NY man admits helping Al Qaeda

A man in New York has admitted in a court hearing to supplying Al Qaeda with money, night-vision goggles and other equipment to be used against American forces in Afghanistan, according to a court transcript.

Mohammed Junaid Babar, a 29-year-old naturalised American originally from Pakistan, pleaded guilty on June 2 to five counts of conspiring to provide support to terrorists, according to the transcript.

The transcript, which was entered in US District Court in Manhattan in June, was released by prosecutors this week.

Babar faces up to 70 years in prison, but under the plea deal could serve less jail time.

Babar told Federal Judge Victor Marrero he provided night-vision goggles, sleeping bags, waterproof socks, waterproof ponchos and money to a senior Al Qaeda official in Pakistan's South Waziristan region.

He said he delivered the supplies in January and February 2004.

"I understood that the money and supplies that I had given to Al Qaeda was supposed to be used in Afghanistan... against US or... international forces or against the Northern Alliance," Babar said.

"I set up a jihad training camp... those who wanted to go into Afghanistan where they could learn how to use weapons, and also, you know, any explosive devices that they wanted to test out over there."

Babar also confessed he supplied those who attended the camp with aluminium powder and tried to buy ammonium nitrate for them "with the knowledge that it was going to be used for a plot somewhere in the UK".

British authorities broke up the plot on March 30 and arrested eight men and seized about 600 kg of ammonium nitrate.