From staff and wire reports Thursday, November 11, 2004
A Wyoming Technical Institute student charged with attempting to help terrorists in Somalia reportedly said he wished he had flown a hijacked plane during the Sept. 11 attacks, federal authorities said.
Mark Robert Walker, 19, of Rochester, N.Y., had become interested in Islam at a mosque in his hometown, said one official familiar with the case, according to the Washington Post.
"He seems like a lost guy who got obsessed with jihad," the official told the newspaper.
Federal prosecutors accuse Walker of planning to supply Ittihad al Islamiya -- which wants an Islamic government in Somalia -- with night-vision goggles and bullet-proof vests. Charging documents say he used the computer of a roommate at the Laramie school, also known as WyoTech, to make the arrangements.
Walker was arrested Saturday while crossing into El Paso, Texas, from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, where prosecutors say he was using an Internet cafe to line up a meeting with someone known as "Khalid" at the El Paso airport Saturday afternoon, reported the Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester, N.Y.
Excerpted