A 27-year-old man from Sudbury, near Boston, Massachusetts was today arrested and charged with conspiring to kill shoppers at a mall in the U.S., troops from the U.S. operating in Iraq, and at least one prominent U.S. government official.
Tarek Mehanna, a citizen of the U.S., was first arrested back in November 2008 and accused of providing false information to the FBI in 2006.
As the
Associated Press reports that information related to Daniel Maldonado, now serving a 10-year jail sentence for having trained with al-Qaeda in an attempt to help overthrow the government in Somalia.
Mehanna had informed the FBI that Maldonado was living and working in Egypt, whereas officials claim that the latter man had contacted him from Somalia and spoken to him about becoming involved in Jihad.
The
London Times confirms that Mehanna was subsequently bailed following his 2008 arrest.
Acting US Attorney Michael K. Loucks has indicated that Mehanna's plan to kill at least one U.S. government official, reportedly he planned to kill two officials if possible, had never come close to fruition.
The officials that Mehanna intended to kill are apparently no longer working in government but have not been named.
Regarding the plans of Mehanna and his fellow conspirators to attack a shopping mall in the U.S., they may well have hoped to attack more than one mall, Mr Loucks said that the intention was to block exits to the mall, which has not been named, and then mow down shoppers using automatic weapons. It transpired that Mehanna and his associates could only obtain handguns and so aborted their attack.
Nevertheless Mr Loucks explained what it was that the terrorist cell,
CNN says the authorities are satisfied they know who every member of the cell is and believe that it is no longer in existence, had planned:
Mehanna and the co-conspirators had multiple conversations about obtaining automatic weapons and randomly shooting people in a shopping mall, and that the conversations went so far as to discuss the logistics of a mall attack, including co - ordination, weapons needed and the possibility of attacking emergency responders
According to the
Associated Press Mehanna conspired with two other men, one of whom is Ahman Abousamra and is thought to be living in Syria, to "kill, kidnap, maim or injure". The third man, whose identity has not been disclosed, is assisting the authorities with their investigation in to his actions and those of Mehanna and Abousamra.
Pakistan, Syria, Iraq and Yemen were all countries visited by Mehanna, who is also accused of watching and distributing videos that show the deaths and mutilation of U.S. troops in Iraq, and the other suspects in an attempt to receive training from terror groups, although it appears that they were not successful in obtaining such training from the Taliban or any similar groups.
