Barry Walter Bujol Jr, a US citizen and resident of Hempstead, outside Houston, Texas, was charged with two counts in a federal indictment, including charges he committed identity theft by using a fake government-issued identification card as part of his pro-Al-Qaeda activities.

According to the two-year FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation, the 29-year-old exchanged emails with two high-profile Al-Qaeda supporters: radical US-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi and accused would-be Christmas Day plane bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

He faces up to 20 years behind bars if found guilty.

Court documents alleged that Awlaqi, linked to a US Army major who killed 12 of his comrades and one civilian at an army base last year, provided Bujol with a document titled "42 Ways of Supporting Jihad" and Bujol asked the cleric for advice on how to send money to the "mujahedeen" abroad.

The Texas man also tried -- and failed -- three times to leave the United States between February and March 2009 to travel to Yemen or elsewhere in the Middle East, the documents said.

A federal grand jury in US District Court for the Southern District of Texas, charged Bujol with knowingly attempting to provide material support to Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen in the form of personnel, currency, pre-paid telephone calling cards, mobile telephone SIM cards and global positioning system receivers.

He was also accused of having sought to provide Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) with restricted US military publications, including one involving unmanned drone operations and another on the effects of US military weapon systems deployed in Afghanistan.

Starting in November 2009, Bujol repeatedly told a confidential informant posing as an AQAP operative that he wanted to travel overseas to fight in "violent jihad" for the group, the Department of Justice said.

The informant provided Bujol with a false photo ID provided by the FBI and Bujol then allegedly used the card to access a secure section of a port in a botched attempt to board a ship bound for the Middle East.

According to the charges, Bujol also allegedly agreed to courier materials provided by the informant to AQAP operatives in an unnamed Middle Eastern country.

FBI agents arrested Bujol after he boarded the ship with the materials.

Search warrants on his Hempstead apartment and laptop computer were executed on May 30, and US prosecutors asked the court to hold Bujol in federal custody pending the outcome of further hearings in his case. A hearing on the government's motion was set for Tuesday.

"Protecting the American public from the threat of terrorism, both international and home-grown, is the highest priority of the US Department of Justice and the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas," US Attorney Jose Angel Moreno said in a statement.

FBI Houston Special Agent in Charge Richard Powers called the arrest a "a sobering reminder of the threat we continue to face.

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