The D.C. Five is a group of Muslim Americans from the suburbs of Washington, D.C., with suspected ties to terrorism. The five men were detained on December 9, 2009, during a police raid in Pakistan on a house with links to a militant group. In part of an increasing trend in homegrown terrorism, they were in their late teens or early twenties.
Early in the ongoing investigation, officials described them as en route to fight against American forces in Afghanistan. The police chief of Sargodha said that the men had been in contact with local militant groups since August 2009 and had offered their assistance in unspecified attacks. They were not initially accused of a crime. They had been missing from their home area for approximately a month prior to their detention.
On June 24, 2010, the five men were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment; both the defense and the prosecution are planning to appeal.
Overview
The men departed from the Dulles International Airport and traveled to Karachi, Pakistan, and then to Hyderabad and to Lahore. They spent five days there before they finally arrived at Sargodha. They landed in Karachi on November 20. One of the men had left an 11 min video that expressed his belief that Muslim lands must be defended against western invaders. However, it was not described as a typical suicide (jihad) video for militants.
According to investigators, the men had planned to meet a contact close to the Afghan border, between Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province, and then to proceed to the stronghold of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. That contact turned out to be a Taliban recruiter named Saifullah, whom Minni had met on the internet after the latter posted remarks praising video footage on YouTube showing attacks on American forces.
The house at which they were detained in Sargodha, Punjab Province, was occupied by Khalid Farooq. He is the father of one of the men, and he is suspected of ties to Jaish-e-Muhammed, a banned militant group to which the house itself is also linked. The house is owned by the uncle of one of the men. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the men "were detained without incident."
Investigators stated that the men were on route to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban against NATO forces. The investigators mentioned that the men had planned to go from Sargodha to South Waziristan, an unguarded region used by militant groups for training purposes.
Pakistani officials said that men were a security threat and that they had been arrested before they could mount an attack. A prosecutor in the case, Nadeem Akram Cheema, said that based upon their contact with a Taliban recruiter, "They wanted to be part of an operation. They and their handlers did not have enough time to plan a meticulous attack and were nabbed before they could."
The men have said that they were on route to Afghanistan to perform charity and humanitarian work in assisting Muslim refugees. Listed on their visa applications as the purpose of travel, however, was attending a friend's wedding in Karachi and sightseeing in Lahore and Sargodha.
Suspects
Some of the suspects were born outside the U.S., but all of them are U.S. citizens. However, the U.S. embassy in Pakistan said that one of them did not have a U.S. passport.
They knew one another from the ICNA Center, a mosque affiliated with Islamic Circle of North America in Arlington, Virginia. The five were a "constant presence" at the mosque in "traditional Muslim dress." The men had been missing since late November 2009. Their families contacted local religious authorities, who then contacted the FBI on December 1. Members of the mosque were unaware of the men's plans and had not previously come to the attention of law enforcement agencies.
Their names are Umer Farooq, Ramy Zamzam, Ahmed Abdullah, Waqar Khan, and Aman Yasir. Ahmed Abdullah was later identified as Ahmed Abdullah Minni.