FBI suggests terrorist bombing plot in court papers

Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) -- Two men under federal investigation for possible ties to terrorist groups were denied entry to Israel in December after one was carrying a letter that the FBI believes indicated they planned to commit a suicide attack there, according to sworn court papers.

The papers, made public by the U.S. attorney's office in Alexandria, Va., Tuesday, accused one of the two men, Mohammed Osman Idris, 24, of Annandale, Va., of lying to a grand jury. He and his traveling companion, identified as Mohammed El-Yacoubi of Fairfax, Va., were stopped by authorities in New York while trying to fly to Jerusalem, the papers said.

In the documents filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, the FBI said that El-Yacoubi was carrying a four-page letter, written in Arabic, apparently from his younger brother, Abdalmuhssin El-Yacoubi, a student at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, Va.

The pair also was carrying $2,000 in cash, a cellular telephone, a compass, calculator and video camera, the bureau said in its affidavit.

Although U.S. investigators allowed them to board the El Al flight from JFK International Airport in New York, authorities in Israel denied them entry, and they were forced to return to the United States, the papers said.

The affidavit quoted a passage from what it described as a suspicious letter: "When I heard what you are going to carry out, my heart was filled with the feeling of grief and joy because you are the closest human being to my heart."

The letter also said: "It is incumbent upon me to encourage you and help you, because Islam urges Jihad for the sake of Allah," according to the FBI.

"I believe that Abdalmuhssin drafted this extraordinary letter to his brother under these circumstances because, based on his conversations with Mohammed, he believed that his brother was about to engage in terrorist activity that he might not survive," wrote FBI Special Agent John V. Wyman, in the affidavit, submitted in support of a criminal complaint.

Idris alone was accused of a federal crime in connection with the incident. He was accused of lying to a grand jury. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Alexandria, Frank R. Schults, said Idris has been released on bond.

The court documents indicate that a grand jury in northern Alexandria was investigating whether Idris, Mohammed El-Yacoubi and others were providing or trying to provide support to Hamas or Islamic Jihad, which the U.S. considers terrorist organizations.

"Idris made numerous false statements under oath," Wyman said in his affidavit.

Wyman said he consulted with Arabic and Islamic experts who analyzed the letter at the FBI's request.

"The references to Jihad in an overwhelmingly violent context cannot be confused with a letter written to someone traveling to Israel solely for the purpose of sightseeing or praying," Wyman said. He added that the "overall tone of the letter clearly implies the use of violence and/or loss of life."