Federal authorities arrested and filed terror-related charges against an American man who they say received advice from radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and attempted to provide money and materials to an al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen. Barry Walter Bujol, 29 years old, was arrested Sunday in a Federal Bureau of Investigation sting after he used fake documents supplied by an undercover informant to board a ship in Houston he thought was bound for the Middle East, the Justice Department said Thursday. Joseph Varela, a lawyer for Mr. Bujol, said he intended to plead not guilty.
An indictment unsealed Thursday in Houston federal court charged Mr. Bujol with aggravated identity theft and attempting to provide material support for the terrorist group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which was behind the Christmas Day airline bombing plot. Prosecutors don't allege that Mr. Bujol was associated with any specific plots to attack people or property.
A federal law enforcement official said Mr. Bujol came to the attention of FBI agents beginning in 2008, but didn't specify how. The official said agents found Mr. Bujol was communicating with Mr. Awlaki over a period of several months during the summer of 2008, using Internet email accounts at a library at Prairie View A&M University in Texas. Mr. Bujol sought advice, including on how begin a jihadi website that couldn't be traced, the official said. Mr. Awlaki responded to his queries, including providing a document titled "42 Ways of Supporting Jihad," the official said.
In a statement, the Justice Department alleged that the FBI informant supplied Mr. Bujol with money and materials including prepaid telephone calling cards, global positioning system equipment and U.S. military publications related to weapons systems. Mr. Bujol had agreed to bring the supplies to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula operatives in the Middle East, according to the Justice statement.
Mr. Bujol made a brief appearance in court Thursday where he was informed of the charges and a judge on June 8 is set to hear U.S. prosecutors' request to hold Mr. Bujol without bond pending trial.
The federal law enforcement official said that in recent months federal investigators used various methods to stop Mr. Bujol when he attempted to leave the U.S., at times with his wife, to go to Yemen. In February 2009, he was detained at the Houston airport and agents used an outstanding traffic warrant to prevent him from boarding a flight, the official said. A month later, he tried to cross into Canada near Detroit, and Canadian authorities denied him permission to enter, the official said. A week later he was stopped in New Jersey for driving on a suspended license, and he told police he was heading to John F. Kennedy International Airport to fly to Egypt, the official said.
A MySpace page for a 29-year-old Abu Najya Barry Bujol, one of the pseudonyms U.S. prosecutors allege Mr. Bujol used, contains a January 2008 poem that reads in part: "Islam is just / A Muslim breaks laws / Islam is clear / A Muslim makes it vague... So if you think you know Islam / from a Muslim you saw one day / Don't act until you know / what Islam has to say."