Illegal Immigrant Charged With Terrorism

Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a Jordanian citizen illegally living in the U.S. in the small town of Italy, about 45 miles south of Dallas, pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and expressed a desire to kill Americans, authorities said. In conversations with agents posing as members of an al-Qaeda sleeper cell, Smadi said he came to the U.S. to wage jihad, or holy war. He told agents he wanted to target military recruitment centers, but eventually settled on financial institutions. "I want to destroy ... targets ... everything that helps America on its war on Arabs will be targeted," he told undercover agents in May