American Council for Kosovo - Islamic Terror in Kosovo

Oh No! Another �Ally� Arrested! (And Released, Apparently)

We are now up to TWO Albanians and one Bosnian being involved in the North Carolina cell disrupted last year.

Bajram Aslani (Tanjug)

For Immediate Release, June 17, 2010, U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs (202) 514-2007/TDD (202) 514-1888

Kosovar National Charged with Terrorism Violations

RALEIGH, NC - Bajram Asllani, 29, a resident of Mitrovica, Kosovo, has been charged in a criminal complaint with providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim, and injure persons abroad, David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; George E.B. Holding, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina; Owen D. Harris, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Charlotte Field Division; and Robin Pendergraft, Director of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, announced today.

Let's note that the terror suspect is from Mitrovica, the town whose northern half is the last Serbian holdout from a Muslim-Albanian Kosovo. This is whose control we want to bring all of Mitrovica under, as we try to submit Northern Mitrovica to what the rest of Kosovo has been submitted to: lawlessness and terror. Though I suspect this development could slow down our attack plans on northern Mitrovica - not only because the terror connection is too conspicuous right now, but also because our military (if not our leaders) may finally and reluctantly take the long-existent hint that an official Serbian presence in Kosovo could help be our eyes and ears in that increasingly Islamic 'country'. (Well, they'll entertain this notion until our Albanian 'partners' remind us that the deterioration of our security will accelerate if we don't support and secure all of Kosovo for them.)

Asllani, also known as 'Bajram Aslani,' or 'Ebu Hatab,' was arrested earlier today [Thursday] by authorities in Kosovo in connection with a U.S. provisional arrest warrant issued in the Eastern District of North Carolina. The United States intends to seek his extradition from Kosovo to stand trial in Raleigh. In accordance with the extradition agreement between the United States and Kosovo, Asllani faces a potential maximum of 40 years in prison if convicted.

Last July, eight defendants were indicted in the Eastern District of North of Carolina on charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists; conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad; and other violations. Those charged were Daniel Patrick Boyd, a U.S. citizen and resident of North Carolina; Hysen Sherifi, a native of Kosovo and a U.S. legal permanent resident in North Carolina; Anes Subasic, a naturalized [BOSNIAN] U.S. citizen and resident of North Carolina�.

A superseding indictment returned on Sept. 24, 2009, added new charges against Daniel Patrick Boyd, Hysen Sherifi and Zakariya Boyd, alleging, among other things, that Daniel Boyd and Sherifi conspired to murder U.S. military personnel as part of a plot to attack troops at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia. �

An April 19, 2010, criminal complaint unsealed today alleges that Asllani was a member of the conspiracy involving the defendants listed above. Specifically, the complaint alleges that Asllani has had repeated communications with the conspirators; solicited money from the conspirators to establish a base of operations in Kosovo for the purpose of waging violent jihad; tasked the conspirators with completing work to further these objectives and accepted funds from the conspirators to help him travel.

Among other things, the complaint alleges that Hysen Sherifi departed from Raleigh for Pristina, Kosovo, on July 30, 2008, to pursue violent jihad. While in Kosovo, Sherifi allegedly formed a relationship with Asllani. Sherifi often referred to Asllani as 'the brother' in Kosovo who was advising him and who was 'wanted.' According to the complaint, Asllani had been arrested by Kosovar law enforcement in 2007 and been placed on house arrest for a period of time. He was later convicted in absentia by a Serbian court in September 2009 for planning terrorist-related offenses and was sentenced to eight years of confinement.

According to the complaint, Asllani provided Sherifi with videos related to violent jihad for the purposes of translating them so they could be used to recruit others for violent jihad or to motivate those currently involved in violent jihad. Sherifi, did in fact, translate videos provided him by Asllani, the complaint alleges.

The complaint further alleges that Asllani directed Sherifi to collect money for the purpose of later purchasing land and establishing a community in Kosovo, where they could store weapons and ammunition and which they could use as a base of operations for conducting violent jihad in Kosovo and other countries. Sherifi did, in fact, return to the United States on April 5, 2009, and collected money for this purpose, receiving a check for $15,000 in July 2009. Sherifi was arrested on July 27, 2009, before he could take the money back to Asllani in Kosovo.

In addition, the complaint alleges Asllani received money from Sherifi that was sent with the intention of being used by Asllani to obtain travel documents. And finally, the complaint alleges that Daniel Boyd stated his desire to assist Sherifi in his plan to raise money for the mujihadeen in Kosovo. Specifically, Boyd stated he wanted to send his sons, Zakariya Boyd and Dylan Boyd, and himself to Kosovo after Sherifi returned. Zakariya and Dylan Boyd spent time online with Sherifi chatting with Asllani in Kosovo.

Isn't that odd? What could the Boyd family's interest in Kosovo possibly be?

'The facts as alleged in this complaint underscore the connectivity between extremists at home and abroad and the global nature of the terrorist threat we face. At the same time, the arrest of Asllani demonstrates how effective cooperation among international partners serves to address such threats. I applaud the many agents, analysts and prosecutors who helped bring about this important case,' said David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security.
�
'People who are plotting to harm America and Americans are no longer a world away from us. This case began in Raleigh, N.C., and now stretches across the globe, a circumstance no one would have thought possible less than 10 years ago,' said Owen D. Harris, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in North Carolina. [�]

Uh, actually. Actually, uh, 11 years ago when we took the Muslim side in a war for land - and resettled a few hundred thousand of those Muslims here and in Europe - this possibility did, uh, sort of cross some of our minds. Two news reports on the initial arrest are here.

Meanwhile, we have an update: the suspect has been released. The reason is the Kosovo standard: 'not enough evidence.' Though one does find this surprising in a case where the U.S. also wants the guy. Perhaps the suspect has protection from someone in Pristina officialdom and so a 'message' was sent to the EULEX judge. Still, thanks to U.S. security interests being at stake (rather than just expendable Serbian ones), there seems to be a twist to the usual arrest-and-release policy for Kosovo Albanians: he has to report to police twice a week.

EULEX releases terrorism suspect
19 June 2010 | 10:47 | Source: B92

BELGRADE - An EULEX judge has freed Bajram Aslani from custody, who was suspected of planning terrorist attacks in America and Kosovo.

Aslani was arrested earlier under a warrant issued by the U.S. Attorneys' Offices.

He was freed after the prosecution confirmed that there was not enough evidence to keep him, though he is obligated to report to the police twice a week.

Aslani, an ethnic Albanian from the town of Kosovska Mitrovica, was arrested on Thursday and is the second suspect in Kosovo from a group of nine terror suspects.

The Associated Press stated that Aslani was arrested in 2007, and that we was convicted in absentia by the Serbian courts in 2009 for involvement in the planning of a terrorist attack. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.

One may wonder why, if his whereabouts are now finally known, he's not being delivered to the Serbian authorities who convicted him, but that conviction was only for his being a threat to the Balkans - and terrorism in the Balkans doesn't qualify as terrorism. Plus, 'guilty' in a Serbian court is all just 'Serbian propaganda' until we're targeted too. (Besides, he only killed Serbs.)

Another report: Kosovo terror suspect wanted in U.S. released

PRISTINA (Reuters) �'He has to report to police twice a week,' Kristiina Herodes, a spokeswoman from the EU police and justice mission (EULEX) said. 'The prosecutor will have a close look at the written decision by the judge and then will decide to appeal against the decision or not.'
�
Despite the decision from the EU judge, Herodes said that now it is up to the Kosovo government whether Asllani will be extradited to the United States or not.
�
'I personally have asked to be extradited to the United States because I am not afraid of U.S. justice, I believe in justice because I am innocent,' Asllani told local media in his town in Mitrovica after he was released.

He said that Americans are good people and he has nothing against them. The United States is the biggest supporter of Kosovo's independence and has 1,480 troops on the ground. [�]

Here Asllani is struggling with his identity crisis: his inner Albanian wants to love Americans for furthering those supremacist ambitions, but his inner Muslim knows that the love affair has to end.

Further update:

Interior Minister condemns Aslani release
19 June 2010 | 16:59 | Source: Tanjug

BELGRADE - Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said that the decision of an EULEX judge to release terrorism suspect Bajram Aslani from custody is surprising and condemnable.

He is wanted in Serbia and America for involvement in the planning of terrorist attacks in America, Kosovo and other locations.

Dacic said that Serbia expects that the international presence in Kosovo will take into consideration the demands of the Serbian courts and that it will also respect the American demands for processing Aslani, as one of the leaders of an extremist radical Islamic group in the province.

He added that Aslani's release 'can point to the fact that there are suspicions of some double standards for members of Albanian radical groups.'

Aslani is also suspected of planning terrorist attacks in Jordan and the Gaza Strip.

Now what could an Albanian's interest in the Gaza Strip be? After all, Albanians feel they have so much more in common with Israelis than with Palestinians. So let us be reminded that four Albanians were among the 'protesters' in the anti-Israel war convoy to Gaza. Let us also be reminded that the same month saw the arrest of five Wahhabis and seizure of a huge weapons cache in Kosovo, which involved three Bosnians and two Albanians.

Dacic said that operative information of the Serbian police shows that Aslani came into the possession of plastic explosives in Bosnia last year, which were taken to Kosovo, adding that the explosives were planned to be used in a terrorist attack in central Serbia.

'Operative information of our police also shows that Aslani is still a member of the Wahhabi movement and that he was in close relations and ties with known radical Islamists on the territory of Novi Pazar and Sjenica,' Dacic said.

Dacic also said that there is information pointing to the fact that Aslani had organized a Wahhabi camp that was uncovered in a police action in March 2007.

So now we're beginning to see how beautifully, how symbiotically not-like-that Muslim Kosovo collaborates with not-like-that Muslim Bosnia. On that subject, here is the Aslani/Asllani news from last year, relating to his absentia trial in Serbia (again, we can see the timeless and historic Albanian/Bosnian sandwich):

Serbia: Four radical Muslims jailed for terror plot

Belgrade, 8 Sept. (AKI) - A special Serbian court has sentenced four radical Muslims from the volatile Sandzak region of the country to up to eight years in prison each for planning terrorist attacks on targets in the Balkans. The four men were sentenced on charges of terrorism, illegal possession of weapons and alleged links with unidentified foreign terrorist groups, following an eight-month trial.

Adis Muric and Bajram Aslani were sentenced to eight years each, Nedzad Bulic to seven and Enes Mujanovic was given a four year jail term. Bulic and Aslani's sentenced were delivered in absentia as they earlier escaped from police and are on the run.

The four men were arrested in police raids in 2007 in the Sandzak region, which borders Kosovo. They are from predominantly Muslim town of Novi Pazar and adhere to the fundamentalist Wahabi interpretation of Islam followed by Osama bin Laden and many Al-Qaida members.

The group formed a cell in 2007 that planned to carry out terrorist acts in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia, judge Milan Ranic stated, explaining the court's verdict. The group's objective was to spread fear among citizens and to gain religious power.

The prosecution claimed the group planned to plant explosives at Novi Pazar football stadium and to kill policemen deployed there.

The group was in close contact with other Wahabis from Bosnia, Albania and Syria and had in their posession a large quantity of terrorism prosyletising materials, according to the court indictment.

The group was based in Novi Pazar and in Kosovska Mitrovica, where weapons and explosives were found.

Twelve Wahabis were sentenced in July to a total 60 years in jail for terrorism, conspiracy and planning terrorist attacks in Serbia, including a plot to assassinate local mufti Muamer Zukorlic, who the group considered to be an American spy and betrayer of Islam.

Most of those convicted were arrested in 2007 during a raid at a Wahabi training camp on Ninaj mountain in Sandzak, where police found a large weapons cache in a cave.

The group's leader Ismail Prentic was killed as security forces tried to arrest him in Donja Trnava village a month later.

The radical Islamist movement was brought to the Balkans by fighters from Muslim countries during the 1990s Bosnian war. Many have remained and are believed to operate camps and recruit young people in a bid to gain influence in Serbia, Bosnia and elsewhere in the region. [�]

In a related story, please observe. This is Kosovo:

Thousands rally in Kosovo in support of Muslim headscarf

PRISTINA - Thousands [about 5,000] Kosovo Albanians staged a protest rally Friday in Pristina after girls were banned from school for refusing to take off their Muslim headscarves.

The protesters, who carried signs saying 'Stop Discrimination' and chanted 'Allahu Akbar' (God is great), demanded that the Kosovo government allow the wearing of religious symbols in schools.

They also urged the authorities to reverse the recent suspension of several girls from school because they were wearing the headscarf.

'Communists out', the protesters chanted in the front of the government offices.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, adopting a secular constitution which stipulates the separation of religious and state authority.

With an overwhelming Muslim majority but a tradition of moderate Islam at ease with Western values, the government prohibits girls from attending public schools wearing the headscarf. [�]

Previous post on Kosovo and headscarves here.

Meanwhile, a reader named George sent me this link, according to which it turns out that the first mosque in America was built by Albanians (Maine, 1915). Looking only a wee bit further (on Wikipedia), one finds that the first organized Muslim community was that of�Bosnian Muslims! (Chicago, 1906) To paraphrase Nebojsa Malic, it's certainly interesting that the supposedly non-Muslimy Bosnians and Albanians are the first mosque- and community-builders in the US.

Saudis fund Balkan Muslims spreading hate of the West

SAUDI ARABIA is pouring hundreds of millions of pounds into Islamist groups in the Balkans, some of which spread hatred of the West and recruit fighters for jihad in Afghanistan.

According to officials in Macedonia, Islamic fundamentalism threatens to destabilise the Balkans. Strict Wahhabi and Salafi factions funded by Saudi organisations are clashing with traditionally moderate local Muslim communities.

Fundamentalists have financed the construction of scores of mosques and community centres as well as handing some followers up to �225 a month. They are expected not only to grow beards but also to persuade their wives to wear the niqab, or face veil, a custom virtually unknown in the liberal Islamic tradition of the Balkans.

Government sources in traditionally secular Macedonia (official title the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), said they were monitoring up to 50 Al-Qaeda volunteers recruited to fight in Afghanistan.

Classified documents seen by The Sunday Times reveal that Macedonian officials are also investigating a number of Islamic charities, some in Saudi Arabia, which are active throughout the Balkans and are suspected of spreading extremism and laundering money for terrorist organisations.

One of the groups under scrutiny is the International Islamic Relief Organisation from Saudi Arabia, which is on a United Nations blacklist of organisations backing terrorism. It did not respond to inquiries, but has previously denied involvement in terrorist activities, calling such claims 'totally unfounded'.

According to its website, it works in 32 countries to provide relief to the victims of natural disasters and to carry out humanitarian, health and educational projects.

'Hundreds of millions have been poured into Macedonia alone in the past decade and most of it comes from Saudi Arabia,' said a government source. 'The Saudis' main export seems to be ideology, not oil.'

Sulejman Rexhepi, leader of the Islamic community in Macedonia, said a number of mosques had been forcibly taken over by radical groups. Four in central Skopje are no longer under the control of the official Islamic authorities. New imams claim they have been 'spontaneously' installed by the 'people'.

'Their so-called Wahhabi teachings are completely alien to our traditions and to the essence of Islam, which is a tolerant and inclusive religion,' said Rexhepi.

In some mosques believers are being told that Macedonia, which sent 200 soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan, has been tricked into supporting a crusade against Islam spearheaded by Britain and America. Radical clerics have shown footage from Afghanistan, Iraq and the Palestinian territories to illustrate their claims that the West is waging war on Islam.

Rahman, a 35-year-old cab driver from Skopje, Macedonia's capital, said he had stopped going to his local mosque since it was taken over by extremists. 'Following the Haiti earthquake the new imam said God would punish the West for their wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with natural disasters,' he said.

Bekir Halimi, an imam trained in Syria, runs Bamiresia, an Islamic charity that has been investigated for alleged terrorist links and money laundering. Police raided its offices but failed to find any evidence of terrorist links.

'We are fully entitled to receive funding from both governmental and non-governmental organisations from Saudi Arabia,' said Halimi, who refuses to name the sources of his funding but rejects any suggestion of criminal activity.

Macedonia's law enforcement agencies warn that the European Union and America have failed to recognise the growing problem of Islamic extremism in the Balkans.

Baroness Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, has declared stability in the region to be her top priority, but local politicians complain that the EU and Nato are reducing their presence in troublespots such as Bosnia and Kosovo.

Last month, Bosnian security forces raided a village strongly influenced by Salafi extremists and found a weapons cache.

In raids elsewhere rifles, bombs and rocket-propelled grenades have been uncovered.

The West has put considerable political and financial efforts into helping build democracy in Bosnia following its civil war in the 1990s. Saudi organisations have also asserted considerable influence, giving more than �450m to build more than 150 mosques and Islamic centres.

In Macedonia, Fatmir, a former disc jockey, explained how he became an adherent of Salafism. The father of two has grown a beard and instructed his wife to wear a niqab. He now makes his living by selling Islamist literature. 'Ours is the Islam of the 21st century,' he said.

New York Muslim indicted for seeking to kill U.S. troops

A moderate Muslim from moderate Kosovo that if you don't believe is moderate, you must be a Nazi. "NY man accused of seeking to kill U.S. troops," from Reuters, September 24 (thanks to WallsOfByzant):

NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Reuters) - A New York man was indicted on Thursday for allegedly seeking training from Islamic militants to fight U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, authorities said.

The FBI said Betim Kaziu, a U.S. citizen and New York resident, sought to acquire weapons and training to fight U.S. troops abroad.

Kaziu traveled to Cairo in February, the FBI said, and later to Kosovo, where he was arrested by Kosovar authorities in August.

Along the way, Kaziu allegedly sought to join Al-Shabbab, an armed movement listed as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department, and train in Pakistan to fight U.S. troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans, the indictment said....

Arrests in Terror Case Bewilder Associates

WILLOW SPRING, N.C. - Daniel Boyd was a man of rare conviction for these parts.

Rare because he and his family were Muslims in this quiet rural subdivision where the denominations generally run from Baptist to Presbyterian. But also rare for his intensity.

'How many Christians you see standing in the yard praying five times a day?' asked Jeremy Kuhn, 20, who lives across the street. 'They just believed more than anyone else.'

But to the disbelief of Mr. Kuhn, the federal authorities say Mr. Boyd and two of his sons took their convictions beyond religious faith and into terrorism. They were among seven men charged on Monday with supporting violent jihad movements in countries including Israel, Jordan, Kosovo and Pakistan. An eighth man was still being sought, said a spokeswoman for federal prosecutors in Raleigh, about 20 miles north of here.

The men are charged with stockpiling automatic weapons and traveling abroad numerous times to participate in jihadist movements. There is no indication in the indictment that they were planning attacks in the United States, though prosecutors said they had practiced military tactics this summer in a rural county close to Virginia.

Their plans apparently involved a suicide attack, according to an e-mail message Mr. Boyd sent in 2008 to another defendant, Hysen Sherifi, about dying as a martyr.

Besides Mr. Boyd, who is 39, the indictment names his sons Zakariya, 20, and Dylan, 22; Anes Subasic, 33; Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, 22; Ziyad Yaghi, 21; and Mr. Sherifi, 24. All are American citizens except Mr. Sherifi, who is from Kosovo and has legal residence in the United States. Detention hearings for the men are set for Thursday.

Mr. Boyd, the son of a Marine, is a convert to Islam, and received training from Islamic radicals in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the indictment said.

Prosecutors said much of the activity took place over the last three years, citing coded conversations, exchanges of cash, numerous gun purchases and a Kalashnikov demonstration in Mr. Boyd's living room.

Mr. Boyd, the central figure in the indictment, is also charged with lying to federal agents in 2007 about his reasons for a trip to Israel. According to the indictment, he and several other defendants had intended to join violent jihadists in the Palestinian territories, though the trip was ultimately unsuccessful.

It was the second trip to Israel mentioned in the indictment. Mr. Boyd is said to have taken his son Dylan to Gaza meet jihadists in March 2006, though that, too, was apparently unsuccessful.

Highlighted in the indictment, but not part of the charges, was a period the authorities say Mr. Boyd spent with his brother in Afghanistan and Pakistan from 1989 to 1992, training with and supporting fighters who were trying to overthrow the Soviet-backed government in Kabul. They were in the news at the time, when the Pakistani government charged them with bank robbery and sentenced them to lose their right hands and left feet. (The convictions were overturned by the Pakistani Supreme Court at the urging of the State Department.)

Federal officials in Washington said that the men charged on Monday were not seen as serious terrorist threats to the United States or American interests abroad, and that there were no indications of ties to Al Qaeda or other militant groups. But the officials said there was concern that they were amassing a sizable number of automatic weapons, given Mr. Boyd's record as a foreign fighter.

'What essentially this is about is a guy with foreign fighter experience,' said one law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the pending prosecution, 'who comes back to the U.S. from the conflict zone with street cred and a network of contacts overseas, intending to recruit others who were on the fence.'

Mr. Boyd's wife, Sabrina, cited that same period in defense of her husband. 'He was there fighting against the Soviets in a war that had the full backing of the U.S. government,' Ms. Boyd said through a spokeswoman, Khalilah Sabra of the American Muslim Society Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group.

Ms. Boyd is also an American, and, according to a 1991 Washington Post report, the couple were high school sweethearts in Northern Virginia. A neighbor said the Boyds looked for other churches before settling on Islam. The Post profile said Mr. Boyd's stepfather was a Muslim.

'The charges have not been substantiated,' Ms. Boyd said. 'We are an ordinary family, and we have the right to justice, and we believe justice will prevail. We are decent people who care about other human beings.'

Neighbors were startled, even angered by the arrests, which they learned about when federal agents, some carrying assault weapons, swarmed over the lawn of the Boyds' house.

The house, with a Ford Bronco in the driveway and a swimming pool in the back, looks like any other in the quiet subdivision, and neighbors said the Boyds were generally no different than anyone else, other than being nicer than average. Mr. Boyd ran a company installing drywall, for which his two older sons often worked. The Boyds had two younger sons, one of whom was killed in a car accident two years ago, and a daughter.

Prosecutors said Mr. Boyd had stopped attending mosques this year because of 'ideological differences' and had begun having Friday prayer services at home.

The Boyds had the usual interactions with the neighbors - tool swapping, rides to school - and other than a day when the house was egged, which neighbors attributed to their religion, their faith did not seem to be an issue.

'We never really had a problem with it,' said Anthony Perfetto, 15, who used to have after-school snacks at the Boyd home. 'All they'd say about it was like they had to go pray, and that's about it.'

All of which has left neighbors shaking their heads and repeating that there must have been some kind of mistake.

'I don't believe any of this,' Mr. Kuhn said. 'And it's going to take a whole lot of evidence to convince me otherwise.'

Liz Robbins contributed reporting from New York, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.

Americans Arrested for Plotting �Violent Jihad� Abroad

Federal agents arrested seven men in North Carolina on Monday and charged them with plotting to wage 'violent jihad' outside the United States, according to an indictment unsealed in federal court in Raleigh, N.C. The full text of the indictment is embedded below.

The government charged Daniel Boyd, a 39-year-old American who traveled to Afghanistan two decades ago to fight the Soviet-backed government, with recruiting six young men, including two of his sons, to take part in a conspiracy 'to advance violent jihad, including supporting and participating in terrorist activities abroad and committing acts of murder, kidnapping or maiming persons abroad.'

According to the indictment, members of the group practiced military tactics and the use of weapons in rural North Carolina, and traveled to Gaza, Israel, Jordan and Kosovo hoping 'to engage in violent jihad.' The indictment also claims that an eighth member of the group, who is still at large, traveled to Pakistan for the same purpose.

A North Carolina newspaper, The News & Observer, reported on Monday night: 'The charges are related to allegations that they helped raise money and provide training for terrorism operations in Tel Aviv, Israel.' The newspaper added 'Federal officials will not say where the men are being held.'

The Justice Department identified two of the suspects as Mr. Boyd's sons Zakariya Boyd, 20 and Dylan Boyd, 22. The others are Anes Subasic, 33; Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, 22; Ziyad Yaghi, 21 and Hysen Sherifi, 24. All are American citizens except Mr. Sherifi, who is a native of Kosovo but a permanent legal resident of the United States. The Associated Press reports that 'no attorneys for the men were listed in court records.' Mr. Boyd's mother told The A.P. that she knew nothing about the case but that it 'certainly sounds weird.' The father of Mr. Hassan declined to comment and family members of the other me were unable to be reached on Tuesday.

The Justice Department's summary of the charges lays out several apparently unsuccessful efforts by members of the group to take part in attacks in other countries:

Among other acts, the indictment alleges that Daniel Boyd traveled to Gaza in March 2006 and attempted to enter Palestine in order to introduce his son to individuals who also believed that violent jihad was a personal religious obligation. Later, in October 2006, defendant Ziyad Yaghi allegedly departed the United States for Jordan to engage in violent jihad.

In June 2007, Daniel Boyd and several other defendants departed the United States for Israel in an effort to engage in violent jihad, but ultimately returned to the United States after failing in their efforts. According to the indictment, after his return to the United States, Daniel Boyd made false statements twice to federal officials about who he had planned to meet on his trip to Israel.

In February 2008, Daniel Boyd allegedly solicited money to fund the travel of additional individuals overseas to engage in violent jihad and in March 2008, discussed with Anes Subasic preparations to send two individuals abroad for this purpose. He allegedly accepted $500 in cash from defendant Hysen Sherifi to be used to help fund jihad overseas and later showed Sherifi how to operate an AK-47 assault weapon.

According to The News & Observer, one of Mr. Boyd's neighbors, Charles Casale, said he was shocked by the arrest: 'If he's a terrorist, he's the nicest terrorist I've ever met in my life.' The newspaper also reported:

To neighbors and friends, Daniel Boyd was a father who stopped his work at noon each day for prayer. Dylan Boyd, Daniel's son, was a college student at N.C. State University who until last year worked as a clinical services technician at WakeMed Raleigh Campus. Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan was a newlywed; his father owns a Raleigh car dealership. [...]

A spokesman at the Islamic Center in Raleigh said he did not know the suspects; an estimated 1,200 people attend Friday services at the center. Hassan and Yaghi both attended Al-Iman School, which shares space with the Raleigh mosque, according to former teacher Samar Hindi. Most recently, Daniel Boyd had been attending Jamaat Ibad Ar-Rahman, a mosque in Durham.

David Kris, an assistant Attorney General, described Daniel Boyd as 'a veteran of terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan who, over the past three years, has conspired with others in this country to recruit and help young men travel overseas in order to kill.'

Mr. Boyd's history, as sketched out in the indictment, illustrates how complicated the American government's relationship has been with Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan over time. Two decades ago, Mr. Boyd was reportedly a member of an Afghan-led faction that was then allied with the United States in the struggle against the Soviet-backed government.

According to The Associated Press:

In 1991, Boyd and his brother were convicted of bank robbery in Pakistan - accused of carrying identification showing they belonged to the radical Afghan guerrilla group, Hezb-e-Islami, or Party of Islam. They were each sentenced to have a foot and a hand cut off for the robbery, but the sentenced was later overturned.

The wives of the men told The Associated Press in an interview at the time they were glad the truth about their husbands had finally become known. The wives said the couples had U.S. roots but the United States was a country of 'kafirs' - Arabic for heathens.

Hezb-e-Islami, or the Islamic Party, led by the Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, was one of a number groups that the United States supplied with weapons during the time Mr. Boyd was in the region. The group still exists and is still led by Mr. Hekmatyar, but it is now allied with the Taliban against American-led forces in Afghanistan. Last month, my colleague Adam Ellick reported that Kunar Province in eastern Afghanistan 'is largely controlled by the Islamic Party.'

In an interview with The New York Times in 1988, Mr. Hekmatyar, described then as a 'major recipient of covert American military assistance, whose aim is a �pure' Islamic state,' complained, in English, that 'there are people in America who are against our jihad.' In what might now be seen as a sign that the American alliance with Afghan holy warriors was inherently problematic, Mr. Hekmatyar told The Times in 1988 that he knew there were 'people who support our struggle because they are against the Russians, not as an Islamic struggle.' He also explained that he had refused to accompany other leaders of the Islamic resistance who traveled to Washington to meet President Ronald Reagan in 1986, because 'I was afraid America would compromise with Gorbachev over Afghanistan.'

While the shifting alliances in Afghanistan seem to have no relationship to the recent plots that Mr. Boyd was charged with facilitating, there was an interesting coincidence of timing. On Monday, the same day he was charged, The Guardian reported that Mr. Hekmatyar 'has reportedly been approached with a deal by western intelligence agencies,' hoping to draw the Islamic Party back into a de facto alliance with the United States.

The A.P. reports that during Mr. Boyd's trial in 1991, he accused the court of being insufficiently Islamic:

In 1991 in Pakistan, Daniel Boyd and his older brother denied they were guilty of stealing $3,200 from the bank. When the sentence was imposed, Boyd shouted: 'This isn't an Islamic court. It's a court of infidels!'

When the brothers were arrested, they were accused of carrying identification showing they belonged to the radical Afghan guerrilla group, Hezb-e-Islami, or Party of Islam. They had become the first foreigners to be convicted and sentenced by special Islamic courts set up by the conservative federal government to impose speedy trials for so-called 'heinous' crimes.

About a month later, when the brothers' convictions were overturned, Daniel Boyd said, 'The truth has finally come out.'

During Mr. Boyd's trial in Pakistan, his wife, Sabrina, who is also American, was present, as were the two sons who were arrested with their father on Monday. At the time Zakariya was three and his brother Dylan, also known as Mohammed, was five.