A Kenyan citizen has pleaded
guilty in the U.S. to terrorism support charges in a case that
involved Internet chat room and other online communications with undercover FBI
operatives. Mohamed Said pleaded
guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to foreign
terrorist organizations.
A factual statement signed by Said identifies those
groups as al-Shabaab in Africa and extremist organizations operating in Syria,
including al-Qaida. Said, faces a
maximum 15-year prison term when he is sentenced in Aug. 14 by U.S. District Judge
Ursula Ungaro.
A co-defendant, Gufran Mohammed, is already serving that same
15-year sentence after pleading guilty last year.The case evolved from
FBI monitoring of Internet chat rooms frequented by Muslim extremists,
according to court documents. FBI undercover employees posed as online
terrorism recruiters and fundraisers in communications with both Mohammed and
Said, who were both overseas.
Said admitted in the
factual statement that in 2011 he received more than $11,600 in wire transfers
from Mohammed for al-Shabaab and that he had told Mohammed later, "I sent
it and it was distributed among the mujahedeen." "I am sending more
this week (Allah willing)," Mohammed wrote back. Said's defense had
centered on claims that prosecutors could not prove he was the person typing on
a computer in Africa when the incriminating communications were sent. But
according to authorities, Said admitted his involvement in terrorism in
conversations with inmates at a Miami detention center.
Said and Mohammed were
arrested in August 2013 in Saudi Arabia, where Mohammed was based at the time.
According to the statement, Said thought he was traveling there from Africa to
pick up more money for the terrorist organizations.
Before his arrest, Said
admitted discussing travel routes, training and possible terrorist operations
with an FBI confidential source posing as an al-Shabaab recruit. In such
conversations, the recruits were called "tomatoes" or
"dogs," according to the statement.
Mohammed is a
naturalized U.S. citizen originally from India who has a master's degree in
computer science from California State University in Los Angeles. He had been
living in Saudi Arabia since 2011. Said was living in Mombasa, Kenya, and had
never been to the U.S. before his arrest. (AP)