Operation Arabian Knight

According to the affidavit filed in support of the federal criminal complaint, they planned to travel to Somalia to join Al-Shabab, an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group recruiting foreigners for its civil war.

[7][15][6][16][17][18] The terminals, however, had a number of FBI agents and other members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force dressed as travelers.

[10] Federal prosecutors had insisted that the men be allowed to go to the airport, and begin the boarding process, to limit the chance they could later say they had abandoned their plans.

[10] This also enabled the FBI agents to hear any last-minute phone calls the men might make before boarding their flights.

[3] Authorities decided that the best place for each arrest would be at the end of the jetway, by the emergency door, and that cars would await the agents and suspects below.

[3] Alessa put up a fight, was pushed into a jetway wall, and suffered a red welt on his left temple and cuts on his face before he was handcuffed.

[20] The parents have characterized the men as "troublemakers" and school records of them document a history of behavioral problems, threats and violence.

He has dual United States-Jordanian citizenship, was living in North Bergen, New Jersey, and was 20 years old at the time of his arrest.

"[14] Alessa reportedly began to tell other children in his Boy Scout troop that Osama bin Laden was a hero in his family, and that he wanted to grow up to be a martyr.

[2][22] Within three months, he was placed on administrative "home instruction," to be supervised by a security officer, because of "radicalized behavior that was very threatening," according to a school spokesman.

[14][22][31] In September 2005, he transferred to KAS Prep, an alternative high school for troubled youth in North Bergen, which he attended for one semester.

[2][14][30] Through 2005 and 2006, officials of both North Bergen and KAS Prep alerted the Department of Homeland Security about Alessa's escalating series of threats.

[37] Speaking of Nidal Malik Hasan, the US Army psychiatrist who killed 13 Americans at Fort Hood in 2009, Alessa said he would outdo him.

[23][34][43] After growing up as a Christian, Almonte converted to Islam in 2004 (against the wishes of his father), and visited mosques in Paterson, and Union City, New Jersey.

"[47][48] Almonte had posted a photo on his Facebook page, holding a large placard that read, "Death to all Juice"(sic),[49] which he displayed at the 2008 Israel Day Parade in New York City.

[6][17][18][15] According to the criminal complaint, they had practiced simulated combat at an outdoor paintball facility in West Milford, New Jersey.

[6][57][58][59] Prosecutors noted that the 11 men convicted in the Virginia Jihad Network had also used paintball training to simulate small-unit tactical operations.

[58][59][60] Officials noted that five Muslims later convicted of a plot to kill American soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey had also done paintball training.

[59][60][61] Alessa and Almonte were followers of the Islamic Thinkers Society (ITS), a radical Islamist group based in New York that often holds joint events with Revolution Muslim.

[62] CNN posted a photo of the two men as part of a protest in New York City, a week before their arrests, which was organized by the Islamic Thinkers Society.

[66] The men were known to have watched video and audio recordings promoting violent jihad, including lectures by al-Awlaki, who is suspected of inciting Muslims to violence.

[8] On June 10, Magistrate Arleo denied the two men bail, citing the seriousness of the charges against them, the credibility of the evidence, and the risk of flight.

[74] Mohamed Osman, 19 years old, of Bayonne, New Jersey, pleaded guilty on September 15, 2010, before Senior U.S. District Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise making materially false statements to members of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force who were investigating Alessa and Almonte.

[5][18] The group's Islamist ideology calls for punishments of amputations and public stonings for violations of Islamic law; their rule has been severe, prohibiting music and television, and the wearing of bras by women.

[83] Bernard Kerik, former New York City Police Commissioner from 2000 to 2001 and Secretary of Homeland Security nominee blogged that since 9/11, he and several others had predicted that "some of our greatest threats would eventually come from within, from home grown and naturalized citizens who were radicalized and hate this country", and that the arrests of Alessa and Almonte were an example of that.