Algerian Arrested in Canada, Charged in LAX Bomb Plot

A 32-year-old Algerian man has been charged with aiding the aborted plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport during millennium festivities, federal prosecutors announced Friday.

Samir Ait Mohamed was arrested Thursday night in Vancouver, Canada, at the request of the United States, government lawyers said. A criminal complaint against him, prepared last month, was then unsealed in New York.

Canadian immigration authorities had been holding him since July 28.

Court papers allege that Mohamed agreed to help Algerian militant Ahmed Ressam, who was convicted in Los Angeles in April of conspiring to place an explosives-filled suitcase in a crowded terminal at LAX around New Year’s Day 2000.

In a bid for leniency, Ressam is cooperating with the government. An FBI affidavit shows he provided much of the information about Mohamed.

Ressam, who was trained in terrorist camps run by followers of Saudi militant Osama bin Laden, was arrested Dec. 14, 1999, at Port Angeles, Wash., after explosive materials were found in the trunk of his car at the Canadian border.

Government lawyers charge that Mohamed agreed to help Ressam obtain machine guns and hand grenades to be used in robberies in Montreal to finance terrorism and provided him with a gun.

Prosecutors allege that Mohamed referred Ressam to co-conspirator Mokhtar Haouari, who helped Ressam obtain a credit card using an alias and a false Quebec driver’s license.

According to the criminal complaint, Mohamed, Haouari, Ressam and a co-conspirator who was not identified planned to use Ressam’s false identity to open a grocery store to obtain credit card information from customers and commit fraud.

FBI agent Adam S. Cohen said in court papers that Ressam said that he first met Mohamed in Montreal in 1996 or 1997.

“Ressam and Mohamed agreed together and with others to commit credit card fraud, and Mohamed agreed with Mokhtar Haouari and others to assist Ressam and assisted Ressam in connection with the terrorist act that Ressam was planning,” the agent said.

Cohen said that in 1999 Ressam told Mohamed that his training in Afghanistan included the use of explosives and that the United States would be the best target, although he also was considering a French or Israeli target.

Ressam sought Mohamed’s help in obtaining a credit card “in connection with his planned terrorist operation and jihad [holy war] work,” the agent said.

Cohen said that Mohamed referred Ressam to Haouari, who filled out a credit card application for Ressam. The FBI agent said Haouari falsely listed his business as Ressam’s place of employment.

Prosecutors also charge that Mohamed and Haouari worked together to manufacture counterfeit credit cards and bogus identification documents. Cohen said that Ressam signed the lease for a store in Montreal using his false identity, but his participation was to be limited because he “was planning to leave Canada to carry out his terrorist act.”

The complaint charges Mohamed with two counts of terrorism: conspiring to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries and providing material support for a terrorist act.

If convicted on the conspiracy count, he could be sentenced to life in prison. The material support charge carries a maximum five-year penalty. On Friday, Mohamed was awaiting extradition to New York.

In July, a federal court in Manhattan found Haouari guilty of similar charges that included conspiracy to provide support to Ressam’s terrorist act. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 17.