FBI says Missouri man was arming for 'war'

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A suburban St. Louis man tried to buy as many explosives as possible in preparation for what his associate called a "war," according to court records cited in a copyright story in Friday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Mousa Abuelawi, 22, of St. Charles, was arrested Dec. 29 and charged with three counts of illegal possession or distribution of a machine gun and conspiracy to violate machine gun statutes.

He bought three rifles and an anti-personnel mine and negotiated for a case of hand grenades, documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch showed.

The context of the word "war" was not explained in court filings. The man to whom the word was attributed, Thaer Abde Sumad, told the newspaper the purchases were not intended for terrorism but to make money supplying street gangs in a St. Louis turf war.

Sumad, 23, is not charged. He is identified in an FBI affidavit as being present for one of the transactions.

Sumad said he had no role related to the firearms or explosives. He told the newspaper he was at a meeting between Abuelawi and a federal informer outside a St. Louis gas station where Sumad works only because he knows both and wanted to say hello.

Sumad suggested that he and Abuelawi, a Palestinian immigrant, attracted special attention because of their Arab ethnicity. Sumad is of Palestinian descent but was born in Indiana and raised in St. Louis, he said.

The FBI thinks it's a "terrorist thing," Sumad said, "especially after 9/11. They're trying to make it bigger than what it is."

Sumad said Abuelawi was "trying to make a few extra bucks."

Abuelawi is free on $50,000 bond. He referred calls Friday to his lawyers. A message was left for attorneys Scott Rosenblum and Gilbert Sison seeking comment.

An informer called Abuelawi on Nov. 8 and said he had a fully automatic rifle and a bomb or grenade for sale. Abuelawi and Sumad met with the informer at the gas station where they worked, court records showed.

Sumad "stated he wants to buy as many explosives as possible because, 'we're going to war,"' the affidavit says. Sumad said he did not remember making reference to "war," but added that if he did say it, he intended it as a flippant reference to a gang war.

Jeff Fulton, assistant special agent in charge of the St. Louis office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said devices such as grenades and mines are "not a common product" for gangs. "But it's not unheard of," he said.

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, www.stltoday.com.