Mass. man faces new charges in alleged terror plot

pharmacy college graduate was indicted Thursday on new charges in an alleged terror plot to kill two prominent U.S. politicians and shoot people at American shopping malls.
Tarek Mehanna, of Sudbury, Mass., is accused of conspiring with two other men - Ahmad Abousamra, 28, formerly of Mansfield, Mass., who authorities say is now in Syria, and an unnamed man who is now cooperating with authorities.Authorities said the men tried to get into terrorist training camps in the Middle East. When that failed, they allegedly talked about killing two members of the executive branch and plotted to randomly shoot mall shoppers. They also allegedly talked about killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq.The 27-year-old Mehanna was arrested Oct. 21 on a charge of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.The 10-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury and released by the U.S. attorney's office also charges Mehanna and Abousamra with conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to provide false information to law enforcement and making numerous false statements to law enforcement.Mehanna is being held without bail pending a detention hearing scheduled for Nov. 12.His attorney, J.W. Carney, declined to comment Thursday on the indictment. After Mehanna's initial court appearance last month, Carney said he was "confident that the American people will put aside their fears and instead rely on the fairness guaranteed by our Constitution."
In a memorandum arguing for Mehanna to be held without bail while awaiting trial, federal prosecutors contend that because the new charges carry a possible life sentence, there is a serious risk that Mehanna will flee, as Abousamra did.Prosecutors said Mehanna traveled to Yemen to seek terrorist training and also tried to support al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations by translating and distributing videos and text that were "intended to inspire others to participate in jihad."The memorandum listed several pieces of evidence to support the government's claim that Mehanna should be detained. Those include a copy of a CD he allegedly gave to a cooperating witness that contained data files depicting violent jihad training; a copy of a poem entitled "Make Martyrdom What You Seek," written by Mehanna under an alias; and material taken from a hard drive on Mehanna's home computer, including photographs of Mehanna smiling at Ground Zero in New York City, site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The memo also contained excerpts of online conversations Mehanna allegedly had with friends in which they talk about their admiration for Osama bin Laden and the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks, with Mehanna referring to them as the "19 martyrs."In the conversations, prosecutors allege, Mehanna and his friends also seem "almost amused" by videos of captured westerners, including former Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll, who was kidnapped in Baghdad on Jan. 7, 2006. She was released after about 82 days of captivity.Authorities also dispute any characterization of Mehanna as an unfit terrorist, citing his translation of a publication entitled, "39 Ways to Serve and Participate in Jihad." Prosecutors said Mehanna's translation is widely distributed and "is the version found on hard drives of other terrorism defendants around the world.""Mehanna is not an inept, 'wanna be' jihadi - particularly in connection with 'electronic jihad,' he was very important and successful," federal prosecutors say in the detention memo.
"The only failure in Mehanna's mind was in failing to fulfill his desire to participate personally in crimes of violence directed at U.S. personnel and interests."Mehanna received a doctorate in 2008 from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in Boston and taught math and religion at a Muslim school in Worcester.Authorities said he and the two other men never came close to pulling off an attack. The men allegedly told friends they were turned down for terrorist training because of their nationality, ethnicity or inexperience and that the people they'd hoped would get them into such camps were either in jail or on a religious pilgrimage.Federal prosecutors said the men abandoned plans to attack malls because their weapons contact said he could find only handguns, not automatic weapons.Mehanna was first arrested last November and charged with lying to the FBI in December 2006 when asked the whereabouts of Daniel Maldonado, who is now serving a 10-year prison sentence for training with al-Qaida to overthrow the Somali government.Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.