NEW YORK: Two men were charged yesterday with conspiracy to kill Americans abroad after allegedly vowing “to slice up” US troops in “a thousand pieces”.
Mohamed Alessa, 20, and Carlos Almonte, 24, were detained at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport as they prepared to board planes to Egypt, with plans to travel on to Somalia.
They were accused of plotting to commit the “murder, kidnapping and maiming” of US citizens “at a place outside the US”, according to a criminal complaint filed in a federal court in the northeastern state of New Jersey.
Authorities said the men were caught as part of an undercover operation that spanned 3 1/2 years, after being tipped off by an informant on the FBI website.
An affidavit filed ahead of the arrests said the two men were planning to go to Somalia to join al-Shabaab, an organisation of several thousand fighters with ties to al-Qa’ida.
The two had trained in “hand-to-hand fighting tactics”, as well as in the simulated use of weapons, according to the affidavit from Samuel Robinson, an FBI agent investigating the case.
They were secretly recorded making statements promoting jihad, the statement says.
“The defendants discussed, in substance and in part, violent jihadist groups operating in Somalia,” Mr Robinson wrote.
The Newark Star Ledger said both were American citizens who grew up in the US.
In a partial transcript of one of the wiretaps, Mr Alessa is quoted as saying to Mr Almonte and to an undercover agent in November last year: “A lot of people need to get killed . . . My soul cannot rest until I shed blood. I want to be the world’s known terrorist.”
On US troops overseas, Mr Almonte is quoted as saying: “I just want the troops to come back home safely and cosily.”
“In body bags – in caskets,” Mr Alessa said. “In caskets,” Mr Almonte agreed.
“Sliced up in a thousand pieces, cosy in the grave, in hell,” Mr Alessa said.
According to the affidavit, Mr Alessa referred to Major Nidal Hasan, the US army psychiatrist charged over the shooting rampage that left 13 people dead at the Fort Hood military base in Texas on November 5. “He’s not better than me – I’ll do twice what he did,” he said.
Mr Almonte gave the undercover agent money to put in a bank he could access from overseas, so he had funds while in Somalia, giving him $US2000 ($2450) on April 7 and another $US2000 later, the court was told.
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