N.J. software developer eyed U.S. targets for terror attacks, feds say at trial openings

NEW YORK — A prosecutor instructed jurors in an opening assertion Monday that a New Jersey software package developer was essentially a hugely qualified terrorist scoping out U.S. landmarks for assault from 2000 to 2005.

Alexei Saab, 45, of Morristown, experienced a double identification while he worked for Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad Firm, prepared to attack Americans at well-liked destinations if Iran was attacked by the U.S., claimed Assistant U.S. Attorney Samuel Adelsberg.

By working day, Saab was a application engineer performing for technological know-how providers who in shape in plenty of that he became a U.S. citizen, the prosecutor said.

By night, he was “a terrorist and spy” scoping out probable terrorism targets in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., and abroad in France, Turkey and the Czech Republic, Adelsberg reported.

Saab was arrested in July 2019 soon after becoming questioned for the duration of 11 classes above many months with FBI brokers.

Saab’s law firm, Marlon Kirton, stated all the evidence in the situation was from Saab himself and could not be deemed trusted.

And he mentioned that Hezbollah experienced in no way attacked People in the United States.

In court docket files, investigators explained Saab informed agents he took pictures of buildings and spots such as Quincy Marketplace and the Prudential Middle in Boston and the Capitol Building, Congress and the White Dwelling in Washington, D.C. A movie of Fenway Park was recovered from one of Saab’s electronic equipment.

Adelsberg mentioned the targets investigated by Saab included Rockefeller Middle, Grand Central Terminal, all three New York place airports, the Brooklyn, Triborough and George Washington bridges and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels connecting New Jersey to Manhattan, among the other locations.

“On paper, he lived a usual lifetime when in actuality he was a sleeper agent for Hezbollah,” he mentioned.

Other than surveillance actions in the United States, Adelsberg claimed Saab also operated overseas after signing up for Hezbollah in 1996. He said Saab tried out to get rid of a gentleman he afterwards recognized to be a suspected Israeli spy by pointing a weapon at the specific at near variety, but the firearm jammed.

Saab is also going through a marriage fraud demand for allegedly marrying a co-conspirator in 2012 below phony pretenses. Saab’s law firm did not contest that cost.

Saab has pleaded not responsible to prices such as offering substance aid to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy, acquiring navy-form schooling from a foreign terrorist corporation, illegal procurement of citizenship to aid worldwide terrorism and citizenship application fraud.

The most severe demand carries a most potential penalty of 25 many years in prison, while the charges collectively have potential penalties of around 100 many years in prison.