On June 5, 2010, in a covert American anti-terrorism operation named "Operation Arabian Knight", two American citizens Mohamed Mahmood Alessa and Carlos "Omar" Eduardo Almonte, New Jersey residents, were arrested at Kennedy International Airport in New York City. The men were in the process of boarding booked, separate flights to Egypt. According to the affidavit filed in support of the federal criminal complaint, they planned to travel to Somalia to join Al-Shabab, an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group recruiting foreigners for its civil war. They intended to join them in killing American troops in Somalia, although few Americans are stationed there. The two men were charged with conspiring to kill, maim, and kidnap people outside the U.S. The arrests followed that of the American Faisal Shahzad, characterized as a home-grown terrorist and charged in the failed Times Square bombing. The two men were denied bail, and a preliminary hearing was set for June 21 on the federal charges. On October 18, 2010, a federal judge gave their lawyers time to "attempt to finalize a plea agreement." Investigation The covert investigation of the two, known as "Operation Arabian Knight", had begun in October 2006 as two separate probes after the FBI and New Jersey State Homeland Security detectives received separate tips about the two men. The agents named the operation after a reference in Alessa's computer records, in which he had said he and Almonte were "Arabian knights." The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved physical surveillance of the two men. Arrests The two men checked in at John F. Kennedy International Airport and were preparing to board separate connecting flights to Cairo, Egypt, one the 6:30 p.m. Boeing 777 flight on Egyptair Flight 986 out of Terminal 4, the other a 9:55 p.m. Boeing 767 flight on Delta Air Lines Flight 84 out of Terminal 3. From there they planned to travel to Somalia by boat, to join Al-Shabab. The terminals, however, had a number of FBI agents and other members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force dressed as travelers. Law enforcement officers allowed the men to get into the jetway boarding ramps before arresting them. Federal prosecutors had insisted that the men be allowed to go to the airport, and begin the boarding process, to limit the chance they could later say they had abandoned their plans. This also enabled the FBI agents to hear any last-minute phone calls the