American Is Charged in U.S. for Activities in Somalia

[COSTA]

American Is Charged in U.S. for Activities in Somalia

Associated Press
Wednesday, February 14, 2007; Page A15

HOUSTON, Feb. 13 -- A former Houston man has been charged in Texas with teaming with al-Qaeda in the East African country of Somalia to fight the internationally recognized government there and establish an Islamic state.

Daniel Joseph Maldonado, 28, also known as Daniel Aljughaifi, was ordered held without bail Tuesday on federal charges of undergoing military training with a terrorist organization and conspiring to use a destructive device.

Photos
/world/photo Suspicion, Anger in Somalia
As Somalia's interim government attempts to reassert control over the country, security concerns grow amid angry protests over U.S. airstrikes and the presence of Ethiopian troops.

Arrested in Kenya last month, Maldonado was returned to the United States on Monday night and appeared Tuesday before Magistrate Judge Calvin Botley, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Houston said.

Intelligence officials have said that significant numbers of foreign fighters went to Somalia last year to support the radical Islamic Courts movement, which was confronting a weak, U.N.-backed government. Ethiopian troops took the capital, Mogadishu, from the Islamic movement in December and scattered the group's fighters. Many appear to have crossed into Kenya.

Maldonado is the first American to be prosecuted on suspicion of joining terrorists in Somalia, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth L. Wainstein said in a statement. Four British citizens captured in Kenya after fleeing Somalia were returned to Britain on Tuesday, the Bloomberg news agency reported.

According to the criminal complaint, Maldonado traveled from Houston to Cairo in November 2005. In November last year, the complaint says, he landed at Mogadishu airport and joined with the Islamic Courts movement and elements of al-Qaeda.

The complaint says that in interviews with FBI agents in Kenya, Maldonado recounted being issued an AK-47 assault rifle, military fatigues and combat boots and attending military training camps where members of al-Qaeda were present.

He described spending time with a bomb maker and learning assembly techniques, according to the complaint. He also said he wanted to take part in combat, but did not do so because he contracted malaria.

[COSTA]

I THINK HE IS AN INNOCENT MAN

[kambuli]

Addunkan mu'aamaradda badan who knows cid uu ka socdey?

[COSTA]

Daniel Joseph Maldonado--- THE QUESTION IS WHAT AN AMERICAN DOING IN SOMALIA WHEN WE SOMALIS CANT EVEN GO THERE?

[Steeler [Crawler2]]

Costa
The question is why do you think he's innocent? Maybe he is, maybe he isn't, but you are just throwing it out there without really knowing any of the facts of the case.

[musika man]

costa, is that guy the black american guy how was wanted for a criminal act in the united states and escaped to somalia to joined the hutu courts?

[SNM chick]

I DONT BELIEV AL QAEDA EVEN EXIST
ITS ALL A GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY
N THEY HAVE MAD ETHE WHOLE THING UP
EVERY SINGLE TERRORSIT ATTACK WAS PLANED N INDEED THEY ARE THE ONLY REAL TERRORIST ARE THE AMERICANZ N BRITISH WHO HAVE CRE3ATHED A SYSTEM THET MAKES THE PUBLIC LIVE IN FEAR SO THEY CAN SUPPOSIDLEY LOOK AFTER US SO TEHY CREATE THESE TERRORSIT ATTCKS SO THEY WE CAN VOTE FOR THEM TO KEEP DEMOCRATIC POSITIONZ
ITS ALL THEM

[Steeler [Crawler2]]

So Bin Laden, Zawahiri, they don't exist? And the attacks in Spain, in London, in New York, In East Africa.....all of that was done by the CIA??? How many people are involved in his conspiracy anyway?

[SNM chick]

bin laden exists
but he will probably never be found because they dont wanna find him as he was workin with them
memebers of parliment have been pullin stunts like thses for so long, hitler even use to use propaganda to amke it look like one jewish pepeps were evil/communist/terrorists and poeple believd it to an extentn that when he hilled 6 million jewz the germnz were obedeiant to it
the brombing in america n london were all planned by da government derz significant evidence to prove it, from inside peopel n even scientistz who said the towerz couldnt ahve gone down with out it being an insde job becaise of the way in which they went down ther was ven thermide in teh building b4 it wnet down to maike it go down in da way it did

[eyes-only]

I agree with SNM chick....that conspiracy theory is getting stronger.

First of all the Americans created Al-Qaeda, funded and trained them...they could have captured the leaders several times but didn't and every time they want to do something i.e. attack a country or accuse someone or group of being terrorists, Al-Qaeda just appears out of no where and claims to have links to them......this has happened far too many times to be considered a coincidence.

The Americans, I mean the CIA has managed to create an Al-Qaeda ideology and organisation and uses that for its own agenda. Tomorrow if they want to invade Syria or Lebanon, they'll claim so and so has links to Alqaeda. The whole thing is bogus and is designed as a tool to justify the actions of the west against the muslim world.

[Steeler [Crawler2]]

You guys are on focking crack.

[SNM chick]

yes eyes only thank u sister
these peeps are jus believin wat they see on the tv
t5he medaia is controlled and it is designed to conrtoll our way of thinking so we support these causes to invade countries by beleiving there is a logic and justifiable reason for the invasionz wen it all about countries becoming stronger world powerz, becoming richer m members of parliment such as bush and blair staying in power but creating these terrorists plots
do u think it was jus a coincidence that the bombings in london took place jus b4 the electionz in which he was gonna loose his postion beacuse he supported the war in iraq which most of the british public were totally against, n the out of the blue a terror attck whci resulted in him staying in power by makin cliams he was gonna crack down on terrorism

n we not on crack but we dont blindly follow wat we are shown and hear from teh media as it is all bull sh!t

[Steeler [Crawler2]]

I don't believe what I see on TV. I'm an Army Intelligence Officer who has worked this problem for a long time. I have friends who are working the Bin Laden problem set. It is IMPOSSIBLE for this all to have been faked. You would have had to have had hundreds of conspirators, and the workers of the WTC would have to have been blind, for this to be possible.

Conspiracies like Gleiwitz only work in closed societies, where people would never question the government because the Gestapo would make you disappear at night. In a country where people are free to express whatever they want, you could never keep such a thing secret. Not to mention conducting many attacking world-wide. The entire idea that the US is behind this is LUDICROUS.

[SNM chick]

lol they have got to u and controlled your way of thinking
listen peeps who worked for the mi5 have even spoken out of the conspircay and have been locked up for it and not allowed to make any kind of a formal complaint,
im not sayin anything was faked but im simply sayin it was all planned, its nothing to do with al qaeda they are jus a scapegoat they are jus a foriegn group to bloame it on, n rember bush had many deals involving big sumz of money with bin laden
n it is very possible for it all to be planned by peopel who wrok with blair n bush as it has been done

[Steeler [Crawler2]]

Bush didn't have any deals with Bin Laden. That's all nonsense.

The Bush family had oil interests in Saudi Arabia, the Bin Laden family had construction firms in Saudi Arabia. The twain never met.

Take my word for it, this conspiracy nonsense is just that, nonsense. And I do not believe for a New York minute you know anyone in MI5, which is a small organization anyway.