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Lashkar e Taiba in American News:

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NY authorities accuse Maryland man of conspiring to support terror group
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--terrorismarrest0804aug04,0,4252030.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

NEW YORK -- A Maryland man was charged with conspiracy to help a terrorist organization after he boasted that he went to Pakistan, attended terrorist training camps and agreed to provide whatever assistance was necessary, prosecutors said Thursday.

Mahmud Faruq Brent, of Gwynn Oak, Md., was charged after a New York musician arrested on similar charges in May agreed to meet with him and let the FBI record the encounter, according to a joint release by federal prosecutors, the FBI and New York police.

Brent was charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan with conspiracy to provide material support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba organization, which the United States designated a terrorist organization in December 2001.

During the taped conversation at a hotel in Columbia, Md., Brent indicated he had traveled to Pakistan and into the mountains for training "and stuff" with "the mujahideen, the fighters," the release said.

He allegedly said that because of "treaties with Bush," it became dangerous for "foreigners" like him to stay in the camps, so he was moved from place to place.

Prosecutors said Brent indicated that he would never go back on his decision to go to the training camps operated by Lashkar and that it was "one of the better decisions in my life."

He also said he had agreed to provide whatever "assistance" he could there and expressed hope that Allah would bless him for his efforts, according to the release.

The investigation of Brent began, authorities said, after they found an address book with telephone numbers for him when they arrested Tarik Shah, 42, of New York.

Brent was being held in Manhattan and was scheduled to appear in court later Thursday. Prosecutors didn't say if he had a lawyer.

Shah pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges on June 28, and defense attorney Anthony Rico called the case against his client "ridiculous."