Author: Matt Leingang
Publication: Chronicle-Telegram
Date: April 13, 2007
URL: http://www.chroniclet.com/2007/04/13/prosecutors-ohioan-%E2%80%98a-violent-jihadist%E2%80%99/
Federal authorities say an Ohio man was so
dedicated to committing violent jihad that he angrily told a fellow al-Qaida
member that the terrorist group should never consider scaling back military
operations.
Christopher Paul is depicted by investigators
as a man who made that statement during a stay at an exclusive guest house
for al-Qaida members in Pakistan in the early 1990s. He then spent years providing
money and training to others who would join him in plotting to bomb European
tourist resorts and U.S. military bases overseas, the U.S. government said
Thursday.
In a letter to his future wife, Paul even
reflected on his desire to one day raise "little mujahideen," or
holy warriors, according to a federal grand jury indictment.
The investigation into Paul spanned four years,
three continents and at least eight countries, FBI agent Tim Murphy said.
Paul, 43, a U.S. citizen and Columbus resident,
was arrested Wednesday outside his apartment. He is charged with providing
material support to terrorists, conspiracy to provide support to terrorists
and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. The weapon of mass destruction
charge carries the most serious penalty, up to life in prison.
Ahmad Al-Akhras, vice chair of the Columbus
chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he knows Paul and
the charges are out of character.
"From the things I know, he is a loving
husband and he has a wife and parents in town," Al-Akhras said. "They
are a good family together."
Al-Akhras said his group will work to make
sure Paul's constitutional rights are granted.
Paul appeared Thursday before U.S. Magistrate
Terence Kemp, who set a hearing Friday on prosecutors' request that Paul be
held without bond. Paul's lawyer, Don Wolery, declined comment.
After completing his al-Qaida training in
the early 1990s, Paul returned to Columbus to teach martial arts at a mosque,
the indictment said.
Paul traveled to Germany about April 1999
to train co-conspirators to use explosives to attack European and American
targets, including government buildings and vacation spots frequented by American
tourists, the document said.
It does not name specific resorts or buildings
that might have been targeted, but it gives U.S. embassies, military bases
and consular premises in Europe as examples.
He later sent a wire transfer of $1,760 from
a financial institution in the U.S. to an alleged co-conspirator in Germany,
prosecutors allege.
He also is accused of conspiring to use explosives
against an unidentified person in the U.S., training people in the U.S. to
be ready for violent jihad outside the country and of conducting operations
at an Ohio park in 1998 with several co-conspirators.
"The indictment of Christopher Paul paints a disturbing picture of an
American who traveled overseas to train as a violent jihadist, joined the
ranks of al-Qaida and provided military instruction and support to radical
cohorts both here and abroad," Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kenneth
Wainstein said in a statement.
Bill Hunt, first assistant U.S. attorney,
declined to say whether any of the alleged plots were carried out. People
whom Paul associated with in Europe have been arrested, he said.
A friend of Paul's, Hisham Jenhawi, 32, attended
Thursday's court hearing and said he found the charges hard to believe.
"I don't think it's even close to his
personality to act upon something like that," he said at the federal
courthouse. "He's a very kind person. You would meet him on the street
and he would want to hug you with the heart that he has."
Paul had an article at his home titled "How
I designed the A-bomb," and a fax machine contained names, phone numbers
and contact information for key al-Qaida leadership and associates, according
to the indictment.
Paul also is accused of storing material at
his father's house in Columbus, including a book on improvised land mines,
money from countries in the Middle East and a letter to his parents explaining
that he would be "on the front lines," according to the indictment.
Paul's sister, Sandra Laws, answered the door
at the two-story, pale green home she shares with her father, Ernest, in suburban
Columbus but declined to comment on the case.
No charges are expected against family members,
authorities said.
Paul was born Paul Kenyatta Laws, and legally
changed his name to Abdulmalek Kenyatta in 1989, then to Christopher Paul
in 1994, citing religious reasons for the last switch. He had passports under
various names that he used in his travels, which included stops in Austria,
Slovenia and Croatia, authorities said.
In Columbus, Paul taught martial arts at a
mosque, authorities said. His friend, Hisham Jenhawi, said his daughter played
with Paul's daughter, who is about 9 years old and is home-schooled.
A neighbor, Mike James, 20, who lives at the
apartment complex where the government said Paul lived, said he'd seen Paul
and his family at times in a hallway. He did not know what Paul did for a
living and hadn't seen him in about a month.
"He seemed like a nice guy, always waving,
and the next thing you know, he could be a terrorist," James said. "That's
scary."
Paul, who is married to a woman named in the
indictment as F. Bashir, is linked to another man charged in a terror investigation,
court records show.
Nuradin Abdi, accused of plotting to blow
up a Columbus-area shopping mall, is awaiting trial. A laser range finder
and a night vision scope seized from Paul's residence are listed among items
that the government intends to use as evidence in Abdi's case, court records
show.
Abdi also listed Paul as a personal reference
on a government employment application, records show.
Abdi's attorney, Mahir Sherif, said his client
knew Paul but declined to elaborate.
A third Columbus man, Iyman Faris, was sentenced
in 2003 to 20 years in prison for a plot to topple the Brooklyn Bridge.
Sherif said the government has been trying
to link the three men for years.
