Terror suspects yearned for fame, documents allege

Edited by Naved Khan Tuesday, June 8, 2010 9:24 AM

(CNN) -- One of two New Jersey men accused of planning to "wage violent jihad" once boasted, "I wanna, like, be the world's known terrorist," according to a court affidavit. An undercover agent recorded the statement allegedly made by Mohamed Mahmoud Alessa, a 20-year-old from North Bergen, New Jersey, to 24-year-old Eduardo Almonte, who lived in the nearby borough of Elmwood Park. The two men appeared Monday before a federal magistrate, who ordered them held without bond on charges of conspiring to kill, maim and kidnap people outside the United States, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. Both men requested court-appointed attorneys. Excerpts of their conversations, in which they frequently called each other "bro," are contained in a federal criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey. 
"A lot of people need to get killed, bro, swear to God. ... I have to get ... assault rifle and just anyone that even looks at me the wrong way, bro," Alessa said in November 2009, according to the complaint. The men allegedly talked in January about how they wanted U.S. soldiers "to come back home safely and cozily ... in body bags, in caskets," according to the complaint. The court document describes the alleged actions of Alessa and Almonte between February 2006 and their arrest Saturday at New York's JFK International Airport. 
Prosecutors portray the suspects as two young men who seemed hungry for fame and fed up with their suburban lives. "What's better than sitting back here and working like a dog and ... being somebody's puppy?" Almonte asked the undercover agent in March. He said he yearned for "a life of dignity" serving Allah. The case is the latest in which Americans have been arrested and accused of plotting terrorism against the U.S. Read more.....

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