WASHINGTON – A US man accused in a plot “to advance violent jihad” in other countries pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to murder and other terrorism-related charges, officials said. The Justice Department said 40-year-old Daniel Patrick Boyd, known by the name “Saifullah,” pleaded guilty in federal court in North Carolina to charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons in a foreign country.
Boyd was charged along with seven others in a federal indictment on July 22, 2009. He was arrested a week later. According to investigators, Boyd traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan during the period of 1989 through 1992 “where he received military-style training in terrorist training camps for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad,” a Justice Department statement said.
From November 2006 through at least July 2009, Boyd “conspired with the other defendants to provide material support and resources to terrorists, including currency, training, transportation and personnel,” the statement said. At the time of the arrests, US officials said Boyd was the ringleader of the group, which included two of his sons and that the members “were willing to die as martyrs.”
Boyd, who will be sentenced in May, faces a potential term of life in prison for murder conspiracy charges, with the other charges carrying a potential term of 15 years imprisonment. The plea comes just a week after an American woman who called herself “JihadJane” and surfed the Internet to recruit jihad warriors Tuesday pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist.
Colleen LaRose, 47, pleaded guilty to terrorism, plotting to kill in a foreign country, lying to the FBI and attempted identity theft – charges for which she could face life behind bars.
