Prosecutors: Tarek Mehanna, Resident of Sudbury, Mass., Planned Terror Attacks on Malls, Terror Plot Foiled

Federal authorities announced this morning that Tarek Mehanna, 27, of Sudbury, a small town west of Boston, has been arrested on charges of conspiring to support terrorists in a long-running investigation into Americans seeking military-style training overseas. The Department of Justice said he allegedly conspired from 2001 to May 2008 with Ahmad Abousamra and others to support and carry out attacks abroad, including on U.S. and allied soldiers in Iraq. An FBI agent alleged in a complaint and search warrant affidavit that Mehanna, Abousamra and an associate traveled to the Middle East in February 2004 seeking training at a terrorist camp in Yemen, and that Abousamra made two similar trips to Pakistan in 2002. The men were unsuccessful, however, the agent said, and the associate became a government informant.

Abousamra, who was not charged, left the United States for Syria in 2006 to visit his wife and has not returned, according to the court documents.  According FBI Special Agent Heidi L. Williams, the group also allegedly had several conversations about obtaining automatic rifles and randomly shooting people in a shopping mall, but abandoned the plan because they could obtain only handguns. Williams further stated that Mehanna and the co-conspirators talked once or twice about assassinating two top U.S. elected officials, though they are not charged in connection with that.
Well, this is further proof that under President Obama we are just as safe as under the last administration, though former Vice President Dick Cheney tried to paint a completely different picture. This man has been on the FBI radar for as early as 2005 when he was questioned by the FBI about activities including a trip to Yemen he made in 2004, the Boston Globe reported.
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. The earlier charge carries a penalty of up to eight years in prison.