2 Va. Men Focus of Probe of Possible Terrorist Attack

Prosecutors have charged a Virginia man with lying to a grand jury as part of an investigation into whether he and a friend were involved in a plot to carry out a suicide attack in Israel, federal authorities disclosed Tuesday.

Mohammed Osman Idris, 24, of Annandale, Va., was secretly charged last week with one felony count of lying to a federal grand jury. According to a complaint and a detailed FBI affidavit unsealed Tuesday, Idris and a companion were traveling to Israel when they left behind a letter that allegedly described the friend’s intention to commit jihad, or holy war.

FBI officials allege that Idris lied repeatedly when he swore under oath--while answering questions about other suspicious activities--that he had never discussed jihad.

The grand jury has been convened by the U.S. attorney’s office in Alexandria, Va., to investigate terrorism plots in the U.S. and abroad. The affidavit describes how the investigation has been monitored by the Justice Department.

Authorities suspect Idris and the man carrying the letter, Mohammed El-Yacoubi of Fairfax, Va., of providing or attempting to provide material support to Hamas, Islamic Jihad “and/or other international terrorists,” according to the affidavit. They declined to discuss details of the case, including other potential suspects.

A lawyer for Idris said his client maintains his innocence. Idris is a former student at Virginia’s George Mason University who intends to resume his studies, and is a victim of overzealous counter-terrorism investigators, lawyer Thomas Walsh said.

“The government is speculating on what they think these guys were doing,” Walsh said after a brief court appearance on Idris’ behalf. “There is nothing there except that witnesses [the FBI] interviewed think that these people have certain beliefs, i.e., that suicide bombings are justified.”

Federal law enforcement authorities said Idris was released on bond and that El-Yacoubi also was not in custody. They declined to discuss details of the case, citing the ongoing criminal investigation into the two men’s activities.

“We can’t say with any certainty what these guys were up to or might have been up to. We don’t know,” said one Justice Department official. “All we have is the letter. At this point it is simply a charge of lying to a grand jury.”

Several federal law enforcement officials said the allegedly suspicious activities include a trip the two men took together to Israel last December after months of complaining to friends that Israel and Jews in general were responsible for much of society’s problems. Both men also sought new passports after deciding that prior trips to Saudi Arabia might draw the suspicion of Israeli authorities and prevent them from gaining entry into the country, according to court documents.

The officials cited Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft’s frequently stated decree that he would rather thwart terrorist plots in their early stages by taking suspicious people into custody, rather than continue to gather evidence against them that could be used to prosecute them on terrorism charges.

Idris and El-Yacoubi are childhood friends who traveled together to Israel on Dec. 13, five days after El-Yacoubi visited his younger brother at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, the affidavit by FBI Special Agent John V. Wyman said. El-Yacoubi brought with him a letter from his brother, written in Arabic, but in his haste left it behind at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, the affidavit said.

U.S. officials had stopped the two men but allowed them to board an El Al flight to Israel. But Israeli authorities denied the men entry, forcing their return to the United States.

The FBI recovered the four-page letter and had it translated. Wyman described the letter in the affidavit as a farewell missive from the younger El-Yacoubi acknowledging his older brother’s plans to kill himself and become a martyr in the eyes of Allah.

“When I heard what you are going to carry out, my heart was filled with the feeling of grief and joy because you are the closest human being to my heart,” the younger brother wrote, according to the FBI translation. “It is incumbent upon me to encourage you and help you, because Islam urges Jihad for the sake of Allah. . . . You will, by your action, give honor to our family.”

In interviews, Idris and both El-Yacoubi brothers denied that there was any plot to commit a terrorist act, and that the younger El-Yacoubi was simply worried that his brother was traveling to a dangerous place.

But a host of FBI translators and counter-terrorism experts believe the letter and subsequent interviews with the three men and their friends clearly indicate that a suicide plot was imminent had the two men been given entry to Israel, Wyman wrote in his affidavit.

“The references to jihad in an overwhelmingly violent context cannot be confused with a letter written to someone traveling to Israel solely for the purpose of sightseeing or praying,” Wyman wrote. “The overall tone of the letter clearly implies the use of violence and/or loss of life.”

The pair also was carrying $2,000 in cash, a cellular telephone, a compass, calculator and video camera, Wyman wrote.