Somalian Charged With Plotting To Blow Up Columbus-Area Mall

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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Federal authorities said Monday that they have charged a man from Somalia with plotting to blow up a Columbus-area shopping mall.

 

According to the FBI, Nuradin M. Abdi (pictured, left), a 32-year-old Somali national, was indicted and charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaida, and two counts of fraud and misuse of government documents.

 

"We have taken steps in the Columbus area to mitigate this threat," Attorney General John Ashcroft said. "We believe the activities of local law enforcement, together with federal authorities, have addressed this matter comprehensively and successfully. This is not to say there couldn't be other threats or other circumstances."

 

Ashcroft (pictured, below right) said that in March 2000, Abdi re-entered the United States from Africa, using a fraudulent immigration document. According to the FBI, one of his co-conspirators was Iyman Faris, a convicted al-Qaida operative, who picked him up from an airport.

 

Upon their return to the Columbus area, Abdi, Faris, and other co-conspirators, allegedly initiated a plot to blow up a Columbus-area shopping mall. It is also alleged that in pursuit of this plot, Abdi received bomb-making training from one of the co-conspirators.

 

Authorities did not immediately say which mall was being targeted.

 

"We had no indication of a specific mall," FBI special agent Kevin R. Brock said. "As the investigation uncovered, there was a threat to blow up a shopping mall. There can be a presumption, perhaps, because the conspirators were in our area, that they were looking at malls in our area, but we don't have that specificity. Our investigation proceeded without limiting it to any specific mall."

 

The indictment alleges that on April 27, 1999, Abdi applied to immigration officials for a travel document, allowing him to leave the United States and later return. Abdi indicated in the application that he intended to visit Germany and Saudi Arabia.

 

The FBI alleges that Abdi's true destination was to attend a military-style terrorist training camp in Ethiopia. According to a detention motion, Abdi sought training in radio usage, weapons, guerilla warfare and explosives.

 

The FBI stated in a detention motion that Abdi's purpose in seeking training was to ready himself to participate in violent Jihad conflicts overseas and to lend support to activities that his al-Qaida co-conspirators might ask him to perform in the United States.

 

Abdi was arrested early in the morning on Nov. 28, 2003 -- the day after Thanksgiving. That day is normally the biggest shopping day of the year.

 

"This plot was foiled while still in the planning stages," said Bill Hunt of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

 

Abdi did not have a lawyer in court Monday afternoon during his arraignment, NewsChannel 4's Nancy Burton reported. Abdi acted strange in court, as he used jerky head movements and at one point the judge asked him to speak up because he couldn't hear him, Burton reported. Abdi's head actually dropped down to the glass table top at one point during the proceedings, Burton reported.

 

"Current, credible intelligence indicated that al-Qaida wants to hit the United States, and hit the United States hard," Ashcroft said. "We know our enemy will go to great lengths to lie in wait, and achieve the death and destruction they desire, if at all possible."

 

In March, NewsChannel 4 reported that Abdi was ordered deported and was accused of lying on his asylum application.

 

His case was marked by security and secrecy, NewsChannel 4 reported.

 

Federal officials told the Detroit Free Press they believed Abdi was linked to a terrorist plot. Abdi's cousin, Asha Yassin Hassan, said that Abdi was targeted because he is a Muslim.

 

NewsChannel 4's Monique Ming Laven reported that Abdi lived in the Columbus area for at least six years. He is married to a woman who has a United States visa. Two of his children are U.S. citizens and a third child is reportedly on the way.

 

Abdi's last known address in Columbus was an apartment on Tamarack Road. Laven reported that Abdi owned a cellular phone store in Columbus.

 

In October 2003, NewsChannel 4 reported that Faris was sentenced to 20 years in prison for aiding and abetting terrorism, plus five years for conspiracy.

 

Although he is alleged to have investigated the possibility of using a gas cutter to burn through the Brooklyn Bridge's suspension cables, Faris ultimately recommended through e-mail messages to his contacts against pursuing that option, which he described as "unlikely to succeed."

 

Authorities said Faris received attack instructions from top terrorist leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed for what they suggested might have been a second wave planned for New York and Washington to follow the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

 

Faris was born in Pakistan and became a U.S. citizen in 1999. Since his arrival in the United States in 1994, his primary occupation has been truck driver.

 

Faris, who lived in Columbus, working as a trucker, also has used the name Mohammad Rauf.

 

Faris' last-known Columbus address was at an apartment complex on Riverview Drive, NewsChannel 4 reported.

 

Last week, the terrorism task force searched an apartment complex on Riverview Drive, but it was unclear as to whether last week's search had anything to do with information that led to Monday's indictment of Abdi.

 

"I am pleased that the efforts of local, state and national law enforcement officials through the Joint Terrorism Task Force worked together to prevent what could have been a terrible act of terrorism," Gov. Bob Taft said in a statement. "We pledge to continue to do everything in our power to fight terrorism and deter those who seek to do us harm."