Tarek Mehanna, 27, of Sudbury, MA, was arrested and charged in federal court today with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.
The complaint says that beginning in or around 2001 — up until May 2008 — Mehanna conspired with Ahmad Abousamra, and others to “provide material support and resources for use in carrying out a conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure persons or damage property in a foreign country and extraterritorial homicide of a U.S. national.”
More specifically, acting U.S. Attorney Michael K. Loucks said at a press conference this morning that Mehanna and his conspirators had allegedly conspired to shoot and kill one or two members of the executive branch of the U.S. government — neither, Loucks said, is still a member of the executive branch, and “neither were in any danger at any time.” The men also allegedly tried to fight and kill Americans overseas — traveling to Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen — and attempting to receive training from the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Toiba.
The men also tried to obtain weapons and discussed random shootings of Americans at a shopping mall — an idea inspired by the D.C. sniper attacks, Loucks said — because “civilians are taxpayers” and “non-believers.” That plan was ultimately abandoned “because of their inability to obtain the automatic weapons they deemed necessary to effectively carry out the attacks,” according to a Department of Justice release.
Mehanna was previously indicted in January 2009 for making false statements to members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force of the FBI in connection with a terrorism investigation.
If convicted on the material support charge, Mehanna faces up to 15 years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.
