The two would-be terrorists who were busted at JFK Airport last night wanted to wage jihad against America by decapitating people on camera — and boasted that they would easily outdo last year’s infamous Fort Hood shooting that killed 13, according authorities.
Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, 20, of North Bergen, NJ, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 24, of Elmwood Park, NJ, are slated to appear tomorrow morning in Newark Federal Court to face charges of conspiring to kill, maim and kidnap people outside the United States.
The wannabe terrorists were bound for Somalia, but Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said today the pair had also tried, and failed, to get into Iraq.
According to the criminal complaint, an NYPD undercover cop recorded numerous meetings and conversation with the suspects, who discussed their diabolical plans as they made preparations to carry them out.
During one chilling conversation in November 2009, Alessa allegedly told Almonte and the undercover, “They only fear you when you have a gun and when you … when you start killing them, and when you … when you take their head, and you go like this, and you behead it on camera. We’ll start killing here, if I can’t do it over there.”
The next day, Alessa allegedly told the undercover, “I leave this time, God willing. I never come back. I’ll never see this crap hole. Only way I would come back here is if I was in the land of jihad and the leader ordered me to come back here and do something here. Ah, I love that.”
Alessa also was allegedly recorded telling Almonte that he would outdo Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, last year.
“He’s not better than me. I’ll do twice what he did,” Alessa allegedly said.
In an April 2010 conversation, Almonte said there would be American troops in Somalia, which was good because it would not be as gratifying to kill only Africans, according to the complaint.
The complaint also states that the suspects watched and played for the undercover numerous video and audio recordings that promoted violent jihad, including lectures by terrorist imam Anwar al-Awlaki and videos of attacks by Al Shabaab and other terrorist organizations.
Al-Awlaki, an al Qaeda propagandist and strategist in Yemen, was in contact with both the Fort Hood shooter and Christmas Day underwear bomber over the past year.
Alessa and Amonte were nabbed as they walked onto the jetway boarding ramps for separate flights at JFK.
The men had reportedly led fairly normal lives until recently but boasted that they wanted to wage holy war against the US both here and abroad.
The feds were first alerted to the duo from an anonymous tip to their Web site by somebody worried about their constant jihad talk.
Sources said the suspects’ families had dropped a dime on them after growing concerned about their increasingly radical beliefs.
Over the past few months, the duo had allegedly saved thousands of dollars, worked out, practiced tactical maneuvers at local paintball fields and bought gear and apparel they planned to use to fight Americans overseas.
The would-be terrorists, who have been eyed by authorities since October 2006, allegedly planned to go to Somalia, where they would join al Shabaab, a violent youth-terror network with links to al Qaeda.
