Pakistani-American Georgia Tech students arrested for terrorism

AP: FBI Says 2 in Ga. Plotted Terrorism


Friday April 21, 2006 8:16 PM

By GIOVANNA DELL'ORTO

Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA (AP) - A 21-year-old Georgia Tech student and another man traveled to Canada to meet with Islamic extremists to discuss ``strategic locations in the United States suitable for a terrorist strike,'' according to an affidavit made public Friday.

Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, both U.S. citizens who grew up in the Atlanta area, met with at least three other targets of ongoing FBI terrorism investigations during a trip to Canada in March 2005, the FBI agent's affidavit said.

The affidavit said the men discussed attacks against oil refineries and military bases and planned to travel to Pakistan to get military training at a terrorist camp, which authorities said Ahmed then tried to do.

Ahmed, who was indicted on suspicion of giving material support of terrorism, was being held at an undisclosed location. The indictment was returned under seal on March 23 and unsealed by the court Thursday.

Ahmed's court-appointed attorney, Jack Martin, did not return messages left seeking comment.

Sadequee, 19, who is accused of making materially false statements in connection with an ongoing federal terrorism investigation, was arrested in Bangladesh and was en route to New York City to be arraigned.

``There is no imminent threat,'' said FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko, a spokesman in Washington.

Authorities said the two men spent several days in Canada, where they met with others being investigated by the terrorism task force.

Sadequee is accused of lying about the trip when he was interviewed at John F. Kennedy International Airport in August as he was about to leave for Bangladesh. The affidavit said Sadequee had said he had traveled alone in January to visit an aunt.

One day later, federal agents interviewed Ahmed, who was coming back from a monthlong trip to Pakistan, at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. He said he had gone to Toronto with Sadequee, according to the affidavit.

Student held on terror charge

From: Reuters
April 22, 2006
US AUTHORITIES in the southern state of Georgia have charged a 21-year-old engineering student at Georgia Tech in Atlanta with supporting terrorism.

An indictment returned by a grand jury on March 23 and unsealed on Thursday said that for the past year Syed Haris Ahmed had attempted to provide and conspired with others to provide material support and resources for acts of international terrorism, the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia said in a statement.
"The indictment is the first public result of an extensive and ongoing terrorism investigation...," said US Attorney David Nahmias in the statement. "The case against Mr. Ahmed is serious and involves national security, and it will be prosecuted with that in mind."

The US attorney's office said he was being held at an undisclosed location because of the nature of the offence and did not provide further details.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper reported on Friday that the FBI believed Ahmed, a mechanical engineering major at Georgia Institute of Technology, attended a training camp in Pakistan last year. His family, who immigrated from Pakistan in 1997, said he went there to attend a religious school Rolling Eyes , the paper added.

It said another person from the Atlanta area, 19-year-old Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, had been arrested in Bangladesh and was being flown to New York to face charges there.