Three Men Charged With Planning Attacks, Jihad
Attorney General Antonio Gonzales announced charges against three Ohio men who were allegedly plotting attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq. (ABC News)
Feb. 21, 2006 — A federal grand jury in Ohio has indicted three men from Ohio for their alleged involvement in an international terrorist plot to target U.S. armed forces in Iraq.
Mohammad Zaki Amawi, a naturalized American citizen from Jordan; Marwan Othman El Hindi, also a naturalized U.S. citizen from Jordan; and Wassim Mazloum, a legal permanent resident of the United States from Lebanon, have been indicted on charges of providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to maim and kill U.S. armed forces serving in Iraq.
Amawi was indicted in all five counts of the indictment on charges that included making threats against President Bush. According to the indictment, Amawi twice made verbal threats against President Bush in the presence of other people not identified in the indictment. Amawi is also charged with distributing information regarding explosives.
The indictment also alleges that at least one of the men researched and solicited funding for their plans, which included getting government grants and private sponsors, though it does not name any government or potential sponsors.
El Hindi and Mazloum are charged with conspiring to provide material support and conspiracy to kill, kidnap and maim persons outside the United States.
The indictment also accuses Mazloum of using the car business he operated in Toledo with his brother as a cover for traveling to and from Iraq so that he could learn how to build small explosives using household materials.
All three were arrested by the FBI over the weekend and were to be arraigned in federal courts in Cleveland and Toledo this afternoon, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Bauer said.
The indictment alleges that as part of the conspiracy, the men would recruit others to train for violent jihad in Iraq. According to court documents, the men solicited funding for training through the Internet and used a series of Web sites to exchange training materials, including instructional videos on the production and use of IEDs and suicide bomb vests.
