Two New Jersey men who wanted to kill American troops were arrested at a New York City airport before boarding flights on their way to join a jihadist group in Somalia, authorities said.
Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, 20, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 26, were arrested Saturday at John F. Kennedy Airport before they could board separate flights to Egypt and then continue on to Somalia, federal officials in New Jersey and New York Police Department said in a news release.
During a lengthy investigation, an NYPD undercover officer recorded conversations with the men in which they spoke about jihad against Americans.
"I leave this time. God willing, I never come back," authorities say Alessa told the officer last year. "Only way I would come back here is if I was in the land of jihad and the leader ordered me to come back here and do something here. Ah, I love that."
Investigators "remain concerned that once they reach their foreign destinations, they may be redirected against targets back home, as we've seen in the past," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement. "We are also concerned that should they remain undetected and fail in their foreign aspirations that they might strike domestically, as was discussed as a possibility in this case."
Alessa, of North Bergen, and Almonte, of Elmwood Park, both American citizens, face charges of conspiring to kill, maim, and kidnap persons outside the United States by joining al-Shabaab, a violent extremist group based in Somalia and connected to al-Qaida, authorities said. Al-Shabaab was designated by the U.S. as a terrorist group in 2008.
Seriously... what is it with guys from New Jersey who hate America?
By: Brant
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