WASHINGTON — A Pakistani-born suburban father was trying to enlist in a terrorist organization in January and was eager to become a martyr when he unknowingly walked into an FBI sting and began helping plan a purported attack on the Washington subway system, according to court documents.
What followed was an elaborate ruse in which Farooque Ahmed was given intelligencegathering duties and coded information in a Koran by two individuals posing as al-Qaida operatives as part of the supposed plot to kill commuters on the nation’s second-busiest subway system.
Ahmed, 34, of Ashburn, Va .,was caught on FBI surveillance video discussing his firearm, martial-arts and knife skills and offering to teach those deadly tactics to others, according to an FBI affidavit unsealed Thursday.
The affidavit by FBI agent Charles Dayoub describes meetings beginning in mid-April between Ahmed and the pair he believed were al-Qaida operatives and the actions Ahmed took to advance thefake plot. The operatives were really working on behalf of the U.S. government, said a federal law enforcement official who requested anonymity to discuss details of the case.
Ahmed was arrested Wednesday, just weeks before the FBI says he planned to make the annual religious pilgrimage to the Islamic holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The case represents the latest in a recent string of would-be terrorist attacks that officials say were aided, hatched or carried out by U.S. citizens.
Dayoub said Ahmed had an associate who also tried to join a terrorist group and accompanied Ahmed while he conducted surveillance of subway systems. There was no immediate information about the associate’s identity, whether the bureau might be looking for the associate or whether the individual was cooperating with authorities. Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd wouldprovide no details on the associate’s identity.
The FBI and White House have said the public was never in danger because FBI agents had Ahmed under tight surveillance before the sting and until his arrest.
Like many would-be terrorists and sympathizers, Ahmed was potentially influenced by Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical Muslim cleric who preached in northern Virginia until 2002and now lives in hiding in Yemen, officials said. But while Ahmed listened to al-Awlaki’s Internet sermons, officials said the two were not in contact and they’re not sure how influential those sermons were.
Ahmed’s lawyer, federal public defender Kenneth Troccoli, declined to comment on the case Thursday.
Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Ahmed arrived in the U.S. in 1993 and became a citizen in 2005, officials said. He worshipped at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, which is known for its mainstream Islamic congregation. Leaders there have decried violence and were quick to call for Ahmed’s prosecution. He was not a member of the society, said board member Robert Marro.
“He comes in just for prayer services and then leaves right after,” Marro said.
The tip that led to the sting came from a source in the Muslim community, officials said.
Ahmed was a contractor with the telecommunications company Ericsson Services Inc. Company spokesman Kathy Egan said he never worked on the company’s government contracts, including ones with the Pentagon. Ahmed never had access to classified information, Egan said.
Dayoub’s affidavit disclosed that the FBI learned in January that Ahmed and an associate were trying to make contactwith terrorist groups to help participate in jihad against U.S. forces overseas.
Dayoub wrote that Ahmed was lured by an e-mail to the first meeting detailed, on April 18, in the lobby of a hotel near Washington Dulles International Airport. As the FBI secretly videotaped the encounter, Ahmed accepted a Koran that contained “documents providing code words for locations to be used for future meeting,” the affidavit said.
Ahmed told a purported al-Qaida operative he had come to the meeting because “he wanted to fight and kill Americans in Afghanistan,” Dayoub wrote.
Dayoub also said the FBI learned that Ahmed bought, or tried to buy, weapons in May 2008 and February 2009. Authorities think he used firearms to train for his goal of traveling to Afghanistan to kill Americans.
Ahmed has been indicted on charges of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack on a transit facility, and attempting to provide material support to terrorists.
Information for this article was contributed by Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan, Sarah Brumfield, Brett Zongker, Kathleen Miller, Kasey Jones, Ben Nuckols and Barbara Sambriski of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 10/29/2010