Pinoy terror suspect in US: 'We are in a state of war'

Philippine consular officials have been given access to the 23-year-old Filipino immigrant being held at a solitary confinement at a detention facility in San Bernardino County in California for his alleged involvement in a plot to mount terrorist attacks that reportedly included targets in the Philippines. Ralph Kenneth C. Deleon of Ontario, Calif., and three other Southern Californian suspects were arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Nov. 18 and later charged for an alleged plot to join the al-Qaeda and the Taliban and launch attacks against American targets in Afghanistan, Palestine and the Philippines. According to Consul General Hellen Barber dela Vega, Deleon, who migrated to the United States in 2003, is still a Philippine citizen and the holder of a valid Philippine passport. “The embassy and the consulate general in Los Angeles are working closely with American authorities to get more information about the reported terrorist plot and to ensure that the rights of Mr. Deleon, a Philippine national, are protected,” said Philippine ambassador to the U.S. Jose Cuisia, Jr. Dela Vega said Deleon appeared well despite being held in solitary confinement. She said Consul Charmaine Serna-Chua went to the San Bernardino Sheriff Central Detention Center and was able to check Deleon’s physical condition. Serna-Chua also was able to talk by phone to Deleon’s father and court-appointed lawyer, Dela Vega added. In Manila, Malacañan said the Philippine Government’s obligation is to ensure that Deleon’s rights as a Filipino citizen are protected, but that is as far as it will go. Deleon, along with Mexican-born U.S. permanent resident Miguel Santana, and naturalized American citizens Arifeen Gojali and Sohiel Omar Kabir, are facing charges of “conspiring to provide material support and resource to terrorists in violation of Section 2339A, Title 18 of the US Code.” The criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court on the Central District of California allege that the defendants “conspired to provide material support to terrorists in preparation for or in carrying out: conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure persons and damage property in a foreign country; killing and attempting to kill officers and employees of the United States; killing nationals of the United States; conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the United States; and bombing places of public use and government facilities.” Prelim hearing Dec. 3 The charges can carry a maximum 15-year prison sentence. The preliminary hearing on the case was set on Dec. 3. Kabir, the Afghanistan-born group leader, moved to Afghanistan from Pomona, Calif., in summer and was waiting for the arrival of the three others. According to an Associated Press report, just two days before Deleon, Santana and Gojali were going to board a plane bound for Istanbul — and then onto Afghanistan — FBI agents thwarted plans that officials said included killing Americans and bombing U.S. military bases overseas. The arrests of the suspects led by the alleged ringleader, 34-year-old American Sohiel Omar Kabir, was laid out in a 77-page affidavit, which included references to the group’s online video conversations and audio recordings. While authorities don’t believe there were any plans for an attack in the U.S., two of the men arrested told a confidential FBI informant they would consider American jihad, according to the court documents unsealed in federal court on Nov. 19. The arrests are the latest in a series of cases where U.S. residents were targeted to become terrorists. Last month, a man was convicted of helping send young men to Somalia to join the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group al-Shabab. Federal investigators said Kabir met Deleon and Santana at a hookah bar and introduced them to the radical Islamist doctrine of the U.S.-born extremist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed last year in an American airstrike in Yemen. Kabir, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Afghanistan, served in the Air Force from 2000 to 2001 at Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, pulling aircraft or vehicle parts from a supply store. He was administratively separated for unknown reasons and was given an honorable discharge, the military said. According to the court documents, Deleon said meeting Kabir was like encountering someone from the camps run by al-Awlaki or Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a U.S. raid last year on his compound in Pakistan. Kabir was “basically a mujahid walking the streets of L.A.,” Deleon said, using the term for holy warrior, according to court documents. “He was just waiting to get his papers. And I met him at the point of his life where he was about to go.” Authorities wouldn’t say how the investigation began, but they tracked Kabir’s travels last year and flagged violent extremist messages posted online by Santana. Covert FBI agents had conversations with Santana online where he expressed his support of jihad and desire to join al-Qaeda. “We were on them for quite a while,” said FBI Special Agent David Bowdich. In video calls from Afghanistan, Kabir told the trio he would arrange their meetings with terrorists, investigators said. Kabir added they could sleep in mosques or the homes of other jihadists once they arrived in Afghanistan. Converted to Islam Deleon converted to Islam in 2010 and has since been actively involved in jihad discussions online, the report added. He also supposedly used Facebook to post his extremist views and joined Skype conversations to arrange meetings with terrorists. FBI undercover agents were able to join their online conversations. Deleon himself told an FBI source that “he wanted to be on the front lines overseas and use C-4, an explosive, in an attack,” according to the CBS News report. De Leon and his colleague were “excited about the rewards from becoming a shaheed, which is Arabic for martyr,” the report also said. Santana, who claimed he went to Mexico to learn how to shoot different kinds of guns and how to make explosives, wanted to be a sniper. Gojali, a U.S. citizen, was recruited in late September and he said he would be willing to kill, court documents state. “I watch videos on the Internet, and I see what they are doing to our brothers and sisters...It makes me cry, and it gets like I’m, like, so angered with them,” Gojali said. This past summer, plans to travel to Afghanistan became clearer for the group, the AP said. They talked about how they would avoid detection. They talked about opening an Afghan orphanage or possibly posing as cologne salesmen. They finally devised a cover story that they were going to attend Kabir’s fictional wedding. It’s unclear whether Kabir actually made contact with Taliban or al-Qaeda fighters, but in an August video conversation with Deleon, Kabir was with a shiekh or an imam, the complaint said. Kabir also had intended to go on a suicide mission earlier this month but got sick, according to the court documents. He indicated he would wait for the group, which included the FBI informant, before staging an attack, according to the affidavit. Before going, Deleon said he was going to leave his parents a farewell letter. Asked by the informant if Deleon could lie about his true intentions in the letter, Deleon said, it’s OK to lie in war. “I believe right now...we are in a state of war,” he said. Using the informant’s debit card, Deleon bought four tickets for a flight from Mexico City to Istanbul. Had the men made it to Afghanistan, they would have initially joined the Taliban and then graduate to al-Qaeda, Bowdich noted. “They saw this as jihad. They saw this as their way to push out the aggressors,” Bowdich said. Even if he failed in a terrorist training camp, Santana said, he would continue trying. “If for some weird reason, if I can’t handle it, I’m not going to give up,” he said, according to court documents. “Like, because, this is my strong intention. This is what I desire of doing in this life.” - Filipino Reporter