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FBI agent describes group's jihad plot

An FBI agent testified in federal court Friday that at least four aspiring jihadists conducted firearms training and discussed going to war against the United States on two weekend camping trips near Willis earlier this year.

"The group had discussions about traveling to Pakistan to engage (the) United States and coalition forces," Special Agent John McKinley, who is assigned to an international counterterrorism squad in Houston, told a federal judge.

McKinley, testifying during a detention hearing for 19-year-old Syed Maaz Shah, described how the group conducted paramilitary training, fired high-powered guns such as AR-15s, and referred to themselves as mujahedeen, or Muslims involved in a fight or struggle.

The group included two Houston-area men who were arrested and charged earlier this week with conspiracy to aid the Taliban.

During the first weekend gathering, which began Jan. 13, Shah held up his passport, which shows he has traveled to Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Great Britain and asked the group "if they wanted to see the passport of a terrorist," McKinley testified.

Shah, a sophomore electrical engineering student at the University of Texas at Dallas who lists Islam as his religion in several Web postings, lectured the group on jihad and criticized certain Islamic imams for "what he described as weak sermons on jihad," the agent said. A second weekend training session began March 10.

Judge denies bail
FBI counterterrorism agents in Houston and Dallas have been investigating Shah since September 2005, Special Agent Melinda Tilton, with the Dallas office, said during the hearing.

Shah was arrested Tuesday on two charges of illegal possession of a firearm by an alien. On Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeff Kaplan ordered Shah held without bail.

During the hearing, McKinley testified the property at Willis — a Montgomery County city on the opposite side of Interstate 45 from Lake Conroe — is owned by the Islamic Society of Greater Houston.

Three photographs entered as exhibits at the hearing showed Shah at the training sessions wearing camouflage clothing and holding different AR-15 rifles.

In one photo, Shah is seen with gotcha98 Mirza, 29, who is holding a shotgun, and Kobie Williams, 33, who is holding a rifle. Those are the two men arrested this week in Houston.

Williams pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge Tuesday and has been cooperating with authorities, his attorneys have said.

A fourth man seen in the photos had not been arrested or charged in the case "so far," the agent testified. U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle in Houston hinted further charges were unlikely.

"We believe the most serious conduct has already been addressed," he said. "We believe that (the investigation) is at an end and is not ongoing. But, until people are sentenced, it is safe to assume some measure of investigation continues. This investigation is not as active as it perhaps might be otherwise."

McKinley said his testimony about the group's activities and discussions was based on interviews with participants at the two training sessions. Because of a prosecutor's objection, he was not required to answer a question about the origin of the photos.

In country illegally
Robina Shah, Shah's aunt, testified that Shah was a "straight A" student who never has harmed anybody.

After the hearing, his aunt was asked if her nephew was a terrorist. "No, he's not," said Shah, who with her husband owns a convenience store franchise in New York.

Shah listened intently and stared at the defense table through much of the hearing. He did not address the court.

Tilton said Shah is in the country illegally. He obtained a student visa in September 2005, when he began college, but the U.S. State Department revoked it last January.

He lived in Houston for nine years with his parents, who work in the oil industry and are living in Nigeria, she said. He was living on the UTD campus at Richardson, where a scholarship pays his tuition and some of his living expenses.

Shah reportedly was on his way to take a final exam when he was arrested.

Strong beliefs
According to some of his Internet postings, Shah was born in Karachi, Pakistan. He listed his interests as "Islam, basketball and computer gaming."

In a 2003 posting on Young Muslims of North America Forum, he agreed with a blogger's view of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack that read, "I felt that America was getting wat (sic) was comin (sic) to them (600,000 dead Iraqi children, forget the 3000 Americans)"

Shah's defense attorney, Donald Fulton, said he did not know the extent of his client's involvement in jihad. "I only know what I heard in court today," he said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Stokes said Shah will likely be held in a federal jail in Seagoville and eventually transferred to Houston, where the two-count indictment against him was returned.