Who Are the Alleged New Jersey Jihadists?
Updated: 43 minutes ago

Michelle Ruiz Contributor

AOL News

(June 13) -- The two New Jersey men arrested at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport and charged with conspiring to kill U.S. troops overseas were troubled, rebellious teens, according to reports. The pair's brushes with the law and extreme anti-American sentiments eventually sparked an elaborate take-down by the FBI.

Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, 20, of North Bergen, N.J., and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 24, of Elmwood Park, N.J., were reportedly nabbed with help from an undercover rookie New York policeman of Egyptian descent, The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., reported. Alessa's mother, Nadia Alessa, told CNN she thought the man Alessa and Almonte called "Bassim" recorded provocative remarks the pair made and built a case against them.


U.S. Marshals/AP
Family and friends of the alleged New Jersey jihadists, Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, left, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, say the pair were rebellious teens. Alessa and Almonte were arrested June 5 at New York's JFK airport, where they planned to fly separately to Somalia by way of Egypt to join a terrorist organization, the FBI said.


In November 2009, the officer's wire captured potentially damning conversations between Alessa and Almonte.

"A lot of people need to get killed, bro. Swear to God. I have to get an assault rifle and just kill anyone that even looks at me the wrong way, bro," Alessa said, according to transcripts included in the criminal complaint. "My soul cannot rest until I shed blood. I wanna, like, be the world's known terrorist. I swear to God."

Speaking out in her son's defense, Nadia Alessa admitted he suffered from severe anger management issues, but insisted he does not pose a threat to the country where he was born to Palestinian immigrants.

"Anything makes him angry," Nadia Alessa, told CNN of her son. "But he's not a terrorist; he's a stupid kid."

In interviews with CNN and The New York Times, Alessa said her son was so full of rage, he began seeing psychiatrists and taking medications to control his moods at age 6. The boy known for screaming at his mother and roughing up his father's car changed schools no less than 10 times, the Times reported.

Alessa alarmed students and staffers at two public high schools -- North Bergen and KAS Prep in 2005 and 2006, after threatening to "blow up the school, mutilate gays and punish women who were not subordinate to men," school officials told the Times.

The Department of Homeland Security was alerted and North Bergen relegated Alessa to a public library to receive his lessons under the watchful eye of a security guard, a school spokesman said, because "administrators felt that his presence in school posed a safety threat to other students and staff."

Despite his behavioral issues, Alessa's mother said she gave her son new clothes and cell phones.

"He was a spoiled kid," she told the Times. "He acted like a teenager. He thought he was a king."

In 2005, Alessa reportedly met Almonte, a naturalized citizen of Dominican descent who in the previous year had converted from Catholicism to Islam. Almonte, who had been arrested for bringing a knife to school and drinking beer in a public park, reportedly visited local mosques and called himself Omar.

A year later, the FBI received a tip that the two men discussed holy war and killing non-Muslims, prompting authorities to begin to "keep a watch" on them, according to the Times. The men traveled to Jordan in February 2007 hoping to be recruited by a militant jihadist group, the FBI said. By 2008, Almonte was posting quotations from jihadist clerics on his Facebook page and searches of his computer revealed he was following teachings from al-Qaida leaders, including Osama bin Laden.

The undercover New York policeman infiltrated their inner circle in 2009, The Star-Ledger reported. Nadia Alessa told CNN she told her son she was suspicious of his new friend.

"Since I saw him, I warned my son and Carlos," she said. "But my son say, 'Always you say about my friends they are undercover.' "

Authorities allege that Alessa and Almonte's separate flights to Egypt on June 5 were part of their plot to go to Somalia to join al-Shabaab, which in 2008 was designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. The men were arrested and charged with conspiring to kill, maim and kidnap persons outside the country. They were denied bail last week by a federal judge who called them a flight risk and a potential danger to the public.

A Swedish woman claiming to be Alessa's fiancee, 19-year-old Siham Abedar, 19, told New Jersey's The Record she broke down in tears after learning of his arrest. She said she was waiting for him in Egypt, where they planned to marry. She denied Alessa wanted to "do jihad or whatever."

"I know it's not true," she said. "I know he wanted to get married. He wanted to have kids. He wanted to do a lot of things."

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