Although he was arrested in Somalia toting an AK-47 and had spent time at a al-Q camp, these things were all plausibly explained away. McClatchy newspapers here are taking issue with the American and prosecutorial timelines.
A U.S. citizen imprisoned in Ethiopia reportedly told investigators that he was briefly in an al-Qaida camp in Somalia and had tried to fire a gun during a clash with foreign troops in the south of the war-torn country, but denied he was a fighter or had undergone military training.
Amir Mohamed Meshal, 24, of Tinton Falls, N.J., made the statements in early January while he was being held in Kenya for illegally entering the country, according to an account provided to McClatchy Newspapers on condition that the source remain anonymous.
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