American Jihadist, "Ticking Time Bomb," to Plead Guilty to Terrorism Charges

By Andrew Cochran

WNBC in New York City reports that Mahmud Faruq Brent, of Gwynn Oak, MD, will admit that he supported terrorists and traveled to Pakistan to train with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistani-based terrorist organization. "Brent was arrested as part of the investigation into Tarik Shah, 43, a New York jazz musician who allegedly offered to use his martial arts expertise to train would-be terrorists. Shah was arrested as part of an FBI sting operation along with other defendants, including Florida doctor Rafiq Sabir who allegedly offered to use his medical skills to treat wounded terrorists. While Brent is expected to plead guilty, Shah and Sabir have denied any wrongdoing."

We covered the Brent arrest and complaint and tracked his links to the "Virginia jihad gang" (or "paintball gang") when he was arrested. As we wrote then, "Brent's phone records apparently include a phone number at an address known to have been used by Seifullah Chapman, one of the convicted paintballers. Also recall that Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, the young wannabe jihadist arrested in northern Virginia in February, knew members of the paintball gang." Abu Ali was later convicted - see my post on that with links to other posts on his case and that of other LeT here in the U.S. Six weeks after Brent's arrest, another VJG member, Ali Asad Chandia of College Park, MD, was arrested and indicted along with Mohammed Ajmal Khan in Great Britain. Chandia was convicted last June in Virginia.

A federal prosecutor told Steven Emerson that Brent was a "ticking time bomb" who could have carried out attacks here in U.S. His guilty plea represents another success (at least 12 convictions, including the Brent plea, that I can remember) in the effort to take apart the LeT network of committed and trained jihadists in the U.S.

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