Feds: Brooklyn Man Gave $45K to Al Qaeda

[Robb]

Source: NBC

A Brooklyn-born man accused of suporting Al Qaeda with more than $45,000 in cash and technical training was held without bail after a hearing Wednesday.

Wesam El-Hanafi, 33, an Egyptian-American computer engineer raised in Bath Beach, had traveled to Yemen to meet with Al Qaeda leaders, giving them the money and teaching them how to send encrypted communications, federal prosecutors said.

Ambitious for a leadership role in Al Qaeda, El-Hanafi apparently brought his radical beliefs back to Brooklyn where he tried to form a "mini-Al Qaeda cell," recruiting co-defendant Sabirhan Hasanoff, prosecutors charged.

(snip)

Hasanoff, an accountant with dual American and Australian citizenship, pleaded not guilty at his appearance in Mahattan Federal Court last week. He's also a Baruch College graduate and had worked in a Dubai holding company for the last 10 months.

Read more: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Feds--Brooklyn-Man-Gave-45K-to-Al-Qaeda-94967819.html