August 2002 — he must have foreseen that there would be a Muhammad movie. “Ohio mall terrorism defendant facing deportation,” by Andrew Welsh-Huggins for The Associated Press, September 25:
Federal authorities are preparing to deport a Somali immigrant who federal prosecutors say plotted to attack an Ohio shopping mall.
Nuradin Abdi completed his prison sentence last month and is in federal custody in Louisiana while final preparations are made to return him to Somalia.
The Justice Department accused Abdi of suggesting a plan to shoot up an unidentified Columbus shopping mall during an August 2002 meeting at a coffee shop with two friends, both of whom were later convicted of terrorism charges. Early reports indicated the threat might also have included bombing a mall.
When investigators learned of the threat in spring 2003, authorities conducted top-to-bottom searches of Columbus malls late at night after shoppers had left, looking for possible explosive devices. None was found.
One of Abdi’s friends at the coffee shop that day, Columbus truck driver Iyman Faris, pleaded guilty in May 2003 to terrorism charges stemming from allegations that he scoped out the Brooklyn Bridge for destruction at the behest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged architect of the 9/11 attacks.
The second friend, Christopher Paul, a convert to Islam who grew up in the Columbus suburb of Worthington, was charged with plotting to bomb European tourist resorts frequented by Americans, as well as overseas U.S. military bases. Paul also pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges. Both Faris and Paul were sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Abdi, 40, entered the U.S. in 1998 and received political asylum based on false statements, according to federal court records….