WASHINGTON — An Iran-backed operative orchestrated a terror plot targeting a US bombers at a British military base from his New York City prison cell — using “coded messages” in phone calls to relatives in Iraq, according to a federal indictment secured Tuesday.
Alleged mastermind Mohammad al-Saadi, a dual Iranian-Iraqi citizen, was arrested in Turkey in May and transferred to the US to face charges related to almost 20 other terrorist attacks in Europe.
Despite being in solitary confinement inside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, he still oversaw the plot against US forces at Royal Air Force Base Fairford and gave final approval, according to a superseding indictment in the Southern District of New York.
British police arrested, and then released on bail, seven men following the RAF Fairford security scare and the case had remained mired in mystery until now—though President Trump publicly said he believed the incident was linked to Iran.
The new indictment says that al-Saadi, working with two codefendants based in Iran, used phone calls with his mother and sister to pass messages to the other suspects, Mohsen Mohajeri and Mohammad al-Hassani.
All three men are believed to be part of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked terror network.
It was unclear Tuesday afternoon whether Mohajeri and al-Hassani were in custody.
In June and July, prosecutors allege that al-Saadi told his mother and sister in the recorded jailhouse calls that he owed money to Mohajeri and asked them to relay messages about “work.”
“What are they doing about all our old work?” he allegedly asked his sister, requesting an update on whether that work had been canceled or paused.
His sister allegedly informed him that “it isn’t cancelled.”
Three days before the Sept. 27 bust by British police, al-Saadi allegedly asked his family about al-Hassani and was told that his comrade was transferred to the “International Section.”
He then told his relatives to “give him [al-Hassani] money so we can do it,” putting in motion the attempted attack, the indictment alleges.
Al-Hassani allegedly laid the groundwork ahead of the order.
In August, he “directed and paid associates in the United Kingdom to conduct preparatory steps and arrange logistics,” including conducting video surveillance of the base, according to the court papers.
The same alleged co-conspirator paid accomplices to acquire vans, barrels of fuel and chemical accelerants, including potassium chloride, and metal for use as bomb shrapnel — with the vans decorated to resemble fuel and swimming pool business vans, authorities allege.
Three vehicles were allegedly driven to RAF Fairford on Sept. 26. Two were stopped at a roadblock and all three were eventually seized by British authorities the following day.
The ringleaders allegedly are associated with the Iraqi militia group Kata’ib Hizballah, which is under the command of Iran’s IRGC.
Trump condemned British officials for releasing the seven alleged accomplices on bail. Days later, the US military moved a dozen B-1B Lancer bombers to other airports to limit risk.
“There were some threats and rather than tempting the enemy, we’ll capture the enemy and beat the enemy,” Trump said at the time. “But why should we leave them there? So we moved them around a little bit.”
The trio of Iran-backed plotters allegedly organized 18 terrorist attacks in Europe earlier this year after the US and Israel attacked Iran in February.
Seven of the incidents were in the UK, including a stabbing attack against two Jewish men in London, one of whom is a US citizen. The group also allegedly attempted to burn down the Bank of New York Mellon in Amsterdam.
Al-Saadi has pleaded not guilty and has smirked through previous court appearances as he tries to cast himself as a prisoner of war fighting back against the US in response to the country’s ongoing war with Iran.
“I’m not a criminal. … Our children are being killed by your rockets,” he said, speaking through an Arabic interpreter, at a June hearing.
The Justice Department moved last month to limit Al-Saadi’s phone calls with family to once per month due to the alleged “coded language” he’d been using, but Judge Colleen McMahon had urged the government to provide more detail on what the accused terrorist had allegedly been talking about.
“The Government’s argument about defendant’s using coded language during his video calls with family members to communicate with his FTO confederates is vague and does not appear to be linked to discrete criminal planning or conduct,” McMahon wrote in a November 4 ruling, using an acronym for Foreign Terrorist Organization. “The Court needs to hear more.”
Al-Saadi’s federal defender Andrew Dalack, who declined to comment today, said in a court filing Tuesday afternoon that the accused terrorist was in an elaborate and highly restrictive shackling system when they met at the jail hours earlier.
“During our approximately two-hour-long meeting with Mr. Al-Saadi earlier today, he was restrained the entire time by leg irons and through front handcuffs affixed to a chain wrapped around his stomach, which prevented him from moving his arms or hands,” Dalack and his colleagues at the Federal Defenders of New York wrote.
