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Home Front: WoT

D.C. Metro Cop Sentenced for Islamic State Support

2018-02-25

Yet another idiot whose best jihadi buddy turned out to be an FBI informant. [Breitbart] Nicholas Young, ... the connected Muslim convert who was proud of the skills he developed torturing small animals as a child, and friend of convicted Al Shabaab supporter Zachary Chesser, among others. Mr. Chesser was famed for his threats against the cartoonists of South Park... the disgraced D.C. Metro Transit Police Department officer convicted of providing support for the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) in December, was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday. Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia handed down the sentence on federal charges of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and obstruction of justice. Young was fired in 2016 after coming under surveillance in 2010 for associations with other terrorism suspects. In 2011, he traveled to Libya and allegedly pursued links with the Jihadists fighting dictator Muammar Qadaffy ...a proud Arab institution for 42 years, now among the dear departed, though not the dearest... . Court documents allege Young traveled with "body armor, a kevlar helmet and several other military-style items" and told the FBI he had been with rebels in Libya. As a result, he no doubt had a great many more jihadi buddies than the two that have been reported. Eventually, Young was locked away You have the right to remain silent... in July 2016 when FBI informants, posing as U.S. military reservists of Middle Eastern descent who supported ISIS, got him to send them gift card codes for use to bolster the brutal terror group’s jihad. At trial, prosecutors revealed that, in addition to Islamist ties, the Moslem-convert Young also sought out Nazi materials and links online. The obstruction charges stem from him advising the informant on how to avoid detection as he went to the Middle East to join ISIS. It was after an informant was supposedly with ISIS overseas that he requested Young send money through the gift cards. Young was convicted in a jury trial in Alexandria, Virginia, in December. At the time, prosecutor Dana J. Boent said, "Nicholas Young swore an oath to protect and defend, and instead violated the public’s trust by attempting to support ISIS." According to the Justice Department (DOJ) blurb, The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia teamed up with prosecutors from Main DOJ’s National Security Division Counterterrorism Section to pursue the case against Young. Young faced up to 60 years on the terrorism and obstruction charges. His 15-year sentence means we will serve at least 12 and a half years in federal prison. He is reportedly the first American law enforcement officer convicted for trying to assist ISIS, having joined the Metro Transit Police in 2003. Are transit cops real police?

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Home Front: WoT

Contempt Charges Will Stand In al-Arian Case

2009-01-17

A federal judge in Alexandria ruled yesterday that she would not throw out contempt-of-court charges against former professor Sami al-Arian, who has refused to cooperate with a terrorism investigation, and set his case for trial on March 9. U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema said that Arian can use the defense that he was relying on the advice of his attorneys when he declined to testify before grand juries investigating whether Muslim groups in Herndon were financing terrorism in the Middle East. "We are very gratified by Judge Brinkema's rulings with regard to the trial," said Jonathan Turley, one of Arian's attorneys. "We look forward to putting Dr. al-Arian's case in front of the jury." Arian, 50, declined to comment. In the courtroom was a crowd of Arian's supporters, including nearly two dozen people from Tampa, where Arian taught computer engineering at the University of South Florida before his first arrest in 2004. Arian was charged then with raising money and otherwise assisting Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group the U.S. government declared a terrorist organization in 1995. At trial in 2005, he was acquitted on eight of 17 counts, and the jury deadlocked on the other counts. Rather than face a retrial, Arian pleaded guilty in May 2006 to one count of conspiring to assist the terrorist group and was sentenced to 57 months in prison, most of which he had served while awaiting trial. In his plea agreement, Arian did not agree to cooperate with subsequent investigations, as most federal plea agreements require. Within days of Arian's plea and sentencing, prosecutors in Alexandria subpoenaed him to testify in the investigation of a group of Herndon organizations suspected of funneling money to terror groups, although no one has been charged. Arian refused, both in 2006 and 2007, and was jailed for civil contempt of court for nearly all of 2007. "I refuse to testify," Arian told the grand jury in 2007, "based on my prior plea agreement with the government that I'm not required to testify and cooperate in this or any other investigation. I refuse, therefore, to make any further statements." Last year, Alexandria prosecutors subpoenaed him for the third time and again offered him immunity from prosecution for his testimony. But the immunity order crafted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg contained additional language not usually found in such orders, saying that Arian could still be prosecuted for obstructing justice or for actions occurring after his testimony. Arian's attorneys protested, and Brinkema said in August, "I think it's real scary and not wise for a prosecutor to provide an order to the court that does not track the explicit language of the statute." After Arian's third refusal to testify, prosecutors obtained indictments in June charging him with two counts of criminal contempt of court. Brinkema postponed the trial while Arian appealed his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the court declined to consider the case. Turley sought to have Brinkema dismiss the case, but the judge said, "There is nothing in the record that would indicate that the U.S. attorney in this district is barred, by the plea agreement in Florida, from bringing this action." Brinkema said Kromberg's immunity orders "did not materially change the scope of protection given to the defendant." Kromberg then asked whether the defense would be able to use the theory that Arian refused to testify based on the advice of his attorneys. Brinkema said yes, that a jury could consider it. That issue could become crucial to a jury trying to determine why Arian defied orders to testify.

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Home Front: WoT

Agent Faults FBI at Moussaoui Trial

2006-03-21

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The FBI agent who arrested Zacarias Moussaoui weeks before Sept. 11 told a federal jury Monday that his own superiors were guilty of "criminal negligence and obstruction" for blocking his attempts to learn whether the terrorist was part of a larger cell about to hijack planes in the United States. During intense cross-examination, Special Agent Harry Samit — a witness for the prosecution — accused his bosses of acting only to protect their positions within the FBI. His testimony appeared to undermine the prosecution's case for the death penalty. Prosecutors argue that had Moussaoui cooperated by identifying some of the 19 hijackers, the FBI could have alerted airport security and kept them off the planes. Moussaoui is the only person to have been convicted in the United States on charges stemming from Sept. 11. His sentencing trial began several weeks ago, but the prosecution's case was nearly gutted when it was learned that a lawyer for the Transportation Security Administration had improperly coached key aviation security witnesses. U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema decided to allow the government to present a limited amount of aviation testimony and evidence. Samit's recollections Monday were the first ground-level account of how FBI agents in Minneapolis — where Moussaoui was arrested on a visa violation 3œ weeks before the attacks — were appalled that their Washington supervisors denied their requests for search warrants in the effort to find out why the Frenchman was taking flying lessons and what role he might have in a wider plan to attack America. "They obstructed it," a still-frustrated Samit told the jury, calling his superiors' actions a calculated management decision "that cost us the opportunity to stop the attacks." The government considers Samit's testimony essential to its case. On March 9, the agent told the court about his arrest of Moussaoui, now 37, and his desperate efforts to win the suspect's cooperation. Yet much of his testimony Monday might have backfired on the government. The jury easily could have been left with the impression of an FBI so at odds with itself that it not only missed critical clues of an impending terrorist attack, but did not even know how best to coordinate efforts to stop it. snip. Makes you wish for the good old days when they wore dresses and kept files on everybody.

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Home Front: WoT

Moussaoui Removed From Courtroom

2006-02-07

Proclaiming "I am al-Qaida," terrorist conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui disrupted the opening of his sentencing trial Monday and was tossed out of court as selection began for the jurors who will decide whether he lives or dies. He disavowed his lawyers and pledged to testify on his own behalf in the trial that is to begin March 6. An often volatile figure in his proceedings, Moussaoui was removed from the courtroom four separate times. "This trial is a circus," he declared. "I want to be heard." Of his lawyers, he said: "These people do not represent me." You have the right to a lawyer, but you don't have to exercise that right. After jury selection, expected to take a month, a penalty trial will determine whether the 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent, the only person in the U.S. charged in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, will be put to death or sentenced to life in prison. He pleaded guilty last April to conspiring to fly planes into U.S. buildings but claims he had no role in the Sept. 11 plot. "Lies! All lies!" Moussaoui, who has vowed to fight for his life, entered the 10th-floor courtroom wearing a green jumpsuit, the word "prisoner" in white on his back. Short and slight with full dark beard, he calmly looked around at the prospective jurors as he entered. The potential jurors — most of them white, from their 20s through their 50s or 60s — showed no reaction to his interruptions. Brinkema told the jury pool: "If any of you feel that outburst or the way he conducted himself might affect the way in which you would go about judging this case, you need to clearly put that statement on the jury questionnaire." Moussaoui's first outburst, a minute into the proceedings, became the pattern for the day as each new group of prospective jurors was brought in to answer an extensive questionnaire on their religious beliefs, cultural biases, group activities and much more. In afternoon appearances, he repeatedly vowed to testify. "For four years I have waited," he said. "I will tell them the truth I know." Twice he declared his allegiance to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. "I will take the stand to tell the whole truth about my involvement," he said. "I am al-Qaida. They (his lawyers) are Americans. I'll have nothing to do with them." U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema ordered marshals to take him from the courtroom; he went calmly each time.

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Home Front: Politix

Faris tries to erase plea, cites NSA

2006-02-04

An Ohio truck driver who pleaded guilty in a terrorist plot to attack Washington and New York yesterday urged a judge to throw out his plea, in part because he was spied on through President Bush's controversial warrantless eavesdropping program. Iyman Faris argued that the surveillance violated his rights because it was illegal and that the government therefore could not use it to build a case against him. Faris pleaded guilty in 2003 to plotting with al Qaeda to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge and launch a simultaneous attack in Washington. A number of terrorism defendants have filed legal challenges to the National Security Agency program in recent weeks, including Ali Al-Timimi, a prominent Muslim spiritual leader convicted of inciting his Northern Virginia followers to train for violent jihad. But Faris is unique because Bush administration officials have acknowledged that he was spied on -- and credited the program with helping to uncover Faris's plot. "We don't have any hard evidence as to what happened with the NSA and Mr. Faris. All we know is what we read in the papers," Faris's attorney, David B. Smith, said in an interview yesterday. "But assuming he was subject to the NSA program, the whole case could be tainted if the original information that led them to Faris was tainted." Kenneth E. Melson, first assistant U.S. attorney in Alexandria, where Faris was prosecuted, would not comment on Faris's motion. Stephen A. Saltzburg, a George Washington University law professor, said the acknowledgment that Faris was spied on might make a judge more likely to hold a hearing to examine the allegations. But he said Faris will have a difficult time getting his plea overturned because defendants give up many of their rights to challenge the evidence against them when they plead guilty. "The problem is that he's [pleaded guilty] and accepted responsibility," Saltzburg said. "Case closed. Next!" Faris's criticism of the NSA program came as part of a motion in which he argued that his plea should be vacated because his previous attorney gave him ineffective counsel. That attorney, J. Frederick Sinclair, "never asked the government whether Faris had been subjected to any form of electronic surveillance," the motion says. In a filing that accompanied the motion, Faris accuses Sinclair of pressuring him into pleading guilty and failing to investigate his case. He denied that he targeted the Brooklyn Bridge and said he told the FBI that he had because "they were pressuring me and I felt I had to tell them what they wanted to hear. " Sinclair said yesterday that Faris's allegations are "without merit." He said he could not have known to ask prosecutors about the NSA program because "it's a top-secret thing. Of course, if anybody knew about it or even smelled it, I would have asked for any information that may have resulted in an illegal wiretapping." Faris, a Kashmiri-born naturalized U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty to providing material support to al Qaeda. Federal officials said he appeared to be a hardworking truck driver but had a secret "double life" that included carrying cash for al Qaeda, providing Osama bin Laden with information about ultralight aircraft and scouting equipment for sabotaging railroad tracks and bridge cables. Send him back to Kashmir. With an electronic chip. And give the Indians the code. Officials said Faris was an al Qaeda scout who had planned with top al Qaeda operative Khalid Sheik Mohammed to sever the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge and to derail trains in or near Washington. Court papers say Faris scouted the Brooklyn Bridge and, after concluding that the plot would fail because of the bridge's security and structure, sent a coded message to al Qaeda that "the weather is too hot." When he was sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison, Faris tried to withdraw his guilty plea, saying he had been trying to fool the FBI because he wanted to gather material for a book. So was he being pressured or was he writing a book? Golly gee, the story changed again. But U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema rejected the attempt, saying Faris could not admit crimes and then "walk back into this court and say it was all a bunch of lies."

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India-Pakistan

Ali al-Timimi demands to know whether or not he was spied on

2006-01-10

Attorneys for a prominent Muslim spiritual leader convicted on terrorism charges told a federal appeals court yesterday that they believe he was a target of President Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program and that they want a hearing to explore the matter. The filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit by Ali Al-Timimi was among the first legal attacks on the controversial wiretapping initiative since it was disclosed several weeks ago. Lawyers in other terrorism cases said yesterday that they expect to file further challenges in coming weeks. Timimi's brief offered no evidence that his telephone calls or e-mails were intercepted as part of the surveillance operation, under which the National Security Agency began listening to phone calls of suspected al Qaeda contacts in the United States in the fall of 2001. But the brief argued that the well-known Islamic scholar was a likely candidate for surveillance because he frequently made overseas phone calls and prosecutors tried to link him to al Qaeda during his trial last year in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. If Timimi was wiretapped without a warrant, his attorneys argued, that would be illegal and a violation of his constitutional rights. Any material gleaned from the intercepts should have been turned over to the defense, they said. "The failure of the government to disclose the existence of material evidence in a federal trial makes the entire proceeding a pretense of the legal process," Timimi's attorney Jonathan Turley said in an interview. Federal prosecutors in Alexandria declined to say yesterday whether Timimi was the subject of a warrantless wiretap or how they would respond to the defense motion. "The government has provided all the information and material to the defendant in this case that is required by law,'' said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth E. Melson. Timimi's attorneys yesterday asked the 4th Circuit to halt the pending schedule for briefs to be filed in their client's appeal of his conviction. They said that if that request is granted, they will file another motion asking the court to send the case for a hearing before U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in Alexandria. Legal experts said the filing could spell trouble for the government if it turns out that Timimi -- a U.S. citizen who was convicted of inciting his Northern Virginia followers to train for violent jihad against the United States and sentenced to life in prison -- was in fact part of the secret wiretap program. Suzanne Spaulding, a former CIA assistant general counsel, said she doubted that material obtained from warrantless eavesdropping would have been introduced at Timimi's trial. But she said it could have been used to aid the investigation or to obtain warrants from the special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to wiretap Timimi. "Even if it wasn't directly part of the prosecution's case, it seems to me that if it was gathered illegally in violation of law, that taints everything that was built upon it and therefore there would be legal grounds for a court to review it,'' she said. Andrew McBride, a former federal prosecutor who has argued numerous cases before the 4th Circuit, said it would be a "dead-bang violation" of federal rules if the government possessed recordings of Timimi and withheld them from the defense. He said the 4th Circuit probably would send the matter back to Alexandria for a hearing, which could become a broad test of a defendant's constitutional rights pitted against the president's authority to fight terrorism. Bush has argued that the eavesdropping is necessary to protect Americans and is legal under the broad presidential powers in the Constitution and under a congressional resolution passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks authorizing the president to use military force to fight terrorism. But the furor about the wiretapping continued yesterday as a group of 14 constitutional law experts and former government officials -- including William Sessions, a former FBI director and U.S. District Court judge -- sent a letter to Congress arguing that Bush ordered the spying by the National Security Agency without "any plausible legal authority." The group contends that Bush does not have limitless powers as commander in chief and that in a democracy, "the president cannot simply violate criminal laws behind closed doors because he deems them obsolete or impracticable." Members of the surveillance court, which was created by Congress in 1978 to consider surveillance warrants in espionage and terrorism cases, have also expressed serious misgivings about the wiretap program. Nine of the sitting judges yesterday received a classified briefing on the initiative, administration officials said. Yesterday's session came after some judges questioned whether any information gleaned from intercepts by the National Security Agency was later used to gain their permission for wiretaps without the source being disclosed.

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Home Front: WoT

Judge "pleased" to reduce terrorists' sentences

2005-07-30

A federal judge yesterday reduced the sentences of three members of a "Virginia jihad network," ordering the resentencings to comply with a recent Supreme Court ruling that allowed judges more discretion on such issues. U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema was pleased that she had the chance to lessen sentences she had criticized as excessive. The Supreme Court ruling has resulted in hundreds of cases being sent back for resentencings nationwide, and yesterday's case -- in which a group of Muslim men were convicted of training for violent jihad abroad -- is perhaps the most high-profile. Brinkema reduced defendant Seifullah Chapman's sentence from 85 years in prison to 65 years and shaved 20 years off Masoud Khan's sentence. She said she wanted to cut their punishments further but couldn't because the Supreme Court ruling applied only to federal sentencing guidelines. It did not cover the separate, congressionally imposed mandatory minimum sentences for certain firearms charges that drove the two sentences to a level Brinkema again called "really draconian." Even with the reduction, Khan, 35, will still spend the rest of his life in prison. Brinkema also lessened the punishment of the third defendant, Hammad Abdur-Raheem, from 97 months in prison to 52 months.

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Home Front: WoT

Al-Timimi Jailed for Life in ‘Virginia Jihad’ Case

2005-07-15

An prominent Islamic scholar, whom prosecutors called a “purveyor of hate and war,” was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for urging his followers after the Sept. 11 attacks, to join the Taleban and fight against US troops. Ali Al-Timimi, was defiant to the end, telling a federal judge in a 10-minute speech prior to sentencing that he considered himself a “prisoner of conscience” who was being persecuted for his Islamic beliefs. The district court judge in the case, Leonie M. Brinkema, reluctantly ordered the life sentence against Al-Timimi, saying she was bound by federal guidelines. Al-Timimi, 42, of Fairfax, Va., had ties to a now-defunct, Pittsburgh-based magazine that advocated holy war, was convicted last spring of recruiting a group of northern Virginia men to travel to Pakistan and train to take up arms for the Taleban. The men, who played paintball and went to shooting ranges to train for holy war, were dubbed the Virginia Paintball Jihad. Al-Timimi’s attorneys characterized the scholar, who recently received a doctorate for work related to cancer research, as a gentle man of peace who had never been convicted of a crime or owned a weapon. They said he did nothing more than advise the young men to seek out a nation where they could practice Islam in safety. They vowed to appeal the verdict, charging it was based on an anti-Muslim bias fueled by the unpopular sentiments on 10-year-old tapes of Al-Timimi’s lectures on Islam. Although Brinkema called the punishment “very draconian,” she said she had no choice under congressionally mandated minimum sentencing requirements.

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Home Front: WoT

al-Tim Hopes Judge will Spring Him

2005-06-29

The fate of Ali al-Timimi, a Muslim lecturer from Fairfax (VA) who is accused of recruiting terrorists to fight American troops, will be decided July 13 when a judge in U.S. District Court in Alexandria hands down a sentence. Although al-Timimi was convicted by a jury in April, his lawyers filed post-trial motions asking the conviction to be overturned, arguing that government prosecutors engaged in misconduct throughout the trial by using arguments that appealed to religious bias. I don't think pointing out that he's an Islamist nutbag appeals to religious bias. In a recent response to the defense motions, prosecutors said their arguments - which included claims that al-Timimi was a religious extremist who hated the United States - were supported by facts and "directly relevant to the charges against [him]." That's why I don't think it's religious bias... Through the trial, prosecutors portrayed al-Timimi as a violent interpreter of Islam, who expressed anti-American sentiments. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon D. Kromberg rebutted the "false premise" that it was "unfairly prejudicial for the government to argue that al-Timimi hated the United States ... While such arguments may be unfairly prejudicial in a case involving a typical bank robbery, drug trafficking or mail fraud," Kromberg wrote, "al-Timimi was charged with much different offenses." Which, in an earlier, more innocent — but more manly — age, would have been characterized as treason. In those bygone days of yesteryear the sonofabitch's neck would have already been stretched, he'd be dead, buried, and the occasional dog would be peeing on his grave. Al-Timimi, 41, who was born and raised in the Washington area, allegedly urged a group of followers in Northern Virginia to attend terrorist camps abroad and train for battle against American troops. The fact that he was born and raised here would have been grounds for the neck-stretching. You can understand, kinda sorta, the immigrants who want to make this just like the Olde Countrie, but the domestic traitors shouldn't be tolerated. The government alleged just a minute - he's been convicted! that al-Timimi's urging occurred during a meeting in Fairfax on Sept. 16, 2001 - just five days after the terrorist attacks. Some of the men - three of whom eventually ended up at a terrorist camp in Pakistan - cooperated with federal prosecutors and testified against al-Timimi, who was a frequent lecturer at a Falls Church mosque they attended. They told the court they practiced guerilla tactics by playing paintball - a revelation that led courtroom observers to dub al-Timimi the "Paintball Sheikh." After al-Timimi's conviction on 10 counts, U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema left open the possibility that some of the charges could be thrown out and chose to release al-Timimi on bond since he was born in D.C., surely he's not a flight risk! because "there might be a reasonable basis for revocation -or some reversal of the jury's verdict." But prosecutors said a "virtually identical claim" challenging the fairness of the government's arguments had failed to convince the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the conviction of Omar Abdel-Rahman, a Muslim lecturer convicted of plotting terrorist attacks on New York landmarks. Al-Timimi faces a mandatory maximum sentence of life in prison if the jury's verdict is not vacated. Why can't he be deported to Pakistan? Why can't he be strung up?

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Home Front: WoT

Counterterrorism officials say Moussaoui's a liar

2005-04-27

Counterterrorism officials said on Tuesday that they did not believe Zacarias Moussaoui's statements that he had been involved in a plot to fly an airplane into the White House as part of a plan to free an Islamic cleric serving a life sentence for terrorist acts. Mr. Moussaoui, in pleading guilty last Friday to six counts of conspiracy to engage in terrorism, insisted that although he was a member of Al Qaeda and had trained to fly planes into buildings, he was not part of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington. Instead, he said, he was preparing to participate in a different plot on a different day to free Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a blind Muslim scholar serving a life sentence for conspiracy to blow up New York landmarks in 1993. Prosecutors and investigators, accustomed to Mr. Moussaoui’s unpredictable, often angry courtroom ramblings, were surprised by the assertions, said the counterterrorism officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because much of the investigation remains classified. After more than three years of investigation, they had never heard of or found evidence of such a plot, they said, and in the days since Mr. Moussaoui’s plea, they have not uncovered any information to corroborate it. Mr. Moussaoui’s statements about his plans were imprecise. He said he had planned to use a hijacked plane to fly Sheik Rahman to Afghanistan. But he also said, "I came to the United States of America to be part, O.K., of a conspiracy to use airplane as a weapon of mass destruction, a statement of fact to strike the White House, but this conspiracy was a different conspiracy than 9/11." Mr. Moussaoui has a strong motive to disassociate himself from the attacks: he faces a trial before a jury over whether he should be put to death or imprisoned for life. He told Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of Federal District Court that he would fight the death sentence and that linking him to Sept. 11 would lead the jury to hold him responsible for those killed in the attacks. Justice Department officials have insisted that Mr. Moussaoui, the only person to stand trial in the United States for the Sept. 11 attacks, was directly involved in them. They point to a statement signed by Mr. Moussaoui in connection with his guilty plea in which he acknowledged that he misled investigators the month before the attacks, when he told them he had enrolled in flight school for the pleasure of it. The authorities said that at the time of his arrest in August 2001, Mr. Moussaoui could barely have flown a small plane by himself, much less piloted a wide-bodied airliner. Prosecutors also noted, in the statement of facts that accompanied the guilty plea, that he had acknowledged a personal relationship with Osama bin Laden, who is said to have had a fondness for Mr. Moussaoui, a French citizen born in Morocco. Mr. bin Laden, by this account, had selected Mr. Moussaoui to take part in an aircraft attack and urged him to "follow his dream," which investigators said meant a suicide attack on the White House. Whether the White House was a target on Sept. 11 remains unclear. Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who helped plan the attacks, said during interrogation that from the start, Mr. bin Laden had wanted to attack the White House, according to the final report of the independent commission that investigated the attacks. But Mohamed Atta, the leader of the Sept. 11 attacks, regarded the White House as a "difficult" target, according to the report. At a meeting on Aug. 3, 2001, Mr. Atta told Mr. bin al-Shibh that he would keep the White House under consideration, but wanted to keep the Capitol as an alternative, the report said. Initially, authorities believed that Mr. Moussaoui was a backup pilot for United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania. In the months before the attack, the intended pilot of that plane, Ziad al-Jarrah, was uncertain that he wanted to participate, the officials said. After one clash with Mr. Atta, the commission report said, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the attacks, ordered Mr. bin al-Shibh to "send the skirts to Sally," a coded instruction to wire money to Mr. Moussaoui so he could begin training. Mr. Mohammed denied in his interrogations that he had ever thought of Mr. Moussaoui as part of the Sept. 11 plot, the commission report said. Mr. Mohammed said that he believed Mr. Moussaoui was to be part of a "second wave" of attacks that never materialized. Some investigators suspect that even though Mr. Moussaoui was a favorite of Mr. bin Laden, other Qaeda operatives regarded him as unstable and undisciplined. Beyond that, there was no evidence that Mr. Moussaoui had met the other Sept. 11 hijackers, which investigators said indicated he was not meant to take part in the attacks.

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Home Front: WoT

Terrorism Case Puts Words of Muslim Leader On Trial in Va.

2005-04-05

Islamic spiritual leader Ali Al-Timimi's pen is mightier than his sword, prosecutors contend. It's not so much his actions but his words that make him so dangerous, they say. Less than a week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Timimi told a group of Northern Virginia Muslims that it should train for violent jihad abroad and wage war on the United States, prosecutors say. In 2003, he celebrated the crash of the space shuttle Columbia in a message that prosecutors say reflected his view that the United States itself should be destroyed._ The government says the statements of Timimi -- who goes on trial today in U.S. District Court in Alexandria -- constitute nothing short of treason. But some Muslims, who are rallying to Timimi's side through a Web site and other expressions of support, see a respected religious leader being prosecuted for his words. "He is not accused of anything except talking. It's all about him saying something," said Shaker Elsayed, a member of the executive committee of Dar Al Hijrah mosque in Falls Church. "If this isn't a First Amendment issue, I don't know what is." Although legal experts are as divided on the case as the two sides are, some said that the case reflects the power of words in the post-Sept. 11 climate -- and that it poses an important test of the free-speech rights Americans have come to expect since the First Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1791. "This is a troubling case with very significant First Amendment concerns," said Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor with experience in national security cases. If Timimi "encouraged people to go kill Americans, it comes very close to the criminal line, if not passing over it," Turley said. But historically, he said, "Courts have been uneasy with a criminal allegation based solely on words alone." Victoria Toensing, a Washington lawyer who created the Justice Department's terrorism unit during the Reagan administration, said Timimi's words could send him to prison. "If he said, 'I want you to go join the movement in Afghanistan and here is where you get the training,' that's no different from saying, 'Go join a murder club,' " Toensing said. Whether Timimi will go to prison probably will depend on whether he expected his listeners to act on what he told them, legal experts said. Although free-speech rights have been interpreted differently in different eras, the current standard derives from the 1969 U.S. Supreme Court opinion Brandenburg v. Ohio, they said. That opinion says the government cannot forbid "advocacy of the use of force" unless that advocacy is intended or likely to produce "imminent lawless action.'' "The key," said Rebecca Glenberg, legal director for the ACLU of Virginia, "is whether Timimi's speech was likely to cause others to act and whether he intended it to cause them to act.'' Timimi is charged with 10 counts, which include attempting to contribute services to the Taliban and soliciting or inducing others to commit a variety of crimes, such as conspiring to levy war on the United States, using firearms and carrying explosives. One charge involving war is drawn from a section of federal law headed "treason.'' If convicted on all counts, Timimi, 41, of Fairfax County, would face up to life in prison. Jury selection began last Monday, and opening statements are scheduled for today. The trial, before U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, is expected to last as long as three weeks.

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Fifth Column

VA LeT cell leader pleads guilty

2004-01-17

A key member of an alleged Virginia jihad network pleaded guilty to federal weapons and explosives charges yesterday, denying that he intended to harm Americans but acknowledging that he and his co-defendants had sought to fight on behalf of Muslim causes abroad. Randall T. Royer, 30, of Falls Church will face at least 20 years in prison when he is sentenced April 9. A co-defendant, Ibrahim Ahmed al-Hamdi, 26, of Alexandria, also pleaded guilty to similar charges and faces at least 15 years in prison. Royer was at the heart of the government’s case against 11 men who trained for jihad by playing paintball in the Virginia countryside, prosecutors say. They have alleged that some of the attacks were to target the United States or its interests. A St. Louis native who became an activist for Muslim causes, Royer has acknowledged playing a key role in organizing the men, all but one of whom are from the Washington suburbs. But until his surprise appearance in U.S. District Court in Alexandria yesterday, Royer had maintained his innocence and had attributed the charges to government bias against Muslims. He also scoffed at the main charge against him, according to phone transcripts presented in court, as "some kind of garbage." The guilty pleas were another milestone in the high-profile case that the Justice Department had publicized as an important step in the war on terrorism. A federal grand jury originally charged the 11 men in June with weapons counts and with training with Lashkar-i-Taiba, a group that is trying to drive India from Kashmir and has been labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. Four of the men had pleaded guilty before yesterday. "This is an important step forward in our continuing efforts to protect America," U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said in a statement released by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft. It is unclear what affect the pleas, which require Royer and al-Hamdi to cooperate with prosecutors, will have on the five remaining defendants. Four are scheduled to go on trial in February; a fifth faces trial in March. The other four men who pleaded guilty are also cooperating with authorities. Attorneys for the other defendants denied that Royer’s plea will hurt their cases. "Much of what Mr. Royer said would be beneficial to Mr. Khan," said Bernie Grimm, attorney for Masoud Ahmad Khan, who, like Royer, was charged in an upgraded indictment in September with conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda and to the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan. Grimm said it was significant that the government had dropped those counts against Royer. "If the government honestly believed there was a connection there, the government wouldn’t let Mr. Royer off so easy," he said. John A. Keats, an attorney for defendant Sabri Benkahla, said: "It’s not going to impact on us." Royer’s plea came as a surprise even to his family. Sources said the agreement followed months of negotiations with prosecutors but was finalized at the last minute and was not even listed on the court’s docket. "That’s news to me," his father, Ramon Royer, said in a telephone interview. "It’s a technical thing," Ramon Royer added. "He had so many indictments against him, I suspect he did this in order to not get 120 years or whatever it was. That’s really what’s it all about, I’m sure." In an interview from his jail cell yesterday, Royer said: "I feel this is the right thing to do for myself, and all of us, and for the community." He said he had "unknowingly violated the law" because Lashkar was not on the list of banned terrorist organizations when he was associated with the organization. Royer would not elaborate on his reasons for pleading guilty. But sources close to his defense team said that, because he had acknowledged helping Lashkar-i-Taiba, Royer faced likely conviction on those charges. With the accompanying weapons counts, he could have been sentenced to life in prison. "This is a good result," Royer’s attorney, John Nassikas, said. "When you put it all together, he was looking at several hundred years in jail. Now, there is an opportunity for him in the not-too-distant future to rejoin his family." Royer said he took "full responsibility" for his actions as he entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema. He pleaded guilty to one count of using and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence and to carrying an explosive during the commission of a felony. Al-Hamdi pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence and to carrying an explosive during the commission of a felony. Nassikas told the judge that Royer admits that an object of the conspiracy was to fight against India in violation of U.S. law. But he denied the contention of prosecutors, and at least one other defendant, that the men might have taken up arms against the United States or American soldiers. Binny’s declaration of war, of which the LeT is a party to, says otherwise.

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