5 Detroit men charged with conspiring against U.S.

WASHINGTON -- On Wednesday, the government charged five men with conspiring to provide "material support and resources" to terrorists for a series of attacks in the United States and overseas.\nIn an indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Detroit, prosecutors alleged at least four of the men "operated as a covert underground support unit for terrorist attacks" and were also functioning as a "sleeper operational combat cell."\nThe men were charged with conspiring to provide services and tangible items to individuals in the United States and abroad to assist them in engaging and promoting violent attacks in Jordan, Turkey and the United States.\nThe indictment said the men used a "coded form of communication" to speak about terrorist plans and were "involved in plans to obtain weaponry to benefit operatives overseas."\n"Their planning involved specific violent attacks, including ones that targeted an American air base in Incerlik, Turkey, and a hospital in Amman, Jordan," the indictment said, citing plans found in a daybook planner in the apartment.\nThe indictment named Karim Koubriti, Ahmed Hannan, Youssef Hmimssa, Farouk Ali-Haimoud and a man only known by the first name Abdella. It said they were charged with conspiracy to provide material support or resources to terrorists and charges involving conspiracy to engage in fraud and misuse of visas and identification documents.\nHmimssa was named at the top of the indictment, where the charges were listed, but was not further mentioned in the indictment. U.S. officials offered no immediate explanation.\nFour of the men have been in custody for months since a raid on a Detroit apartment shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.\nThe indictment suggested the men were involved with an Islamic extremist movement known as Salafiyya, which became associated with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.\nThe indictment said the men were taking actions to "engage in or support holy war or global jihad" and that three of them had discussed in June 2001 that "Islam permitted the killing of innocent civilians."\nIt said the men checked Detroit's airport for gaps in security and that a federal raid on an apartment some of the men shared recovered a videotape that "appears to depict surveillance of such U.S. landmarks as Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and the MGM Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas."\n"The object of the conspiracy was, among other things, to cause economic harm to U.S. businesses, to provide personnel, indoctrination, recruitment and training, safe houses, mail drops, intelligence target data collection, weapons, false documentation and identification, and assistance and other covert support for the purpose of engaging in violent attacks against persons and buildings within the territory of Jordan, Turkey and the United States," the court document said.\nThe indictment is expected to be the first of a string accusing Americans of providing support from within the United States to foreign terrorists groups that range from al Qaeda to Hezbollah -- the fruits of months of investigation by the FBI, Customs Service, Secret Service, Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies.