American arrested in terrorism case was denied entry to Pakistan

Abdel Hameed Shehadeh, according to the FBI, traveled the world in search of jihad. But Pakistan turned him away, and Jordan did too. He tried to get into Somalia, but U.S. authorities had placed him on the no-fly list.

An American citizen, he visited an Army recruiting station in New York’s Times Square hoping to be sent to Iraq; the Army did not want him either.

So, the FBI said, the 21-year-old born and raised in New York created websites and posted threats of radical Islamic violence, including one from another American, Anwar Awlaki, a terrorism suspect thought to be living in Yemen. Then Shehadeh flew to Hawaii and allegedly started taking target practice.

FBI agents said he wanted to join an Islamic militant group to learn “guerrilla warfare and bomb-making.” Had he been welcomed into the Army, they said, his plan was to defect in Iraq and turn against his comrades.

Shehadeh’s journeys ended Friday. He was arrested in Honolulu and accused in a federal criminal complaint, unsealed Monday, of making false statements in an international terrorism case.

For more than two years federal officials followed his travels, tracked his websites and enlisted help from his grade-school friends. On Tuesday, they singled him out as someone much like Awlaki — eager to forfeit his U.S. citizenship for a life of jihad.

“My brothers of revolutionary Islam, I am with you as long as you keep struggling,” Shehadeh allegedly posted on his website. “Trust me there are many brothers and sisters in America that are ready to speak up. They just need a push.”

Florence T. Nakakuni, the U.S. attorney in Hawaii, said the investigation covered “a six-hour time difference and 5,000 miles.” In New York, FBI Assistant Director Janice K. Fedarcyk said, “Stopping one prospective terrorist can prevent untold numbers of casualties.”

Shehadeh faces up to eight years in prison. His Hawaiian attorney, Matthew Winter, said he “wants to return as soon as possible to New York and face the charges there.”

He first drew the eye of FBI agents in June 2008 for signing into the online Expedia travel agency and purchasing a one-way ticket to Pakistan. A New York detective interviewed him at the airport; Shehadeh said he was going to Pakistan to attend an Islamic school.

Customs and Border Patrol searched his checked baggage. They found a sleeping bag, toiletries, three books and two changes of clothes. When the plane landed in Islamabad, he was not allowed into the country.

The FBI developed two confidential informants who were boyhood classmates of Shehadeh. He allegedly told the informants that he wanted to die a martyr and spoke of an afterlife with 72 virgins.

In June 2009, he purchased a ticket to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Again FBI agents said they interviewed him; he told them his destination was Somalia. But now he was on the no-fly list; he could not even leave the U.S.

He went to Hawaii. In October 2009, he visited the SWAT Gun Club in Honolulu and practiced firing an M-16 assault rifle, .45-caliber and 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistols, and a .44-caliber Magnum revolver.

In April, he again spoke to the FBI. The conversation turned to why U.S. Muslims become radicalized. The agents said Shehadeh told them, “Take my story, for example.”

richard.serrano@latimes.com