Two US citizens were charged on Friday with conspiring to give computer advice, buy wrist watches and do other tasks to help al-Qaeda “modernize.”
A vaguely worded indictment unsealed on Friday in federal court in Manhattan accused Wesam El-Hanafi, who was born in Brooklyn, of traveling to Yemen to meet with unnamed al-Qaeda members in February 2008.
The terrorists “instructed him on operational security measures and directed him to perform tasks for al-Qaeda,” the indictment says. While there, he also “took an oath of allegiance to al-Qaeda,” it adds.
In February 2008, El-Hanafi, 33, bought computer software that allowed him to secretly communicate over the Internet, federal prosecutors allege. That summer, he met with an unnamed co-conspirator and the second defendant, Sabirhan Hasanoff, in Brooklyn to discuss joining al-Qaeda, according to the indictment.
The confidential co-conspirator paid US$50,000 to Hasanoff, 34, who later traveled to New York City and performed unspecified “tasks for al-Qaeda,” the court papers say. The papers say that the conspiracy included El-Hanafi purchasing seven Casio digital watches last year, but doesn’t say why.
Two law enforcement officials said on Friday that both men were detained overseas and brought to the US, arriving in Virginia. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing; they did not specify where overseas the men were detained.
Prosecutors described Hasanoff only as a dual citizen of the US and Australia who has lived in Brooklyn. Public records show he has a Queens address and is a certified public accountant.
A professional networking Web site says a Sabir Hasanoff was a senior manager at Pricewaterhouse Coopers who graduated from Baruch College in Manhattan. Pricewaterhouse spokesman Kelly Howard said the accounting firm employed Hasanoff from 2003 to 2006.
US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement that the men had schemed “to modernize al-Qaeda by providing computer systems expertise and other goods and services.”
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