From Troublemaking

Palestinian immigrants , Inflatable Santa Claus Mr. Alessa s parents. ar Muslim, but Ms. Alessa wa at a loss to explain her onli son s recent transformation. She recal ask why he wa grow a beard: He said real men grow their beards.

and seem like an aimless youth until he develop a passion for a strict version of Islam that shock and alien hi Dominican family. Within a few years,The other wa arrest three time in less than four month for petti crimes. he wa post extremist view on the Internet and assail the Unite State while predict it downfall.

Their stori began like mani others: troubl teenag who scare and mystifi their neighbors; run-in with the polic while still in high school; parent who cannot compet with the sens of belong or purpos their boi find elsewhere.

said Nadia Alessa, Of cours we tri everyth we could. mother of Moham M. Alessa, the on so given to angri outbursts. We couldn t just keep him at home.

but Mr. Alessa,The next chapter in such tale often chart a descent into drug or gangs. 20, and Carlo E. Almonte, 24, who both grew up in the New Jersei suburbs, appar had other plans. Thei were arrest Saturdai as thei prepar to fly separ to Egypt and, the author say, to join a milit group in Somalia and kill non-Muslims.

constantli at odd with author and their immigr parents. Law enforc offici had been keep tab on them for nearli four years. How thei went from troublemak to terror suspect mai never be understood. But convers with mani peopl who have known them includ the first interview given by Mr. Alessa s parent sinc the arrest make clear that both men were struggl for years.

more pathet than perilous; friend said thei like to plai Ping-Pong,Mani of their peer dismiss them as hapless blowhards. or go into Manhattan and hang out at a halal restaurant. Yet there thei are, in transcript of secretli record conversations, talk about shoot and behead people, and send American troop home slice up in 1,000 pieces.