Tel-Chai Nation

Michelle Malkin reminds us of Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, who were arrested at Georgia Tech almost 2 years ago for their involvement in international terrorism. Now, one of them has confessed:

When Syed Haris Ahmed first sat down with counterterrorism agents on March 10, 2006, the Georgia Tech student acted as if he had done nothing wrong.

But over the next week, through 12 hours of arduous and sometimes-threatening questioning, the 21-year-old Ahmed changed his story dramatically. He admitted to taking “casing videos” of Washington landmarks, including the U.S. Capitol, that ended up on the computer of a London terrorist. He acknowledged meeting with extremists in Toronto and going to Pakistan for jihadist military training.

Even so, Ahmed told agents at one point, “It was nothing. It was just childish talk and stuff like that.” He also admitted in a signed statement: “I hoped to be recruited into a Jihadi training camp where I could learn how to fight Muslim oppressors everywhere.”

By March 17, 2006, Ahmed told agents that his jihadist thoughts led him to contemplate attacks on Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, the Masonic Temple in Washington and oil refineries in Texas. Ahmed said he contemplated attacking Dobbins because he once lived near there. He said he believed Freemasons were like the “devil.” He suggested the attack on U.S. oil refineries to raise the price of oil and bring more money to the Middle East, because “it is Muslim property and it’s being stolen,” Ahmed told agents.

Ahmed, born in Pakistan and raised in Dawsonville, now stands indicted with co-defendant Ehsanul Islam Sadequee of Roswell of federal charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Ahmed and Sadequee, who was born in Virginia to Bangladeshi parents, have pleaded not guilty.

So one of them has confessed, but the other hasn't. I see. But "childish talk"? That sounds like a typical excuse these jihadists can make to try and get off the hook. For what he was plotting, I hope he rots to pieces in a cold prison cell.

Labels: jihad, terrorism, United States, war on terror