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        Vietnamese Man Pleads Guilty in US to Helping Al-Qaida Affiliate

   by Reuters

   A Vietnamese man who prosecutors said traveled to Yemen to join an
   al-Qaida affiliate and was instructed there to detonate an explosive at
   London's Heathrow Airport pleaded guilty to U.S. terrorism charges
   Friday.

   Minh Quang Pham, 33, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to three
   counts ' including that he provided material support to al-Qaida in the
   Arabian Peninsula ' three weeks before he was set to face trial.

   Speaking in a quiet voice, Pham admitted to providing support to the
   Islamic militant group.

   Prosecutors have said that Pham, who had attended a university in South
   London, while in Yemen also directly trained with Anwar al-Awlaki, an
   American-born radical Islamic cleric who was killed in a 2011 U.S.
   drone attack.

   In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Buckley said that after his
   arrest, Pham admitted that al-Awlaki instructed him in how to make an
   explosive device out of household materials.

   Buckley said al-Awlaki "directed Pham to return to the United Kingdom,
   where he was to construct and detonate the device at the arrival area
   of Heathrow." Buckley added that al-Awlaki gave Pham $10,000 for the
   plot.

   Oath, training

   Bobbi Sternheim, Pham's lawyer, said her client accepted "full
   responsibility" for the charges to which he pleaded. But she said there
   was "no proof" Pham did anything to follow through with causing any
   harm at Heathrow.

   Pham faces a mandatory minimum of 30 years in prison and a maximum term
   of life. He is scheduled to be sentenced April 14.

   Prosecutors said Pham traveled from the United Kingdom to Yemen in
   December 2010 and took an oath of allegiance to the militant group,
   which the United States lists as a terrorist organization. He spent a
   year in Yemen, where he received "military-type" training and helped
   prepare the group's magazine, Inspire, working directly with Samir
   Khan, a U.S. citizen who served as its editor and died in a U.S. drone
   strike in 2011.

   Pham returned to the United Kingdom in July 2011, where he was detained
   at Heathrow. Authorities discovered various items, including a live
   round of .762 caliber armor-piercing ammunition.

   He was subsequently arrested in the United Kingdom in June 2012 at the
   request of U.S. authorities and extradited to the United States in
   February 2015.
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/vietnamese-man-pleads-guilty-al-qaida/3137910.html