Barry Walter Bujol Jr. of Hempstead: His Al-Qaeda Career Gets Nipped In The Bud

He'd received a book entitled 42 Ways of Supporting Jihad

​A Hempstead man who told an undercover FBI officer he wanted "to travel overseas to fight in violent jihad for" Al-Qaeda was indicted today on charges of trying to help a terrorist organization.

Barry Walter Bujol, Jr., 29, was arrested as he tried to board a ship here with a panoply of items he believed he would be delivering to the Middle East, including pre-paid phone calls and U.S. military manuals.

Feds had been investigating him for two years, and in November 2009 an undercover agent (a "confidential human source," or CHS)  pretending to be with Al-Qaeda met with Bujol.

The U.S. Attorney's office says:

Bujol repeatedly expressed to the CHS his desire to travel overseas to fight in violent jihad for [Al-Qaeda]. The CHS provided Bujol with a false identification card provided by the FBI bearing Bujol's photograph.

Bujol used this card to gain access to the secure area of the port with the alleged intention of boarding a ship bound for the Middle East. Afterwards, the CHS gave Bujol currency, pre-paid telephone calling cards, mobile telephone SIM cards, global positioning system receivers, public access-restricted U.S. military publications - including one involving [drone] operations and another involving the effects of U.S. military weapon systems in operations in Afghanistan, a military issue compass and other materials, which Bujol had allegedly agreed to courier to notional [Al-Qaeda] operatives in a Middle Eastern country.

Shortly after, as Bujol boarded the ship with the material, FBI agents arrested him.

The arrest happened May 30.

"This arrest is a sobering reminder of the threat we continue to face," said FBI special agent  in charre Richard Powers. "It remains the FBI's overriding priority to predict and prevent terrorist attacks, at home and abroad."

The indictment alleges the FBI discovered that Bujol had been in contact with Anwar Al-Aulaqi, "A known associate and propagandist" for Al-Qaeda. Bujols made several attempts last year to travel to Yemen or the Middle East, the indictment says.

He's being held without bond, and agents are searching his apartment in the Pine Meadows apartment complex in Hempstead.