Wednesday, February 22, 2006
All three of them had lived in Toledo in the past year.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Three Muslim men from the Middle East have been charged with plotting terrorist attacks against U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq and other countries.
One of the men also was accused of threatening to kill or injure President Bush, according to an indictment released Tuesday.
Mohammad Zaki Amawi, a citizen of both the U.S. and Jordan, is accused of threatening in conversations to kill or injure Bush. The 26-year-old also is charged with distributing information about making and using bombs.
The others are Marwan Othman El-Hindi, 42, a U.S. citizen born in Jordan; and Wassim I. Mazloum, 24, who came to the United States from Lebanon in 2000.
All three had lived in Toledo within the past year and were arrested over the weekend -- two of them in Toledo, the third in Jordan, authorities said.
Plot foiled
An unidentified person with a military background helped the U.S. government foil the plot by working with the suspects while secretly gathering evidence, according to the indictment.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales also did not exclude the use of warrantless wiretapping in the investigation, but said prosecutors were careful not to jeopardize the case.
"This case stands as a reminder of the need for continued vigilance in the war on terrorism," he said at a news conference in Washington.
One of the men's lawyers said Tuesday that the government was overzealous in bringing the charges.
"It doesn't help that he's Jordanian," attorney Steve Hartman said of his client. "I think he's caught up in the Justice Department's vigorous work."
The three pleaded innocent in federal courts in Cleveland and Toledo. The most serious charges could bring life in prison.
Attack plans
Gonzales and other officials refused to say whether an attack was imminent. FBI agents monitored the defendants for about a year and a half, Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Morford said at a news conference in Cleveland.
"What we can tell you is, from the indictment, it's very clear that their activities and their intentions were to reach beyond our border and were to kill and maim persons overseas," Morford said.
Two of the men discussed plans to practice setting off explosives on the Fourth of July in 2005 so that the bombs would not be noticed, the indictment alleges.
The indictment says the group also traveled together to a shooting range to practice and studied how to make explosives.
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