3 Charged With Planning to Attack Troops

02/22/2006

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - With jobs, families and college courses, three men of Middle Eastern descent appeared to be active members of their Midwestern communities, but prosecutors say they were plotting to kill U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq.

One was taking college courses and selling used cars. Another spent time playing in his yard with his children, according to neighbors.

All three were charged with attempting to wage terror attacks against the United States and its allies by recruiting and training others to fight overseas, according to a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday.

The indictment says the group traveled together to a shooting range to practice and studied how to make explosives. It alleges that at least one of the men researched and tried to obtain government grants and private funding for the training.

The three men pleaded not guilty Tuesday in federal courts in Cleveland and Toledo. The most serious charges could bring life in prison.

Mohammad Zaki Amawi, 26, a citizen of both the U.S. and Jordan, is accused of threatening to kill or injure President Bush, and distributing information about making and using bombs, according to the indictment. He briefly attended the University of Toledo, school officials said.

Wassim I. Mazloum, 24, came to the United States from Lebanon in 2000 and got a job at a restaurant and helping run small car dealerships with his family, he told a judge. He said he was taking classes in computer science engineering at the university until his arrest on allegations of trying to learn how to make roadside bombs using household materials, among other claims.

Marwan Othman El-Hindi, 42, a U.S. citizen born in Jordan, was a familiar sight to neighbors who watched his children play outside. The indictment alleges he sought to pass along to recruits information about using a suicide bomb vest.

All three had lived in Toledo within the past year and were arrested over the weekend - Amawi in Jordan, the others in Toledo, authorities said.


They are charged with conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim, or injure people or damage property in a foreign country. They are also charged with conspiracy to kill Americans and harboring or concealing terrorists.

An unidentified person with a military background helped the U.S. government foil the plot by working with the suspects while secretly gathering evidence, the indictment said.

El-Hindi is accused of trying to get that person, identified in the indictment only as “the trainer,” to travel with him in 2004 to the Middle East as part of a plot to establish a terrorism training center.

Tom Rawlings, who once lived next to El-Hindi, said his grandchildren often played with his former neighbor’s kids.

“They were nice. They kept their yard clean,” neighbor Larry Wilcox said.


El-Hindi’s attorney, Steve Hartman, called his client’s charges overzealous.

“It doesn’t help that he’s Jordanian,” Hartman said. “I think he’s caught up in the Justice Department’s vigorous work.”

At Mazloum’s family’s home in suburban Toledo, his sister said Mazloum is a conscientious person who could not be caught up in a terrorist conspiracy.

“Whenever he goes out at night, he always calls my mom to let her know where he’s at and what he’s doing,” 14-year-old Dima Mazloum said.

FBI agents knocked on the door around 7:30 a.m. Sunday and handcuffed her brother when he answered the door, she said. They did not explain why they were arresting him, she said.

The agents searched the house for an hour, taking about $1,700 and two pieces of paper from Mazloum’s wallet, as well as a paintball gun, Dima Mazloum said.

His mother, Salwa Elkechen, 44, said her son helped support her and take care of their home. She broke down in tears, saying, “Take my home, take my money, take everything. I just need my son.”

Mazloum’s attorney, Chuck Sallah, said he knew very little about his client or the charges.

Amawi lived across town in an apartment building filled mostly with people of Middle Eastern descent. He once denounced the U.S.-led war in Iraq, according to a former apartment manager.

“He said we shouldn’t be over there. He was angry about it,” said Lori Unugester, the former manager.

Amawi was assigned a public defender, and nobody answered the door at his apartment Tuesday.

Earlier this week, the U.S. government ordered a freeze on the assets of KindHearts, a Toledo-based group suspected of funneling money to the militant organization Hamas. Law enforcement officials, speaking of condition of anonymity, said the arrests of the three men spurred the decision to freeze KindHearts’ assets.

KindHearts has denied any terrorist connections and has said it is a humanitarian organization.