WALLER COUNTY, Texas— Neighbors of a Hempstead man accused of supporting al-Qaida say they are shocked and dismayed by the allegations and new details about the investigation have emerged, including the suspect's link to a local university.
"I just never would have thought something like this could happen here, " said Shannon Moore.
Moore's neighbor Barry Walter Bujol is accused of attempting to support al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Bujol was arrested along with his common-law wife named Ernestine Shenell Johnson. Johnson faces federal charges of identity theft.
A next-door neighbor at the Pine Meadows Apartments said the couple mainly kept to themselves. The neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said Bujol's wife complained about discrimination against Muslims.
"And now she seems hypocritical because they were doing that terrorist stuff," the neighbor said.
Bujol attended Prairie View A&M University. Officials at the school said they have cooperated fully with investigators.
Court documents say Bujol had been communicating via e-mail with Anwar al-Awlaki, a native-born U.S. citizen who exchanged e-mails with the alleged Fort Hood gunman, Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan.
A federal grand jury indictment in Houston alleges that Bujol attempted to supply al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula with personnel, currency and other items.
The court documents say that al-Awlaki gave Bujol a document titled "42 Ways of Supporting Jihad" and that Bujol asked al-Awlaki for advice on how to provide money to the "mujahideen" overseas.
Al-Awlaki is believed to have inspired attacks on the U.S. and is hiding in Yemen, two Yemeni security officials said Wednesday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not permitted to brief journalists.
Bujol made three unsuccessful attempts in February and March 2009 to depart the country and travel overseas to Yemen or the Middle East, the court documents say.
Bujol, 29, faces a maximum 15-year prison term if convicted of attempting to provide support for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and five years if convicted of using a fake identification card.
The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force began investigating Bujol in 2008 and, according to documents in the case, the FBI introduced a confidential source who Bujol believed was an operative of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
After Bujol repeatedly expressed a desire to fight for AQAP, the human source supplied Bujol with a false identification card, which Bujol used to gain access to the secure part of a Houston-area port with the alleged intention of boarding a ship bound for the Middle East.
The source gave Bujol currency, prepaid telephone calling cards, mobile telephone SIM cards, global positioning system receivers and public access-restricted U.S. military publications, according to the court documents.
One military publication involved unmanned aerial vehicle operations and another involving the effects of U.S. military weapon systems in operations in Afghanistan.
Bujol was given a military-issued compass and other materials, which he allegedly agreed to courier to AQAP operatives in a Middle Eastern country. After Bujol boarded the ship with the material, FBI agents arrested him.
In the months before last November's Fort Hood shootings, which killed 13 people, al-Awlaki exchanged e-mails with the Army psychiatrist. Hasan initiated the contacts, drawn by al-Awlaki's Internet sermons, and approached him for religious advice.
Yemen's government says al-Awlaki is also suspected of contacts with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who traveled to Yemen late last year, and U.S. investigators say Abdulmutallab told them he received training and his bomb from Yemen's al-Qaida offshoot.
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Who is Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab From wealthy soccer fan to suspected terrorist Detroit News MLive comby MrCoolest19825,185 views
The FBI found some idiot patsy.
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It seems this small community fell for the terrorist hype.
(wantable should be wannabe)
VexZee 1 year ago
@VexZee excuse me, I don't usually wannabe anything except free
IranContraScumDid911 1 year ago