SI ‘jihadi’ a terror dunce
A jailed jihadi wannabe from Staten Island broke al Qaeda’s rules for covert operatives in his lame attempt to join their ranks, sources told The Post.
Abdel Hameed Shehadeh — who remains in federal custody in Hawaii awaiting transfer to Brooklyn to face federal charges of lying to the FBI — was enthralled with al Qaeda’s propaganda, including its online English-language magazine, Inspire, the sources said.
But the former Tottenville HS student, who failed in his alleged attempts to join militants in Iraq, Somalia and Pakistan, apparently never took to heart lessons believed to have been written by radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.
In a section titled “Tips for Our Brothers in the United States of America,” would-be jihadis are specifically told, “Do not attempt to travel overseas to join the mujahedeen in an overt matter.”
Yet Shehadeh’s first encounter with the Joint Terrorism Task Force came in 2008 at Kennedy Airport before he flew to Pakistan with a telltale one-way ticket and hiking gear. Authorities in Pakistan refused to let him out of the airport.
Later, he was rebuffed in his attempt to fly to Jordan and Dubai.
Shehadeh — who told feds he wanted to join a terror group to learn “guerilla warfare and bomb-making” — also allegedly ranted about jihad online. Sources said he had attended the College of Staten Island, studying chemical engineering.
Shehadeh, the Brooklyn-born son of Palestinian immigrants, asked a judge in Hawaii on Monday to be sent to Brooklyn as quickly as possible to begin preparing his case, his lawyer said.
Additional reporting by C.J. Sullivan, AP
