AMARILLO, Texas (AP) _ A jury has convicted a Saudi man accused of collecting chemicals and bomb-making materials in hopes of carrying out a terrorist attack.
Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari (KAH’-lihd ah-lee-EHM’ al-duh-SAHR’-ee) is charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
Aldawsari, who was legally in the U.S. on a student visa, was arrested in February 2011 after federal agents secretly searched his apartment near Texas Tech University and found bomb-making chemicals, wiring, a Hazmat suit and clocks.
Authorities also discovered Aldawsari’s journal, handwritten in Arabic, in which he wrote he’d been planning a terror attack for years and that it was “time for jihad,” or holy war, court documents show.
Attorneys for Aldawsari, who faces up to life in prison, claimed their client never came close to threatening anyone.