« Home | Paul R. Hall convicted of conspiracy to commit murder » | Participated in bloggers conference with John O'Su... » | Islamic Movement leader arrested for inciting to v... » | Stopping spam through lawsuit » | Saudi rape victim falls victim to Saudi courts as ... » | Darfur's Islamic rulers are worst human rights abu... » | The Beeb's latest anti-Israel incitement » | Another dreadful "representative" whom we could do... » | Video tour of the Temple Mount » | Olmert refuses to cooperate with Lindenstrauss » 

Thursday, March 08, 2007 

Imams convicted for attempting to buy illegal weapons for terrorists

Yassin Aref, the imam who attempted to buy weapons from undercover agents so that he could give them in turn to terrorists in Pakistan, was convicted today for his planned crimes, but the sentence is simply not enough, and there's sob story material in here to boot:
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Two leaders of an Albany mosque who were snared in an FBI sting involving a fictional terror strike were sentenced Thursday to 15 years in federal prison.

The former imam, Yassin Aref, professed innocence before his sentencing and criticized the government's treatment of Muslims.

"I never had any intention to harm anyone in this country," said Aref, a 36-year-old Kurdish refugee. "And I don't know why I'm guilty."

Pizzeria owner Mohammed Hossain, a founder of the Masjid As-Salam mosque, said in a voice choked with emotion that he knew nothing about bombs and terrorism.

"I do not know why it was me who was chosen. I was not a criminal," he said. "I was not even thinking of committing a crime."
Typical AP recording of a sob story, the last thing we need to know about any scumbags of that sort.
The two were convicted in October for their roles in a money laundering scheme involving an FBI informant who posed as an illegal arms dealer.

The informant asked Hossain to launder $50,000 from the sale of a shoulder-fired missile from China that would be used to kill a Pakistani diplomat in New York City, authorities said.

The informant said he needed to conceal the source of the income and asked Hossain to take the money and return it through a series of $2,000 checks, according to court documents. Authorities said Hossain agreed to issue checks from his businesses and planned to keep $5,000 for laundering the money.

Aref, spiritual leader of Hossain's mosque, acted as a witness to the transactions.

Though the assassination plot was fictional, prosecutors in 2004 accused the pair of supporting terrorism.
Is it just me, or does this sound as though the AP is attempting to downplay the crimes these imams wanted to commit? Sick.
Aref was found guilty of 10 of 30 charges. In addition to counts related to the money laundering scheme, he was found guilty of lying to FBI agents about having known a terrorist leader, Mullah Krekar, when he worked for a Kurdish political organization in Syria.

Hossain, 52, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Bangladesh, was convicted on all 27 charges, including three counts of conspiracy.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William Pericak argued during federal trial that Hossain wanted money, while Aref was drawn into the plot by ideology.

Defense attorneys claimed the transactions were innocent, noting that Muslims often lend money to each other with clerics serving as witnesses. Aref and Hossain said they didn't believe any talk about a missile in New York.

U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy cited the men's lack of criminal records, their character and a high level of community support in giving them lesser sentences than the maximum 30 years to life in prison.
Oh, I see. Because they didn't have prior crime recordings, that's why giving them smaller sentences is okay? I think not. This was simply pathetic.

Open trackbacks: Basil's Blog, bRight and Early, Church and State, Jo's Cafe, Phastidio.Net, Point Five.

Labels:

About me

  • I'm Avi Green
  • From Jerusalem, Israel
  • I was born in Pennsylvania in 1974, and moved to Israel in 1983. I also enjoyed reading a lot of comics when I was young, the first being Fantastic Four. I maintain a strong belief in the public's right to knowledge and accuracy in facts. I like to think of myself as a conservative-style version of Clark Kent. I don't expect to be perfect at the job, but I do my best.
My profile

Archives

Links

    avigreen2002@yahoo.com See also my collection of Link in Bio pages: Realtime Website Traffic
      telchaidrawing

      I also contribute to

    • The Astute Bloggers
    • Infidel Bloggers Alliance
    • Which also includes (open menu)

      My other sites

    • The Four Color Media Monitor
    • The Comic Book Discrimination Dossiers
    • Hawkfan
    • The Greatest Thing on Earth!
    • The Outer Observatory
    • Earth's Mightiest Heroines
    • Puzzle Paradise
    • The Co-Stars Primer
    • Cinema Capsule Cavalcade
    • Food Diner
    • News/Opinion sites (open menu)

      Writers and special activity groups (open menu)

      Media Watchdogs (open menu)

      Columnist bloggers (open menu)

      Research on terrorism (open menu)

      Other bloggers: Israel and Asia (open menu)

      Other bloggers: Europe (open menu)

      Other bloggers: American continent (open menu)

      Museum sites (open menu)

      Bloggeries Blog Directory blog directory Blog Directory & Search engine View My Stats
    • W3 Counter stats
    • eXTReMe Tracker
      Locations of visitors to this page  
      Flag Counter

    This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

    make money online blogger templates

Older Posts Newer Posts

Tel-Chai Nation is powered by Blogspot and Gecko & Fly.
No part of the content or the blog may be reproduced without prior written permission.
Join the Google Adsense program and learn how to make money online.