OFKU0

Heh heh,..How's this one. Found the answer to my question.

http://www.cbc.ca/

Tanzanian from Canada charged with making phony terror threat on LA mall
11:14 PM EDT May 04
ROBERT JABLON



LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Tanzanian man who entered the United States from Canada illegally was charged Tuesday with making a phony terror threat on a West Los Angeles shopping mall, the FBI said.

Zameer Mohamed, 23, was charged in federal court here with a single felony count of using a telephone to maliciously make a false threat. He could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Mohamed, a Tanzanian citizen, was being held in Montana and was to be taken soon to Los Angeles, FBI spokeswoman Laura Bosley said.

U.S. Border Patrol agents in Helena, Mont., arrested him for immigration violations on Thursday after he crossed the border from Canada, the FBI said. Mohamed was alone and unarmed when he was arrested, the FBI said.

Authorities allege that on April 23, Mohamed called the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, D.C., calling himself "Al" and claiming to be a former associate of a terrorist cell linked with al-Qaida.

Two men and two women, he said, were going to enter the U.S. from Canada using false American passports to "conduct an explosive attack on a mall in the vicinity" of the Federal Building in West Los Angeles, according to an FBI affidavit. He said he hoped that providing information on the attack "would enhance his chances of gaining U.S. citizenship."

The attack supposedly was to have occurred last Thursday. Police made the threat public and for several days increased patrols at several shopping centres, urging people to watch out for suspicious activity.

The FBI affidavit said Mohamed was interviewed Monday and acknowledged making the phony call. "He identified the four individuals because they took money from him," the affidavit said.

Those people included his ex-girlfriend, a former co-worker at the Royal Bank in Toronto, the affidavit said. Mohamed said he had used the woman's bank account to direct-deposit his paycheque but she then refused to give him $4,000 in the account. Also named were three of her friends.

Mohamed told the FBI that he was at a Calgary bus stop and saw a government poster with the number of a terrorist tip hotline "and had an idea to get back at her."

He hoped the four would go to jail, Mohamed allegedly said.

"Mohamed stated he never was a member of a terrorist organization and neither were these four individuals. He had picked Los Angeles as an alleged target randomly," the affidavit said.

The investigation got underway after the original call to Homeland Security was traced to a Florida calling card company, which determined that it came from a hotel in Calgary, the affidavit said.

The RCMP interviewed the desk clerk, who said a man later identified as Mohamed had stayed there from April 23-25 under an assumed name and provided a cellular telephone number as a contact, the affidavit said.

The FBI later determined that Mohamed had lived in Houston for six months in 2002, where he been under investigation by the FBI for allegedly stealing $12,000 from a group of people and using a false Social Security number to open a bank account. He had been scheduled to be interviewed by FBI officials in January 2003 but never appeared, the affidavit said.

He later moved to Canada, the affidavit said.



© The Canadian Press, 2004

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" In Canada, you can tell the most blatant lie in a calm voice, and people will believe you over someone who's a little passionate about the truth." David Warren, Western Standard.