| Karim Koubriti | Karim Koubriti | Al-Qaeda | Home Front | 20021115 | ||||
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| Karim Koubriti | al-Qaeda USA | Home Front | 20030603 |
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| FBI: Terror Thwarted Despite Axed Charges |
| 2004-09-10 |
| EFL of an AP article run by Newsmax. "You should be proud of the excellent investigative work conducted by the JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force) in Detroit, and everyone should recognize that their efforts may have prevented another attack," Special Agent in Charge Daniel Roberts wrote last week in an e-mail to his entire office. The e-mail was obtained by The Associated Press. Roberts sent his memo the same day the Justice Department asked a federal judge to dismiss convictions on terrorism counts against Karim Koubriti and other men accused of operating a terror cell in Detroit. The government sought a retrial on lesser fraud charges. ... Justice's court filing questioned the accuracy of trial testimony by FBI agents. Roberts on the other hand said the agents "acted aggressively and worked very hard on this case in an effort to prevent a terrorist attack." FBI officials said Roberts was referring to evidence from Turkish authorities that al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden called off an attack on a Turkish air base used by U.S. forces because security was heightened. Security was raised after sketches of the air base were found in the Detroit men's apartment in September 2001. Roberts described Justice's turnabout as "strictly a legal decision" necessitated by prosecutors' failure to turn over certain documents to defense lawyers during trial. A lawyer for one defendant expressed surprise Tuesday at the FBI e-mail. "It shocks me that anyone who has seen the government's memo on this case would still think these men are terrorists," said James Gerometta, a public defender who represented Koubriti. The lawyer for former lead prosecutor Rick Convertino, who was harshly criticized in the Justice report, said Tuesday the FBI e-mail supports his client's position. "Consistent with the FBI e-mail, Rick has always believed in the propriety of this case, and nothing in the government's memorandum has changed his viewpoint," attorney William Sullivan said. |
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| Justice Dept Overturning Convictions of Three Moslems in Detroit |
| 2004-09-01 |
| From The Washington Post The Justice Department will ask a federal judge in Detroit to dismiss the convictions of three men in a high-profile terrorism case last year, saying it has uncovered serious prosecutorial misconduct in the case. Department lawyers have told U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen and defense attorneys that the convictions should be thrown out because prosecutors failed to share potentially exculpatory evidence with the defense during last year's trial, legal sources said last night. The convictions of two Moroccan immigrants for conspiracy to provide material support for terrorism and of a third man on document fraud charges represented one of the government's most significant victories in the war on terrorism in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. .... A filing from the Justice Department is expected as early as today seeking to have the convictions overturned and detailing the alleged misconduct. The department is expected to say that it will not seek reinstatement of the terrorism-related charges against defendants Karim Koubriti and Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi but will seek to retry them and a third man, Ahmed Hannan, on document fraud charges. ...In the first terrorism-related trial since the Sept. 11 attacks, Elmardoudi, 37, of Minneapolis, and Koubriti, 26, of Detroit, were convicted in June 2003 of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and document fraud. Hannan, 35, of Detroit was convicted of document fraud, and Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 22, of Detroit was cleared of all charges. Justice Department officials, including Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, asserted the men were in a sleeper cell associated with al Qaeda and had plans to secure weapons and attack targets in the United States and abroad. Authorities stumbled on some of the men when they raided a Detroit apartment shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks in a search for Nabil al-Marabh, who was on a terrorist watch list. They later termed the apprehension one of the most significant in the United States in the war against terrorism. |
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| The odd case of Omar Shishani | ||
| 2004-04-04 | ||
Take Omar Shishani. Arrested in Detroit in July 2002 for smuggling $12 million in counterfeit cashiers' checks from Indonesia, Shishani was held without bond--deemed a danger to the community and a flight risk--because of his alleged ties to terrorists. Detroit federal prosecutor Eric Straus said Shishani, a U.S. citizen and Jordanian of Chechen ancestry, even had a business associate whose daughter was named "Al-Qaeda."
Convertino says Gershel refused to divulge Shishani's name and any details of what he might say because of a "promise" he had made to the defense team. "I said, `Are you kidding me?' " Convertino said. "We need to know who it is we're going to cross-examine and what he is going to say, now." Once they learned Shishani's name--from an FBI agent--says Convertino, it was Corbett, not Straus, who first insisted that Shishani submit to a polygraph to verify his upcoming testimony, as defendants are required to do, if asked, under plea agreements. Shishani refused. Straus ripped up the plea deal, despite past assurances that the two criminal matters were unrelated. On May 7, Shishani testified that Hmimssa had told him he wanted revenge because Koubriti and his friends had given him up to the FBI. Shishani added that the government had forced him to testify, against his better judgment. The story took another twist in October, when Straus, citing the Russian intelligence, tried to revoke Shishani's bond. Straus said the intelligence had surfaced in May, which would have been just after Shishani had been set free and around the time he testified against Hmimssa. "But we had no clue of this until I read it in October in the newspaper," says Convertino, who, along with Corbett, has been taken off the case. "That is information that should have been shared with us." The judge denied Straus's request to have Shishani detained again as a suspected terrorist. But she did give Shishani a stiff sentence on the conspiracy charges after Straus and Collins argued against any leniency. Hmimssa is now in prison awaiting sentencing. Shishani is in a medium-security federal prison in Illinois. O'Meara says Straus has told him the only way out for Shishani is if he admits he is a terrorist and cooperates fully. O'Meara says his personal appeals have fallen on deaf ears. All Straus will say is, "It's old news." | ||
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| 2 guilty in Detroit terrorism trial | |
| 2003-06-03 | |
| In a test of the U.S. government's domestic war on terrorism, a jury on Tuesday found two Arab immigrants guilty of conspiring to support Islamic extremists plotting attacks in the United States and the Middle East. One co-defendant was acquitted of all charges, and the jury returned mixed verdicts on a fourth. Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi, 37, and Karim Koubriti, 24, were found guilty of two counts â conspiracy to provide material support or resources to terrorists and conspiracy to engage in fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents. Koubriti was acquitted of two other fraud counts. Ahmed Hannan, 34, was acquitted of conspiracy to support terrorism, but was found guilty of conspiracy to engage in fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents. He was acquitted of two other fraud counts. Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 22, was acquitted of all charges. Elmardoudi and Koubriti face up to 15 years in prison when they are sentenced. The jury reached its verdict on its seventh day of deliberations. The case, which began with a raid on a Detroit apartment just six days after the Sept. 11 attacks, was seen as a test of the government's ability to prosecute alleged terrorist "sleeper" cells. Prosecutors said the four men â Elmardoudi, Hannan, Ali-Haimoud and Koubriti â were working as part of a shadowy unidentified terrorist group. They said a videotape and sketches found in the raid showed potential targets were cased including Las Vegas and Disneyland, and military installations in Turkey and Jordan. Defense attorneys said their clients were victims of overzealous federal agents who relied on the lies of an admitted con man to build a flimsy case that didn't add up to terrorism. The men were all legal immigrants. Ali-Haimoud is Algerian and the others are from Morocco. Prosecutors alleged their plot was hatched before they arrived in the United States in the late 1990s and 2000.
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| Terror Suspect Arrested in North Carolina |
| 2002-11-15 |
| Peter tried to post this, and found a bug in the GuestPoster. I fixed it, but let me know about any more you find. It's a cut-down version of the son of the poster I use. Guess I didn't cut it down enough... An alleged leader of a terrorist sleeper cell in Michigan who is believed to be an expert in airport security is in federal custody. The man, identified in court papers in North Carolina as Abel-Ilah Elmardoudi, 36, of Minneapolis, was accused in an August indictment of acting with ``a covert underground support unit'' and an ``operational combat cell'' for a radical Islamic movement allied with al-Qaida. At the time of the indictment, the man was known only as Abdella. Federal officials allege Elmardoudi provided direction to three other men charged in the indictment. Elmardoudi, Karim Koubriti, 24, Ahmed Hannan, 34, and Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 22, were charged with conspiracy to provide material support or resources to terrorists. Koubriti, Hannan and Ali-Haimoud have pleaded innocent. A trial is scheduled for Jan. 21. Sounds like they found a cell of active Bad Guys. In the Second World War they used to shoot or hang spies and saboteurs. The indictment says the men sought to obtain weaponry to benefit operatives overseas and recruit people for violent activity. The indictment says the other suspects knew Elmardoudi as an expert in airport security operations, telephone calling card fraud and falsifying identification. All the things Islamists do to fill their spare time. Other people go bowling, or to the movies... At a Minneapolis convenience store near one of Elmardoudi's former addresses, store owner Ismaeel Alkhlafea said Elmardoudi came in often to buy cigarettes and other small items. But Alkhlafea said it's been at least a year since he's seen Elmardoudi. He said Elmardoudi was in trouble because of a phone scam and had called the store collect from jail twice to leave a message for his wife. ``I knew he was in trouble with the law, but I didn't think it was that serious,'' Alkhlafea said. Guess it wasn't, at the time. Mr Big Time Terrorist is a small-time crook at heart... Court documents in Minneapolis show that a man with a similar name, Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi, was arrested more than a year ago and charged with stealing telephone calling-card numbers by peering over people's shoulders at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. Obviously a criminal mastermind. Professor Moriarty must be green with envy... Over 14 months, more than 790 calling-card access numbers were obtained at the airport and used in calls from places such as Egypt, East Africa, the Philippines, the Middle East and the Balkans, according to a court affidavit. All the fun places... Minneapolis U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger said that man, who is listed as a citizen of Morocco, disappeared in 2001. Heffelfinger said he believed that man was in federal custody in North Carolina, but would not confirm whether it was the same man facing charges in Detroit. I wonder if he "disappeared" when he jumped bail, or when the Feds took an interest in him? |
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| Suspected U.S. Al-Qaeda Supporters Charged |
| 2002-08-29 |
| U.S. authorities Wednesday, August 28, charged five Arab men in Detroit and a Muslim activist in the western city of Seattle, Washington, with conspiring to support Al-Qaeda. A grand jury in Detroit accused Karim Koubriti, Ahmed Hannan, Youssef Hmimssa, Farouk Ali-Haimoud and a fifth man known only as Abdella of conspiring to support Al-Qaeda and documents fraud in a four-count indictment. The men are suspected of being members of a covert âsleeperâ cell of âIslamist militantsâ who planned and scouted targets for possible terror attacks. All but Abdella are in custody. Good idea. Keep them there. The indictment claims Koubriti, 24, Hannan, 34, Ali-Haimoud,, 22, and Abdella, whose age is unknown, operated as a âcovert underground support unit for terrorist attacks within and outside the United States, as well as a sleeper operational combat cell.âThe groupâs goal was allegedly to inflict economic damage on the United States by recruiting, indoctrinating and training other âbrothersâ in their cause, setting up safe houses and mail drops; collecting intelligence information about potential targets for terror attacks and obtaining weapons and false documents to aid terror attacks in Jordan, Turkey and the United States. In other words, they were acting as spies and foreign agents. In times gone by, they'd stand them up in front of a wall and shoot them. Too bad we're too "civilized" for that now... The indictment gives no details of why Hmimssa, 37, is named along with the others. Ali-Hamoudâs lawyer, Kevin Ernst, told the Detroit Free Press newspaper said he thinks Hmimssa is cooperating with government prosecutors. âAs far as I can tell, itâs based on this uncorroborated debriefing of this snitch, Hmimssa,â Ernst said. âWhatâs kind of scary about this is that basically every Arab person in the country is one snitch away from being on the business end of a terrorism indictment.â Since he's a "snitch," anything he says shouldn't be believed? What makes him a snitch? The fact that he's cooperating with the Feds? |
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| The Investigation |
| Feds rounding 'em up... |
| 2001-09-20 |
A Middle Eastern man on the FBI list of people wanted for questioning in the terrorism investigation was captured outside Chicago, the FBI said Thursday. Nabil Al-Marabh, 34, was arrested Wednesday night in suburban Justice by police and FBI agents, FBI spokeswoman Mary Muha said. She said he was being held on a warrant issued in Boston in March for assault with a knife. Federal agents had been looking for him since at least Monday. That day, they raided a Detroit house with Al-Marabh's name on the mailbox and arrested three men after discovering false visas, passports and other ID, as well as what appeared to be a diagram of an airport flight line. In December, Al-Marabh was convicted of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon a knife in Boston. He was to have started serving a sentence in March but failed to show up. During the raid in Detroit on Monday, federal agents found a cache of documents and arrested Karim Koubriti, 23, Ahmed Hannan, 33, and Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 21, on charges of having false immigration papers. The men were identified as resident aliens from Morocco and Algeria. Agents also found a planner with handwriting in Arabic, according to court papers. The planner included information about an American base in Turkey, the "American foreign minister," and Alia Airport in Jordan, the FBI said. |
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| The Investigation |
| Arrests continue... |
| 2001-09-21 |
Three men and one woman were arrested Friday by anti-terrorist branch officers in connection with last week's attacks on the World Trade Center, the Scotland Yard said. Meanwhile, a federal judge denied bond Friday for three men arrested this week in connection with the investigation into the September 11 terrorist attacks. Also, French counter-intelligence officers arrested eight people suspected of belonging to extremist Islamic groups thought to be planning attacks on U.S. interests, the French Ministry said. The men denied bond Friday were arrested on Monday in Detroit and identified in court documents as Karim Koubriti, 23; Ahmed Hannan, 33; and Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 21. All were described as resident aliens and Arabs. They were arrested after FBI agents went to a Detroit apartment Monday in search of another man, Nabil Al-Marabh, identified as a potential suspect or associate of the 19 hijackers from last week's attacks. Al-Marabh was later arrested outside Chicago, FBI officials said Thursday. Authorities had discovered false visas, passports and other ID, as well as what appeared to be a diagram of an airport flight line. In England, police also apprehended two men and a woman in west London during a 3 a.m. raid, and then arrested a fourth man in the West Midlands around 7 p.m., the Scotland Yard said. All four are now being questioned in a central London police station, police said. No nationalities were given of those arrested. |
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| Islamolosers wanted to wage economic jihad |
| 2002-04-05 |
Sounds pretty awful. Care to elaborate? U.S. State Department agent Edward Seitz gave no details of the allegation against Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 21, Karim Koubriti, 23, and Ahmed Hannan, 33. Koubriti, Hannan and another man, Youssef Hmimssa, 30, were indicted Sept. 27 on charges of fraud and misuse of visas. Ali-Haimoud was indicted earlier this week on charges of fraud, misuse of visas, and conspiracy to engage in fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents. Wow. They sound like pretty desperate criminals. Ali-Haimoud was arrested Tuesday at an Edy's ice cream shop at Detroit Metropolitan Airport where he worked, said his lawyer, Kevin Ernst. Ummm... You got jihadis workin' at an Edy's icecream shop? I'll take my business to Baskin-Robbins, thank you. "I think it's far-fetched that a kid who worked at Edy's could wage an economic jihad on American businesses," Ernst said. You're prob'ly right. On the other hand, he could try to, couldn't he? A federal magistrate ordered Ali-Haimoud detained Friday. Guess the judge thought so, too. Federal prosecutor Richard Convertino said Friday that, based on information gleaned from witnesses and informants that the government has interviewed, Ali-Haimoud could be linked to terrorist activity. The roommates had "association with a known group outside the country that has been identified as a terrorist group by the U.S.," he said. Y'mean, like Hamas or Islamic Jihad? Convertino alleged Ali-Haimoud, Koubriti and Hannan were: Y'know, this ain't soundin' all that Big Time... Koubriti, Hannan and Ali-Haimoud were arrested after a Sept. 17 raid at a Detroit apartment. That raid yielded more than 100 audiotapes in Arabic and a day planner with notations in Arabic that investigators believe were plans for attacks on the Alia airport in Jordan and a plot to kill former Defense Secretary William Cohen during a visit to Turkey. Did it also contain their fantasies of naked parties with Britney Spears and her new breasts? And they were gonna knock over some banks and use the money to establish world domination? "Allah, take away the Jews and the Christians, and whoever helped them and stood with them," said one tape, according to a government translation read in court Friday. And God save us all from boomer wannabes who aren't ever gonna amount to anything unless they manage to blow up. |
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