Christopher Paul

{{About|the al-Qaeda militant|other people|Chris Paul (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Christopher Paul

| image =

| birth_name = Paul Kenyatta Laws

| birth_date = {{birth-date and age|March 1, 1964}}

| birth_place = Columbus, Ohio

| other_names = Abdulmalek Kenyatta
Abdul Malek
Alex Karagezyan

| occupation = al-Qaeda terrorist

| education = Thomas Worthington High School

| alma_mater = Columbus State Community College

}}

Christopher Paul (aka Paul Kenyatta Laws, Abdulmalek Kenyatta) is an American al-Qaeda militant, who has pleaded guilty to acts of terrorism.

Early life

Born Paul Kenyatta Laws, he changed his name to Alex Karagezyan in 1989, but then to Christopher Paul in 1994.{{cite book|last1=Welsh-Huggins|first1=Andrew|title=Hatred at Home: Al-Qaida on Trial in the American Midwest|date=2011|publisher=Ohio University Press|isbn=978-0804011341|page=47|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VecuMBWI79oC&q=%22Abdulmalek+Kenyatta%22&pg=PA28|access-date=23 April 2017}}{{cite news|last1=Driehaus|first1=Bob|title=U.S. Indicts an Ohio Man in Terror Conspiracy Case|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/us/13ohio.html|access-date=23 April 2017|work=The New York Times|date=13 April 2007}}{{cite news

|url=http://www.dodig.osd.mil/IGInformation/IGInformationReleases/Paul_plea_local.pdf

|title=Ohio Man Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Bomb Targets in Europe and the United States

|publisher=Department of Defense

|date=2008-05-03

|access-date=2008-11-14

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090109071338/http://www.dodig.osd.mil/IGInformation/IGInformationReleases/Paul_plea_local.pdf

|archive-date=2009-01-09

}} Additional names have included Abdul Malek.{{cite news|last1=Ryan|first1=Jason|title=Ohio Al Qaeda Member Admits WMD Plot|url=https://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/FedCrimes/story?id=4988588|access-date=3 May 2017|work=ABC News|date=3 June 2008}} Paul is an American citizen, resident of the Columbus, Ohio, area, where he was born. He grew up in suburban Worthington, Ohio.

He attended Thomas Worthington High School. He then became a student at Columbus State Community College from 1988 to 1990. It was during this period that he converted to Islam, changing his name to Abdulmalek Kenyatta.{{cite book|last1=Larry Elder|title=Stupid Black Men: How to Play the Race Card--and Lose|date=2008|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-1429929059|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8sEehc-nd6gC&q=%22Paul+Kenyatta+Laws%22&pg=PT303|access-date=4 May 2017|author1-link=Larry Elder}} From 1990 and 1994, he was taking training at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan learning hand-to-hand combat and the use of weapons including rocket-propelled grenades. He also traveled to a number of countries, including Croatia, Austria, and Slovenia, before returning to Columbus in 1994 and changing his name to Christopher Paul. Paul took classes at Columbus State for another 4 years, and was granted an associate degree in 1998.{{cite news|last1=Richards|first1=Kirk|title=Terrorism suspect was once 'super nice kid'|url=http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2007/04/14/PAUL14.ART_ART_04-14-07_A1_N46CM82.html|access-date=4 May 2017|publisher=Columbus Dispatch|date=14 April 2007}} He attended the Omar Ibnelkhattab Mosque at 580 Riverview Dr. in Columbus.

Terrorist period

He received training from al-Qaeda in the early 1990s in Pakistan and Afghanistan.{{cite book|last1=Krenshaw|first1=Martha|title=Countering Terrorism: No Simple Solutions|date=2017|publisher=Brookings Institution Press|page=92|isbn=978-0815727651}}

He fought on behalf of Islamist militant groups in Bosnia and Afghanistan in the early 1990s.{{cite news|title=US-born al-Qaeda member gets 20 years in prison|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/4841588/US-born-al-Qaeda-member-gets-20-years-in-prison.html|access-date=4 May 2017|publisher=Daily Telegraph|date=26 February 2009}} In Afghanistan, he is reported to have stayed in the Beit ur Salam guesthouse, a safe house reserved exclusively for graduates of Al Qaeda training camps.

Then in 1999, he was in Germany training terrorists in a local Islamist cell how to build car bombs and other explosive devices to blow up Americans vacationing in Europe. He was also alleged, in August 2002, to have met two other men in a suburban Columbus coffee house where they discussed terrorist attacks. The other two men were convicted of separate acts: Nuradin Abdi for a plot to blow up an Ohio shopping mall (of which Paul was one of the conspirators), and Iyman Faris (a Pakistani immigrant) for a plot to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge."Ohio man pleads guilty in alleged terror plot", https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080603/ap_on_re_us/overseas_terror_plot;_ylt=Aly91J9HRVRlSI03GwGoHfVvzwcF, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, AP, June 3, 2008 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080605054108/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080603/ap_on_re_us/overseas_terror_plot |date=June 5, 2008 }}{{cite news|title=Somali Immigrant Gets 10 Years for Plotting With Al Qaeda to Blow Up Ohio Shopping Mall|url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/somali-immigrant-gets-10-years-for-plotting-with-al-qaeda-to-blow-up-ohio-shopping-mall/|access-date=23 April 2017|publisher=AP|date=27 November 2007}}{{cite news|last1=Welsh-Huggins|first1=Andrew|title=Suspect Pleads Guilty in Ohio Mall Plot|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/31/AR2007073101210.html|access-date=3 May 2017|agency=AP|newspaper=Washington Post|date=31 July 2007}}

Trial

Paul was indicted on April 12, 2007, on the following charges: conspiring to support terrorists, conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction and providing support to terrorists. He was charged with planning to set off bombs in Europe and the United States. He initially pleaded not guilty.{{cite news|last1=McCarthy|first1=John|title=Resort Bomb Plot Suspect Pleads Innocent|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/13/AR2007041300806.html|access-date=26 April 2017|newspaper=Washington Post|date=13 April 2007}} In 2008, he pleaded guilty to plotting to bomb targets in Europe and the United States in a plea deal to obtain a lighter sentence.{{cite news|last1=Mikkelson|first1=Randal|title=Qaeda-trained U.S. man pleads guilty in terror case|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-security-usa-plea-idUSN0338589520080603|access-date=23 April 2017|publisher=Reuters|date=3 June 2008}}{{cite web|title=Ohio Man Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Bomb Targets in Europe and the United States|url=https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2008/June/08-nsd-492.html|publisher=USDOJ|access-date=23 April 2017}} According to public data search, he is no longer in prison as of May 22, 2024.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bop.gov/mobile/find_inmate/index.jsp#inmate_results|title=Find an inmate #67216-061}}