After being stopped from joining a jihad in Afghanistan in 2004, two Chicago men were recruited into a Toledo-based terrorist cell and pursued training in sniper tactics, firearms, and counterintelligence techniques, the U.S. government alleged yesterday during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Toledo.

Zubair A. Ahmed, 27, and Khaleel Ahmed, 26, were ordered released from custody while they await trial on charges accusing them of plotting to recruit and train terrorists to attack U.S. troops overseas.

The cousins are among five men, including three from Toledo, accused of conspiring to "kill, kidnap, or maim" U.S. military troops and others in Iraq.

The daylong hearing before Judge James Carr was the first chance for attorneys representing the men to hear portions of the government's case.

Also yesterday, Judge Carr set a Jan. 22 trial date for all five men.

The cousins were named in an indictment unsealed in federal court in February that added charges against three local men already in custody.

Marwan Othman El-Hindi, 42; Mohammad Zaki Amawi, 27, and Wassim Mazloum, 22, face nine counts of terrorism-related charges.

Yesterday, Mr. Amawi, Mr. Mazloum, Mr. El-Hindi, and Zubair Ahmed pleaded not guilty to the charges. Khaleel Ahmed pleaded not guilty last month.

Gregg Sofer of the U.S. Department of Justice said yesterday that the cousins traveled to Egypt in 2004 with plans to make their way to Afghanistan. Mr. Sofer said that Mr. El-Hindi traveled with Zubair Ahmed's father to Egypt after learning the cousins had left the United States and eventually recruited them to participate in jihad, or holy war, training.

Soon after he took the Ahmeds from Chicago to Cleveland, where they met Darrin Griffin, the government informant in the probe who taped the conversations, Mr. Sofer said.

"Marwan El-Hindi went overseas to bring these young boys back with [Zubair Ahmed's] father," Mr. Sofer said. "However, instead of saving these young men from a dangerous and ill-advised plan, he recruited them into the Ohio cell."

Calling taped conversations between the men "nothing short of devastating," Mr. Sofer said the cousins inquired about training in sniper tactics, weapons, and explosives.

He said they also spoke of a "five-year plan" and the need to stay in shape for their cause.

Attorneys for the Ahmeds argued that the government's evidence presented a lot of talk but no action that the men planned to participate in terrorist activities.

"We think this case has a lot of smoke and no fire," said attorney Terry Gilbert of Cleveland, who is representing Zubair Ahmed.

"Yeah, they were talking about guns. Is that a crime? But there was no talk about jihad, no talk about killing Americans, no talk about going overseas."

Judge Carr granted the motion to release the cousins pending trial and placed them both on electronic monitoring and in the custody of their families.

He set bond at $500,000 for each of the men and deemed that houses owned by family members could serve as collateral. The men likely will be released within a day or two.

The other three men remain in custody.

Toledo attorney Stephen Hartman, who represents Mr. El-Hindi, acknowledged that he was unable to counter the government's contention that his client recruited the two men. He said Mr. El-Hindi's chance to rebut the story will have to come out during the January trial.

"It just didn't happen that way," he said of the allegations. "I understand that the government believes it happened that way, but it didn't."

The nine-count indictment released in February included allegations that Mr. Amawi downloaded instructions on manufacturing explosive chemicals and shared an instructional video on making a suicide bomb vest.

Two of the counts alleged that Mr. Amawi threatened to kill President Bush, charges that were in the indictment a year ago when the men were first arrested.

The indictment also alleged that Mr. El-Hindi shared information about terrorist-training activities with the government's informant, including plastic explosives, rockets, and improvised explosive devices.

In addition to the terror-related charges, Mr. El-Hindi also was arraigned yesterday on several fraud charges for attempting to create a nonprofit organization to obtain federal grant money for a program the government believed would help Arabic-speaking people file income tax returns.

Instead of a multicultural tax clinic for the poor, he and co-defendant Ashraf Zaim, of Ottawa Hills, are accused of diverting thousands of dollars in Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services funds for their own use.

The Dearborn, Mich., accountant who helped set up the charitable organization testified yesterday that he was concerned about the meeting he had with Mr. El-Hindi and Mr. Griffin, the government's informant.

Jihad Dahabi said that he did not file the paperwork with the state of Michigan because he worried that the organization may somehow be attached to terrorism.

Because he is slated to be deported to Syria for overstaying his visa, Mr. Dahabi testified yesterday, and his taped testimony will be shown to the jury during the trial in January.

Contact Erica Blake at:

eblake@theblade.com

or 419-213-2134.

First Published April 25, 2007, 11:06 a.m.