Ex-GI Charged in Terrorist Plot, U.S. Embassy Bombings

A former Army sergeant who taught Special Forces troops about Muslim culture was indicted on charges of conspiring with Saudi militant Osama bin Laden to kill Americans abroad.

Ali Mohamed was charged Wednesday with acting with others--including Bin Laden’s group Al Qaida, or the Base--to plan the slayings of U.S. military personnel in Saudi Arabia and Somalia, and August’s bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The Aug. 7 attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and left more than 5,000 wounded.

Prosecutors had sought the cooperation of Mohamed and had conducted lengthy negotiations with the suspect and his lawyers. But when the discussions failed, the 46-year-old native of Egypt was added to the case against Bin Laden and 11 associates who allegedly participated in a worldwide terrorist organization.

Bin Laden and his top military aide have been indicted on 224 counts of murder in connection with the Africa bombings.

According to Wednesday’s indictment, Mohamed was a former major in the Egyptian army who joined the U.S. Army in 1986 and later trained members of Bin Laden’s terrorist organization.

Prosecutors charge that he helped transport Bin Laden from Pakistan to Sudan during or about 1991 and two years later began discussing with other members of Bin Laden’s group possible attacks against the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, and other sites.

The indictment alleges that Mohamed trained Bin Laden’s bodyguards in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, in 1994 and exchanged coded messages with members of the terrorist group.

At the same time, prosecutors charge, Mohamed trained Islamic militants in the New York City area in military techniques. Several members of a Brooklyn-based group of Islamic militants were convicted in the bombing of the World Trade Center on Feb. 26, 1993, which killed six people and injured more than 1,000.

Mohamed was arrested Sept. 11 on a sealed warrant. Authorities took pains to keep his identity secret as government lawyers conducted negotiations with him while he was housed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center adjacent to the federal courthouse in Manhattan.

Mohamed could face life in prison without parole.