Cleveland – Three Muslim men from the Middle East were charged Tuesday with plotting terrorist attacks against U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq and other countries.
One of the men, a citizen of both the United States and Jordan, also was accused of threatening to kill or injure President Bush.
All three had lived in Toledo within the past year and were arrested over the weekend – two of them in Toledo, the third in Jordan, authorities said.
An unidentified a U.S. citizen with a military background helped the government foil the plot by working with the suspects while secretly gathering evidence, according to the indictment.
“This case stands as a reminder of the need for continued vigilance in the war on terrorism,” Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said in Washington.
The federal indictment does not specify whether any attacks were imminent but says the suspects recruited others as early as November 2004 to train for holy war against the United States and its allies in Iraq.
The three pleaded not guilty in federal courts in Cleveland and Toledo. The most serious charges could bring life in prison.
Two of the men discussed plans to practice setting off explosives on the Fourth of July in 2005 so that the bombs would not be noticed, the indictment alleges. It was not clear whether the men went through with those plans.
The indictment says the group also traveled together to a shooting range to practice and studied how to make explosives. It alleges that at least one of the men researched and tried to obtain government grants and private funding for the training.
Mohammad Zaki Amawi, 26, is accused of threatening in conversations to kill or injure Bush. He also is charged with distributing information about making and using bombs.
The others are Marwan Othman El-Hindi, 42, a U.S. citizen born in Jordan; and Wassim I. Mazloum, 24, who came to the United States from Lebanon in 2000.
