S. citizen accused of aiding al-Zarqawi,” from NBC News, :
An American citizen held in Iraq since 2004 allegedly worked with terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and helped plan insurgent attacks on foreigners in Iraq, NBC News has learned.
The American, Shawqi Omar, who lived for years in Minnesota, Utah and North Carolina, allegedly met with al-Zarqawi on numerous occasions and is related to the al-Qaida leader, through marriage, new federal court documents reveal. Omar is also one of 12 people charged Oct. 17, 2004, with plotting a chemical attack in Jordan. The attack was prevented; Omar was arrested on Oct. 29 of that year.
Omar is a dual American-Jordanian citizen who was born in Kuwait. He came to the United States on a student visa in 1979 at age 17 and married an American woman with whom he had six children, according to court filings and interviews with relatives. Omar served 11 months in the Minnesota National Guard and became a U.S. citizen in 1986.