Another case of a “student” that isn’t really a student. It’s a continuing battle, and they only have to be lucky once, as we found out in Boston.
Via Huffington Post:
NEW YORK — A Tunisian man accused of radicalizing a Canadian resident charged in a plot to derail a train has been charged with trying to stay in the United States illegally to build a terrorism cell for international acts of terror such as poisoning a water system with bacteria, authorities said Thursday.
Law enforcement authorities had watched Ahmed Abassi since he arrived in the United States from Canada in mid-March and arrested him on April 22 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, authorities said. Abassi met regularly with an undercover FBI agent and met with another Tunisian citizen who later was arrested in Canada in the plot to derail the train, they said.
“As alleged, Ahmed Abassi had an evil purpose for seeking to remain in the United States – to commit acts of terror and develop a network of terrorists here and to use this country as a base to support the efforts of terrorists internationally,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a release issued after the federal indictment against Abassi was unsealed on Thursday.
The head of the New York FBI office, George Venizelos, said: “Mr. Abassi came to the United States to pursue terrorist activity and support others in the same shameful pursuit. What Mr. Abassi didn’t know was that one of his associates, privy to the details of his plan, was an undercover FBI agent.”
Prosecutors, in a letter submitted to a U.S. District Court judge in Manhattan, said Abassi had radicalized Chiheb Esseghaier, who is charged in Toronto with conspiring with al-Qaida members in Iran to derail a train that runs between New York City and Montreal. Esseghaier appeared briefly in court on April 24 and made a statement suggesting he did not recognize the court’s jurisdiction.
Prosecutors said Abassi told an undercover FBI agent that Esseghaier’s plans were good but the time was not right.
“The defendant noted that he had suggested an alternative plot – contaminating the air or water with bacteria in order to kill up to 100,000 people – but that Esseghaier was dismissive of that plan,” the government said.
It said Abassi also proposed that they help Muslims fighting in Syria by sending money or weapons.
“He also stated that he wanted to remain in the United States and that if he was living in the United States he would be willing to carry out terrorist operations in the United States,” prosecutors wrote. “In reality, the defendant made clear that his true purpose for obtaining immigration documents that would allow him to remain in the United States was to engage in `projects’ relating to future terrorist activities, including recruitment.”
The indictment charges Abassi with two counts of lying on two immigration forms for a green card and work visa. Each count carries a maximum term of 25 years in prison upon conviction.