A Virginia resident and native of Pakistan pleaded guilty Friday to providing material support to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Jubair Ahmad was charged in September of providing material support to Lashkar and lying about it to federal authorities in a terrorism investigation.
An FBI affidavit alleged that he produced and posted a propaganda video for the LeT on the Internet. The video sought to "develop support for the LeT and recruit jihadists." During the video's production phase, Ahmad communicated with a LeT operative named "Talha." Talha was later identified by Ahmad as Talha Saeed, the son of LeT leader Hafiz Mohammed Saeed.
The five-minute video showed LeT leader Hafiz Saeed leading a prayer in Arabic that included words like "mujahideen" and "jihad." The video also contained images of jihadi martyrs and armored trucks being bombed by improvised explosive devices.
Ahmad wanted to include images from the November 2008 terrorist attacks on India's financial capital of Mumbai, the affidavit alleged, but he changed his mind after Talha warned him against using any reference to the attacks. The LeT has been blamed for the attacks that killed 166 people, including six Americans. The terrorist group has come under increased pressure following calls by India on the Pakistani government to clamp down on LeT jihadists operating from its soil.
A government filing released Friday added new details saying the video was uploaded to the YouTube account "AbuDujjana." Ahmad named the video "Hafiz Muhammad Saaed Qunoot e Nazila Very Emotional."
"Foreign terrorist organization such as LeT use the Internet as part of well-orchestrated propaganda campaigns to radicalize and recruit individuals to wage violent jihad and to promote the spread of terror," U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride said in a statement about the plea.
Ahmad faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced in April.