[Juliet]

Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationwo...news-headlines

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department yesterday announced the indictment of a Somali man living in Ohio on charges that he conspired to "provide material support" to terrorists and of immigration fraud.

In a separate detention motion filed yesterday, federal prosecutors said that the defendant, Nuradin Abdi, 32, had "initiated" a plot with a convicted al-Qaida operative, Lyman Faris, and other unnamed co-conspirators to blow up an unidentified shopping center in Columbus.

The indictment makes no mention of al-Qaida or of the alleged bombing plot with Faris, who is serving 20 years in prison after admitting plotting to sever cables supporting the Brooklyn Bridge. Faris has not been charged in the alleged shopping center plot.

The four-count indictment against Abdi, returned Thursday by a grand jury in Columbus, was announced by Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Two counts accuse Abdi of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, and the other two charge him with document fraud by making false claims and statements in applying for U.S. travel documents.

The indictment does not detail the material support Abdi is alleged to have provided terrorists. But the motion to detain Abdi, a legal maneuver to prevent his deportation under separate proceedings, asserts that the material support was "himself and currency."

The indictment alleges that Abdi, who ran a small cell phone business in Columbus, lied to U.S. immigration authorities in an application for travel documents in 1999 when he said he intended to visit Germany and Saudi Arabia. "In fact ... he planned to travel to Ogaden, Ethiopia, for the purpose of obtaining military-style training in preparation for violent Jihad," or holy war, the indictment says.

Ogaden is a vast desert area, much of it contested by Somalia and Ethiopia.

The indictment does not say he actually traveled to Ogaden. The detention motion says he "intended" to travel to Ogaden for "training in radio usage, guns, guerilla warfare, bombs and 'anything to damage the enemy.'"

"Current credible intelligence indicates that al-Qaida wants to hit the United States and hit us hard," Ashcroft said at a news conference sparse in details.

Asked why the indictment and detention motions were thin on details, a federal official said in a telephone interview, "This guy is a bad man, that's all I can tell you. There's a lot on him we cannot discuss ... The problem is this is an ongoing investigation and there's a lot of classified stuff."

Abdi's immigration lawyer, Doug Weigle, was unavailable for comment late yesterday. He told the Associated Press earlier in the day that he did not know if he would continue to represent Abdi. Abdi's brother, Mohamed Abdi Karani, said he had been told nothing about the case.

Eegad...I live in Columbus.

[ June 15, 2004, 01:32 PM: Message edited by: Juliet ]