Prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York leveled three defendants with terrorism related charges, The Associated Press reported. The prosecutors described Ali Yasin Ahmed, Madhi Hashi and Mohamed Yusuf as "dangerous and influential" members of al-Shabaab, the same Islamic terrorist organization that has claimed responsibility for the attack at Westgate Mall, in Nairobi Kenya this past weekend.
The three men were captured in Africa while traveling to Yemen to join with the group last year, and had reportedly had links to operatives "who sought to carry out attacks against the United States and Western interests in that region." The three men are all from Somalia; two have citizenship in Sweden, and another in Great Britain, news reports said.
New York prosecutors wrote the letter, which was filled out on September 18.
When the FBI took custody of the the men in November, all three pleaded not guilty in a Brooklyn federal court to providing material support to al-Shabaab. Ahmed and Hashi were due to appear on Monday in court.
"As alleged, these defendants are not aspiring terrorists - they are terrorists. They did more than receive terrorist training. They put that training to practice in terrorist operations," George Venizelos, head of the FBI's New York office, said when the case had been first announced.
Evidence found that conversations between the men were intercepted by Swedish authorities. In 2008, Ahmed and Yusuf "discussed ... their intention to travel to Somalia for the purpose of joining al-Shabaab and dying as martyrs."
Also, court papers said that the three men were in Somalia fighting for al-Shabaab, enrolling in a "suicide bomber training program."
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