Two former Ohio State University students are facing charges for supporting terrorists overseas. 37-year-old Farooq Mohammad and 35-year-old Asif Salim are among four Ohio men indicted yesterday in connection with a plot to fund al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan. The indictment also mentions an unnamed, unindicted co-conspirator from Columbus who had been an Ohio State student. Ohio Public Radio's Jo Ingles reports.
The United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, Steve Dettelbach,says the four men sent tens of thousands of dollars to Anwar Al-Alwaki, a known terrorist.
“Tens of thousands of dollars were sent to Mr. Al-Alwaki and they were sent during a period where Mr. Al-Alwaki was actively supporting and talking about engaging in very violent activity including, but not limited to, the attempt to bomb on Christmas Day of 2009 an airplane that was attempting to land in Detroit Michigan.”
Two of the men are brothers from India, and the others are US citizens. Dettlebach says the two former OSU students worked with two others, including one Columbus resident, to help Al-Alwaki, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011.