Officials: N.J. men were plotting attack

ELMWOOD PARK, N.J. -- Two New Jersey men who envisioned a terrorist attack in the U.S. with a body count twice that of the Fort Hood massacre were arrested at a gate New York's Kennedy Airport as they were about to board flights on their way to Somalia to seek terror training from al-Qaida-affiliated jihadists, officials said.

Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, 20, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 26, were arrested Saturday before they could board separate flights to Egypt and then continue on to Somalia, federal officials in New Jersey and the New York Police Department said.

Law enforcement became aware of the men in the fall of 2006, after receiving a tip. New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said they had traveled to Jordan in 2007 and tried to get into Iraq, but were turned back by their would-be recruiters.

Since then, during the 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."

Alessa also was allegedly recorded telling Almonte that he would outdo Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, last year.

"He's not better than me. I'll do twice what he did," Alessa allegedly said.

Kelly said Alessa, of North Bergen, and Almonte, of Elmwood Park, are American citizens. Alessa was born in the U.S. and is of Palestinian descent. Almonte is a naturalized citizen who was born in the Dominican Republic.

Alessa and Almonte face charges of conspiring to kill, maim and kidnap persons outside the United States. Teams of state and federal law enforcement agents who have been investigating the men took them into custody, authorities said. They are scheduled to appear today in federal court in Newark.

While court documents paint a picture of two men deeply committed to terrorism, their training was apparently scattershot. They lifted weights, hiked in the snow at a local park, bought military-style pants and water bottles, played violent video games and watched terrorist videos online. They had no known connections to terrorist groups, and their trip to Somalia apparently amounted to a leap of faith that they'd be embraced by the group.

Court documents do not indicate that authorities had other targets in the investigation. In March, Alessa was recorded telling Almonte and the undercover officer that no one else they knew in New Jersey should be included in their plan to join al-Shabab because only the three of them were "serious about their plan and were preparing for it."

Kelly on Sunday cited the "excellent work" done by the undercover officer, who Kelly said was of Egyptian descent and in his mid-20s. The officer joined the department in 2005.

The men said they planned to get weapons when they went abroad. The only weapons they possessed were two folding knives Alessa said he would use to kill police if they tried to get near him: "I'm-a cut them in half with it, even if I die," Alessa said, according to court documents.

Alessa and Almonte had planned their trip to Somalia for several months, saving thousands of dollars, officials said. Both had bragged about wanting to wage holy war against the United States both at home and internationally, according to a criminal complaint.

Officials said the two men were not planning an imminent attack in the New York-New Jersey area and weren't suspected of plotting any violence on their flights.

The two men knew early on they had come to the attention of law enforcement.

By the end of 2006 agents had talked with Almonte and a family member, and in March 2007 the FBI conducted a consensual search of his computer, revealing documents advocating jihad against the perceived enemies of Islam, court papers show.

Last November, investigators recorded Alessa telling Almonte that lots of people needed to be killed.

"My soul cannot rest until I shed blood," Alessa said, according to court documents. "I wanna, like, be the world's known terrorist."

Almonte told the undercover officer in April that there would soon be American troops in Somalia, which he allegedly said was good because it would not be as gratifying to kill only Africans.

No one answered the door at Almonte's house and the blinds were drawn. A man who said he was Almonte's father walked into the home shortly before 1 p.m. with another man.

"I'm very confused by all this. He's my son," he said before he went inside. "I just don't understand it."

David Castro, 56, of Elmwood Park, is an Army reservist who lives across the street from Almonte. He said he doesn't know the suspect but knows his father and described the family as friendly.

Terrorists' recruiting techniques "almost seem better than the U.S. Army," Castro said. "This is happening not just in bad neighborhoods. This is happening in good neighborhoods like this one."

Alessa lived with his parents in the densely populated New York suburb, said Hemant Shah, the family's landlord. Alessa was attending Bergen County Community College, Shah said, and his father worked at a convenience store.

The FBI was at the home until 2 a.m. and removed several boxes, Shah said.

"It's surprising," he said of the arrests. "If it's true, it's very scary."

He checked on Alessa's parents Sunday and said they didn't want to talk to reporters.

Somalia welcomed the arrests of Alessa and Almonte.

"Foreign terrorists here are an obstacle to lasting peace in Somalia. So we welcome the move and we are calling on all governments to take such steps against al-Shabab and all terrorists at large," said Sheik Abdirisaq Mohamed Qaylow, a spokesman for the Ministry of Information.

Somalia, an impoverished East African nation of about 10 million people, has not had a functioning government for more than a decade, although the U.S. is backing a transitional government there. The Pentagon's top commander in the region has included Somalia on a list of countries where clandestine American military operations designed to disrupt militant groups would be targeted.

Over the past year, a number of Somali youths have traveled from the U.S. back to Somalia to fight with al-Shabab insurgents. At the same time, battle-hardened al-Qaida insurgents have moved out of safe havens along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border into Somalia, where vast ungoverned spaces allow them to train and mobilize recruits without interference.

U.S. authorities, including the FBI, have been working with Somali diasporas, including a large community in Minnesota, to stem the radicalization of young people who are being recruited to join the terror fight.

Officials are concerned that such radicalized Somalis who are U.S. citizens may be able to move more freely in and out of the U.S., presenting a threat that would be harder to detect and prevent.

------

Apuzzo reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Geoff Mulvihill in North Bergen, N.J.; Samantha Henry in Newark, N.J.; Tom Hays and Karen Matthews in New York; Mohamed Sheikh Nor in Mogadishu, Somalia; Lolita Baldor in Washington and AP Radio Correspondent Julie Walker in New York contributed to this report.