COLUMBUS, Ohio, 16 June 2004 — US authorities are confident a terrorist plot to bomb a central Ohio shopping mall has been foiled, a top homeland security official said yesterday.
An indictment has accused Somali native Nuradin Abdi of conspiring with an admitted Al-Qaeda member and others to bomb the mall in the Columbus area. Abdi has been taken into custody in a federal prison in Columbus.
Yesterday morning, Homeland Security Department Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson declined to say how far the plot progressed. But he told NBC’s “Today” show that “overt steps” were taken to support terrorist activities.
Hutchinson said federal officials believe the plot has been “completely thwarted” and that no threat remains to shopping malls in Ohio.
Abdi’s family has maintained his innocence.
Just months after the government granted Abdi asylum, however, federal authorities say he was plotting to blow up one of the malls, exactly the type of target some feared would be next on terrorists’ lists. Attorney General John Ashcroft said charges revealed Monday against Abdi serve as a reminder that Al-Qaeda is determined “to hit the United States and hit us hard.”
But Abdi’s family says he is a man who hates terrorists. Abdi, who operated a small cellphone business, loved his new freedoms and never spoke out against the US government, said his brother Mohamed Abdi-Karani, 17. Abdi has a son and daughter and his wife is pregnant.
“He loved it here. He never had as much freedom. He said it’s good to raise his kids here,” Abdi-Karani said. “He really hated terrorists. You know how (President) Bush hates terrorists? I think he hates them more.”
Abdi is accused of conspiring with convicted Al-Qaeda operative Iyman Faris — a former Columbus truck driver who sought to sabotage the Brooklyn Bridge — to bomb a mall in the area, though the FBI said no specific mall was targeted.
Abdi, 32, was arrested at his apartment Nov. 28, the day after Thanksgiving when malls across America were crowded with shoppers. He was held at first on immigration violations, authorities said.
Charges in the four-count indictment include providing material support to Al-Qaeda, conspiracy to provide material support and document fraud. If convicted on all charges, Abdi could be sentenced to up to 80 years in prison and fined $1 million.
The FBI has warned Al-Qaeda might shift away from trying to hit tightly guarded installations, such as government buildings or nuclear plants, to more vulnerable targets such as malls, apartment buildings or hotels.
Court papers filed by the government allege that a plot dated to March 2000 when Abdi returned from a terrorist training camp in Ethiopia to join Faris in Columbus.
Faris, originally from Kashmir, is serving a 20-year sentence after pleading guilty last June to plotting to sever cables supporting the Brooklyn Bridge and to derail trains in New York or Washington. Neither of those plots came to fruition.
AbdiKarani said Abdi was friends with Faris because they attended the same mosque. Columbus is home to more than 30,000 Somalis, the second-largest Somali community in the United States, after Minneapolis.
Abdi, his feet and hands shackled, appeared distracted during a hearing Monday before a federal magistrate. He smiled at spectators and US marshals.
