[Chewbacca]

They let this cat out of the bag...Damage control perhaps?

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/06/19/alqaeda.plea/

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An Ohio truck driver accused of plotting a terror attack on New York City's Brooklyn Bridge has agreed to plead guilty to providing material support to a terrorist organization, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced on Thursday. Ashcroft said Iyman Faris "appeared to be a hard-working truck driver," but traveled to Pakistan, met with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, and "joined al Qaeda's jihad against America." Under the plea agreement, Iyman Faris also will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization, according to documents unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. The charges together carry as much as 20 years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines. Al Qaeda leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is in U.S. custody, has told interrogators that Faris was ordered to perform surveillance of the Brooklyn Bridge with the ultimate goal of cutting its cables, sources told CNN. Ashcroft said Faris scouted potential terror targets from April 2002 to March 2003, and said he had provided al Qaeda with research on ultralight airplanes in early 2001. Ascroft also said Faris gave al Qaeda material support including "dealings involving cash, thousands of sleeping bags, plane tickets and cell phones." He was also allegedly involved in a plot to drive a truck loaded with explosives onto an airport tarmac to blow up a plane, sources said. Neither alleged plan was executed. The arrest of Faris and the plea deal, reached on May 1, was kept secret because of the sensitivity of the case, CNN has confirmed. Several government sources noted that the unusual step of keeping secret the detention, guilty plea and plea agreement has been used most often in organized crime cases. Prosecutors said that it can be crucial to keep secret from a crime boss the fact that a lower-level member of the criminal enterprise has been "turned" or "flipped." In Alexandria, U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema ordered the plea agreement unsealed shortly after noon Thursday, without explaining why. It was not immediately clear what information Faris may have provided, or what other arrests may have been made since Faris agreed to the plea deal.