Thread: 3 charged with planning attacks on troops in Iraq

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3 charged with planning attacks on troops in Iraq
Tue Feb 21, 2006 12:46 PM ET

By Deborah Charles

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A grand jury in Ohio indicted three men for conspiring to kill people and for planning attacks against U.S. forces overseas, court documents showed on Tuesday.

The indictment said the three men -- Mohammad Zaki Amawi, Marwan Othman el-Hindi and Wassim Mazloum -- were part of a conspiracy that began in November 2004 to kill people outside the United States, including U.S. troops in Iraq.

"It was part of the conspiracy that one or more conspirators would recruit others to train for violent jihad against the United States and its allies in Iraq, and elsewhere, and would propose potential training sites for use in providing ongoing firearms, hand-to-hand combat, explosives and other paramilitary training to prospective recruits," the indictment said.

The men were indicted in the U.S. District Court in Ohio and were due to appear in court in Toledo and Cleveland later Tuesday.

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will discuss the indictments at a news conference on Tuesday.

According to the indictment, Amawi is a citizen of Jordan and the United States, Mazloum is a legal U.S. resident and el-Hindi is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Jordan.

They worked with a U.S. citizen identified in the indictment only as "the Trainer." The indictment said the Trainer, who was not charged in the case, had a U.S. military background and was recruited by el-Hindi in 2002 to help provide security and bodyguard training.

As part of the conspiracy, the men researched and solicited potential funding sources for jihad training, the indictment said.

The men were also accused of gathering and viewing training materials, some from Web sites, for use in training sessions.

Amawi was charged with downloading a video, "Martyrdom Operation Vest Preparation," on how to make a suicide bomb vest.

The indictment said the men used code words to communicate with co-conspirators in the Middle East. It said they tried to find and provide various resources and materials requested by the co-conspirators for use in fighting against the U.S. military and coalition forces in Iraq and elsewhere.

The resources included money, training, explosives, communications equipment, computers or personnel.

(additional reporting by Michael Conlon in Chicago)

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11188274/

Three Ohio men indicted in alleged Iraq plot
Suspects charged with planning attacks on U.S. troops; all plead not guilty

NBC News and news services
Updated: 8:15 p.m. ET Feb. 21, 2006


CLEVELAND - A federal grand jury indicted three Ohio men on terrorism charges alleging they planned attacks to kill U.S. and coalition military personnel in Iraq and other countries.

One of the men, a citizen of both the U.S. and Jordan, is also accused of threatening to kill or injure President Bush, according to the indictment released Tuesday.

All three pleaded not guilty in federal courts in Cleveland and Toledo. The most serious charges could bring life in prison.

All three had lived in Toledo within the last year and were arrested over the weekend, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Bauer said.

“This case stands as a reminder of the need for continued vigilance in the war on terrorism,” Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said at a news conference in Washington.

A senior U.S. counterterrorism official told NBC News that the men were recruited for operations in Iraq led by Musab al-Zarqawi.

The indictment doesn't allege ties to specific terrorist groups, however, and Gonzales would not comment on information that was not included in the indictment.

Al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, runs al-Qaida in Iraq, an offshoot of the terrorist organization

The man charged with threatening the president, Mohammad Zaki Amawi, 26, pleaded not guilty in Cleveland U.S. District Court. The two others pleaded not guilty in court in Toledo.

Indictment alleges recruitment
The indictment does not specify if any attacks were imminent but says the suspects recruited others as early as November 2004 to train for a violent holy war against the United States and its allies in Iraq.

Two of the men discussed plans to practice setting off explosives on July 4, 2005, so that the bombs would not be noticed, the indictment alleges. It’s not clear if the suspects went through with those plans.

The indictment says the group also traveled together to a shooting range to practice shooting guns and studied how to make explosives.


It also alleges that at least one of the men researched and solicited funding for the training, including getting unspecified government grants and private sponsors. The indictment does not say which government or name any potential sponsors.

Amawi is accused of twice threatening in conversations to kill or injure Bush. He also is charged with distributing information about the making and use of an explosive device.

One suspect had car business
The others are Marwan Othman El-Hindi, 42, a U.S. citizen born in Jordan; and Wassim I. Mazloum, 24, who came to the U.S. from Lebanon in 2000,

Mazloum operated a car business in Toledo with his brother.


The indictment accuses him of offering to use his dealership as a cover for traveling to and from Iraq so that he could learn how to build small explosives using household materials.

El-Hindi is accused of trying to get a U.S. citizen with a military background to travel with him in November 2004 to the Middle East as part of the suspects’ plan to establish a terrorism training center. The indictment does not identify the military person, referring to him or her throughout the document as “the trainer.”

The Justice Department said the trainer was working on behalf of the government and was cooperating from the beginning of the investigation.

All three men are charged with conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim, or injure people or damage property in a foreign country, the most serious count that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison if prosecutors prove intent to kill. The three were also charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, and harboring or concealing terrorists.

Amawi also is charged with unlawfully importing, manufacturing, distributing or storing explosive materials and with making threats against the president.