MOHAMED ALESSA & CARLOS ALMONTE ARRESTED IN U.S
A published report, on Sunday 06/06/2010, said two men, Mohamed Hamoud Alessa (R), 20, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte (L) (pic), 24, allegedly on their way to join a jihadist group in Somalia have been arrested at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. They were arrested on Saturday 06/05/2010.
The Star-Ledger of Newark reported the two New Jersey men allegedly intended to kill American troops and were trying to board separate flights to Egypt on their way to Somalia. The two men had been under surveillance since 2006 and were being shadowed by an undercover NYPD cop who infiltrated their group and monitored them as they bought airplane tickets, known as operation “Arab Knights”. (see also – Minneapolis Network).
Sources said that the suspects’ families dropped the dime on their relatives after they grew concerned about their increasingly radical beliefs. The men had reportedly led fairly normal lives until recently, but boasted that they wanted to wage holy war against the USA both here and abroad.
According to intelligence sources Mohamed Hamoud Alessa and Carlos Eduardo Almonte were inspired at least in part by Omar Hammami, also known as Mansour al-Amriki, the Alabama-born face of the Somalia-based terrorist group, and Anwar al-Awlaki, the New Mexico-born cleric now hiding in Yemen, who has been linked to Malik Nidal’s Shooting at Fort Hood, the Flight-253 bombing attempt and the failed Times Square Plot. Both were also members of the Revolution Muslim group in New York, led by Jesse C. Morton.
Mohamed Hamoud Alessa was transferred to North Bergen High School in 12/2004 from Al-Huda School, a private Islamic school in Paterson, New Jersey. A few months later, in 02/2005, school administrators placed him on home instruction because of concerns of safety and well-being of other students and school personnel.
In 09/2005, Mohamed Hamoud Alessa was transferred to KAS Prep, an alternative school in Hudson County, New Jersey. According to a school official Alessa talked about mutilating homosexuals, subordinating women in the name of Islam and bringing a gang of Muslims to blow up the school.
School officials contacted the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security several times in 2006 when Mohamed Hamoud Alessa’s anti-American rhetoric became alarming, the school official said.
Elmwood Park schools Superintendent said he believed Carlos Eduardo Almonte graduated in 2004. Almonte has a criminal record that dates to 2004 and includes arrests for weapons possession and underage drinking. The weapons charge was dismissed, according to court records in Elmwood Park. It is also unclear what prompted Almonte, an ex-Catholic who was born in the Dominican Republic, to convert to Islam.
* On Thursday 03/03/2011, Mohamed Hamoud Alessa, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte pleaded guilty, in a plea bargain, to charges that they tried to join an Al Qaeda-affiliated group overseas. They admitted to conspiring to kill, maim and kidnap persons outside the United States by trying to join al-Shabab, a designated terrorist organization. The charges could carry up to life in prison, but they may face 15 to 30 years at their June sentencing under the terms of the plea agreement.
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