A New Jersey software developer was allegedly actually a highly trained terrorist who searched American landmarks in New York City, Washington DC and other major cities for possible Hezbollah attacks between 2000 and 2005, prosecutors said. federals.
Opening arguments began Monday in the terrorism trial of Alexei Saab, 45, a Morristown man who allegedly carried a dual identity while working for Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad Organization, ready to attack Americans in popular places if the United States. United States was attacking Iran, Assistant US Attorney Samuel Adelsberg said.
By day, Saab was a software engineer working for technology companies and fit enough to become a US citizen, the prosecutor said.
By night, he was “a terrorist and a spy” investigating possible terror targets in New York, Boston, Washington, DC and abroad in France, Turkey and the Czech Republic, Adelsberg said.
Targets investigated by Saab included Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Terminal, all three New York area airports, the Brooklyn, Triborough and George Washington bridges and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels connecting New Jersey to Manhattan, among other locations, they said. federal prosecutors.
Saab was arrested in July 2019 after being questioned in 11 sessions over several weeks with FBI agents.
Saab’s attorney, Marlon Kirton, said all the evidence in the case was Saab’s own and could not be considered reliable, noting that Hezbollah had never attacked Americans in the United States.
In court documents, investigators said Saab told agents that he took photos of buildings and locations, including Quincy Market and the Prudential Center in Boston and the Capitol building, Congress and the White House in Washington, D.C. A Fenway Park video of one of Saab’s electronic devices.
“On paper, he was living a normal life when in reality he was a Hezbollah sleeper agent,” he said.
In addition to surveillance activities in the United States, Adelsberg said Saab also operated abroad after joining Hezbollah in 1996. He said Saab tried to kill a man he later understood to be a suspected Israeli spy by pointing a gun at him. of fire at point blank range that got stuck.
Saab also faces a marriage fraud charge for allegedly marrying a co-conspirator in 2012 under false pretenses. Saab’s attorney did not contest that charge.
Saab has pleaded not guilty to charges including providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy, receiving military-type training from a foreign terrorist organization, illegally obtaining citizenship to facilitate international terrorism and citizenship application fraud.
The most serious charge carries a maximum potential sentence of 25 years in prison, although the charges collectively carry potential sentences of more than 100 years in prison.
–
