The government has an extensive confession from an African man charged with providing support to an African terror organization linked to al-Qaida, a federal prosecutor said today.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher LaVigne made the revelation during a plea proceeding Tuesday for Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed in Manhattan. Ahmed's lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
Ibrahim Ahmed is accused of attending bomb-making training in al Qaida-linked camps in Somalia and of plotting to support a terrorist organization working to further destabilize the embattled Somali government and targeting U.S. interests there.
Court papers said Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed was arrested in Nigeria after spending 8 months in Somalia. While the court papers state the Al Shabaab terror organization he trained with has called for attacks on the U.S., officials in Washington said there was no specific plot.
Ahmed is charged with material support for terrorism. Investigators said he learned how to build bombs using silver fulminate, urea nitrate, ammonium nitrate and other ingredients. He also allegedly received training with fuses and detonators.
In Nigeria, authorities said they arrested him with bomb-making instructions. He also allegedly was given an AK-47 and handgrenades while in Somalia. He was brought to the U.S. on Saturday.
The suspect in the Christmas day airline plot also traveled through Nigeria after allegedly receiving bomb training in Yemen. Officials said there is no connection in these two cases.
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The Al Shabaab terror group is believe to have assisted terrorists involved in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania as well as the 2002 hotel bombing in Kenya.
As for Ahmed, a US attorney spokeswoman said he is expected to be arraigned in federal court in Manhattan late Monday. She declined further comment.
