CHRISTOPHER PAUL, AL-QAEDA IN AMERICA "CLASS OF 1990", GUILITY IN 2008.An Ohio man accused of plotting terrorist bombings against Americans overseas could have faced life in prison. Instead, a plea agreement offered Christopher Paul allows for a 20-year sentence.
Paul, 44, who grew up in the Columbus suburb of Worthington, was to be tried next year in federal court. But he plead guilty Tuesday to one count of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) specifically bombs in terrorist attacks, documents show.
The documents filed Monday note that Paul and the government have the right to withdraw from the agreement if U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost doesn't accept the sentencing recommendation of 20 years in prison. According to prosecutors, Paul, 44, worked with Iyman Faris and Nuradin Abdi, who plotted to help raise money and provide equipment for al-Qaida. Both Abdi and Faris pleaded guilty to the charges and are serving time in a federal prison. Paul, born Paul Kenyatta Laws, changed his name to Abdulmalek Kenyatta in 1989 and to Christopher Paul in 1994. He is said to have obtained passports in several names. An indictment filed in April 2007 alleged that Paul traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan beginning in 1990 to meet members of al-Qaida and to attend terrorist training camps with a goal of carrying out holy war attacks.
The government said Paul was so devoted to the cause that he told an al-Qaida member he was angry the group would ever consider scaling back military operations. Paul said he was committed to such operations even if others were not, according to the government's indictment. Paul joined al-Qaida and traveled to Germany in 1999 to train coconspirators to use explosives, the indictment said. From 1993 through 1995 defendant, using various passports and aliases, returned to the Balkans area in Europe and fought jihad in conflict zones such as Bosnia establishing further contacts with the radical Islamic fundamentalist movement and creating a master list of contact numbers for senior al-Qaeda leadership and other radical Islamic fundamentalists and operatives world-wide. On this master list, investigators also found listings of component parts for bombs/detonation devices. Defendant’s master list of terrorist contacts and bomb-making information was seized by the Columbus JTTF in a search warrant at defendant’s residence.
He is accused of plotting to bomb government buildings overseas and European vacation spots frequented by American tourists. The indictment does not name specific resorts or buildings that might have been targeted, but gives U.S. embassies, military bases and consulates as examples. Paul is the last of three Columbus-area acquaintances charged with alleged terrorist activities after the FBI opened an investigation more than five years ago. The Justice Department has accused the three of discussing terrorist attacks during an August 2002 meeting at a coffee shop in suburban Columbus.
One of the men, Iyman Faris, a U.S. citizen originally from Pakistan, pleaded guilty in May 2003 to providing material support for terrorism and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The other man, Somali immigrant Nuradin Abdi, pleaded guilty in July to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. He is serving a 10-year sentence, after which he will be deported
