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May.20, 2010

(May 20) -- An American citizen swore an oath of allegiance to al-Qaida and then funneled $23,500 to the terrorist group between 2007 and 2008.

Khalid Ouazzani, a 32-year-old Kansas City, Mo., man, pleaded guilty Wednesday to bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. Ouazzani was born in Morocco and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2006.

His admission comes just weeks after another naturalized U.S. citizen, Faisal Shahzad, was accused of trying to set off a bomb in New York's Times Square.

But at a press conference, Beth Phillips, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said Ouazzani was not planning an attack in the United States.

"At no point prior to his arrest was Ouazzani any threat of causing imminent harm or danger to the citizens of our community," she said.

Prosecutors say Ouazzani took out a loan for his Kansas City auto business, Truman Used Auto Parts, but used the money to fund al-Qaida instead. Ouazzani set up a bank account in the United Arab Emirates and then worked with an unnamed co-conspirator to transfer funds from the account to the terrorist group, according to documents.

"Some of defendant's conversations with others also involved plans for them to participate in various types of actions to support al-Qaida, including fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq or Somalia," the plea agreement reads.

Ouazzani also used false information about several businesses to apply for bank loans, the documents say. And when he sold his auto parts business in 2007, Ouazzani sent some of those proceeds, about $6,500, to al-Qaida as well.

So far, few details about Ouazzani's personal life have emerged, but it is clear that he lives with a wife and two children in an apartment complex in Kansas City.

Ouazzani's wife, Fadoua Elouerrassi, was also born in Morocco. In 2006, she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit marriage fraud, The Kansas City Star reports.

Mustafa Hussein, director of the Islamic Society of Greater Kansas City where Ouazzani sometimes worshipped, told The Associated Press that Ouazzani didn't come across as a fanatic. He said Ouazzani's wife came to him very upset after her husband was arrested to ask for support. Hussein said he told her he wouldn't help if Ouazzani was guilty.

In a statement, Hussein said Ouazzani "is guilty for his work, not because he is Muslim."

Dennis Hogan rented a building to Ouazzani for his auto parts business and told The Associated Press he wasn't surprised to hear about the charges. Hogan said Ouazzani still owes him $17,000 in rent.

"I'm shocked and stunned, but I'm not surprised because he was such a lowlife," Hogan said. "Once he got in, he stopped paying his bills almost immediately."

Ouazzani has used addresses in a number of American cities, including St. Louis; Cherry Hill, N.J,; Brooklyn, N.Y.; and the Forest Hills section of Queens, The Associated Press reports.

Brian A. Truchon of the FBI's Kansas City field office told The New York Times that Ouazzani's actions prove that the entire country needs to be alert to terrorism, even "here in the heartland."

Kansas City Star columnist and editorial board member Matthew Schofield said the case is eye-opening for the area.

"The fact that someone living in Kansas City, a functioning member of this community (and from the size of the donation, someone functioning pretty well) searches out and supports public enemy number one should serve as evidence that we are, wherever we are, now living with a terror threat," he wrote Wednesday.

Ouazzani is in federal custody and faces 65 years to life in prison. In a statement, his lawyers, Robin Fowler and Tricia Tenpenny, said Ouazzani "deeply regrets what he has done and is taking steps to atone, to the extent he can, for his crimes. He will continue to do so."