LAHORE: Five US men arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of plotting terror attacks had contacted someone linked to Al-Qaeda and were arrested just before a scheduled meeting, police said Saturday.
The men have been questioned by the FBI and Pakistani officials, accused of seeking to engage in militant activities and trying travel to the northwest Taliban heartland, officials said Friday.
The men arrested on Wednesday in Sargodha, about 180 kilometres (110 miles) south of Islamabad, are US citizens with origins in other countries, including two Pakistani-Americans, officials said.
‘They had contacted one Saifullah, who has links with Al-Qaeda, and they were set to go to Mianwali town on the day they were arrested to see him,’ an official close to the investigations told AFP on condition of anonymity.
‘Saifullah had asked them to come to Mianwali where one of his men would contact them and arrange a meeting at some unknown place,’ the official said.
‘According to our investigations the group wanted to go to Waziristan via Mianwali to get terrorist training,’ he added.
Another investigation official confirmed the account.
Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Friday that the men would not be deported back to the United States unless they are cleared of any crimes by Pakistani police first.
Meanwhile, police shifted the detained men to the eastern city of Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, and formed a joint investigation team to probe them, Sargodha district police chief Usman Anwar told AFP.
‘On the instructions of federal government, Punjab government formed a joint investigation team and handed over the suspects to it in Lahore,’ Anwar said.
‘The detained men had contacted different militant outfits and they were planning to carry out big attacks,’ he added.
Sargodha police had registered a case against the men for conspiracy and plotting to carry out criminal activities, a local police official said.
Evidence could lead to conspiracy charge?
While Pakistani officials have said the men admitted trying to connect with militant groups, an FBI note sent to American lawmakers on Thursday evening said the bureau had 'no information linking them to terrorist organizations.' That FBI note did not address whether the students attempted to join some terrorist group.
The other possible charge – and one that could be more difficult to bring – would be conspiracy to maim or kill people overseas.
'If they had reached an agreement amongst themselves and were pursuing an opportunity to train or fight with what they knew to be a foreign terrorist organization, then that would be a crime,' said Pat Rowan, the former head of the Justice Department's national security division in Washington.
Making that case would depend greatly on what the men say to FBI agents – and whether any evidence or incriminating statements gathered by Pakistani police would meet US legal standards.
'Where one needs to be at least a little skeptical is that that will translate into the sort of evidence that can be used in an American courtroom,' said Rowan.
Statements made by Americans to police overseas can be used against them in a US trial, as long as the statements weren't coerced. Another key source of evidence could be the men's computers, on which Pakistani police say they found maps of areas where terrorists operate.
Across the United States, there has been a flurry of cases against alleged homegrown terror threats, but so far the situation of the five young men who went to Pakistan is most similar to a case in Boston, where investigators say two young men repeatedly tried and failed to join terror groups overseas.
In that case, the men were rejected by both the Taliban and Lashkar-i-Tayyaba in Pakistan, and later efforts to sign up with groups in Yemen and Iraq also failed, according to prosecutors. The charges against those two include conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.
In both the cases, the men apparently were drawn to militant messages on the Internet.
Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, accused militants of manipulating young men through online videos and writings.
ABC News said Friday, citing a Pakistani police report, that this group used YouTube to praise and discuss strikes on US troops.
The 10-page interrogation report, obtained by ABC News and posted on its website, said one of the five men would regularly visit the video-sharing site to view footage of attacks on the US military.
Ahmed Abdullah Minni, 20, was registered on YouTube and regularly left comments on the videos praising their content, the report said.
He was contacted by an individual named only as ‘Saifullah’ who the police report said initially communicated with Minni only through YouTube, it said.
The five men were reported missing by their families more than a week ago after one of them left behind a farewell video showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended.
Pakistani police detained them this week – along with one of their fathers – in Sargodha, a town in the eastern province of Punjab. –Agencies
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