Terror Suspects in New Jersey Plead Guilty

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Source: The New York Times

NEWARK — Two New Jersey men who were thwarted in a plan to join an Islamic extremist group in Somalia pleaded guilty on Thursday to a felony conspiracy charge in federal court.

Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, 21, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 24, were arrested at Kennedy International Airport in June as they tried to board separate flights to Egypt. From there they planned to journey to Somalia to join Al Shabab, a group believed to have provided shelter to Al Qaeda operatives involved in the 1998 bombings of the United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Their arrests in June — along with the arrest of the Times Square car bomb suspect, Faisal Shahzad, one month earlier — underscored the concern over terrorists born or raised in the United States. Mr. Shahzad worked and owned a home in Connecticut, while the New Jersey suspects were products of the suburbs; Mr. Alessa lived in North Bergen, and Mr. Almonte in Elmwood Park.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/nyregion/04terror.html