Terror Suspect in Oregon Plot Extradited

[NaDiNe]

Terror Suspect in Oregon Plot Extradited

By PAT MILTON ââ,¬â€œ 3 hours ago

NEW YORK (AP) ââ,¬â€ A European terrorism suspect facing charges in the United States planned to set up a camp in Oregon to teach followers how to make bombs, poison people and slit throats, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday.

Oussama Kassir, a Lebanese-born Swede, also offered bomb and poison-making tips on several Web sites, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said in announcing the suspect's extradition to New York from the Czech Republic.

One of the Web sites was located on an Internet server in suburban White Plains, the prosecutor said.

"The purpose of the camp was to identify and further radicalize individuals that would be willing to carry out attacks against the United States at home or abroad," said Richard Falkenrath, deputy commissioner for counterterrorism at the New York Police Department.

Kassir was scheduled to appear in court for arraignment later Tuesday.

Prosecutors say Kassir and others wanted to set up the camp in Bly, Ore., to teach military-style methods so a community of Muslims could move to Afghanistan to fight or receive further training there. The camp was never realized.

Kassir also discussed hijacking trucks and killing the drivers to raise money to support the camp, Garcia said.

Kassir is accused of operating at least three Web sites that sought to recruit terrorists from December 2001 until his arrest Dec. 11, 2005, at Prague's Ruzyne international airport while flying from Stockholm, Sweden, to Beirut, Lebanon.

Authorities said the sites included such titles as "The Mujahideen Explosives Handbook" and "The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook."

An indictment says Kassir told witnesses that he supported Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida and that he had personally undertaken jihad training in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Lebanon.

In November 1999, prosecutors said, another man sent Kassir and a codefendant to establish the training camp. They left the U.S. after two months, with Kassir complaining there were too few men, officials said.

Authorities in Oregon have said the camp never materialized beyond a dozen people taking target practice and was abandoned for unknown reasons. Bly is an unincorporated town of a few hundred residents, 230 miles southeast of Portland.

Kassir was born in Lebanon and moved to Sweden in 1984. He became a citizen five years later. He spent several months in prison in 1998 for assaulting a police officer and drug possession. A Swedish court jailed him for 10 months two years ago for illegal weapons possession.

The two codefendants are awaiting extradition.


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