NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Two northern New Jersey men accused of
trying to join a terrorist group in Somalia intended to commit acts
of violence even though their plans may appear ill-formed and
scattershot, a federal prosecutor said Monday.

“Sophistication is not a measure of danger,” U.S. Attorney Paul
Fishman said. “Their intentions were described pretty clearly. They
were watching certain videos and interested in what certain people
were saying and advocating.”

Mohamed Mahmood Alessa and Carlos Eduardo Almonte made their
first court appearance Monday in Newark.

Alessa, 20, and Almonte, 24, were arrested Saturday night at New
York’s Kennedy Airport as they prepared to fly to Egypt and then to
Somalia, authorities said. They are charged with conspiring to
kill, maim and kidnap persons outside the United States by joining
al-Shabab, a group designated by the U.S. in 2008 as a terrorist
organization.

Alessa and Almonte appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge
Madeline Cox Arleo on Monday with their hands and feet shackled.
Both are Muslim and sported dark curly hair and beards. Alessa had
several cuts and bruises on his forehead.

Both men spoke only to affirm that they understood the charge
against them. Two of Alessa’s family members and court-appointed
attorneys for both men declined to comment after the hearing.

Alessa and Almonte will be held without bail pending a detention
hearing on Thursday. If convicted, they could face life in
prison.

Investigators say the men intended to head to Somalia to seek
terror training from al-Qaida-affiliated jihadists and to unleash
attacks against fellow Americans.

But their preparations apparently were far from sophisticated.
They lifted weights, bought military-style pants, tried paintball,
played violent video games and watched terrorist videos online,
authorities said. The only weapons they possessed were two folding
knives.

They had no known connections to terrorist groups, and their
planned trip to Somalia apparently amounted to a leap of faith that
they would be embraced by the jihadists. Fishman would not say
Monday whether they had made any actual contacts with
al-Shabab.

Younus Mohammad, a 31-year-old from Brooklyn who attended
Monday’s hearing, said Alessa and Almonte were well known in
Paterson, a city west of Manhattan that is home to a sizable
Arab-American community.

“These were just young, zealous kids who had zeal because they
perceived their religion is under attack in America and they spoke
out,” he said. “I think they were just wild-eyed, with aims that
would have been impossible to carry out.”

Law enforcement became aware of the men in the fall of 2006,
when the FBI received an anonymous tip through its website, and
some unidentified family members cooperated with investigators,
according to a criminal complaint.

In March 2007, the FBI conducted a consensual search of
Almonte’s computer, revealing documents advocating jihad against
the perceived enemies of Islam, court papers show.

An undercover officer met the men last year and began recording
conversations in which the two spoke about jihad against Americans,
investigators said in court papers.

“I leave this time. God willing, I never come back,” authorities
say Alessa told the officer last year. “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.”

Fishman didn’t provide details of how the men were arrested
except to say that both resisted and that passengers on the planes
were not endangered.

“At no time was the public in immediate danger from these
defendants,” he said. “There was never any chance that the
defendants would get on those planes.”

Alessa, of North Bergen, and Almonte, of Elmwood Park, are
American citizens, authorities said. Alessa was born in the United
States and is of Palestinian descent. Almonte is a naturalized
citizen who was born in the Dominican Republic.

The men had traveled to Jordan three years ago and tried to get
into Iraq, only to be rejected by jihadists, New York Police
Commissioner Ray Kelly said Sunday.

Officials said the two were not planning an imminent attack in
the New York-New Jersey area.

Somalia, an impoverished East African nation of about 10 million
people, has not had a functioning government for more than a
decade, although the U.S. is backing a transitional government
there. The Pentagon’s top commander in the region has included
Somalia on a list of countries where clandestine American military
operations designed to disrupt militant groups would be
targeted.

Almonte told the undercover officer in April that there would
soon be American troops in Somalia, which he allegedly said was
good because it would not be as gratifying to kill only
Africans.

Over the past year, a number of Somali youths have traveled from
the U.S. back to Somalia to fight with al-Shabab insurgents.
Meanwhile, battle-hardened al-Qaida insurgents have moved out of
safe havens along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border into Somalia,
where vast ungoverned spaces allow them to train and mobilize
recruits without interference.

Authorities have been working with Somalis in the U.S. to stem
the radicalization of young people who are being recruited to join
the terror fight.