Next stop, Supermax.
Via IBT:
A London web designer faces life imprisonment in the US on charges that he provided propaganda and technical expertise to al-Qaida and met terrorist operatives in Yemen.
Minh Quang Pham, 29, is accused of helping produce the group’s online English-language “magazine” Inspire, which has featured instructions on how to manufacture explosives and is thought to have been used by terrorist suspects in Britain and the US.
Using the pseudonym Mohammed Amin, Pham is said to have pledged an oath of allegiance to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, and received military-style training from the group after travelling to Yemen in December 2010.
Pham is a British national of Vietnamese origin, who converted to Islam are moving to the UK as a child. In September 2010, he set up a company designing websites and leaflets which was registered to his home in New Cross, South London, where he has lived since 2005.
Pham was arrested at Heathrow last July as he returned from Bahrain, when a live ammunition round was found in his possession.
He was re-arrested on a US extradition warrant last week, and is currently in custody in Belmarsh maximum security prison awaiting extradition proceedings. He will appear at Westminster magistrates court in August for his next hearing.
In an indictment released by the US Department of Justice, Pham is accused of providing material support to AQAP, based in Yemen, along with others “known and unknown”.
Pham is said to have “facilitated communications and provided expert advice and assistance in photography and graphic design” for AQAP’s media wing before returning to Britain the following October.
He allegedly met two American citizens, referred to as “American CC-1” and “American CC-2”, and worked with the first to produce online propaganda for AQAP.