Updates etc.:
The following articles were referenced in my web log post. They are here in no particular order.
Islamic scholar convicted
From staff and wire reports
Pittsburg Tribune Review Wednesday, April 27, 2005
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/regional/s_328406.html
ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- An American Islamic scholar could face life in prison following his conviction Tuesday for soliciting his followers in northern Virginia to join the Taliban and take up arms against the United States less than a week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
A jury of four women and eight men deliberated for seven days before finding Ali al-Timimi, 41, of Fairfax, Va., guilty on all charges in a 10-count indictment, including soliciting others to levy war against the United States, counseling others to attempt to aid the Taliban and inducing others to use firearms in violation of federal law.
Al-Timimi, who published his lectures on tapes and CDs and had an international following in strict Islamic communities, also was listed as an advisory board member of Assirat Al-Mustaqueem, an international Arabic language magazine published in Pittsburgh from 1991 to 2000.
Yesterday's verdict capped a two-week trial in which prosecutors argued that al-Timimi, a native-born U.S. citizen who frequently lectured at a Falls Church, Va., Islamic center, persuaded a group of young devotees that it was their religious obligation to travel to Afghanistan to aid the Taliban in battling the U.S. invasion in 2001.
Calling al-Timimi a "kingpin of hate against America," Paul J. McNulty, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, hailed the jury's verdict.
"He not only wanted Americans to die, he recruited others to his cause at a time when our country was mourning the loss of more than 3,000 people who were murdered in a heinous act of terrorism," McNulty said in a prepared statement.
Prosecutors contended al-Timimi held celebrity status with a group of young Muslims from Washington, D.C., suburbs who attended his lectures and played paintball and practiced target shooting in 2000 and '01 to train for global jihad.
Eleven members of the group, dubbed the Virginia Paintball Jihad Network, were arrested in connection with the scheme in 2003. Six of them entered guilty pleas, three were convicted and two were acquitted.
Testifying under the terms of their plea bargains, several members of the Paintball Jihad took the stand against al-Timimi. They painted a chilling portrait of how they gathered with al-Timimi in a secret meeting behind closed blinds -- five days after 9/11 -- to plot their future.
Witnesses testified that al-Timimi told them that it was time for them to take up arms with the Taliban to defend the Muslim brothers against the American invasion.
Although none of the men ever made it to Afghanistan, several made it to Pakistan, where they traveled to mountain training camps and took instruction in warfare in preparation for joining the Taliban. However, the mountain borders between the two countries were closed before they could get to Afghanistan.
Defense attorneys stressed there was no evidence that al-Timimi ever trained with the men. They contended he merely advised those who felt unsafe in the United States to travel to an Islamic country.
But prosecutors introduced many speeches in which al-Timimi stressed the need for jihad, painting Christians and Jews as enemies. They also introduced a 2003 statement in which he hailed the crash of the space shuttle Columbia as an omen of the downfall of western civilization and cause for joy among Muslims.
Al-Timimi's defense attorneys, Edward MacMahon Jr. and Alan Yamamoto, argued that their client's statements, while repulsive to many, fell under the First Amendment umbrella of protected religious speech.
"Obviously, we're disappointed in the verdict," MacMahon said. "We'll file a motion to set aside the verdict and to request a new trial."
Judge Leonie Brinkema agreed to allow al-Timimi to remain free on bond pending his sentencing in July. Prosecutors had argued that federal law required the judge to immediately revoke bond when a defendant is convicted of such serious charges, but Brinkema said the law allows her discretion "when there is a reasonable basis for reversal" of the convictions on some counts.
Al-Timimi last year obtained a doctorate in computational biology from George Mason University after completing a doctoral dissertation related to cancer research.
Staff writer Debra Erdley and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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April 27, 2005
Muslim Cleric Found Guilty in the 'Virginia Jihad' Case
By JAMES DAO
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/27/national/27paintball.html?pagewanted=print&position=
ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 26 - In the most significant case involving what prosecutors have called the Virginia jihad network, an American-born Muslim cleric was convicted on Tuesday of inciting followers to wage war against the United States just days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
After deliberating for seven days, the jury convicted the cleric, Ali al-Timimi of Fairfax, Va., on all six counts in the indictment, including counseling others to wage war against the United States and use firearms and explosives in furtherance of violent crimes. Mr. Timimi, who will remain under house arrest until sentencing on July 13, faces a mandatory life sentence under federal guidelines.
Mr. Timimi, 41, was described by federal prosecutors as a rock star among radical Islamists and the spiritual leader for a group of young men who trained to fight abroad for Muslim causes, including defending the Taliban against American-led forces.
"By his treasonous criminal acts, he has proven himself to be a kingpin of hate against America and everything we stand for, especially our freedom," the United States attorney for eastern Virginia, Paul J. McNulty, said in a statement.
But Mr. Timimi's lawyers and supporters described him as an apolitical cancer researcher and part-time Koranic scholar who viewed himself as a bridge between his conservative Muslim sect and American society.
"We're obviously disappointed," said Edward MacMahon, Mr. Timimi's lawyer. "I'm going to do everything within the bounds of law to have this overturned."
Mr. Timimi is the 10th person convicted in the "Virginia jihad" case, in which a group of young men, several of them American-born converts, prepared themselves spiritually and physically for waging jihad in defense of Islam, prosecutors said, including by playing paintball in rural Virginia.
Prosecutors asserted that the training became far more serious than simply playing games. Three men who pleaded guilty in exchange for shorter sentences testified against Mr. Timimi, saying he told them at a private dinner on Sept. 16, 2001, that it was their Muslim duty to fight for Islam overseas, including by defending the Taliban against American forces.
The defense argued that Mr. Timimi had simply counseled his followers to take their families abroad after Sept. 11 to protect them against an anti-Muslim backlash. Mr. MacMahon also presented evidence that Mr. Timimi tried to stop two of the men from attending a training camp in Pakistan run by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group allied with Al Qaeda that is dedicated to ousting Indian forces from the disputed province of Kashmir.
Mr. MacMahon said he planned to file a petition to dismiss the verdict on the grounds that the prosecution failed to prove its case and that Mr. Timimi's words were protected under the First Amendment.
Groups that monitor Islamic fundamentalists in the United States described Mr. Timimi as an obscure but important cleric with a dedicated following in the United States, in Britain and in Australia. A scholar of Salafist thought, which advocates a strict adherence to traditional Islamic values, he lectured at Dar Al Arqam Mosque in Falls Church, Va., and disseminated many of his speeches on the Internet.
Many of those lectures dealt with lifestyle issues, like marriage between Muslims and non-Muslims. But in one message to followers that was introduced at trial by the prosecution, Mr. Timimi described the crash of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003 as a "good omen" for Muslims in an apocalyptic conflict with the West.
"This is a strong signal that Western supremacy (especially that of America) that began 500 years ago is coming to a quick end," Mr. Timimi said in the message.
Tamar Tesler, a senior analyst with the Investigative Project, a conservative group that studies terrorist organizations, said Mr. Timimi's exhortations "crossed the line of free speech" by advocating violence among followers who revered him.
"Until we take to task those who falsely use religion as a justification to achieve their goals," Ms. Tesler said, "there will always be new candidates who will believe it mandatory to commit acts of violence because a man they venerate tells them it is the will of God."
But civil rights advocates and Muslim American leaders raised concerns that Mr. Timimi's conviction would chill free speech among American Muslims, even among people who abhor Mr. Timimi's views.
"There is a view many Muslims have when they come to America that you could not be arrested for something you say," said Imam Johari Abdul Malik, outreach director at Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church. "But now they have discovered they are not free to speak their minds. And if our opinions are out of vogue in the current climate, we feel we are all at risk."
Mr. Timimi was born in Washington, the child of Iraqi immigrants. A rotund, amiable man who speaks fluent Arabic and unaccented English, he wore dark suits and pressed white shirts to trial. His mother, a program manager for the Washington Department of Mental Health, was often in the audience.
He attended high school in Saudi Arabia, where he was deeply influenced by conservative clerics. But upon returning to the United States, he devoted much of his life to the study of science, receiving bachelor's degrees in biology and computer science and, later, a Ph.D. in computational biology - used in gene sequencing - from George Mason University.
A statement posted on a Web site run by Mr. Timimi's supporters compared him with persecuted Islamic scholars of the past. "As Allah said in the Koran: 'And they witnessed what they were doing against the believers. They had nothing against them, except that they believed in God, the Almighty, worthy of all praise!' " the statement said.
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Va. cleric guilty of soliciting to levy war
In the days after 9/11, he exhorted others to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops; he faces life in prison
The Associated Press
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Common%2FMGArticle%2FPrintVersion&c=MGArticle&cid=1031782383012&image=timesdispatch80x60.gif&oasDN=timesdispatch.com
ALEXANDRIA -- A prominent Islamic scholar was convicted yesterday of exhorting his followers in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops.
The convictions against Ali al-Timimi, 41, of Fairfax County carry a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison without parole.
The jury convicted al-Timimi after seven days of deliberations on all 10 counts brought by the government, including soliciting others to levy war against the United States, inducing others to aid the Taliban, and inducing others to use firearms in violation of federal law. It is the firearms convictions that require mandatory life imprisonment.
Al-Timimi becomes the 10th person convicted in the government's prosecution of what it called a "Virginia jihad network." Two were acquitted.
U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema agreed to allow al-Timimi to remain free on bond pending his sentencing in July. Prosecutors argued that convictions on such serious charges required the judge to immediately revoke bond, but Brinkema said the law allows her discretion "when there is a reasonable basis for reversal" of the convictions on some counts.
"Obviously, we're disappointed in the verdict," de- fense lawyer Edward MacMahon said. "We'll file a motion to set aside the verdict and to request a new trial."
In a statement after the verdict, U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty said: "By his treasonous criminal acts, he has proven himself to be a kingpin of hate against America. He not only wanted Americans to die, he recruited others to his cause at a time when our country was mourning the loss of more than 3,000 people who were murdered in a heinous act of terrorism."
Prosecutors said al-Timimi -- a native U.S. citizen who has an international following in some Muslim circles -- enjoyed "rock star" status among a group of young Muslim men in the Northern Virginia area who played paintball games in 2000 and 2001 as a means of training for holy war around the globe.
On Sept. 16, 2001, al-Timimi addressed a small group of his followers in a secret meeting at a Fairfax home and warned that Sept. 11 was a harbinger of a final apocalyptic battle between Muslims and nonbelievers. He said they were required as Muslims to defend the Taliban and its leader, Mullah Omar, from a looming U.S. invasion, according to the government.
While nobody ever joined the Taliban, four of al-Timimi's followers subsequently traveled to Pakistan later that month and trained with a militant group called Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Three of those four testified at al-Timimi's trial that their intention had been to use the training they received from Lashkar to join the Taliban and fight in Afghanistan, and that it was al-Timimi's speech that inspired them to do so.
The three who testified against al-Timimi have all struck plea bargains with the government, and the defense contended they were lying in the hopes that prosecutors will agree to reduce their prison sentences.
Al-Timimi's lawyers disputed the notion that the men were his "followers" and contended that he merely suggested migration to a Muslim nation because it might be difficult to practice Islam in the U.S. after Sept. 11. The defense also contended that leaders in the paintball group had been urging members to train with Lashkar-e-Taiba well before Sept. 11 and well before the government alleged any misconduct by al-Timimi.
Finally, the defense had contended the prosecution of al-Timimi was an assault on his religious and free-speech rights. Prosecutors introduced evidence of anti-American speeches and commentary by al-Timimi that they said was relevant to show his motivation to incite war against the United States.
The evidence included a 2003 e-mail in which al-Timimi described the space shuttle Columbia disaster as "a good omen" that "Western supremacy [especially that of America] that began 500 years ago is coming to an end, God willing."
Al-Timimi, who last year obtained a doctorate in computational biology from George Mason University after completing a doctoral dissertation related to cancer research, had been calm almost to the point of uninterest throughout the week of jury deliberations. He spent much of the time reading Genome Technology and other scientific journals.
This story can be found at: http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031782383012
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Lakhani convicted in U.S. weapons case
Thu Apr 28, 2005 04:20 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=8317930&type=topNews
By Christine Kearney
NEWARK, N.J. (Reuters) - An Indian-born British businessman was found guilty on Wednesday of trying to aid terrorists for selling a shoulder-launched missile to an informant posing as a militant seeking to attack the United States.
Hemant Lakhani, 69, a British citizen born in India, was found guilty of five criminal charges by a U.S. District Court jury in Newark, New Jersey, that began deliberating on Tuesday.
Lakhani was arrested in August 2003 after a two-year international sting operation and accused of trying to provide material support to terrorists, unlawful arms sales, smuggling and two counts of money laundering.
His arrest was among the first terrorism arrests on U.S. soil after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. U.S. authorities described him as a major arms dealer and the case as a major blow in the war against terrorism. Defense lawyers portrayed him as a hapless businessman caught in a setup.
"Today is a triumph for the Justice Department in the war against terrorism," said U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie.
"Mr. Lakhani was engaged in a scheme willingly, knowingly and anxiously to sell arms to be used against American citizens," he said. "The evidence showed he was enthusiastic about what death and destruction might result."
During the trial that began in January, prosecutors provided videotapes and taped telephone conversations of Lakhani making the deal with an undercover FBI informant posing as an Islamic militant. They said Lakhani spoke admiringly of Osama bin Laden and claimed his missiles could shoot down up to 15 airplanes.
Prosecutors also said Lakhani went frequently to Ukraine to buy Russian-made missiles he hoped to sell to a Somali militant group.
JUROR: "IT WAS BLACK AND WHITE"
Juror June Cantor, 46, said after the verdict that the evidence was overwhelming.
"It was black and white, there were films, there were transcripts, and in over 500 exhibits we could not find that he was reluctant or questioning," she said. "He was not entrapped."
Defense attorney Henry Klingeman said Lakhani was disappointed by the verdicts and said it seemed the jury was convinced by the videotapes.
"The best evidence and the only evidence was Mr. Lakhani's own words, and that is what did him in," he said. Lakhani did not testify in his own defense.
The jury deliberated just seven and a half hours.
Cantor said she believed Lakhani was motivated by greed rather than hatred of America and noted that the jury that decided his fate was influenced by their memories of the Sept. 11 attacks that flattened New York's landmark twin towers.
"It is hard not to separate your emotions because we are Americans and we went through 9/11 and he was so enthusiastic," she said.
Sentencing was set for Aug. 8. The most serious charge against Lakhani carries the possibility of 15 years in prison.
Lakhani was arrested in a New Jersey hotel room while he was demonstrating a sample shoulder-fired missile to an informant posing as a Somali terrorist.
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April 26, 2005 Edition > Section: National > Printer-Friendly Version
Trial of Sami Al-Arian May Impact Both Political Camps in Washington
BY JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
April 26, 2005
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/12800
A terrorism trial set to get under way in Florida next month could have repercussions for Washington politicians at both ends of the political spectrum.
Lawyers for a former computer science professor charged with being the head of the American branch of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Sami Al-Arian, have named more than 20 political figures with whom he claims to have had conversations in the years leading up to his indictment in 2003.
The figures cited in the case include Presidents Bush and Clinton, Senator Clinton, and a top adviser to Mr. Bush, Karl Rove.
In a letter filed in federal court in Tampa last week, a lawyer for Mr. Al-Arian, William Moffitt, said he believes surveillance tapes may exist of his client speaking with Republicans such as House Speaker Dennis Hastert, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, and Senator Lott of Mississippi. Mr. Al-Arian may also have had recorded contacts with Democrats, including Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, Rep. James Moran of Virginia, Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, and the former House minority whip, David Bonior, according to the letter, which asked prosecutors to turn over all such recordings to the defense.
Mr. Moffitt said in a brief interview yesterday that he now has obtained tapes or transcripts of some of those conversations. "Some of them are no longer missing," the defense attorney said.
Mr. Moffitt said if he seeks to use those recordings, he might call some of the politicians on the list to testify to the tapes' accuracy. However, he declined yesterday to be more specific about whom he might subpoena. Mr. Moffitt said he was reluctant to telegraph his strategy to prosecutors.
"There's no way I should be forced to exchange a witness list," Mr. Moffitt said. "I'm not in a position to say whether some of those people will be called or not."
Mr. Al-Arian and three other men are scheduled to go on trial May 16 on charges they operated as an American front for Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group that has waged a campaign of bombings and other violent attacks against military and civilian targets in Israel. Mr. Al-Arian, 47, faces charges of racketeering conspiracy, extortion, money laundering, and providing material support to a terrorist organization.
A Washington-based terrorism expert who has tracked Mr. Al-Arian's activities for more than a decade, Steven Emerson, said the defense's gambit to expose Mr. Al-Arian's political Rolodex could leave many politicians red-faced. "It will certainly be embarrassing to the leaders who met with Al-Arian, and it will be embarrassing to the political consultants who met with Al-Arian," Mr. Emerson said.
The letter listing Mr. Al-Arian's alleged political contacts is dated September 2004, but was filed recently as part of a government bid to block his lawyers from arguing at trial that his actions were part of a legitimate political campaign on behalf of Palestinians.
The public filing of the politicians' names was first reported by the Tampa Tribune.
After recounting Mr. Al-Arian's meetings with Mr. Bush, Mr. Clinton, and others, Mr. Moffitt wrote, "Dr. Al-Arian's access to these political figures coupled with the fact that there was public source information regarding many of the contentions that form the basis of the government's indictment seem to belie the notion that Dr. Al-Arian was in any way considered by anyone in the intelligence or law enforcement communities to be any kind of threat to the United States or a threat to harm any officials of the United States."
Among others named in the letter as contacts of Mr. Al-Arian were: a former chief of counterterrorism at the CIA, Vincent Cannistraro; a Republican political consultant, Grover Norquist; a former Republican congressman from Georgia, Bob Barr; a former Republican congressman and homeland security official, Asa Hutchinson; Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia, a Democrat; Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, a Democrat; Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, a Republican, and a former Republican senator from Michigan who recently stepped down as energy secretary, Spencer Abraham.
Most of those named either declined to comment or could not be reached.
Mr. Cannistraro confirmed that he has been subpoenaed to testify as a witness for the prosecution in the case, but he declined further comment.
Mr. Frank said in an interview he was confident he had never spoken with Mr. Al-Arian. "I certainly never talked to him. I'd remember that," the congressman said. "I've never heard of this guy before, to my knowledge."
Mr. Frank said his staff had searched his files for any correspondence from Mr. Al-Arian and found nothing.
In the late 1990s and the early years of this decade, Mr. Al-Arian, a Kuwaiti-born naturalized American, was politically active on behalf of Palestinian Arab and Arab-American causes. He was also secretly under regular court-ordered surveillance as a suspected terrorist. During that time, Mr. Al-Arian led a campaign against the use of classified evidence in deportation proceedings, such as one involving his brother, Mazen Al-Najjar.
That campaign, which drew support from civil libertarians on the left and the right, coincided with a determined attempt by Republicans to court Arab-American voters. The overlap of these two efforts helped Mr. Al-Arian win audiences with prominent political figures.
In the waning days of the 2000 presidential race, Mr. Bush unexpectedly embraced legislation that would have prohibited the government from using so-called secret evidence in deportation cases, unless officials were willing to share at least a summary of that evidence with the person facing expulsion from America.
"Bush rode in to appeal to Muslims," Mr. Emerson said. "There's no doubt that the Republican advisers who had met with the Islamic groups decided it was something they were going to endorse."
In March 2000, then-candidate George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, were photographed with Mr. Al-Arian and his family at a strawberry festival in Florida. The White House later said such photos are commonplace.
In June 2001, the Secret Service removed Mr. Al-Arian's son, Abdullah, from a meeting at the White House complex between Muslim leaders and one of Mr. Bush's top aides, Mr. Rove. Mr. Bush later wrote to Mr. Al-Arian's wife, Nahla, apologizing for her son's ejection.
In September 2001, after the terrorist attacks against America, Mr. Al-Arian had a highly publicized, heated interview with a Fox News television host, Bill O'Reilly. Soon thereafter, Mr. Al-Arian began receiving threats and was put on paid leave by the University of South Florida. The school, which had faced years of pressure to take action against the professor, fired him after he was indicted in February 2003.
A former terrorism prosecutor, Andrew McCarthy, called the elder Mr. Al-Arian's entree at the White House and on Capitol Hill "extremely curious." However, he said that as a legal matter, Mr. Al-Arian's political contact should be excluded from the trial as irrelevant.
"It wouldn't matter what President Bush or President Clinton thought," Mr. McCarthy said.
A defense motion to change the trial venue, currently set for Tampa, is expected to be filed later this week.
Correction from April 27, 2005
Brother-in-law is the relationship of Mazen Al-Najjar to a man at the center of an upcoming terrorism trial in Tampa, Sami Al-Arian. A story on page 1 of yesterday's New York Sun described their relationship inaccurately.
April 26, 2005 Edition > Section: National
Islamic scholar convicted
From staff and wire reports
Pittsburg Tribune Review Wednesday, April 27, 2005
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/regional/s_328406.html
ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- An American Islamic scholar could face life in prison following his conviction Tuesday for soliciting his followers in northern Virginia to join the Taliban and take up arms against the United States less than a week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
A jury of four women and eight men deliberated for seven days before finding Ali al-Timimi, 41, of Fairfax, Va., guilty on all charges in a 10-count indictment, including soliciting others to levy war against the United States, counseling others to attempt to aid the Taliban and inducing others to use firearms in violation of federal law.
Al-Timimi, who published his lectures on tapes and CDs and had an international following in strict Islamic communities, also was listed as an advisory board member of Assirat Al-Mustaqueem, an international Arabic language magazine published in Pittsburgh from 1991 to 2000.
Yesterday's verdict capped a two-week trial in which prosecutors argued that al-Timimi, a native-born U.S. citizen who frequently lectured at a Falls Church, Va., Islamic center, persuaded a group of young devotees that it was their religious obligation to travel to Afghanistan to aid the Taliban in battling the U.S. invasion in 2001.
Calling al-Timimi a "kingpin of hate against America," Paul J. McNulty, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, hailed the jury's verdict.
"He not only wanted Americans to die, he recruited others to his cause at a time when our country was mourning the loss of more than 3,000 people who were murdered in a heinous act of terrorism," McNulty said in a prepared statement.
Prosecutors contended al-Timimi held celebrity status with a group of young Muslims from Washington, D.C., suburbs who attended his lectures and played paintball and practiced target shooting in 2000 and '01 to train for global jihad.
Eleven members of the group, dubbed the Virginia Paintball Jihad Network, were arrested in connection with the scheme in 2003. Six of them entered guilty pleas, three were convicted and two were acquitted.
Testifying under the terms of their plea bargains, several members of the Paintball Jihad took the stand against al-Timimi. They painted a chilling portrait of how they gathered with al-Timimi in a secret meeting behind closed blinds -- five days after 9/11 -- to plot their future.
Witnesses testified that al-Timimi told them that it was time for them to take up arms with the Taliban to defend the Muslim brothers against the American invasion.
Although none of the men ever made it to Afghanistan, several made it to Pakistan, where they traveled to mountain training camps and took instruction in warfare in preparation for joining the Taliban. However, the mountain borders between the two countries were closed before they could get to Afghanistan.
Defense attorneys stressed there was no evidence that al-Timimi ever trained with the men. They contended he merely advised those who felt unsafe in the United States to travel to an Islamic country.
But prosecutors introduced many speeches in which al-Timimi stressed the need for jihad, painting Christians and Jews as enemies. They also introduced a 2003 statement in which he hailed the crash of the space shuttle Columbia as an omen of the downfall of western civilization and cause for joy among Muslims.
Al-Timimi's defense attorneys, Edward MacMahon Jr. and Alan Yamamoto, argued that their client's statements, while repulsive to many, fell under the First Amendment umbrella of protected religious speech.
"Obviously, we're disappointed in the verdict," MacMahon said. "We'll file a motion to set aside the verdict and to request a new trial."
Judge Leonie Brinkema agreed to allow al-Timimi to remain free on bond pending his sentencing in July. Prosecutors had argued that federal law required the judge to immediately revoke bond when a defendant is convicted of such serious charges, but Brinkema said the law allows her discretion "when there is a reasonable basis for reversal" of the convictions on some counts.
Al-Timimi last year obtained a doctorate in computational biology from George Mason University after completing a doctoral dissertation related to cancer research.
Staff writer Debra Erdley and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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April 27, 2005
Muslim Cleric Found Guilty in the 'Virginia Jihad' Case
By JAMES DAO
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/27/national/27paintball.html?pagewanted=print&position=
ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 26 - In the most significant case involving what prosecutors have called the Virginia jihad network, an American-born Muslim cleric was convicted on Tuesday of inciting followers to wage war against the United States just days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
After deliberating for seven days, the jury convicted the cleric, Ali al-Timimi of Fairfax, Va., on all six counts in the indictment, including counseling others to wage war against the United States and use firearms and explosives in furtherance of violent crimes. Mr. Timimi, who will remain under house arrest until sentencing on July 13, faces a mandatory life sentence under federal guidelines.
Mr. Timimi, 41, was described by federal prosecutors as a rock star among radical Islamists and the spiritual leader for a group of young men who trained to fight abroad for Muslim causes, including defending the Taliban against American-led forces.
"By his treasonous criminal acts, he has proven himself to be a kingpin of hate against America and everything we stand for, especially our freedom," the United States attorney for eastern Virginia, Paul J. McNulty, said in a statement.
But Mr. Timimi's lawyers and supporters described him as an apolitical cancer researcher and part-time Koranic scholar who viewed himself as a bridge between his conservative Muslim sect and American society.
"We're obviously disappointed," said Edward MacMahon, Mr. Timimi's lawyer. "I'm going to do everything within the bounds of law to have this overturned."
Mr. Timimi is the 10th person convicted in the "Virginia jihad" case, in which a group of young men, several of them American-born converts, prepared themselves spiritually and physically for waging jihad in defense of Islam, prosecutors said, including by playing paintball in rural Virginia.
Prosecutors asserted that the training became far more serious than simply playing games. Three men who pleaded guilty in exchange for shorter sentences testified against Mr. Timimi, saying he told them at a private dinner on Sept. 16, 2001, that it was their Muslim duty to fight for Islam overseas, including by defending the Taliban against American forces.
The defense argued that Mr. Timimi had simply counseled his followers to take their families abroad after Sept. 11 to protect them against an anti-Muslim backlash. Mr. MacMahon also presented evidence that Mr. Timimi tried to stop two of the men from attending a training camp in Pakistan run by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group allied with Al Qaeda that is dedicated to ousting Indian forces from the disputed province of Kashmir.
Mr. MacMahon said he planned to file a petition to dismiss the verdict on the grounds that the prosecution failed to prove its case and that Mr. Timimi's words were protected under the First Amendment.
Groups that monitor Islamic fundamentalists in the United States described Mr. Timimi as an obscure but important cleric with a dedicated following in the United States, in Britain and in Australia. A scholar of Salafist thought, which advocates a strict adherence to traditional Islamic values, he lectured at Dar Al Arqam Mosque in Falls Church, Va., and disseminated many of his speeches on the Internet.
Many of those lectures dealt with lifestyle issues, like marriage between Muslims and non-Muslims. But in one message to followers that was introduced at trial by the prosecution, Mr. Timimi described the crash of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003 as a "good omen" for Muslims in an apocalyptic conflict with the West.
"This is a strong signal that Western supremacy (especially that of America) that began 500 years ago is coming to a quick end," Mr. Timimi said in the message.
Tamar Tesler, a senior analyst with the Investigative Project, a conservative group that studies terrorist organizations, said Mr. Timimi's exhortations "crossed the line of free speech" by advocating violence among followers who revered him.
"Until we take to task those who falsely use religion as a justification to achieve their goals," Ms. Tesler said, "there will always be new candidates who will believe it mandatory to commit acts of violence because a man they venerate tells them it is the will of God."
But civil rights advocates and Muslim American leaders raised concerns that Mr. Timimi's conviction would chill free speech among American Muslims, even among people who abhor Mr. Timimi's views.
"There is a view many Muslims have when they come to America that you could not be arrested for something you say," said Imam Johari Abdul Malik, outreach director at Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church. "But now they have discovered they are not free to speak their minds. And if our opinions are out of vogue in the current climate, we feel we are all at risk."
Mr. Timimi was born in Washington, the child of Iraqi immigrants. A rotund, amiable man who speaks fluent Arabic and unaccented English, he wore dark suits and pressed white shirts to trial. His mother, a program manager for the Washington Department of Mental Health, was often in the audience.
He attended high school in Saudi Arabia, where he was deeply influenced by conservative clerics. But upon returning to the United States, he devoted much of his life to the study of science, receiving bachelor's degrees in biology and computer science and, later, a Ph.D. in computational biology - used in gene sequencing - from George Mason University.
A statement posted on a Web site run by Mr. Timimi's supporters compared him with persecuted Islamic scholars of the past. "As Allah said in the Koran: 'And they witnessed what they were doing against the believers. They had nothing against them, except that they believed in God, the Almighty, worthy of all praise!' " the statement said.
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Va. cleric guilty of soliciting to levy war
In the days after 9/11, he exhorted others to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops; he faces life in prison
The Associated Press
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Common%2FMGArticle%2FPrintVersion&c=MGArticle&cid=1031782383012&image=timesdispatch80x60.gif&oasDN=timesdispatch.com
ALEXANDRIA -- A prominent Islamic scholar was convicted yesterday of exhorting his followers in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops.
The convictions against Ali al-Timimi, 41, of Fairfax County carry a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison without parole.
The jury convicted al-Timimi after seven days of deliberations on all 10 counts brought by the government, including soliciting others to levy war against the United States, inducing others to aid the Taliban, and inducing others to use firearms in violation of federal law. It is the firearms convictions that require mandatory life imprisonment.
Al-Timimi becomes the 10th person convicted in the government's prosecution of what it called a "Virginia jihad network." Two were acquitted.
U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema agreed to allow al-Timimi to remain free on bond pending his sentencing in July. Prosecutors argued that convictions on such serious charges required the judge to immediately revoke bond, but Brinkema said the law allows her discretion "when there is a reasonable basis for reversal" of the convictions on some counts.
"Obviously, we're disappointed in the verdict," de- fense lawyer Edward MacMahon said. "We'll file a motion to set aside the verdict and to request a new trial."
In a statement after the verdict, U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty said: "By his treasonous criminal acts, he has proven himself to be a kingpin of hate against America. He not only wanted Americans to die, he recruited others to his cause at a time when our country was mourning the loss of more than 3,000 people who were murdered in a heinous act of terrorism."
Prosecutors said al-Timimi -- a native U.S. citizen who has an international following in some Muslim circles -- enjoyed "rock star" status among a group of young Muslim men in the Northern Virginia area who played paintball games in 2000 and 2001 as a means of training for holy war around the globe.
On Sept. 16, 2001, al-Timimi addressed a small group of his followers in a secret meeting at a Fairfax home and warned that Sept. 11 was a harbinger of a final apocalyptic battle between Muslims and nonbelievers. He said they were required as Muslims to defend the Taliban and its leader, Mullah Omar, from a looming U.S. invasion, according to the government.
While nobody ever joined the Taliban, four of al-Timimi's followers subsequently traveled to Pakistan later that month and trained with a militant group called Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Three of those four testified at al-Timimi's trial that their intention had been to use the training they received from Lashkar to join the Taliban and fight in Afghanistan, and that it was al-Timimi's speech that inspired them to do so.
The three who testified against al-Timimi have all struck plea bargains with the government, and the defense contended they were lying in the hopes that prosecutors will agree to reduce their prison sentences.
Al-Timimi's lawyers disputed the notion that the men were his "followers" and contended that he merely suggested migration to a Muslim nation because it might be difficult to practice Islam in the U.S. after Sept. 11. The defense also contended that leaders in the paintball group had been urging members to train with Lashkar-e-Taiba well before Sept. 11 and well before the government alleged any misconduct by al-Timimi.
Finally, the defense had contended the prosecution of al-Timimi was an assault on his religious and free-speech rights. Prosecutors introduced evidence of anti-American speeches and commentary by al-Timimi that they said was relevant to show his motivation to incite war against the United States.
The evidence included a 2003 e-mail in which al-Timimi described the space shuttle Columbia disaster as "a good omen" that "Western supremacy [especially that of America] that began 500 years ago is coming to an end, God willing."
Al-Timimi, who last year obtained a doctorate in computational biology from George Mason University after completing a doctoral dissertation related to cancer research, had been calm almost to the point of uninterest throughout the week of jury deliberations. He spent much of the time reading Genome Technology and other scientific journals.
This story can be found at: http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031782383012
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Lakhani convicted in U.S. weapons case
Thu Apr 28, 2005 04:20 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=8317930&type=topNews
By Christine Kearney
NEWARK, N.J. (Reuters) - An Indian-born British businessman was found guilty on Wednesday of trying to aid terrorists for selling a shoulder-launched missile to an informant posing as a militant seeking to attack the United States.
Hemant Lakhani, 69, a British citizen born in India, was found guilty of five criminal charges by a U.S. District Court jury in Newark, New Jersey, that began deliberating on Tuesday.
Lakhani was arrested in August 2003 after a two-year international sting operation and accused of trying to provide material support to terrorists, unlawful arms sales, smuggling and two counts of money laundering.
His arrest was among the first terrorism arrests on U.S. soil after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. U.S. authorities described him as a major arms dealer and the case as a major blow in the war against terrorism. Defense lawyers portrayed him as a hapless businessman caught in a setup.
"Today is a triumph for the Justice Department in the war against terrorism," said U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie.
"Mr. Lakhani was engaged in a scheme willingly, knowingly and anxiously to sell arms to be used against American citizens," he said. "The evidence showed he was enthusiastic about what death and destruction might result."
During the trial that began in January, prosecutors provided videotapes and taped telephone conversations of Lakhani making the deal with an undercover FBI informant posing as an Islamic militant. They said Lakhani spoke admiringly of Osama bin Laden and claimed his missiles could shoot down up to 15 airplanes.
Prosecutors also said Lakhani went frequently to Ukraine to buy Russian-made missiles he hoped to sell to a Somali militant group.
JUROR: "IT WAS BLACK AND WHITE"
Juror June Cantor, 46, said after the verdict that the evidence was overwhelming.
"It was black and white, there were films, there were transcripts, and in over 500 exhibits we could not find that he was reluctant or questioning," she said. "He was not entrapped."
Defense attorney Henry Klingeman said Lakhani was disappointed by the verdicts and said it seemed the jury was convinced by the videotapes.
"The best evidence and the only evidence was Mr. Lakhani's own words, and that is what did him in," he said. Lakhani did not testify in his own defense.
The jury deliberated just seven and a half hours.
Cantor said she believed Lakhani was motivated by greed rather than hatred of America and noted that the jury that decided his fate was influenced by their memories of the Sept. 11 attacks that flattened New York's landmark twin towers.
"It is hard not to separate your emotions because we are Americans and we went through 9/11 and he was so enthusiastic," she said.
Sentencing was set for Aug. 8. The most serious charge against Lakhani carries the possibility of 15 years in prison.
Lakhani was arrested in a New Jersey hotel room while he was demonstrating a sample shoulder-fired missile to an informant posing as a Somali terrorist.
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April 26, 2005 Edition > Section: National > Printer-Friendly Version
Trial of Sami Al-Arian May Impact Both Political Camps in Washington
BY JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
April 26, 2005
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/12800
A terrorism trial set to get under way in Florida next month could have repercussions for Washington politicians at both ends of the political spectrum.
Lawyers for a former computer science professor charged with being the head of the American branch of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Sami Al-Arian, have named more than 20 political figures with whom he claims to have had conversations in the years leading up to his indictment in 2003.
The figures cited in the case include Presidents Bush and Clinton, Senator Clinton, and a top adviser to Mr. Bush, Karl Rove.
In a letter filed in federal court in Tampa last week, a lawyer for Mr. Al-Arian, William Moffitt, said he believes surveillance tapes may exist of his client speaking with Republicans such as House Speaker Dennis Hastert, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, and Senator Lott of Mississippi. Mr. Al-Arian may also have had recorded contacts with Democrats, including Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, Rep. James Moran of Virginia, Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, and the former House minority whip, David Bonior, according to the letter, which asked prosecutors to turn over all such recordings to the defense.
Mr. Moffitt said in a brief interview yesterday that he now has obtained tapes or transcripts of some of those conversations. "Some of them are no longer missing," the defense attorney said.
Mr. Moffitt said if he seeks to use those recordings, he might call some of the politicians on the list to testify to the tapes' accuracy. However, he declined yesterday to be more specific about whom he might subpoena. Mr. Moffitt said he was reluctant to telegraph his strategy to prosecutors.
"There's no way I should be forced to exchange a witness list," Mr. Moffitt said. "I'm not in a position to say whether some of those people will be called or not."
Mr. Al-Arian and three other men are scheduled to go on trial May 16 on charges they operated as an American front for Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group that has waged a campaign of bombings and other violent attacks against military and civilian targets in Israel. Mr. Al-Arian, 47, faces charges of racketeering conspiracy, extortion, money laundering, and providing material support to a terrorist organization.
A Washington-based terrorism expert who has tracked Mr. Al-Arian's activities for more than a decade, Steven Emerson, said the defense's gambit to expose Mr. Al-Arian's political Rolodex could leave many politicians red-faced. "It will certainly be embarrassing to the leaders who met with Al-Arian, and it will be embarrassing to the political consultants who met with Al-Arian," Mr. Emerson said.
The letter listing Mr. Al-Arian's alleged political contacts is dated September 2004, but was filed recently as part of a government bid to block his lawyers from arguing at trial that his actions were part of a legitimate political campaign on behalf of Palestinians.
The public filing of the politicians' names was first reported by the Tampa Tribune.
After recounting Mr. Al-Arian's meetings with Mr. Bush, Mr. Clinton, and others, Mr. Moffitt wrote, "Dr. Al-Arian's access to these political figures coupled with the fact that there was public source information regarding many of the contentions that form the basis of the government's indictment seem to belie the notion that Dr. Al-Arian was in any way considered by anyone in the intelligence or law enforcement communities to be any kind of threat to the United States or a threat to harm any officials of the United States."
Among others named in the letter as contacts of Mr. Al-Arian were: a former chief of counterterrorism at the CIA, Vincent Cannistraro; a Republican political consultant, Grover Norquist; a former Republican congressman from Georgia, Bob Barr; a former Republican congressman and homeland security official, Asa Hutchinson; Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia, a Democrat; Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, a Democrat; Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, a Republican, and a former Republican senator from Michigan who recently stepped down as energy secretary, Spencer Abraham.
Most of those named either declined to comment or could not be reached.
Mr. Cannistraro confirmed that he has been subpoenaed to testify as a witness for the prosecution in the case, but he declined further comment.
Mr. Frank said in an interview he was confident he had never spoken with Mr. Al-Arian. "I certainly never talked to him. I'd remember that," the congressman said. "I've never heard of this guy before, to my knowledge."
Mr. Frank said his staff had searched his files for any correspondence from Mr. Al-Arian and found nothing.
In the late 1990s and the early years of this decade, Mr. Al-Arian, a Kuwaiti-born naturalized American, was politically active on behalf of Palestinian Arab and Arab-American causes. He was also secretly under regular court-ordered surveillance as a suspected terrorist. During that time, Mr. Al-Arian led a campaign against the use of classified evidence in deportation proceedings, such as one involving his brother, Mazen Al-Najjar.
That campaign, which drew support from civil libertarians on the left and the right, coincided with a determined attempt by Republicans to court Arab-American voters. The overlap of these two efforts helped Mr. Al-Arian win audiences with prominent political figures.
In the waning days of the 2000 presidential race, Mr. Bush unexpectedly embraced legislation that would have prohibited the government from using so-called secret evidence in deportation cases, unless officials were willing to share at least a summary of that evidence with the person facing expulsion from America.
"Bush rode in to appeal to Muslims," Mr. Emerson said. "There's no doubt that the Republican advisers who had met with the Islamic groups decided it was something they were going to endorse."
In March 2000, then-candidate George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, were photographed with Mr. Al-Arian and his family at a strawberry festival in Florida. The White House later said such photos are commonplace.
In June 2001, the Secret Service removed Mr. Al-Arian's son, Abdullah, from a meeting at the White House complex between Muslim leaders and one of Mr. Bush's top aides, Mr. Rove. Mr. Bush later wrote to Mr. Al-Arian's wife, Nahla, apologizing for her son's ejection.
In September 2001, after the terrorist attacks against America, Mr. Al-Arian had a highly publicized, heated interview with a Fox News television host, Bill O'Reilly. Soon thereafter, Mr. Al-Arian began receiving threats and was put on paid leave by the University of South Florida. The school, which had faced years of pressure to take action against the professor, fired him after he was indicted in February 2003.
A former terrorism prosecutor, Andrew McCarthy, called the elder Mr. Al-Arian's entree at the White House and on Capitol Hill "extremely curious." However, he said that as a legal matter, Mr. Al-Arian's political contact should be excluded from the trial as irrelevant.
"It wouldn't matter what President Bush or President Clinton thought," Mr. McCarthy said.
A defense motion to change the trial venue, currently set for Tampa, is expected to be filed later this week.
Correction from April 27, 2005
Brother-in-law is the relationship of Mazen Al-Najjar to a man at the center of an upcoming terrorism trial in Tampa, Sami Al-Arian. A story on page 1 of yesterday's New York Sun described their relationship inaccurately.
April 26, 2005 Edition > Section: National
posted by JDS at 3:19 PM
