Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
April 13, 2007
By Bob Driehaus
CINCINNATI, April 12 — An American citizen from Columbus, Ohio, was indicted there Thursday on charges of training with Al Qaeda and conspiring to attack Americans at European resorts and to destroy United States embassies and military bases abroad.
Federal prosecutors in Columbus said the suspect, Christopher Paul, 43, began supporting terrorists in the United States, Africa and Europe in 1989, buying explosives and helping to train radical Islamic fundamentalists in Germany.
The most serious charge, carrying a penalty of life imprisonment, is conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction — bombs with which, the indictment says, the American tourists, embassies and bases, in unspecified countries, were to be attacked.
Michael Brooks, an F.B.I. spokesman here in Cincinnati, declined to say whether any of the attacks had actually been carried out. Further details, Mr. Brooks said, will emerge at trial.
Mr. Paul, born in Columbus, was arrested at his apartment there late Wednesday and appeared in federal court on Thursday. His lawyer, Don Wolery, said he would plead not guilty Friday at his arraignment.
Mr. Wolery declined additional comment. But Hisham Jenhawi, a friend of Mr. Paul and his wife, told The Associated Press that he could not believe the charges.
“The way he speaks,” Mr. Jenhawi said, “the kindness he has, it isn’t even close to his personality to do something like this.”
Mr. Jenhawi said that he had known Mr. Paul about a year, that they attended the same mosque and that their daughters played together. Mr. Paul’s daughter is about 9 years old and is home-schooled, Mr. Jenhawi said.
Mr. Brooks, the F.B.I. spokesman, said the investigation of Mr. Paul had taken four years, a result, he said, of the complexity of compiling admissible evidence from eight countries.
Mr. Paul was born Paul Kenyatta Laws and changed his name to Abdulmalek Kenyatta in 1989 before settling on Christopher Paul in 1994.
The indictment says he participated in military-style training in an unspecified county in 1990 and joined Al Qaeda one year later, offering his services on trips to Pakistan and Afghanistan. In Peshawar, Pakistan, it says, he stayed at Beit-ul-Ansar guesthouse, which the United States later designated a base of a foreign terrorist organization affiliated with Al Qaeda. There, the government says, he met a former personal pilot for Osama bin Laden. The indictment does not describe any outcome of this meeting.
Mr. Paul is married to a woman identified in the indictment only as F. Bashir. Her name appears in connection with a letter that, the government says, Mr. Paul sent her before they were married concerning the rearing of their future children as “little mujahideen.”
The indictment says Mr. Paul stored a variety of items at residences in Columbus, including laser range finders, a night vision scope, books and literature on explosives, remote control devices and survival gear. Some of those items, seized from Mr. Paul’s apartment, are listed by the government as evidence in the coming trial of another terrorism suspect, Nuradin Abdi, who is charged with plotting to blow up a shopping mall in the Columbus area.
April 13, 2007
By Bob Driehaus
CINCINNATI, April 12 — An American citizen from Columbus, Ohio, was indicted there Thursday on charges of training with Al Qaeda and conspiring to attack Americans at European resorts and to destroy United States embassies and military bases abroad.
Federal prosecutors in Columbus said the suspect, Christopher Paul, 43, began supporting terrorists in the United States, Africa and Europe in 1989, buying explosives and helping to train radical Islamic fundamentalists in Germany.
The most serious charge, carrying a penalty of life imprisonment, is conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction — bombs with which, the indictment says, the American tourists, embassies and bases, in unspecified countries, were to be attacked.
Michael Brooks, an F.B.I. spokesman here in Cincinnati, declined to say whether any of the attacks had actually been carried out. Further details, Mr. Brooks said, will emerge at trial.
Mr. Paul, born in Columbus, was arrested at his apartment there late Wednesday and appeared in federal court on Thursday. His lawyer, Don Wolery, said he would plead not guilty Friday at his arraignment.
Mr. Wolery declined additional comment. But Hisham Jenhawi, a friend of Mr. Paul and his wife, told The Associated Press that he could not believe the charges.
“The way he speaks,” Mr. Jenhawi said, “the kindness he has, it isn’t even close to his personality to do something like this.”
Mr. Jenhawi said that he had known Mr. Paul about a year, that they attended the same mosque and that their daughters played together. Mr. Paul’s daughter is about 9 years old and is home-schooled, Mr. Jenhawi said.
Mr. Brooks, the F.B.I. spokesman, said the investigation of Mr. Paul had taken four years, a result, he said, of the complexity of compiling admissible evidence from eight countries.
Mr. Paul was born Paul Kenyatta Laws and changed his name to Abdulmalek Kenyatta in 1989 before settling on Christopher Paul in 1994.
The indictment says he participated in military-style training in an unspecified county in 1990 and joined Al Qaeda one year later, offering his services on trips to Pakistan and Afghanistan. In Peshawar, Pakistan, it says, he stayed at Beit-ul-Ansar guesthouse, which the United States later designated a base of a foreign terrorist organization affiliated with Al Qaeda. There, the government says, he met a former personal pilot for Osama bin Laden. The indictment does not describe any outcome of this meeting.
Mr. Paul is married to a woman identified in the indictment only as F. Bashir. Her name appears in connection with a letter that, the government says, Mr. Paul sent her before they were married concerning the rearing of their future children as “little mujahideen.”
The indictment says Mr. Paul stored a variety of items at residences in Columbus, including laser range finders, a night vision scope, books and literature on explosives, remote control devices and survival gear. Some of those items, seized from Mr. Paul’s apartment, are listed by the government as evidence in the coming trial of another terrorism suspect, Nuradin Abdi, who is charged with plotting to blow up a shopping mall in the Columbus area.