A Somali Canadian was indicted by a U.S. grand jury yesterday and charged with conspiring to provide material support to the al-Qaeda network. Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, 30, is accused of attending terrorism training camps in Afghanistan before returning to North America three years ago.
In Canada since 1991, he worked odd jobs in Toronto then enrolled as a computer student in Minnesota a few years ago.
Today, top U.S. officials are calling him a sinister figure.
"The charge against Warsame is a grim reminder that al-Qaeda, aided by agents and cells in this country, continues its shadowy efforts to destroy the lives and freedoms of the people of the United States," U.S. Attorney-General John Ashcroft said in a statement yesterday.
Mr. Warsame trained in Afghancamps between 2000 and 2001, according to a New York police detective's statement. Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is said to have visited the camps during that time.
Mr. Warsame was arrested in Minnesota early last month.
He was transferred to New York two weeks later and is expected to return to Minnesota to face trial. U.S. officials have given no reason for the transfer.
News reports have said that Mr. Warsame was originally held as material witness in the case against Zacarias Moussaoui -- who is on trial for allegedly being part of the Sept. 11, 2001, conspiracy that killed about 3,000 people in Washington and New York.
An anonymous official told The Washington Post that Mr. Warsame has admitted he attended camps and lived with Mr. Moussaoui.
But a New York lawyer for the jailed Canadian said yesterday he would not comment on whether his client went to Afghanistan or knew Mr. Moussaoui.
Canadian consular officials who are monitoring Mr. Warsame's case visited him in prison late last month.
According to friends in Canada, he jumped from job to job in Toronto while talking openly of plans to travel to Afghanistan.
Six years ago, Mr. Warsame married a Somali woman in the United States. Yet he frequently was spotted at the Jami Mosque in Toronto's west end, according to mosque administrator Amjad Sayed.
"After getting married and having a child he was thinking about going to Afghanistan. And I said he's crazy," Mr. Sayed told The Globe in a recent interview.
"Now that he's married and has a family, why would he ever be thinking about these things?"
He described Mr. Warsame as a dreamer.
"He was always seeking something different, something which he could relate to, which could be his calling. And he never found that," Mr. Sayed said.
He said that before he left Canada, Mr. Warsame worked at restaurant and factory jobs, and occasionally took welfare.
His wife, Fartun Farah, has told reporters her husband is a responsible man with no links to terrorism.
She said he loves the United States and Canada, and that he is an honest, hard-working student at the Minneapolis Community Technical College.
But Mr. Warsame is one of many whom U.S. officials suspect of being al-Qaeda members who have graduated from Afghanistan training camps to return to the United States as possible sleeper agents.
"This case is a stark reminder that the threat from terrorists and those who help them exists across the country, not just in New York city and Washington, D.C., but also in places like Buffalo, Tampa, Portland, San Diego, and now, Minnesota," Assistant Attorney-General Christopher Wray said in a statement.
If convicted of supporting al-Qaeda, Mr. Warsame faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
