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| More on the Florida recruiter duo |
| 2004-09-17 |
| Two men were indicted in Florida Thursday for allegedly providing financial support and recruitment for al-Qaida and other terror groups, including helping "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla attend terrorist training camps in Afghanstan, according to court records and law enforcement officials. Adham Amin Hassoun and Mohamed Hesham Youssef were each charged with two counts of providing material support to terrorists as part of a grand jury indictment handed up in U.S. District Court in Miami. Hassoun, a Palestinian who has been in U.S. custody since June 2002, also faces eight previously filed charges, including unlawful possession of a firearm and perjury. Youssef is serving a sentence in Egypt on other terrorism charges. Attorney General John Ashcroft said in a news conference in Washington that while "enjoying all the freedoms that our society has to offer," Hassoun was "secretly plotting to support murder and terror by violent jihadists overseas." The indictment alleges that Hassoun and Youssef helped recruit volunteers and provide money to terrorist groups fighting in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Kosovo and Somalia. Among the allegations highlighted by Ashcroft was a telephone conversation between Hassoun and Youssef in September 2000 in which they discussed aiding a U.S. citizen attempting to reach a terrorist training camp. Several U.S. law enforcement officials, who declined to be identified because of grand jury secrecy rules, said that citizen was Padilla, who is currently being held by the U.S. military as an enemy combatant. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |