Convicted Jihadist Stripped of US Citizenship
A federal judge revoked the U.S. citizenship of a convicted member of an Egyptian terrorist organization. Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the "denaturalization" of 57-year-old Khaled Abu al-Dahab for being a "senior jihadist."
According to prosecutors, al-Dahab moved to the United States in 1986 and became a permanent resident after marrying an American citizen in 1989. It was that year that he became a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which he helped by forging passports and money, according to AP.
He also ran a communications hub for the terrorist organization out of his Santa Clara apartment from 1990 to 1995 while working as a car salesman in South Bay. He became a naturalized citizen in 1997. It was found from al-Dahab's 1996 application that he made "materially false written statements" to obtain naturalization.
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For example, he stated that he had not traveled outside the United States from 1989 to 1996. In 1991, however, he lied to officials when he told them he was traveling to Pakistan to help his mother, who was to undergo a kidney transplant. He did go to that country but then proceeded to Afghanistan.
There, he spent two months at a camp near Jalalabad where he received "military-style training" and taught foreign fighters to fly hang gliders in preparation for a planned aerial bombing operation in Egypt that never materialized. During his heyday as a terrorist, al-Dahab was personally congratulated by Osama bin Laden for his work.
Al-Dahab also admitted to recruiting "Islamic Americans" for al-Qaeda during the 12 years he lived in California. He left the United States in 1998, a year after he was naturalized and was arrested in Egypt for trying to overthrow the government. There, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for terrorism-related offenses. He was released in 2011 and now lives in Alexandria, Egypt.
