Traitor Muslim Immigrants
Americans suspected of terror-related activities
By The Associated Press (AP)
March 16, 2010
Americans who have been charged or suspected of terror-related activities over the past year include:
_Young Somali men from Minneapolis who left the U.S. in waves from December 2007 through November 2008 to join a Somalia-based terror group with links to al-Qaida. Family members say the men were good kids and only a few had run-ins with police. An uncle of one of the men said his nephew was more interested in the NBA than anything going on in Somalia. Some may have struggled to find their own identity, with knowledge of Somalia gleaned from the Internet, books and stories from older relatives.
_Bryant Neal Vinas, 23, a U.S.-born al-Qaida recruit from Long Island, N.Y. "I consulted with a senior al-Qaida leader and provided detailed information about the operation of the Long Island Rail Road system which I knew because I had ridden the railroad on many occasions," Vinas told a judge in a secret guilty plea to terrorism charges. His cooperation with U.S. investigators was hailed as a major intelligence breakthrough to understanding how would-be jihadists from the West find terror trainers in remote regions of Pakistan.
_Abdulhakim Muhammad, 23, who in June 2009 allegedly shot and killed a soldier at a military recruiting center in Arkansas. Muhammad, who changed his name from Carlos Bledsoe when he converted to Islam, grew up in the Memphis, Tenn., area and then traveled to Yemen, returning to the U.S. in 2008. Since the shooting, in a two-page letter to the judge presiding over his case, Muhammad has described himself as a soldier in al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and called the shooting "a jihadi attack."
_Daniel Boyd, 39, a North Carolina Muslim convert accused of leading a group of men who planned to kidnap, maim and kill people in other countries in the name of jihad. Boyd decried the U.S. military, praised the honor in martyrdom, bemoaned the struggle of Muslims and said "I love jihad" on audiotapes obtained by federal authorities. Unlike many of the other recent suspects, Boyd allegedly nursed his ambitions for jihad for decades.
_Najibullah Zazi, 24, an Afghan-American al-Qaida recruit from Queens who pleaded guilty in February as the leader of a plot to bomb the New York subway system. Zazi's admitted conspiracy involved what Attorney General Eric Holder called one of the most serious plots the U.S. has faced since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. His failed plan, like that of Vinas, points to the reach of anti-U.S. terror networks in Pakistan. "I would sacrifice myself to bring attention to what the U.S. military was doing to civilians in Afghanistan," Zazi said in court.
_David Headley, 49, a Pakistani-American from Chicago charged with conspiring to attack the Copenhagen newspaper that ran cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Headley is also suspected of helping to plan the deadly 2008 terror attack in Mumbai, India, by traveling to that city and helping case targets for gunmen who arrived later. "I feel disposed towards violence for the offending parties," Headley wrote on an Internet discussion group.
_Maj. Nidal Hasan, 39, a U.S.-born Army psychiatrist of Palestinian descent, who is charged in a shooting rampage on the Army post in Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people. The Hasan case prompted a slew of finger-pointing among government agencies over why more action wasn't taken when red flags appeared, particularly his e-mail contact with a radical cleric in Yemen.
_Five Pakistani-American men from Northern Virginia, ranging in age from 19 to 25, who were arrested in Pakistan for possible links to terrorism. In a farewell video left by the men, one person made references to the ongoing conflict in the world and said young Muslims have to do something. The men were arrested in Pakistan and face charges there after what police say was a failed attempt to join militants fighting U.S. forces.
_Colleen LaRose, 46, a Muslim convert from Pennsylvania who allegedly called herself "Jihad Jane," and recruited people on the Internet to kill a Swedish cartoonist who offended Muslims by depicting the Prophet Mohammed in his drawings. In a YouTube video she posted in June 2008, LaRose said she was "desperate to do something somehow to help" ease the suffering of Muslims.
_Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, 31, a Colorado Muslim convert who was detained in Ireland during the investigation into an alleged plot to kill the Swedish cartoonist. Paulin-Ramirez, whom her mother described as a troubled single mother who had the "mentality of an abused woman," was later released without charge. When Paulin-Ramirez discussed jihad with her stepfather, a Muslim convert of 40 years, she said she would strap on a bomb for the cause, her mother said.
_Sharif Mobley, 26, a New Jersey man of Somali descent, who is under arrest in Yemen, suspected of ties to al-Qaida and killing a guard in a failed escape attempt. During his time in the United States, Mobley passed a criminal background check and worked as a laborer at a number of nuclear power plants. There is no indication that his work had any connection to his alleged involvement with terrorists. A former friend said Mobley became increasingly radicalized in his Muslim beliefs before he moved to Yemen.
5 Are Convicted of Conspiring to Attack Fort Dix
By PAUL VON ZIELBAUER and JON HURDLE
The New York Times
Published: December 22, 2008
A federal jury on Monday convicted five men of conspiring to kill American soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey last year, but acquitted them of attempted murder.
The jury deliberated for six days before returning its verdict against the defendants: three brothers — Shain, Eljvir and Dritan Duka — and Mohamad Shnewer and Serdar Tatar.
The men, all Muslim immigrants who lived in South Jersey or Philadelphia, face a maximum term of life in prison.
Sentencing is scheduled for April 22 for the three brothers and April 23 for Mr. Shnewer, 23, and Mr. Tatar, 25.
During the trial in Federal District Court in Camden, N.J., federal prosecutors said the men planned to attack Fort Dix and military personnel there, and had taken concrete steps to train and arm themselves. Prosecution evidence included hundreds of secretly taped conversations between the defendants and F.B.I. informants; jihadist propaganda videos recovered from one suspect’s computer; and videotapes of an illegal purchase of several machine guns.
The jury also convicted Dritan Duka, 30, Shain Duka, 27, and Mr. Shnewer of possessing firearms with intent to attack the base. It convicted Eljvir Duka, 25, of possessing firearms as an illegal immigrant. All three Duka brothers arrived in the United States illegally years ago, as children, from the former Yugoslavia.
Defense lawyers argued that the men were never serious about attacking Fort Dix, and that the government informants repeatedly coaxed them into making the incendiary comments recorded on government wiretaps.
The defense also challenged the credibility of the informants. One was an Egyptian-born illegal immigrant on probation for bank fraud who was paid more than $230,000 by the F.B.I. for his undercover work; the other was paid about $150,000.
Prosecutors called the five men “radical Islamists” and portrayed their surveillance and prosecution of the defendants as a necessary countermove against terrorists. Ralph J. Marra, the acting United States attorney in New Jersey, rejected accusations that the defendants had been manipulated by F.B.I. informants.
“This was not something that was trumped up by a cooperating witness,” he said at a courthouse news conference. “The verdict was based solely on the words and actions of these defendants.”
Relatives of Mr. Shnewer and Mr. Tatar and members of their legal team charged that the defendants’ Islamic beliefs worked against them. Serpil Tatar, a sister of Mr. Tatar, called the conviction “a big lie.”
“We came here so we could have a better life,” she said, speaking through tears to reporters at the courthouse. “But what we saw shows there’s a question about whether there’s justice.”
Faten Shnewer, Mr. Shnewer’s mother, criticized the government for relying on well-paid informants who were well aware of the kind of information their F.B.I. handlers were seeking. “This is not justice,” she said.
Jim Sues, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who spent several days in court listening to testimony, said that the men, though not innocent of any wrongdoing, were unjustifiably egged on by government informants into making conspiratorial statements about a terrorist attack on the base.
“The informant was much more than the informant,” Mr. Sues said in a telephone interview on Monday. “There was definitely some laws broken, but conspiracy to attack Fort Dix is a whole different story.”
Four of the men lived in Cherry Hill, a New Jersey suburb of Philadelphia; Mr. Tatar lived in Philadelphia. They were arrested in May 2007 after one of the government’s informants secretly videotaped them paying $1,400 for seven machine guns in the informant’s apartment.
Investigators later found videos on one defendant’s computer that showed clips of dead American soldiers and kidnapping victims about to be beheaded.
The investigation began in January 2006, after an electronics store clerk notified the F.B.I. that one of the men had brought in a video for duplication that showed 10 young men firing assault weapons at an outdoor range and shouting “God is Great” in Arabic. Among the 10 men in the video were the three Duka brothers and Mr. Shnewer.
The five defendants seemed to many to be far more South Jersey than seething jihadists. The Dukas are ethnic Albanians who worked in a family roofing business; Mr. Tatar, a legal immigrant from Turkey, worked as an assistant manager for a 7-Eleven in Philadelphia. Mr. Shnewer, an American citizen who was born in Jordan, was a taxi driver who also worked at a market run by his family in South Jersey.
Evidence showed that the men regularly watched and talked about Qaeda-inspired videos and visited a rented house in the Pocono Mountains where they fired weapons in what prosecutors said was training for an attack.
In March, Judge Robert B. Kugler, who also presided over this trial, sentenced a friend of the Duka brothers to 20 months in prison for supplying them with guns and ammunition. The friend, Agron Abdullahu, who had already served 11 months in prison when he was sentenced, was released in October, said his lawyer, Richard Coughlin.
Jurors declined to comment about their verdict but asked Judge Kugler to read their statement saying in part, “This has been one of the most difficult things that we have ever had to do.”
“During these last six days,” the statement went on, “we have held the fate of these five defendants in our hands, and we have not reached our conclusion lightly. The burden imposed on us has been heavy, but we are confident that our verdict has been reached fairly and impartially.”
Somalis may be leaving Minn. for jihad
By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY
12/19/2008
MINNEAPOLIS — Mohamud Ali Hassan once told the Somali grandmother who raised him that he'd become a doctor and care for her.
The Somali immigrant, who moved to the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" when he was 8, had good grades at the University of Minnesota and called Muslims to prayer at his mosque, where he also slept during the holy month of Ramadan.
But on Nov. 1, Hassan disappeared, as have a dozen other boys and young men here — two days after another young Muslim from Minnesota blew himself up as a suicide bomber in Somalia.
Hassan, 18, called his grandmother to say he was back in Somalia, where an Islamist militia is trying to take over the Horn of Africa nation. What he was doing there, he did not say.
Now the FBI is asking questions, as are members of the Somali community. The Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center denies any wrongdoing, but many here suspect that the mosque and its imam are radicalizing their youth to become jihadists in an Islamic holy war overseas or perhaps even in the United States
"They are very powerful, whoever got into his mind and got him to do this," says Hassan's grandmother Fadumo Elmi, 83. "We were forced out of our country one time. We don't want to be forced out of here."
Details of the disappearances are few, but what little is known is cause for concern, says Abdizirak Bihi, a community activist who represents six families of young men who disappeared in early November.
Among them was Bihi's nephew, Burhan Hassan, 17, a high school junior.
All were good students, had no problems with the law, Bihi says. All were raised by single mothers and spent a lot of time in the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center.
The center is the largest mosque in the Twin Cities. Bihi worries it is preaching a radical Islamic ideology to vulnerable young men.
Shirwa Ahmed, 19, who left in August with no notice to his family, was among five terrorists who blew themselves up Oct. 29 in an attack that killed 24 people in Somalia, Bihi says.
"We are wanting the government and politicians to investigate who is responsible for sending our kids and we are requesting the American government to help us to get us back our kids." Bihi says.
Other Somali immigrants worry the disappearances may foretell dangers for their adopted nation. "That kid that blew himself up in Somalia could have done it here in Minneapolis," says Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul.
Special Agent E.K. Wilson of the FBI in Minneapolis would not say whether his agency is investigating the mosque. Bihi and Elmi said the FBI has talked to them and others about the missing.
Wilson said the FBI knows that Muslims here have been going overseas to fight.
"We're aware that a number of Somali men have traveled from around the United States including Minneapolis to potentially fight overseas," Wilson said.
A lawyer for the Abubaker As-Saddique Islamic Center denied any involvement in planning or financing the men's travels or any political indoctrination.
"The mosque has taken a position that it would never take a stand on any political issues," says lawyer Mahir Sherif in San Diego. "We do not support terrorism or any kind of suicide bombing or act of violence."
He said federal authorities last month prevented the mosque's religious leader, Sheik Abdirahman Ahmed, from flying to Mecca.
Somalia has been plagued by lawlessness, terrorism and warfare since the collapse of the military government in 1991. In recent years, a radical Islamist militia that seeks to impose Islamic law captured the capital of Mogadishu, where 18 U.S. soldiers died in the infamous "Blackhawk Down" battle of 1993. Troops from Ethiopia invaded in 2006 to counter the Islamists, who have been praised by Osama bin Laden.
Yusuf Shaba, who writes about Islamic ideology and radicalism for the Warsan Times, a Somali-English monthly newspaper published in Minneapolis, says he decided to speak out about what he considers Islamic indoctrination at Minneapolis mosques because he doesn't want his sons to follow the same path he did.
Shaba, 34, joined Al Ittihad Al-Islami (Islamic Union) at age 16 and was wounded at age 19 in Somalia. Al Ittihad was Somalia's largest Islamic terrorist group in the 1990s.
Shaba says jihadists generally recruit young men from among two groups: those shunned by their families because they've turned to drugs, gangs or alcohol; and the sons of families who forbid exposure to Western culture and allow them to socialize only at the mosque.
Shaba says he and his three teenage sons attended a program two months ago at Abubaker As-Saddique Islamic Center, where a former Somali warrior sat in a circle with other young people and delivered a passionate recitation of his experiences during the Somali civil war.
Some mosques also screen videos about the war in Afghanistan and about Muslim victims of perceived injustices in such places as Nigeria and the Palestinian territories. "They give them all the grievances that Osama Bin Laden has," Shaba says. "They talk about nothing but jihad and it's the best thing that can happen to a Muslim."
When the brainwashing is done and the teachers are confident students will do anything asked of them, the teachers give them tazkia, or clearance, to get more specialized training in the United States or abroad, Shaba says.
"The people who trained us encouraged us to not get married, to sever our ties with our families, so that when the mission comes we won't worry about family."
Shaba says similar activities occur at Minnesota Da'wah Institute in St. Paul, another mosque. Sheik Mahamud Hassan, the institute's imam, says nothing like that is happening as his mosque. "It's liars," he says. "I'm not missing any members."
Elmi wrapped herself in her shawl and sobbed as she thought of Hassan in her one bedroom apartment in a Minneapolis public housing high rise. Outside, snow covered the parking lot and temperatures were below zero.
They moved to the United States in 1996, when Hassan was 8 and after his father was killed in the civil war. Hassan was obedient, but after going to the mosque, "He was completely changed."
"I thought the mosque would be a much safer place than the night clubs and bars," she said, crying. "I don't want God to curse me because I say something bad about the mosque."
Ally of al-Qaida terrorist pleads guilty to conspiracy in Ohio mall bomb plot
The Associated Press
Published: July 31, 2007
COLUMBUS, Ohio: A Somali immigrant the government says plotted to blow up an Ohio shopping mall pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.
Nuradin Abdi, 35, entered his plea Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley a week before his trial had been expected to start Aug. 6.
"In this climate an American jury, we felt, could potentially find him guilty because of all this negative stuff that's coming in, and if they found him guilty he was looking at spending the rest of his life in custody," said Abdi's attorney, Mahir Sherif. "The government came back with another offer, so he decided to take it."
Under a plea deal, Abdi is expected to receive a 10-year sentence on the count, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years. Three other charges were dropped and he will be deported after serving his sentence.
The Justice Department accused Abdi of suggesting the plan to attack an unidentified Columbus shopping mall during an August 2002 meeting with now-convicted al-Qaida terrorist Iyman Faris and a third suspect, Christopher Paul. The suspected plot was never carried out.
Abdi testified under oath that he talked with Faris and Paul at a coffee shop in suburban Columbus where he suggested they "plan to detonate a bomb in a shopping mall to avenge U.S. policy and military action in Afghanistan," according to a statement of facts submitted by the government during Tuesday's hearing.
An attorney for Abdi said Abdi was acknowledging only that he made that statement under oath, not that the conversation regarding the attack actually happened.
"He's never said that that conversation actually occurred during this plea agreement, he's just saying that he said that in immigration hearings," another defense attorney, Aurora Bewicke, said after the hearing. "He's not said that the conversation happened or that there was any plans to hurt any Americans."
Federal agents arrested Abdi the morning of Nov. 28, 2003, the day after Thanksgiving, out of fear the attack would be carried out on the heavy shopping day. He was arrested at 6 a.m. while leaving his Columbus home for morning prayers.
Faris is serving 20 years in a maximum-security federal prison in Florence, Colorado, for his role in an al-Qaida plot to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge. Faris scouted the bridge and told al-Qaida its plans would not work, court papers have said. Prosecutors accused Paul, who was arrested in April, of joining al-Qaida and plotting to bomb European tourist resorts and U.S. government facilities and military bases overseas.
Prosecutors also say Abdi gave stolen credit card numbers to a man accused of buying gear for al-Qaida, and lied on immigration documents to visit a jihadist training camp.
Abdi's attorneys said he was merely upset at the war in Afghanistan and reports of civilians killed in bombings by the U.S.-led invasion. They have said that the stolen numbers were never used and that the Justice Department never alleged what organization they believed was running the camp, what Abdi intended to do with the training, or whether he ever actually went.
He was to remain jailed until his sentencing date, which was not set.
Brothers Face Terror-Related
Charges
Friday August 3, 2007 4:46 AM
By JASON DEAREN
Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Two brothers were indicted Thursday on terrorism-related charges after one allegedly provided money and equipment to the other who was battling troops in the Philippines as a member of a terrorist group, authorities said.
FBI agents arrested Rahmat Abdhir, 43, of San Jose, outside his office in Sunnyvale on Thursday morning, federal authorities said. His brother, Zulkifli Abdhir, 41, remains at large in the Philippines and is wanted on a $5 million reward.
Both were charged in a 16-count indictment that included charges of conspiracy to support terrorists. Rahmat Abdhir also was charged with making false statements and contributing goods and services to a known terrorist, his brother.
It was unclear Thursday whether Rahmat Abdhir had hired an attorney, said Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd.
Zulkifli Abdhir has been labeled by the U.S. government as a ``specially designated global terrorist'' since 2003. Prosecutors said Zulkifli Abdhir provided regular reports to his brother of battles between Philippine troops and members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a group the government said has ties to al-Qaida's regional affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyah.
Federal prosecutors say the brothers communicated with each other in code in a scheme to have Rahmat Abdhir send his brother knives, two-way radios and backpacks. Their code included using the words ``presents'' and ``prizes'' for improvised explosive devices; ``dogs'' referred to government agents and ``iron'' for guns, according to the indictment.
Between June 2006 and June 2007, Rahmat Abdhir sent his brother Colt .45 magazines, a rifle scope, camouflage clothing and more than $10,000, according to the indictment.
If
convicted on all counts, Rahmat Abdhir faces a maximum of life in prison, while
Zulkifli Abdhir faces a maximum of 30 years.
Judge sentences Lodi man to 24 years for attending terror camp
Monday, September 10, 2007
A California man convicted of attending an al-Qaida camp in Pakistan was sentenced to 24 years in federal prison Monday for supporting terrorists, concluding a case that divided a Central Valley farming community.
U.S. District Court Judge Garland Burrell Jr. imposed the sentence against Hamid Hayat on his 25th birthday, saying he had "attended a terrorist training camp, returned to the United States ready and willing to wage violent jihad when directed to do so."
Hayat faced up to 39 years in prison after his April 2006 conviction on one count of providing material support to terrorists and three counts of lying about it to FBI agents.
But Burrell said it was Hayat's first criminal offense and cited other factors in imposing the lesser sentence. He said the sentence handed down Monday was sufficient to deter similar behavior by others and punish Hayat for his crimes.
Hayat had no visible reaction when the sentence was read, and his family sat quietly in the back row of the courtroom. But surrounded by reporters outside the courthouse afterward, they lashed out at the prosecution.
"We were expecting justice. We did not get justice. My son is innocent," said Hamid Hayat's father, Umer.
His son, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in June 2005 shortly after returning from a two-year trip to Pakistan, where prosecutors said he received terrorist training and plotted against targets in California.
They said he intended to attack hospitals, banks, grocery stores and government buildings, although his lawyer argued that Hayat never attended such a camp.
Ultimately, jurors were swayed by a confession that was videotaped during a lengthy FBI interrogation. His lawyer said the confession was coerced after agents peppered him with leading questions and wore him down during an all-night session.
Umer Hayat also was caught up in the case, but a federal jury deadlocked on whether he had lied to federal agents about his son's attendance at the camp. He later pleaded guilty to lying to a customs agent about why he was bringing $28,000 in cash to Pakistan several years earlier.
The case against the Hayats grew from a wider federal probe into the 2,500-member Pakistani community in Lodi, a farming and wine-growing region about 35 miles south of the state capital.
That investigation began shortly after the September 2001 terror attacks and focused on whether Lodi business owners were sending money to terror groups abroad.
The case against Hamid Hayat began after an informant the FBI sent to Lodi befriended him and began secretly tape-recording their conversations. During those talks, most of which were in the Hayat home, Hamid Hayat talked about jihad, praised al-Qaida and expressed support for religious governments in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
His lawyer during the trial's criminal phase, Wazhma Mojaddidi, said those sentiments were nothing more than the idle chatter of a directionless young man who had only a sixth-grade education. She said the government had no proof her client had ever attended a terror camp.
His family said Hamid Hayat did not travel to Pakistan because he felt drawn to terrorist ideology. Rather, they claimed in court that they sent him there to find direction in life and a wife.
Federal prosecutors began pursuing the Hayats after the informant turned over hundreds of hours of audiotaped conversations. He failed a lie-detector test and even told investigators that he had attended various terrorist camps in Pakistan in 2000, 2003 and 2004.
Their investigation also uncovered a book in Hamid Hayat's bedroom titled "Virtues of Jihad."
Umer Hayat, a naturalized U.S. citizen who made a living selling ice cream out of an old van, said the government informant misled the family and conned his son into making damaging statement. The FBI paid the informant a total of $300,000 for his work on the case.
Hamid Hayat's new attorney, Dennis Riordan, immediately filed a motion to vacate the conviction, claiming Hayat did not have adequate counsel during his trial.
He argued that Mojaddidi had never defended a client in any criminal case and ceded decision-making to Umer Hayat's attorney, Johnny Griffin. He said that constituted a clear conflict of interest because Griffin was acting in the best interest of his client, not Hamid Hayat.
Riordan also said he plans to file a notice of appeal of the sentence, saying Mojaddidi failed to perform the most basic defense functions, such as sending someone to Pakistan to investigate or calling any witnesses.
The case has caused tension in the Central Valley agricultural town, which is known for its annual grape festival. Pakistani immigrants have been part of the community's fabric for more than a century, when they began arriving to work in the fields.
They attended local mosques and kept a largely quiet existence until the case against the Hayats arose. Since then, trust has been shaken between Muslims and non-Muslims, with some local Pakistanis saying they feel shunned by the community.
Two Muslim clerics ensnared in the wider probe were deported for immigration violations.
3 in Ohio guilty of plot against US troops in Iraq
By JOE MILICIA
CLEVELAND (AP) — Three Ohio men were convicted Friday of plotting to recruit and train terrorists to kill American soldiers in Iraq, a case put together with help from a former soldier who posed as a radical bent on violence.
Mohammad Amawi, 28, Marwan El-Hindi, 45, and Wassim Mazloum, 27, face maximum sentences of life in prison. Prosecutors said the men were learning to shoot guns and make explosives while raising money to fund their plans to wage a holy war against U.S. troops.
The federal jury in Toledo returned its verdict after three days of deliberations. U.S. District Judge James G. Carr did not set a sentencing date, said acting U.S. attorney Bill Edwards.
"Today's verdicts should send a strong message to individuals who would use this country as a platform to plot attacks against U.S. military personnel in Iraq and elsewhere," said Patrick Rowan, acting assistant attorney general for national security, in a written statement. "This case also underscores the need for continued vigilance in identifying and dismantling extremist plots that develop in America's heartland."
Messages seeking comment from defense attorneys were not immediately returned. At trial they claimed that the three defendants, who all lived in the Toledo area, were manipulated by the government's star witness, Darren Griffin.
The undercover FBI informant and former Army Special Forces soldier recorded the men for about two years beginning in 2004 while they talked about training in explosives, guns, and sniper tactics. They often met in their homes and at a tiny storefront mosque where they prayed together.
Defense attorneys noted that Griffin was involved in all conversations the prosecution presented to the jury, and that there was no evidence of telephone conversations or e-mails dealing with the alleged plot among only the defendants.
Griffin won the trust of the men by posing as a former soldier who grew disenchanted with U.S. foreign policy who was now intent on violence against America. Prosecutors said even Griffin's family had been under the impression that he had become a radical.
Griffin said most people at the mosque shunned him and that no one raised any threats until El-Hindi began talking about kidnapping Israeli soldiers. Amawi, Griffin said, asked him to help him train two recruits from Chicago for holy war.
According to one secret recording made by Griffin, Amawi said he was troubled by the loss of life in New York in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but he quickly added: "Killing Americans in Iraq is OK."
Griffin testified that he twice traveled to Jordan with Amawi and also taught Amawi and Mazloum how to shoot guns.
El-Hindi told Griffin, according to recordings heard in court, that he knew two cousins who were eager to receive "jihad training." Griffin asked El-Hindi if he was recruiting for jihad. "Oh no, I just want to take these two," El-Hindi answered, adding that he wanted to take care of them for their families.
The two Chicago-area cousins — Khaleel Ahmed of Chicago and Zubair A. Ahmed of suburban North Chicago — have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to kill American soldiers and face trial next year.
Amawi, El-Hindi and Mazloum were convicted of conspiring to kill or maim people outside the United States, including military personnel. Amawi and El-Hindi were convicted of distributing information regarding explosives to terrorists.
Defense attorneys said Griffin lied and manipulated the defendants by putting words in their mouths so that he could stay on the government payroll.
Attorneys for the men also questioned how the three men could have been involved in a conspiracy when they never practiced shooting guns together or watched training videos together.
Griffin testified that the three gathered in the same place just once during the two years he investigated them. He also said that he never saw e-mails from the men that talked about plotting to kill soldiers.
Amawi and El-Hindi are U.S. citizens, and Mazloum came to the U.S. legally from Lebanon. El-Hindi was born in Jordan, and Amawi was born in the U.S. but also has Jordanian citizenship.
They had blended easily into the city's thriving Muslim community.
Mazloum was a college student who helped his brother run a used-car lot. Amawi once worked at a bakery. And El-Hindi was a married father of seven.
All had moved to the Toledo area only in recent years. Still, the arrests stunned the city's Arab-American community, which has been rooted in the city for generations and produced actor Jamie Farr and entertainer Danny Thomas.
Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907
“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in
good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be
treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to
discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.
But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American,
and nothing but an American... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man
who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all.
We have room for but one flag, the American flag.... We have room for but one
language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one
sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”