American Jihadist Cell Planned Attacks in Israel, Jordan, Kosovo
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/132611
(IsraelNN.com) Eight men, including seven living in North Carolina, were indicted Monday by a U.S. Federal Grand Jury for planning to carry out jihad-inspired terrorist attacks in Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. During trips to Israel, including Hamas-controlled
Boyd and others in the cell were in Israel in June 2007 and in Jordan in October 2006 to join the jihad.
Gaza, as well as Jordan, Pakistan and Serbia, the cell members allegedly planned or engaged in serious terrorist activities.
The indictment charges that the suspects plotted and took actions to carry out "violent jihad" overseas, including by "murdering, kidnapping or maiming" people in Israel, Jordan and Kosovo. To this end members of the cell stockpiled weapons, trained at a camp set up in North Carolina, traveled to the Middle East and Kosovo, and recruited fellow Muslims. They are also charged with providing assistance to terrorists, including weapons training, fundraising and travel arrangements. At the same time, the homegrown American cell does not appear to be connected with al-Qaeda or any other known international terrorist organization.
The conspiracy, which began to take shape in 2006, according to the indictment, was led by a convert to Islam named Daniel Patrick Boyd, his two sons, two other U.S. citizens, two naturalized U.S. citizens, and one legal U.S. resident from Kosovo. The name of one of the suspects, the only one not currently residing in North Carolina, was redacted from the published indictment. The cell is not alleged to have plotted attacks in the United States.
Boyd and others in the cell were in Israel in June 2007 and in Jordan in October 2006 to join the jihad against Israel and possibly other target states. However, the court documents indicate that they were turned away from local terrorist groups, although at least one jihadist made his way to Kosovo and another to Pakistan, where they engaged in violent jihad.
Boyd, who went by the nickname Saifullah ("Sword of Allah") appears to have been the most experienced of the conspirators, with a background in training and fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan from 1989 to 1992, possibly including action against Soviet troops. FBI agents raided Boyd's home on Monday, where he is suspected of stockpiling weapons, training recruits and teaching jihadist Islam.
Seven of the defendants - Boyd, his sons Zakariya and Dylan, Hysen Sherifi, Anes Subasic, Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan and Ziyad Yaghi - are to be brought before a judge by July 30, 2009 for further detention hearings.
"These charges hammer home the point that terrorists and their supporters are not confined to the remote regions of some far away land but can grow and fester right here at home. Terrorists and their supporters are relentless and constant in their efforts to hurt and kill innocent people across the globe. We must be equally relentless and constant in our efforts to stop them," said Federal Attorney George E. B. Holding.
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