By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
A federal grand jury in Houston on Thursday indicted a 29-year-old Texas man on charges of attempting to provide material support to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Barry Walter Bujol Jr. of Hempstead, Tex., was charged with attempting to provide al Qaeda with money,pre-paid telephone calling cards, mobile telephone SIM cards, global positioning system receivers, public access-restricted U.S. military publications, including one involving unmanned aerial vehicle operations and another involving the effects of U.S. military weapon systems in operations in Afghanistan, the Houston U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The material had been provided to him by a confidential FBI informant.
Authorities said the Joint Terrorism Task Force started investigating him in 2008 and learned he had been communicating via e-mail with Anwar al-Aulaqi, a known associate and propagandist for al Qaeda.
Authorities alleged that Al-Aulaqi provided Bujol with a document entitled “42 Ways of Supporting Jihad”. They also said Bujol had Al-Aulaqi for advice on how to provide money to the “mujahideen” overseas.
In November 2009, a confidential source for the FBI posed as an al Qaeda operative. Authorities said over a number of months Bujol said he wanted to go overseas and fight a violent jihad for al Qaeda.
During the probe, the undercover FBI source gave Bujol all the materials: money, pre-paid telephone calling cards, mobile telephone SIM cards, global positioning system receivers and other things.
Shortly after, he boarded a ship with the material and was arrested by the FBI.
“This arrest is a sobering reminder of the threat we continue to face,” said the head of the Houston FBI Richard C. Powers. “It remains the FBI’s overriding priority to predict and prevent terrorist attacks, at home and abroad.”
