Md. man accused in terrorist support plan
AP on Bakersfield Californian ^ | 8/4/05 | Larry Neumeister - AP
NEW YORK (AP) - A Maryland man was charged with conspiring to help a terrorist organization after describing the time he spent at a terrorist training camp in Pakistan as "one of the better decisions in my life," prosecutors said Thursday.
Mahmud Faruq Brent, of Gwynn Oak, Md., allegedly boasted that he had agreed to provide whatever assistance was necessary.
Authorities began investigating Brent after they found an address book with telephone numbers for him when they arrested Tarik Shah, 42, of New York. Shah pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges earlier this summer.
Brent was charged in a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan with conspiracy to provide material support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba organization, which the U.S. designated a terrorist organization in 2001.
Brent was charged after Shah agreed to meet with him and let the FBI record the encounter, according to a news release by federal prosecutors, the FBI and New York police.
During the taped conversation at a hotel in Columbia, Md., Brent indicated he had traveled to Pakistan and into the mountains for training "and stuff" with "the mujahideen, the fighters," the release said.
Brent was being held in Manhattan and was scheduled to appear in court later Thursday. Prosecutors did not say if he had a lawyer.
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