Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !

Home Front: WoT

Pakistani man cleared in Taliban terror case to sue US govt

2014-10-03

[DAWN] Irfan Khan, a naturalised US citizen from Pakistain with a wife and two children, worked hard to realise the American dream after arriving in this country in 1994. He held jobs in South Florida as a taxi driver, service technician and operated a limousine company. He was an avid cricket player. Then he stepped up to a Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, computer industry job in 2011 that promised a good living. A short time later, Khan was indicted along with his father and brother, both Moslem imams at Florida mosques, with conspiring to provide up to $50,000 to the Pak Taliban. Khan spent 319 days in solitary confinement before federal prosecutors abruptly dropped all charges in June 2012. "It was very, very hard," Khan said of his days spent praying and reading in that lonely cell. Later, a federal judge ordered the acquittal of Khan's brother for lack of evidence, although their elderly father, Hafiz Khan, was convicted at trial and sentenced to 25 years behind bars. He's serving that time at a federal prison in North Carolina. Now, Irfan Khan is suing the US government for malicious prosecution, accusing authorities of essentially manufacturing a non-existent case against him.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Pakistani immigrant sues US over false arrest

2013-12-07

[Pak Daily Times] A Pak immigrant who says he was held for more than 10 months in solitary confinement after being falsely placed in durance vile Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! on terrorism charges has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Miami, saying he was a victim of "overzealousness" in the US war on terrorism. Irfan Khan, a 40-year-old Mohammedan, emigrated to the United States from Pakistain in 1994 and is a naturalised US citizen. He is the son of a 78-year-old south Florida imam who was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a judge in August for funneling more than $50,000 to the Pak Taliban. Hafiz Khan was convicted in March on four counts of providing money and support to the group, which the United States considers a terrorist organization. He had faced a maximum of 60 years in prison, and prosecutors sought a 15-year sentence.

Link

Home Front: WoT

US imam gets 25 years prison for Pakistani Taliban support

2013-08-24

[Dawn] An elderly Moslem holy man in South Florida has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for funneling tens of thousands of dollars to the Pak Taliban. US District Judge Robert Scola imposed the sentence Friday on 78-year-old Hafiz Khan, who was convicted in March of four terror support-related charges. Federal prosecutors recommended a 15-year sentence and Khan faced a maximum of 60 years. Trial evidence showed Khan arranged to send about $50,000 over a three-year period to Pakistain. Prosecutors argued the money helped finance violent attacks against both US and Pak targets. Khan told the judge Friday the money was for family, friends and a religious school he founded. Before his 2011 arrest, the imam at a Miami mosque, Khan also founded a religious school, or a madrassah, in Pakistain's Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... Valley. The madrassah was closed for a time by Pakistain's government as a suspected hideout for Taliban fighters, though it later reopened. Two of Khan's sons, Izhar and Irfan, were initially charged along with their father but the charges against them were dismissed. Three others in the indictment, including Khan's daughter, remain free in Pakistain, which will not allow them to be extradited to the US.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Florida imam convicted in Pakistani Taliban case

2013-03-04

An elderly Muslim cleric was convicted Monday of funneling thousands of dollars to support the Pakistani Taliban terror organization, which is blamed for suicide bombings and other attacks that have killed both Americans and Pakistanis. The jury returned its verdict on its fifth day of deliberations after the two-month trial of Hafiz Khan, the 77-year-old imam at a downtown Miami mosque. Khan was found guilty of two conspiracy counts and two counts of providing material support to terrorists. Each charge carries a potential 15-year prison sentence. Prosecutors built their case largely around hundreds of FBI recordings of conversations in which Khan expressed support for Taliban attacks and discussed sending about $50,000 to Pakistan. There were also recordings in which Khan appeared to back the overthrow of Pakistan's government in favor of strict Islamic law, praised the killing of American military personnel and lauded the failed 2010 attempt to detonate a bomb in New York's Times Square. "He said these things. He admitted these things. He did all of these things," Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley said during closing arguments. Khan, who testified over four combative days in his own defense, insisted the money he sent overseas was for family, charity and business reasons - above all, his religious school, known as a madrassa, in Pakistan's Swat Valley. Khan also said he repeatedly lied about harboring extremist views to obtain $1 million from a man who turned out to be an FBI informant wearing a wire to record their talk. "That is not supporting terrorism," said Khan attorney Khurrum Wahid in a closing argument. "That is an old guy running a scam, who got scammed." It is illegal to run a financial scam. It is, in fact, the kind of thing for which people go to jail. Prosecutors, however, said the purported $1 million offer is never heard on any tapes and no other witnesses testified about its existence. The informant, identified in court papers as Mahmood Siddiqui, did not testify. "That is an absurd story," Shipley said. "This whole defense is a lie."

Link

Home Front: WoT

Fla. imam claims extremist talk was all lies

2013-02-21

In combative testimony, a Muslim cleric on trial on charges he provided financial support to the Pakistani Taliban insisted Wednesday that he repeatedly lied about harboring extremist views to obtain $1 million from a man who turned out to be an FBI informant. Hafiz Khan, the 77-year-old imam at a Miami mosque, said he was deceptive only because the man he knew as Mahmood Siddiqui promised him money he could use to help the poor and victims of war and natural disasters in Pakistan's Swat Valley. What Khan didn't know at the time was that their discussions were being recorded by the FBI. Still, Khan insisted his motives were pure in praising Taliban violence on the recordings. "In front of God, I did the right thing. In front of my tribe, I did the right thing," Khan testified in Pashto through an interpreter. "It was all lies, and it was all because of the money." Khan spent a second day on the witness stand in his own defense on charges of funneling at least $50,000 to the Pakistani Taliban beginning in 2008. He previously testified that money he sent overseas was for the poor, for his extended family and for a religious school, or madrassa, he owns in the Swat Valley. He insisted he has never supported the Taliban. The imam repeatedly clashed during cross-examination with Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley, who pressed Khan on whether the FBI recordings represented his true beliefs on terrorism. Among other things, the recordings have Khan praising the attempted bombing in 2010 in New York's Times Square and hoping that Americans would die trying to capture former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. In taped conversations with the informant Siddiqui, Khan answered, "There are many times I am agreeing with him, but that does not mean that I mean it. I didn't want to harm anyone." Shipley, however, pointed out that Khan made similar comments in telephone conversations with friends and family members that were also intercepted by the FBI. Among them, the prosecutor said, was that it was justifiable to kill Pakistani police and government officials because they had supposedly committed killings and atrocities themselves. "What you are suggesting is exactly what the Taliban and al-Qaida have suggested for years. And we heard it in this courtroom," Shipley said.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Judge dismisses terrorism charges against Muslim cleric, cites lack of evidence

2013-01-17

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed terrorism support and conspiracy charges against the younger of two Muslim clerics accused of funneling thousands of dollars to the Pakistani Taliban, citing a lack of evidence. The judge ruled that "no rational trier of fact" could convict 26-year-old Izhar Khan, who is imam at a mosque in suburban Margate north of Fort Lauderdale. Trial is continuing against his father, 77-year-old Hafiz Khan. U.S. District Judge Robert Scola said the evidence against the older Khan is much stronger. "This court will not allow the sins of the father to be visited upon the son," Scola wrote in a seven-page order. Federal prosecutors earlier dropped charges against another of Hafiz Khan's sons who also had minimal involvement. Izhar Khan's attorney, Joseph Rosenbaum, said a judge's dismissal of charges is rare, particularly in a case linked to international terrorism.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Pakistani violence detailed in Fla. terror case

2013-01-15

A former Pakistani politician and landowner described beheadings, bombings and attacks on police stations by Taliban militants Monday at the trial of two Muslim clerics accused of financially supporting the terrorist group. Saifullah Khan, 43, said his name was on a Taliban hit list of officials targeted during the Islamic fundamentalist group's attempt to take control of Pakistan's Swat Valley in 2007. The father of six, who now lives in Philadelphia, was formerly an elected official who helped oversee such things as road and water projects for about 15 villages in the Swat Valley. Testifying through an interpreter in Pashto, Khan said on one occasion he saw his cousin's beheaded body, "and the blood was still there, fresh." Another time he helped carry a mortally wounded police officer out of a station attacked by Taliban fighters with assault weapons and grenades. He knew people whose homes and businesses were bombed, killing dozens more. His own home was struck by a rocket and shot at, he said. "The Taliban was harming people. They were shooting at the army. The army would shoot at them. The people in the middle would get hurt," he testified. "I don't have the number, but many times they (Taliban fighters) attacked my house." The testimony about Taliban violence came in the second week of the trial of Hafiz Khan and one of his sons, Izhar. They are not related to Saifullah Khan but, like Saifullah, have family origins in the Swat Valley, where the surname is common. Hafiz and Izhar Khan are facing conspiracy and terrorism support charges that each carry potential 15-year prison sentences.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Feds drop terrorism charges against South Florida imam's son, accused of helping Taliban

2012-06-22

Federal prosecutors dropped all terrorism charges against one member of a South Florida family accused of sending tens of thousands of dollars to the Pak Taliban terrorist group, according to court documents filed Wednesday in Miami. No reason was given in prosecutors' one-paragraph filing dismissing the charges against Irfan Khan, 39, of Miami. Terrorism charges are still pending against his father Hafiz Khan, 77, and his younger brother, Izhar Khan, 25. Both have pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to the allegations. Their lawyers could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Izhar Khan was a soft-spoken, popular leader of the moderate Masjid Jamaat Al-Mumineen mosque in Margate before his arrest last year. His congregation said he only preached love and tolerance there. Hafiz Khan led the Miami Mosque, known as the Flagler Mosque. Irfan Khan was released from the Federal Detention Center in Miami in April after a federal judge agreed he could be freed on a combined bond package totaling about $700,000. His father and brother remain locked up in the detention center in downtown Miami and are forbidden from having contact other than when they see each other at court hearings. Trial for the remaining co-defendants is currently scheduled to begin Nov. 5, though it could be postponed because of the complexity of the case and the voluminous amounts of evidence in dispute. If convicted, they face punishment of up to 15 years in prison per count. Defense attorneys have said in court that they are working their way through enormous amounts of evidence, including recordings of calls that have to be translated by professional interpreters, in order to prepare their clients' defense. Much of the evidence in the case was obtained from wiretapping and was collected under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is frequently used in terrorism cases.

Link

Home Front: WoT

US judge denies bail for Florida imams

2011-05-24

MIAMI: A US judge on Monday denied bail for a 76-year-old Florida imam and his son accused of sending $50,000 to support the Pakistani Taliban. Good! One sensible judge! Clone that man! Pakistan-born Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, the head of one of Miami's leading mosques, and his son, Izhar Khan, who is also an imam at another south Florida mosque, were arrested on May 14. The two men were among six people, including three other family members of Hafiz Khan, indicted on charges that they conspired to provide money and support for the Taliban, which the United States considers a terrorist organisation. The Khans, both US citizens, appeared in a federal court on Monday for a hearing attended by several dozen supporters from their mosques. Boy howdy, makes you wonder if they really meant the pledge of allegiance at their citizenship ceremony... Did they give up their Pakistani citizenship when they took American? So many people don't, nowadays. I have a friend whose son has Mexican citizenship through his father, Canadian citizenship by birth, and with both parents got American citizenship last year.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Florida imams arrested over Taliban charges

2011-05-15

[Al Jazeera] US authorities have charged six people in Pakistain and the southeastern US state of Florida with helping to finance and support the Pak Taliban. US nationals Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, 76, and his 24-year-old son, Izhar Khan, were nabbed in South Florida on Saturday. Another son, Irfan Khan, 37, was jugged in Los Angeles. The three were charged with "supporting acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming in Pakistain and elsewhere", according to an indictment announced jointly by the FBI and the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Wilfredo Ferrer. Hafiz Khan is a holy man at the Miami Mosque, also known as the Flagler Mosque - while his son, Izhar Khan, is a holy man at the Jamaat Al-Mu'mineen Mosque in Margate, Florida, the indictment said. The other three charged in the suit, Hafiz Khan's daughter Amina Khan, grandson Alam Zeb and Ali Rehman, are believed to live in Pakistain and remain on the lam. Indictment allegations The indictment alleges the Pakistain-born US residents raised and sent money to the Pak Taliban and wanted to target Pak government locations, including the parliament. Prosecutors said Hafiz Khan also supported the Pak Taliban through a madrassa, or traditional religious school, in Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... in Pakistain, that he used to provide shelter for armed fighters. He had "sent children from his madrassa to learn to kill Americans in Afghanistan", according to the indictment released by Ferrer's office in Miami. "Despite being a holy man, or spiritual leader, Hafiz Khan was by no means a man of peace," Ferrer said in a statement. "Let me be clear that this is not an indictment against a particular community or religion. Instead, today's indictment charges six individuals for promoting terror and violence through their financial and other support of the Pak Taliban," Ferrer added. If convicted, each of those charged faces up to 15 years in prison for each count of the four-count indictment.

Link

Home Front: WoT

US charges six with aiding Pakistani Taliban

2011-05-14

US officials arrested three Pakistani Americans including two imams Saturday, charging them and three others with providing or seeking to provide "material support" to the Pakistani Taliban, the Justice Department said. The defendants, five men and one woman, "are charged with conspiring to provide, and providing, material support to a conspiracy to murder, maim and kidnap persons overseas, as well as conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, specifically, the Pakistani Taliban," the department said in a statement. Three of the defendants, including a 76-year-old imam of a Miami mosque, "are also charged with providing material support to the Pakistani Taliban," namely the transfer of funds to finance the group, which Washington lists as a terror organization. At least five of the defendants are members of the same family. The two men arrested in Florida, identified as US nationals Hafiz Khan, the imam and family patriarch, and his son Izhar Khan, 24, also an imam at a separate Florida mosque, are due to appear in federal court in Miami on Monday. A second son, Irfan Khan, was arrested in Los Angeles. Three others, including Khan's daughter and her son, are at large in Pakistan. Each face up to 15 years in prison per count.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-11 More