Jun 22, 2005 1:34 pm US/Central
Terror Suspect Warsame Faces Additional Charges
Minneapolis (AP) ―
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Mohammed Abdullah Warsame
A federal grand jury on Wednesday added four new charges to an indictment against a man authorities alleged fought on the Taliban front lines and once shared a meal with Osama bin Laden.
Terror suspect Mohammed Warsame, 31, was charged last year with conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaida. He remained in custody Wednesday, said Karen Bailey, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The superseding indictment added one count of providing material support to the terrorist group and three counts of making false statements to the FBI.
Warsame's attorney, David C. Thomas of Chicago, told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis that he believes the new charges were filed because Warsame stopped cooperating with the government. "He feels like he was taken advantage of," Thomas said.
The new indictment alleges Warsame lied when he told FBI agents that he had only traveled to Saudi Arabia and Somalia since 1995. Prosecutors alleged he also traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2000 and 2001 to attend military training camps.
The indictment also alleges Warsame lied when he told investigators that he had no contact with people he met in the camps after he left. In fact, the indictment alleges he had frequent contact with them.
Finally, Warsame was charged with telling agents that he didn't send money to people he met in Afghanistan. The indictment claims he sent $2,000 to an associate in Pakistan.
Bailey said an arraignment date on the new charges had not been set.
Warsame, a Somali with Canadian citizenship, was arrested in Minneapolis in December 2003. He had been living in Minnesota since 2002, with his wife and daughter, who was 5 when he was arrested.
An FBI agent's affidavit filed in conjunction with the original charge said Warsame traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2000 and 2001. In early 2001, prosecutors say, Warsame asked al-Qaida for money to move his family to Afghanistan.
Instead, an al-Qaida leader paid for Warsame's airplane ticket back to North America, and gave him $1,700 in travel money, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit states that Warsame claimed to have twice seen combat with front line units of the Taliban while in Afghanistan. He also said he had seen bin Laden on several occasions at one of the camps, including sharing a meal with the al-Qaida chief.
The executive director of the St. Paul-based Somali Justice Advocacy Center, Omar Jamal, said Warsame maintains his innocence. Jamal has been a spokesman for Warsame's family in Minneapolis.
"The charges are more about fear and to scare him to break him down more. We're very much concerned. We'll repeat our call to give him his chance in court," Jamal told the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
(© 2005 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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