REASSURING AND TROUBLING AT THE SAME TIME:

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – A British computer specialist tried to set up a terrorist training camp in Arizona, where he met with Islamic radicals who claimed ties to Osama bin Laden (news – web sites), a government attorney alleged Wednesday.

Babar Ahmad, who is being held in London on charges he ran terrorist fund-raising Web sites, met in Phoenix in 1998 with Yaser Al Jhani, a member of the Islamic mujahedeen militia, and others who claimed to have access to bin Laden, said John Hardy, a British lawyer representing the U.S. government.

“He expressed an interest in developing a training system in Arizona,” Hardy told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from London. “That is, a training system, in effect for the mujahedeen to visit and train to fight abroad.”

Apparently, there are a lot of problems in Arizona.