Two New Jersey men intent on killing American troops were arrested Saturday as they boarded flights to link up with a virulent jihadist group in Somalia, authorities said.
The men, both North Jersey residents, were charged with conspiring to commit an act of international terrorism through a group tied to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, according to officials familiar with the details of the arrests.
Mohamed Hamoud Alessa, 20, of North Bergen, and Carlos Eduardo "Omar" Almonte, 24, of Elmwood Park were apprehended at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens before they could board separate flights to Egypt, where they were to start journeys to Somalia. The men were arrested by teams of state and federal law-enforcement agents who have been investigating the pair since October 2006, according to the officials, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the operation publicly.
Late Saturday night, the state homeland security agency confirmed a police action at the airport but gave few details.
"Two individuals were arrested at JFK in connection with an ongoing investigation. At this time, we can provide no further details because the investigation is ongoing. The arrests do not relate to an immediate threat," said Jose Lozano, a spokesman for the state Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.
The spokesman might not have been able to go into more details, but plenty are found in the 17 page, PDF criminal complaint against Mohamed Hamoud Alessa and Carlos Eduardo "Omar" Almonte.
The complaint documents the intent to kill Americans, from 2006 until their arrest at JFK where the two were planning to board separate planes to Egypt, then Somalia.
Page #3, under the Overt Acts heading, January 3, 2010, while lifting weights Alessa stated in substance and in part, "stronger muscles mean bigger muscles which means killing more non muslims".
Attachment B, which starts on page #5 of the complaint, tells of how these two men came to the attention of authorities in October of 2006, via a tip from someone who knew them which came through the FBI's website.
The tipster stated "Every time they access the Internet all they look for is all those terrorist videos about the Islam holly [sic] and where they kill US soldiers and other terrible things... They keep saying that Americans are their enemies, that anybody other than Islamic followers are their enemies... and they all must be killed."
November 2009, Page #6, the complaint details a portion of a recorded conversation where Alessa told Almonte and the UC:
"A lot of people need to get killed, bro, swear to God... I have to get a...assault rifle and just kill anyone that even looks at me the wrong way, bro.
Nah, I swear to God, bro. I wanna, like - I'm not - my - my soul cannot rest until I shed blood. I wanna, like, be the world's known terrorist... I swear to God..."
April 2010, Page #16, Almonte stated in a recorded conversation that there would soon be American troops in Somalia which was good because it would not be fun to kill only Africans.
There is much more in the 17 page complaint to show that these would be terrorists had the desire and clear, stated intent, to kill American soldiers abroad and celebrated those killed in the US by terrorist acts.
These men were only on authorities radar because of a tip to the FBI website... how many more are out there that have not been reported?
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