Somali man pleads guilty to plotting terror attacks in US News
Somali man pleads guilty to plotting terror attacks in US

[JURIST] Nuradin Abdi, a Somali national accused of planning terror attacks on shopping malls in the US, pleaded guilty [press release] to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists Tuesday. Under the plea agreement [PDF text; statement of facts, PDF] Abdi will serve 10 years in prison and pay a fine of $100,000. According to the DOJ press release, Abdi traveled abroad in 1999 and 2000 to train himself for "violent jihad," and upon returning to the US:

he proposed a plot to bomb a shopping mall. Abdi was later provided with compact discs containing instructions on how to make explosives. In Dec. 2002, [Iyman] Faris described to Abdi a potential plot to launch missile attacks against various landmarks in Washington, D.C.

Shortly after these discussions, Faris was taken into custody and began making statements to the FBI. Federal agents arrested Abdi on Nov. 28, 2003. Abdi subsequently agreed to be interviewed by FBI agents and admitted conspiring with Faris, [Christopher] Paul and others to provide material support to foreign terrorists. These admissions by Abdi have been corroborated in a variety of ways, including bank records, travel records, invoices, and items seized in search warrants.

Abdi was originally charged [JURIST report] with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization (al Qaeda), fraud and misuse of documents.

Paul pleaded guilty in April to charges [JURIST reports; indictment, PDF] of conspiring to provide material support and resources to terrorists, conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, and providing material support and resources to terrorists. Iyman Faris [Global Security profile], who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge, attended the same mosque and became friends with Paul. ABC News has more.