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Politics : Stop the War! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lorne who wrote (18561)	6/19/2003 5:39:53 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Respond to of 21614

That Faris character mentioned in there? He's up for hard time. cnn.com Ashcroft: Ohio trucker admits to terror ties WASHINGTON (CNN) --An Ohio truck driver, reportedly part of a plot to bring down New York's Brooklyn Bridge, has agreed to plead guilty to providing material support to a terrorist organization, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said Thursday. Ashcroft said Iyman Faris "appeared to be a hard-working truck driver" but traveled to Pakistan, met with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and "joined al Qaeda's jihad against America." Under the plea agreement, Faris will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization, according to documents unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. The charges together carry as much as 20 years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines. Al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is in U.S. custody, told interrogators that Faris was ordered to perform surveillance of the Brooklyn Bridge with the ultimate goal of cutting its cables, sources told CNN. At a news conference, Ashcroft detailed Faris' assistance to al Qaeda. Since late 2000, Faris traveled to Afghanistan, where he met with bin Laden, transported sleeping bags, cell phones and cash to the terror organization, Ashcroft said. Faris also performed research on obtaining derailing equipment to wreak havoc on U.S. railways and gas cutters to sever cables on a New York bridge, Ashcroft said. Faris performed surveillance on the New York bridge, determined security was too tight at the site to succeed and sent a coded e-mail message to al Qaeda to relay that assessment, Ashcroft said. "The weather is too hot," the message said, according to Ashcroft. Faris told U.S investigators that an al Qaeda lieutenant was particularly interested in his deliveries to airports for cargo planes because such aircraft could carry more weight and fuel, Ashcroft said. Plans related to the bridge's cable destruction and train derailment were not executed. The arrest of Faris and the plea deal, reached on May 1, was kept secret because of the sensitivity of the case, CNN has confirmed. Several government sources noted that the unusual step of keeping secret the detention, guilty plea and plea agreement has been used most often in organized crime cases. Prosecutors said that it can be crucial to keep secret from a crime boss the fact that a lower-level member of the criminal enterprise has been "turned" or "flipped." In Alexandria, U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema ordered the plea agreement unsealed shortly after noon Thursday, without explaining why. It was not immediately clear what information Faris may have provided, or what other arrests may have been made since Faris agreed to the plea deal.