Authorities link UT-Dallas student to Houston firearms case May 11, 2007
Posted by Scarecrow in 12/02/06 Austin 8 News.trackback
Authorities link UT-Dallas student to Houston firearms case
12/2/2006 1:48 PM
By: Associated Press
DALLAS — A 19-year-old University of Texas at Dallas student has been linked by authorities to two Houston men accused of wanting to fight for the Taliban.
Federal officials allege that Syed Maaz Shah joined the other men in January to train with assault rifles in a rural area near Willis, Texas, north of Houston.
A four-count indictment charges Kobie Diallo Williams, also known as Abdul Kabir, and Adnan Babar Mirza with conspiracy. Mirza, a 29-year-old Pakistani who overstayed a student visa, also is charged with three counts of violating federal firearms laws.
Williams, 33, a U.S. citizen living in Houston and attending the University of Houston-Downtown, surrendered Tuesday to members of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to the conspiracy charge. Mirza was already in custody on immigration violations.
Authorities said the goal of the two Houston men was to hone their skills with weapons to “assist fighters engaging United States forces in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.”
Shah’s indictment, handed down Tuesday and sealed until Wednesday, accuses the Pakistani native only of illegally possessing an assault weapon – believed to be an Armalite assault rifle. His indictment makes no mention of the Taliban conspiracy.
At a detention hearing yesterday, his attorney denied that he was involved in anything illegal. Fulton told The Associated Press on Saturday that Shah is likely to be transferred to Houston, where the other two men were in federal custody.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press
To comment on this post, please visit: Realterror
Comments»
No comments yet — be the first.