FBI 'learned of man's jihad plans last year'

The FBI learned last January that a Pakistani-born man arrested in the Washington subway-bomb sting was trying to make contact with terrorist groups to help him participate in jihad against US forces overseas.

FBI agent Charles Davoub said in an affidavit unsealed yesterday that Farooque Ahmed, 34, and an unnamed associate hoped to fight in Afghanistan or Pakistan early next year.

Mr Davoub also said the FBI subsequently learned that Mr Ahmed either bought, or tried to buy, weapons in May 2008 and February 2009, and is believed to have used firearms to train for his goal of travelling to Afghanistan to kill Americans.

Mr Ahmed was arrested on Wednesday and accused of casing subway stations in the Washington DC area in what he thought was an al-Qaeda plot to bomb and kill commuters. Mr Davoub said Mr Ahmed, a naturalised American, had lived in the United States since 1993.

The bombing plot was a ruse begun in mid-April, the FBI said, but Mr Ahmed readily handed over video of northern Virginia subway stations, and offered suggestions and cash donations.

Mr Davoub's affidavit, submitted to support a search warrant application, details several meetings between Mr Ahmed and individuals he believed were al-Qaeda operatives, but who were really working for the government, according to an official.