Terrorism suspect contacted reservist on Web, court told

By John Hendren
Los Angeles Times

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Babar Ahmad, a 30-year-old college employee arrested by British authorities Thursday, was described as a cousin of suspected al-Qaida member Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, whose recent arrest in Pakistan triggered a spate of terror alerts last weekend in New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.

Ahmad appeared in a London court yesterday as U.S. prosecutors seeking to extradite him unveiled charges that also described him as a fund-raiser and propagandist for the Taliban and for Muslim separatist fighters in Chechnya. He faces a possible life prison term if convicted in the United States.

Ahmad was arrested at the request of U.S. prosecutors on charges that include conspiracy to fund terrorists, conspiracy to support the Taliban, soliciting violent crime and conspiracy to launder money for terrorists who are planning to murder.

The detailed plans on the U.S. naval group dated to early 2001 and never resulted in an attack. British police found a floppy disk at the London home of Ahmad's parents that contained a document discussing the U.S. aircraft carrier Constellation and its battle group — with details on its companion ships, the specifications and assignments of each ship, their movements and a drawing of the group's formation, according to an arrest warrant issued in Hartford, Conn., by U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor.

The information noted that the battle group, which at that time was assigned to enforce sanctions against Iraq and undertake operations against al-Qaida and Afghanistan's Taliban government, was scheduled to pass through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, on April 29, 2001, according to the warrant. Navy officials confirmed to U.S. prosecutors that the battle group's plans in Ahmad's possession, which were classified at the time, were accurate.

"They have nothing to stop a small craft with RPG (rocket-propelled grenades) etc., except their Seals' stinger missiles," an entry on the document, possibly an e-mail, said. It ended, "Please destroy this message."

The file was last modified April 12, 2001, six months after the Oct. 12, 2000, attack on the U.S. destroyer Cole by a small boat bearing explosives.

It was unclear whether the computer file was an e-mail from an unnamed Navy reservist on active duty in the Middle East, now retired, who was then stationed on the U.S. destroyer Benfold, part of the Constellation battle group.

However, a man describing himself as a sympathetic enlisted sailor on the Benfold exchanged several e-mail messages with a jihadist Internet site called Azzam Publications, which investigators say was operated by Ahmad. In one message, the man praised the attack against the "American enemies" on the Cole and voiced support for "the men who have brought honor this week ... in the lands of jihad Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, etc."

Federal investigators in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency of the Department of Homeland Security and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are continuing to investigate the former sailor, who has not been charged.
 
"Obviously he's a central figure at this point and we're continuing to investigate," O'Connor said. "And, if appropriate, we would bring charges. At this point we're still actively investigating the matter."

One reason the retired sailor has not been charged with conspiracy is that investigators have not tied him directly to the e-mail exchanges, a senior military official said yesterday on condition of anonymity.

Ahmad is expected to challenge extradition to the United States, a process that is likely to take months, O'Connor said.

In a move preceding extradition, Ahmad was charged yesterday with offenses under Britain's Terrorism Act and ordered held for a week.

Also

An al-Qaida-linked cleric who boasted of his ability to evade capture has been arrested in Saudi Arabia without a shot being fired, Saudi officials said yesterday. Faris Ahmed Jamaan al-Showeel al-Zahrani, No. 12 on a list of Saudi Arabia's 26 most-wanted terrorism suspects, was captured late Thursday with an unidentified militant, an Interior Ministry officials told the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

The Saudi Arabia arrest was reported by The Associated Press.