US terror charge for Saudi man

WASHINGTON -- A federal grand jury in Idaho charged a Saudi graduate student yesterday with conspiring to help terrorist organizations wage jihad by using the Internet to raise funds, field recruits, and locate prospective US targets -- military and civilian -- in the Middle East.

Sami Omar Hussayen, a doctoral candidate in computer science in a University of Idaho program sponsored by the National Security Agency, is accused of creating websites and an e-mail group that disseminated messages from him and two radical clerics in Saudi Arabia that supported violent holy war.

The indictment represents the first time the government has charged that using the Internet for recruitment, fund-raising, and other purposes constitutes aid under a law that makes it illegal to provide "material support or resources" for terrorist activity. Hussayen's lawyer, David Nevin, said he believes "there is substantial question about the constitutionality of this charge," contending that operating websites falls within Hussayen's First Amendment rights. Nevin denied that Hussayen has raised money for jihad or posted calls for violence.Hussayen is accused of moderating an Arabic-language e-mail group that posted instructions on how to train at a terrorist camp and issued an "urgent appeal" to Muslims in the military last February to provide information for use in selecting terror targets.