NEW YORK, Aug 6: Two men arrested on Thursday in an FBI sting operation are innocent people who came to the United States in search of freedom and opportunity, and caught up in over-zealous law-enforcement authorities' attempt to capture terrorists, members of their families said on Friday.

According to an FBI affidavit submitted to the US federal court, the men laundered money for what they thought was to be the purchase of a shoulder-fired missile launcher, supposedly to be used to assassinate Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations.

Yassin Aref, 34, the imam of Masjid As-Salaam, a Kurd, and 49-year-old Mohammed Hossain, a Bangladeshi co-founder of the mosque, were arrested when police raided the storefront mosque here in Albany area.

But the families of the two accused refused to believe they would participate in such an act. "It's totally wrong and totally false and totally a lie," said Mr Hossain's wife Mossamat in an interview with a news agency.

She said her husband was a businessman, not a terrorist. She recounted having to wake the couple's five children in the middle of the night and whisk them out of the house as at least half a dozen agents swept in.

A trustee of the mosque, Rashid Abdul haq Hamzah, believes the raids were politically motivated. "I think (president) George Bush is having problems in the election," he told newsmen.

The purchase of the RPG-7 grenade launcher and the assassination scheme were part of a sting operation, a ruse the men were made to believe by a convict cooperating with federal prosecutors, authorities said. In return, the informant was to get a reduced prison sentence on document fraud charges.

According to the MSNBC the felon was perhaps a Pakistani who wanted to cooperate with the FBI to get his sentence reduced and the suggestion that the men acquire a grenade launcher was perhaps made by him.

Some experts suggest that a capable defence lawyer could explore the possibilities of 'entrapment', which is illegal. At a news conference in Washington, Deputy Attorney-General James Comey acknowledged there never was a real threat of any attack. "This is not the case of the century," he said.

He said that besides removing two potentially dangerous people from the streets, the case was meant to send a message to terrorists and those who support them. "Anyone engaging in terrorist planning would be very wise to consider whether their accomplice is not really one of our guys," he said.

US Magistrate David Homer ordered the two men held without bail pending a hearing on Tuesday. They are charged with money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to conceal material support for terrorism. Both could face up to 70 years in prison and a $750,000 fine.

Mr Hossain came from Bangladesh in 1985. After years of washing dishes and other kitchen work, he bought the Little Italy pizzeria in 1994, according to a profile published this summer in the Times Union of Albany.

"I'm proud to be an American," he told the newspaper. Mr Aref is a native of Kurdistan and he came to the US three years ago from Syria, where he was a student, according to his wife Zuhor Jalal. He has three children and he also has a job of a driver.

Mr Hamzah and other mosque members described their imam as a gentle man. The three-year-old storefront mosque has several hundred members, many who came for prayers on Thursday morning found federal agents blocking access and later found several doors smashed open.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement that the alleged plot was a "deeply troubling" development that should not be used to associate all American Muslims with violence.