BOSTON — During a secret search of the home of a Massachusetts man now charged with conspiring to help al-Qaida, authorities found videos depicting violent jihad and an interview with Osama bin Laden in which he says “the battle has moved to inside America,” a state trooper testified Friday.
Trooper Thomas Sarrouf, the first prosecution witness at the trial of Tarek Mehanna, testified about items found in Mehanna’s room during a court authorized clandestine search of his parents’ Sudbury home in 2006. Sarrouf said authorities found videos depicting “jihadist scenes, combat scenes” from around the world.
Sarrouf said authorities also found an interview with bin Laden conducted by a correspondent for the Arabic news network Al-Jazeera. In the interview, bin Laden talks about fighting and killing Americans.
“If inciting people to do that is terrorism, and if killing those who kill our sons is terrorism, then let history be witness that we are terrorists,” he said, according to a transcript read in court.
Mehanna, 29, is accused of traveling to Yemen in 2004 to seek terrorist training. Prosecutors say when that failed, he returned home and became part of the “media wing” of al-Qaida by translating and distributing materials promoting violent jihad over the Internet.
Front Section, Pages 9 on 10/29/2011