An Algerian man has been arrested in Vancouver, Canada, for allegedly helping to supply guns and counterfeit credit cards in a 1999 plot to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport, federal prosecutors said today.
Mr Samir Ait Mohamed, 32, was arrested by the Canadian authorities last night at the request of the United States which asked that he be extradited on charges filed in Manhattan federal court.
The complaint charges Mohamed with an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiring to provide material support for a terrorist act and conspiracy to commit credit card fraud.
If convicted on the act of terrorism charge, he could face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The case stems from a plan by a group of Algerians to bomb the Los Angeles Airport and millennium celebrations being held in the United States at the end of 1999. Former President Bill Clinton had accused Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden of being behind the scheme.
The conspiracy came to light when Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian, was arrested in Washington State on Dec. 14, 1999 when he tried to enter the United States from Canada with a rental car filled with explosives. Ressam was convicted by a Los Angeles jury in April of conspiracy to commit terrorism and lying to US officials.
He later agreed to co-operate with the government in an attempt to win leniency. As part of his co-operation agreement, he testified against another Algerian, Mokhtar Haouari, who was tried in Manhattan federal court. Haouari is awaiting sentencing.
During Haouari's trial, Ressam said the plot grew out of 1998 discussions among Islamic Algerians receiving training in weapons and explosives at camps in Afghanistan. He said his cell wanted to start an operation in Canada aimed at attacking targets in the United States.
Ressam said that his Algerian cell received a fatwa, or religious decree, from imprisoned militant Islamic cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman ordering attacks on Americans. He is serving a life sentence for plotting to bomb US landmarks.
The complaint against Mohamed alleges that he met Ressam in Montreal in 1996 or 1997 and later agreed to help in the bombing scheme. The charges allege that Mohamed agreed to acquire guns and hand grenades for robberies to raise money to carry out the attacks.
He allegedly provided Ressam with a pistol and put Ressam in touch with Haouari to help him get a false driver's license and credit card using an alias.
Haouari also recruited another co-conspirator Abdelghani Meskini, to fly from New York to Seattle, to help Ressam when he entered from Canada. Meskini was charged in Manhattan federal court for his role in the conspiracy and he pleaded guilty to the charges in March.
The charges also allege that in August or September of 1999, Mohamed, Haouari, Ressam and an unnamed co-conspirator agreed to use Ressam's false identity to open a food store in Montreal as a way to get customers' credit card information. The data was later used to make counterfeit credit cards, the complaint alleges.