Saudi student in US pleads not guilty to terror charges

A 20-year-old Saudi student, accused of buying chemicals and equipment to build weapons of mass destruction to target nuclear power plants and the home of former President George W Bush, has pleaded not guilty.

Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, who faces life in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted, appeared at his arraignment yesterday in US federal court in Lubbock, Texas before federal magistrate Judge Nancy Koenig.

Wearing a navy blue prison jump suit, his hands and legs were shackled.

Magistrate Koenig also set a trial date of May 2 for him. A gag order exists in the case, so Aldawsari's defence attorney Rod Hobson, could not comment about yesterday's arraignment.

Earlier this year at Aldawsari's initial court appearance, Hobson issued a written statement saying that his client should be "presumed innocent."

US district judge Sam Cummings, the trial judge, early this month issued an order prohibiting Aldawsari's attorney or prosecutors from speaking about the case.

Court documents allege he hatched plans to attack various US targets, including in New York City and at former President Bush's Dallas home.

Hobson, the student's attorney, stood with his client and whispered to him after Koenig asked Aldawsari whether he wanted to waive the reading of his indictment.

"Waive," Aldawsari told Koenig. Aldawsari, who was legally in the US on a student visa, was arrested February 23.

The White House said President Barack Obama had been notified about the plot.

Court records indicate authorities traced Aldawsari's online purchases, discovered extremist online posts he made and secretly searched his apartment, computer and email accounts, and read his diary.

The terrorism case detailed in court documents was significant because it suggests that radicalized foreigners can live quietly in the US without raising suspicions from neighbors, classmates, teachers or others.

It also showed how quickly US law enforcement can move when tipped that a terrorist plot may be unfolding.

Federal authorities said a chemical company, Carolina Biological Supply of Burlington, NC, reported $435 in suspicious orders by Aldawsari to the FBI on February 1.

Separately, Ann Arbor, Mich.-based shipping company Con-way Freight notified Lubbock police and the FBI the same day with similar suspicions because it appeared the order wasn't intended for commercial use.

Prosecutors said that in December, he bought 30 litres of concentrated nitric acid from QualiChem Technologies in Georgia, and three gallons of concentrated sulfuric acid that are combined to make TNP.

The FBI later found the chemicals in Aldawsari's apartment as well as beakers, flasks, wiring, a Hazmat suit and clocks.

Aldawsari wrote that he was planning an attack in the United States for years, even before coming to the US on a scholarship. He said he was influenced by Osama bin Laden's speeches and that he bemoaned the plight of Muslims.