Arab-Israeli accused of seeking to create Qaeda cell

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

JERUSALEM (AFP) — An Arab-Israeli was charged on Friday with trying to contact Al-Qaeda in a bid to set up a local cell of the global extremist network, police said.

The indictment alleges that Khaled Abu Raqiq, 24, a Bedouin from the southern town of Tel Sheva, used the Internet to contact a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip linked to Al-Qaeda with the aim of perpetrating attacks in Israel.

A former student at a technological college, Raqiq allegedly downloaded to his computer instructions on how to make a bomb.

He is also accused of having suggested a suicide attack to one of college friends, who rejected the proposal.

Raqiq was arrested on July 29 by police and agents from the Shin Beth domestic intelligence service.

Also in July, Shin Beth...