The man who calls himself Mark Bassely Youssef and has used numerous aliases speaks English but asked for an Arabic language interpreter yesterday, at a hearing that resulted in a plea bargain between his lawyers and prosecutors.

Youssef, an Egyptian-born Christian who is a US citizen, sent his attorney out to the courthouse steps with a message for the media: “The one thing he wanted me to tell all of you is President Obama may have gotten Osama bin Laden, but he didn’t kill the ideology,” attorney Steven Seiden said.