Prosecutors Say Attorney Supported Terror Yet Got Light Sentence

Lynne Stewart was sentenced to two years and four months in prison, escaping a maximum punishment of 30 years behind bars.^[1] Prosecutors assert that Stewart and co-defendants helped spread blind sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman's call to kill those who did not subscribe to his extremist interpretation of Islamic law.^[2] The prosecutor wants a harsher sentence because Stewart received a "slap on the wrist," in their opinion.^[3]

Stewart is a civil rights attorney and Abdel-Rahman, who was sentenced to life in prison for plotting to blow up five New York landmarks and assassinate Egypt's president, was one of Stewart's clients.^[4]

Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Barkow told a three-judge panel of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday that the case should be returned to Judge John G. Koeltl for resentencing, arguing that the trial judge made a mistake in being lenient because no violent acts could be traced to the messages.^[5]

Stewart was arrested six months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and she was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to provide and conceal material support to terrorist activity and providing and concealing material support to terrorist activity in 2005; she also was convicted of two counts of making false statements.^[6]

Barkow told a three-judge panel of the appeals court that the trial judge was wrong not to apply a terrorism enhancement to the Stewart’s conviction on charges that she smuggled messages between Abdel-Rahman and senior members of an Egyptian-based terrorist organization.^[7]

The appeals panel did not immediately rule, as two of the judges have made differing decisions; the third judge and likely swing vote on the panel, Robert Sack, did not join the discussion.^[8]

Providing material support to a terrorist organization is covered under 18 U.S.C. § 2339B underwhich it states that it is a crime to knowingly provide, attempt to provide, or conspirer to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization. The penalty for this is a fine or imprisonment for not more than 15 years, or both, and, if the death of any person results, shall be imprisonment for any term of years or for life.^[9]

“Material support” is defined as any property, tangible or intangible, or service, including currency or monetary instruments or financial securities, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safehouses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel (1 or more individuals who may be or include oneself), and transportation, except medicine or religious materials.^[10]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has discussed the terrorism crime of providing support to terrorists extensively in this blog; these posts can be accessed here. He has also written extensively on terrorist financing.

---

^[1] Larry Neumeister, Plea for New Sentence in NY Terror Case, January 30, 2008, January 9, 2008, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] 18 U.S.C. § 2339B (2007).
^[10] 18 U.S.C. § 2339A(b)(1)(2005).

Former Michigan Congressman Indicted for Terrorism Support

Former Michigan congressman and delegate to the United Nations, Mark Deli Siljander, was indicted Wednesday on charges of being part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to a supporter of al-Qaida and the Taliban.^[1]

Siljander is charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists.^[2] The 42-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., accuses the Islamic American Relief Agency(IARA) of paying Siljander $50,000 for the lobbying — money that turned out to be stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development.^[3]

The government asserts that IARA employed a man who had served as a fundraising aide to Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader and mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.^[4]

The indictment accuses IARA of sending approximately $130,000 to help Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United States has designated a global terrorist.^[5] The money, sent to bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 2003 and 2004, was masked as donations to an orphanage located in buildings that Hekmatyar owned.^[6]

The indictment says Siljander was hired by IARA in March 2004 to lobby the Senate Finance Committee in an effort to remove the charity from the panel's list of suspected terror fundraisers.^[7] For his work, IARA allegedly paid Siljander with money that had come from U.S. government funding.^[8] The charity was awarded the money years earlier for relief work it promised to perform in Africa, and IARA was supposed to return any unused funds after the relief project ended in 1999.^[9]

Instead it is asserted that Siljander and three IARA officers agreed to cover up the money's origins and use it on the lobbying effort.^[10]

Obstruction of Justice
Under 18 U.S.C. § 1503(a), it is a crime for a person to corruptly influence, obstruct, or impede the due administration of justice. The punishment for a violation of section 1503(a) is a fine, imprisonment for up to 10 years, or both.Federal criminal attorney Douglas McNabb has also previously discussed obstruction of justice in his blog, here; and money laundering, here.

---

^[1] Lara Jakes Jordan, Ex-Lawmaker Charged in Terror Conspiracy, Associated Press Newswire, January 16, 2008, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.

Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari Asserts that He Was Not Trying to Support Terror, Just Himself

Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari has been accused of trying to funnel money to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan told a judge his dealings with an undercover operative were to enrich himself, not to help the enemy.^[1]

Alishtari is charged with accepting an unspecified amount of money to transfer $152,000 that he believed was being sent to Pakistan and Afghanistan to support the camp.^[2] He has fervently pleaded not guilty in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan to charges of terrorism financing, material support of terrorism and money laundering.^[3] The charges carried a potential penalty of 95 years in prison.^[4]

Recordings secretly made by federal agents show that Alishtari "was interested more in the profit potential of the undercover's supposed money backers and himself than he was to their 'cause,'" his lawyers wrote in a letter this week to the judge.^[5]

Alishtari was allegedly hoping the undercover agent, who passed himself off as a wealthy Middle Easterner, would invest in Flat Electronic Data Interchange, a loan investment program he was running; federal prosecutors have called it a fraud.^[6]

Contributing or supplying services to designated terrorist groups (or conspiring to contribute or supply services to these entities), is a violation of regulations issued under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act,^[7] we have previously discussed IEEPA in this blog, here.

Providing material support to a terrorist organization is covered under 18 U.S.C. § 2339B underwhich it states that it is a crime to knowingly provide, attempt to provide, or conspirer to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization. The penalty for this is a fine or imprisonment for not more than 15 years, or both, and, if the death of any person results, shall be imprisonment for any term of years or for life.^[8]

“Material support” is defined as any property, tangible or intangible, or service, including currency or monetary instruments or financial securities, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safehouses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel (1 or more individuals who may be or include oneself), and transportation, except medicine or religious materials.^[9]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has discussed the terrorism crime of providing support to terrorists extensively in this blog; these posts can be accessed here. He has also written extensively on terrorist financing.

---

^[1] AP Staff, Man Says He Didn't Try to Fund Terrorism, Associated Press Newswire, January 4, 2008, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] 50 U.S.C. §§ 1701-07 (2007).
^[8] 18 U.S.C. § 2339B (2007).
^[9] 18 U.S.C. § 2339A(b)(1)(2005).

Hicks to be Released: Update

David Hicks, the only person sentenced by the U.S. military commissions set up to try suspected terrorists, was scheduled to walk out of prison in Australia on Saturday morning, after serving nine months for having given support to a terrorist organization.^[1]

Hicks had been held at the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for more than five years before his appearance in front of the military commission in March, when he pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain.^[2] He also agreed not to speak to the press for one year.^[3]

Though Hicks will be out of prison for the first time in more than six years, he can hardly be called a free man.^[4] The Australian government has imposed a "control order" on him. He is limited to one e-mail account, one mobile phone number and one fixed-line number, which must be registered with the police - presumably to make it easier for the police to monitor his calls.^[5] He is also under a midnight to 6 a.m. curfew, and must report to the police three times a week.^[6]

The strict conditions have surprised, and disappointed, many in Austrialia who thought that the center-left Labor government under Kevin Rudd, which ousted John Howard's center-right Liberal government in an election last month, would take a more pro-civil liberties line.^[7]

Australian intelligence and law enforcement officials have been divided over just how much of a terrorist Hicks is.^[8] Senior officials in the country's domestic intelligence agencies describe him as a committed terrorist; Law enforcement officials see him as a lost soul.^[9]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has discussed the terrorism crime of providing support to terrorists extensively in this blog; these posts can be accessed here. David Hicks case has been discussed here.

---

^[1] Raymond Bonner, David Hicks, Australian convicted of supporting terrorism, to be freed, International Herald Tribune, December 28, 2007, available at http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=8939347 (last visited December 28, 2007).
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.

Al Darbi Arrested and Charged with Material Support

The Office of Military Commissions announced December 21, 2007, that charges have been sworn against Guantanamo detainee Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al Darbi of Saudi Arabia.^[1] Al Darbi, is the brother-in-law of the Flight 77 hijacker Khalid al Mihdhar, Flight 77 is the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11.^[2]

It is alleged that al Darbi traveled to Jalalabad and met with Osama bin Laden, trained at al Qaeda’s Jihad Wahl training camp and later served as a weapons instructor at another al Qaeda training camp.^[3] From 2001 through 2002, is also alleged that al Darbi moved money from al Qaeda into financial institutions for expenses related to a plot to attack a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz or off the coast of Yemen.^[4]

The sworn charges are: Conspiring with others to attack civilians, to murder in violation of the law of war, to destroy property in violation of the law of war, to hazard a vessel and to commit terrorism, and Providing Material Support to Terrorism.^[5] Al Darbi was also allegedly involved in planning attacks on a vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and off the coast of Yemen.^[6]

He is accused, among other things, conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism under Sections 950v(b)(28) and (25) of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA).

10 U.S.C. § 950v(b)(25) under the MCA covers the crime of providing material support for terrorism. In this statute it states that it is a crime for any person subject to this chapter [10 USCS §§ 948a et seq.] who provides material support or resources, knowing or intending that they are to be used in preparation for, or in carrying out, an act of terrorism, or who intentionally provides material support or resources to an international terrorist organization engaged in hostilities against the United States, knowing that such organization has engaged or engages in terrorism (as so set forth), shall be punished as a military commission under this chapter [10 USCS §§ 948a et seq.] may direct.^[7] Material support or resources defined. In this paragraph, the term "material support or resources" has the meaning given that term in section 2339A(b) of title 18 [18 USCS § 2339A(b)].^[8]

Conspiracy is covered in the MCA under 10 U.S.C. § 950v(b)(28), wherein it states that it is a crime for any person subject to this chapter who conspires to commit one or more substantive offenses triable by military commission under this chapter and who knowingly does any overt act to effect the object of the conspiracy, shall be punished, if death results to one or more of the victims, by death or such other punishment as a military commission under this chapter may direct, and, if death does not result to any of the victims, by such punishment, other than death, as a military commission under this chapter may direct.^[9]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has discussed the terrorism crime of providing support to terrorists extensively in this blog; these posts can be accessed here.

---

^[1] AP Staff, US: Suspect Is Kin to 9/11 Hijacker, Associated Press Newswire, December 21, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services File.
^[2] Id.
^[3] US Dept. of Defense, Guantanamo Detainee Charged, Press Release, December 21, 2007, available at http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11583 (last visited December 23, 2007).
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] 10 U.S.C. § 950v(b)(25)(A)(2007).
^[8] Id. at § 950v(b)(25)(B).
^[9] Id. at § 950v(b)(28).

Treasury Designates New Terrorist Charity

The U.S. Department of the Treasury today targeted the support network of the designated terrorist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam^[1] (Tamil Tigers) by designating a charitable organization that allegedly acts as a front to facilitate fundraising and procurement for the Tamil Tigers.^[2] Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) was designated today under Executive Order 13224, which is aimed at financially isolating terrorist groups and their support networks.^[3]

"TRO passed off its operations as charitable, when in fact it was raising money for a designated terrorist group responsible for heinous acts of terrorism," said Adam J. Szubin, Director of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.^[4]

In the United States, it is asserted that TRO has raised funds on behalf of the Tamil Tigers through a network of individual representatives, and according to sources within the organization, TRO is the preferred conduit of funds from the United States to the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.^[5] TRO has also allegedly facilitated Tamil Tigers procurement operations in the United States. Those operations included the purchase of munitions, equipment, communication devices, and other technology for the Tamil Tigers.^[6]

TRO's efforts worldwide reportedly have allowed the Tamil Tigers to use humanitarian aid, which TRO collected from the international community after the December 2004 tsunami, to launch new campaigns to strengthen the Tigers military capacity.^[7]

According to its website, TRO maintains a headquarters office in Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka and operates branch offices throughout Sri Lanka and in seventeen countries worldwide.^[8]

The Treasury department asserts that Tamil Tigers oversees the activities of TRO and other Tamil Tigers-linked non-governmental organizations in Sri Lanka and abroad.^[9] Directives issued by the Tamil Tigers suggest that Tamil Tigers-affiliated branch representatives are expected to coordinate their efforts with the respective TRO representatives in their locations and report all activity to the Tamil Tigers.^[10]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has previously discussed the Tamil Tigers in his terrorism crimes blog. These posts can be found here, and here. Discussions of the tigers can also be found in his transnational crimes blog, which can be found here, and here.

---

^[1] The U.S. Department of State designated the Tamil Tigers a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) on October 8, 1997, in accordance with Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended. On November 2, 2001, the U.S. Department of State named the Tamil Tigers a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under E.O. 13224. Additionally, the Tamil Tigers is listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and Canada.
^[2] U.S. Dep’t of Treasury, Press Release, Treasury Targets Charity Covertly Supporting Violence in Sri Lanka, November 15, 2007, available at http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp683.htm (last visited November 15, 2007).
^[3] The Treasury Department is taking this action today pursuant to Executive Order 13224, which freezes any assets the designees may have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits U.S. persons from transacting with the designees.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] These include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.

Jury Reaches Verdict in Holy Land Case: Update

Jurors who deliberated 19 days reached a verdict Thursday in the trial of former leaders of a Muslim charity accused of funneling millions of dollars in illegal aid to Middle Eastern terrorists.^[1]

The decision will be made public on Monday, October 22, this is because Federal District Judge A. Joe Fish, who presided over the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development case, was out of town, and the magistrate who took the jury's verdict said he was not legally empowered to read it.^[2]

The defendants could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted, after jurors heard two months of FBI and Israeli testimony.^[3] The testimony described thousands of pages of documents and hours of videotapes seized from Holy Land, from former associates of the group, and from Palestinian charities that got money from Holy Land.^[4]

Holy Land was the largest Muslim charity in the United States. In December 2001, President Bush appeared at a Rose Garden news conference to announce that its assets had been seized and said, ''[t]he net is closing'' on those who finance terrorists.^[5]

The government is asserting that Holy Land funneled more than $12 million to Palestinian schools and charities controlled by Hamas after the U.S. government had already declared Hamas a terrorist group, thus making the asserted support illegal.^[6] The Prosecution’s case relies heavily on thousands of pages of documents such as bank records and on video and audio tapes that showed some of the defendants meeting with Hamas members and supporters.^[7]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has discussed this case extensively in his terrorism crimes blog. These posts can be found here, here and here.

---

^[1] David Koenig, Verdict to be read Monday in trial of Muslim charity, Associated Press Newswire, October 18, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services File.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] David Koenig, Muslim charity trial enters closing stages, Associated Press Newswire, September 17, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.

Warsame's Confinement Decision Postponed

U.S. District Judge John R. Tunheim originally ordered terror suspect Mohamed Warsame transferred to more typical pretrial detention and said he must continue to be held without bail until his trial.^[1]

Warsame was attending college in Minneapolis in 2003 when FBI agents questioned him about time he allegedly spent in two terrorist training camps in Afghanistan three years earlier.^[2] Federal agents interviewed Warsame in his home on Dec. 8, 2003, and following that they arrested him as a material witness.^[3] Warsame was indicted about six weeks later in Minneapolis on charges of conspiring to provide material support to the Al-Qaida terrorist organization and of lying to federal agents about traveling to Afghanistan and sending $2,000 to an associate there.^[4]

Judge Tunheim suppressed some of the evidence in the case in May, and government prosecutors appealed on June 28; Warsame accused prosecutors of stalling and petitioned Tunheim to release him until his trial.^[5]

Tunheim rejected Warsame's motion on August 31st, saying he had presented no new information affecting the original detention order, which found him a flight risk and a risk to public safety.^[6] "He asserts that he is less likely to flee now than when he was originally detained because his wife and child are now in school, but that fact does not minimize the risk Warsame poses to the public safety or guarantee Warsame's presence at trial," asserted the judge.^[7]

However, now, Tunheim is postponing his Aug 31 order that would have eased the conditions of the confinement of Warsame.^[8] On Friday, September 28, Tunheim ruled that his Aug. 31 order to transfer Warsame to a more normal detention facility should be postponed while the court considers the prosecution's arguments to keep holding Warsame under special circumstances.^[9] Warsame, a Canadian citizen of Somali descent, reportedly has been held in solitary confinement at the Oak Park Heights prison.^[10]

False Statements False Statements are covered under 18 U.S.C §1001. wherein it states that a) except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully 1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;^[11] 2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or^[12] 3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;^[13] shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years or, if the offense involves international or domestic terrorism (as defined in section 2331), imprisoned not more than 8 years, or both.^[14]

Conspiracy
18 U.S.C. § 371 states that it is a violation of law for "two or more persons" to conspire
to commit any offense against the United States, or " to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, if one or more of such persons does any act to effect the object of the conspiracy.^[15]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has discussed the terrorism crime of providing support to terrorists extensively in this blog; these posts can be accessed here.

---

^[1] AP Staff, Judge Orders Terror Suspect Warsame's Confinement, Associated Press Newswire, September 1, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] AP Staff, Judge Delays Order To Ease Warsame's Confinement, Associated Press Newswire September 28, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services.
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.
^[11] 18 U.S.C §1001(a)(q)(2007).
^[12] Id. at §1001(a)(2).
^[13] Id. at §1001(a)(3).
^[14] Id.
^[15] 18 U.S.C. § 371 (2005).

39 Count Indicment Includes Charges for Supporting Terror

A federal grand jury indicted 39 defendants in an international money laundering case that includes one person accused of concealing terrorist financing, the U.S. attorney's office announced Thursday.^[1]

The four-year undercover investigation targeted defendants in the United States, Belgium, Canada and Spain, U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said.^[2] In the U.S. the raids related to the case were conducted at two gas station convenience stores and a home in Snow Hill, on Maryland's Eastern Shore.^[3]

The investigation resulted in charges of money laundering, conspiracy to bribe a public official, and operating unlicensed money transmission businesses. Cooperating witnesses involved in the investigation posed as drug smugglers, cigarette smugglers and other criminals, including a terrorist who wanted to send money to al-Qaida.^[4] The undercover witnesses asked the defendants to help transfer money and once completed the authorites were alerted as to the transactions.^[5]

Providing material support to terrorists is covered under 18 U.S.C. § 2339A, wherein it states that whoever provides material support or resources or conceals or disguises the nature, location, source, or ownership of material support or resources, knowing or intending that they are to be used in preparation for, or in carrying out, a violation of section 32, 37, 81, 175, 229, 351, 831, 842 (m) or (n), 844 (f) or (i), 930(c), 956, 1114, 1116, 1203, 1361, 1362, 1363, 1366, 1751, 1992, 1993, 2155, 2156, 2280, 2281, 2332, 2332a, 2332b, 2332f, or 2340A of this title [18 U.S.C.S § 32, 37, 81, 175, 229, 351, 831, 842 (m) or (n), 844 (f) or (i), 930(c), 956, 1114, 1116, 1203, 1361, 1362, 1363, 1366, 1751, 1992, 1993, 2155, 2156, 2280, 2281, 2332, 2332a, 2332b, 2332f, or 2340A ], section 236 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2284), or section 46502 or 60123(b) of title 49, or in preparation for, or in carrying out, the concealment of an escape from the commission of any such violation, or attempts or conspires to do such an act, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both, and, if the death of any person results, shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life.^[6]

A violation of this section may be prosecuted in any Federal judicial district in which the underlying offense was committed, or in any other Federal judicial district as provided by law.^[7]

Section 2339A (b) defines the term "material support or resources" as something that is currency or a monetary instrument or financial security, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safehouses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel, transportation, and other physical assets, except medicine or religious materials.^[8]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has discussed the terrorism crime of providing support to terrorists extensively in this blog; these posts can be accessed here.

---

^[1] AP Staff, Terror ties alleged in money-laundering case; 39 indicted, Associated Press Newswire, September 21, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id. Those transfers were between Maryland, New York, Spain and Australia using an informal system known as hawala, according to court documents. One, in Barcelona, involved a transfer equivalent to more than $450,000.
^[6] 18 U.S.C. § 2339A(a)(2007).
^[7] Id., at § 2339A
^[8] Id., at § 2339A(b)

Monzer al-Kassar Goes on Hunger Strike

Monzer al-Kassar, a Syrian businessman, has been indicted by the United States on charges of plotting to supply weapons to Colombian rebels.^[1] It is asserted that the weapons where to be used in attacks on American forces in Columbia.^[2] Al-Kassar has been jailed in Spain since June, when he was arrested on a U.S. warrant and, as of Monday, has gone on a hunger strike in his Spanish jail.^[3]

No one know’s the suspect's reasons for the protest, however the newspaper El Mundo reported that al-Kassar complained in a letter to the prison warden that he is suffering ''psychological pressure'' from agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.^[4]

Al-Kassar, asserted that he would explain this treatment when he goes before Spain's National Court for an extradition hearing, however no date for this hearing has yet been set. ''I am being treated properly, with all my rights as a prisoner in solitary confinement respected……..This strike is not aimed at you,” al-Kassar wrote to prison director Julian Maillo.^[5]

Al-Kassar was arrested at Madrid airport in June and is being held at a high-security prison outside Madrid.^[6] It is asserted that undercover DEA agents arranged a fictitious deal with al-Kassar, convincing him they represented rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia(FARC) and wanted to buy surface-to-air missile systems, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, thousands of machine guns and millions of rounds of ammunition for the group.^[7] Al-Kassar and his cohorts were told the missile systems were intended to take down U.S. helicopters aiding Colombia's battle against drug traffickers.^[8]

Front of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), Latin America's oldest and largest leftist guerrilla force.^[9] While the United States considers the FARC a terrorist organization, the FARC says it's fighting for the rights of the rural poor against the interests of the wealthy ruling elites.^[10]

The U.S. indictment charges al-Kassar with conspiring to support terrorists, conspiring to kill U.S. soldiers, conspiring to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, and money laundering.^[11]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has discussed the terrorism crime of providing support to terrorists extensively in this blog; these posts can be accessed here.

---

^[1] Daniel Woolls, Syrian accused of plotting illegal arms deal begins hunger strike in Spain, Associated Press Newswire, September 12, 2007, available at available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services File.
^[2] Id
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Pablo Bachelet, Colombian Guerrilla Awaits a Decision in Drug-Trafficking Trial, McClatchy Newspapers ( via Kansas City Star), February 09, 2007, available at http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/16664893.htm (last visited September 12, 2007).
^[10] Id.
^[11] Woolls, supra note 1.

Padilla Convicted on All Charges

A federal jury in Miami on Thursday convicted Jose Padilla on charges of aiding terrorist operations abroad.^[1] The verdict follows a long and controversial legal battle that pitted the Bush administration against civil liberties groups over how terrorism suspects are detained and should be prosecuted.^[2]

Padilla, a U.S. citizen arrested with fanfare in 2002 on charges that he planned to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb" in this country, was never tried on those charges.^[3] Instead, his case was combined with that of two other defendants accused of, among other things, conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people abroad and providing material support for terrorism.^[4]

Padilla and codefendants Adham Amin Hassoun, and Kifah Wael Jayyousi were convicted on all charges.^[5] They were accused of being part of a North American support cell that operated in U.S. cities and in Canada and was designed to send money, other assets and fighters to Islamic extremists overseas.^[6]

Padilla’s trial on terrorism charges, begun under extraordinarily high security in April, was the first significant test of a terrorist case moved out of the enemy combatant program and placed in the hands of a public jury.^[7] The government's success in the Padilla case could now encourage officials to bring other enemy combatants into federal courtrooms.^[8] "This clearly shows that in some cases, yes, the process can handle it….You have to look at it on a case-by-case basis. And these particular charges did work in a regular criminal trial,” Deputy Atty. Gen. Craig S. Morford asserted.^[9]

Key government evidence was a "mujahedin data form" that Padilla filled in July 2000 to join extremists "in preparation for violent jihad training in Afghanistan,” as well as a statement he made embracing Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.^[10] Government testimony and evidence also showed that the three raised money and provided manpower to extremist groups abroad, especially in places such as Bosnia, Chechnya and Afghanistan where Muslims were engaged in conflicts.^[11]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has discussed Padilla’s case extensively in this blog; these posts can be accessed here. Posts discussing the crime of providing material support to a terrorist organization can also be found here.

---

^[1] Richard A. Serrano, Padilla guilty on all counts in terror case, Los Angeles Times, August 17, 2007, available at http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-padilla17.1aug17,1,5567340.story?page=1&coll=la-headlines-nation (last visited August 27, 2007).
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.
^[11] Id.

Closing Arguments Set in Padilla Case

Five years and three months after he was arrested and accused of involvement in an al-Qaida "dirty bomb" plot, Jose Padilla's case will finally be left up to the jury.^[1] Prosecutors were scheduled Monday to begin closing arguments in the trial of Padilla and co-defendants Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi on terrorism support charges that do not include the "dirty bomb" allegations.^[2]

Prosecutors want jurors to convict Padilla largely on a five-page "mujahedeen data form" he supposedly filled out in 2000 to attend an al-Qaida terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.^[3] The 36-year-old U.S. citizen was held as an enemy combatant for 3 1/2 years.^[4]

The CIA recovered the al-Qaida "mujahedeen data form" that is central in the case in Afghanistan after the U.S. invasion in late 2001.^[5] It susposedly contains seven of Padilla's fingerprints, one of his alleged Muslim alias names, his true birthday, notes the applicant's ability to speak English, Spanish and Arabic and has other identifying details.^[6]

But there is little other hard evidence linking Padilla, a Muslim convert, to al-Qaida or to the alleged North American terror support cell prosecutors say was operated by Hassoun, Jayyousi and others.^[7] Thousands of hours of FBI wiretap intercepts from 1993 to 2001 include numerous conversations of Hassoun and Jayyousi, but Padilla's voice is heard on only seven.^[8]

Padilla's defense called no witnesses on his behalf and introduced no evidence.^[9] His federal criminal defense lawyers adopted the risky strategy of suggesting to the jurors that prosecutors failed to prove he conspired with the others or provided material support to terrorists.^[10] FBI agents testified that the telephone conversations were often in code, with "football" or "tourism" meaning "jihad" and words such as "zucchini" and "eggplant" meaning weapons or ammunition.^[11] Yet Padilla was never heard using such code, testimony showed.^[12]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has discussed Padilla’s case extensively in this blog; these posts can be accessed here.

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^[1] Curt Anderson, Closings Set in Padilla Terror Trial, Associated Press Newswire, August 13, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services File.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.
^[11] Id.
^[12] Id.

Padilla Trial To Be Decided on Soon

Jurors will soon be debating the guilt or innocence of Jose Padilla and two other men on trial for alleged support of terrorism.^[1] The jurors will be instructed that they may not consider whether the defendant’s actions were justified by Islamic law or intended to protect Muslims overseas from attacks, according to the federal judge who is hearing the case.^[2]

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke agreed to a request from prosecutors to instruct the jurors that each of the men can be convicted even if they "may have believed that the conduct was religiously, politically or morally required, or that ultimate good would result."^[3] A cornerstone of the defense during the trial was the idea that Islamic teaching provides for legitimate "defensive jihad," which differs from terrorism because it is meant to counter aggression against Muslims and does not threaten innocent people.^[4]

Divining the intentions of Padilla and co-defendants Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi will be critical for jurors, who are expected to begin deliberations after closing statements Monday and Tuesday.^[5] The three are charged with being part of a North American support cell that provided finances, supplies and recruits to al-Qaida and other Islamic extremist groups.^[6]

Hassoun’s federal criminal defense attorney Ken Swartz said his closing argument will emphasize that any money or supplies provided to overseas groups was meant for humanitarian assistance and will not focus on whether violent actions might have been justified.^[7] "It's all about relief, that is not giving aid for military purposes," Swartz said. "

Defense lawyers did win some points when Cooke agreed to instruct jurors that they must find the overseas killings were premeditated in order to convict the three on the murder conspiracy charge.^[8] The prosecution was never successful in linking any defendant directly to a specific violent act or victim, focusing instead on large groups subjected to attack such as the Russian Army and general conflicts in Chechnya, Bosnia, Lebanon, Somalia and elsewhere.^[9]

To find them guilty of the most serious conspiracy charge, jurors must conclude that each defendant "specifically intended" that people overseas would be murdered, kidnapped or maimed through their actions.^[10]

Padilla, Hassoun and Jayyousi are also charged with providing material support to terrorist groups and conspiracy to provide such support, each of which carries a maximum 15-year sentence. Padilla is also charged with providing himself as one of Hassoun's recruits to al-Qaida by allegedly filling out a form in 2000 to attend a training camp in Afghanistan.^[11]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has previously discussed the charges against Padilla in his blog, here.

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^[1] AP Staff, Padilla case jurors barred from considering justification defense, Associated Press Newswire, August 9, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.
^[11] Id.

Abdi To Plead Guilty

Nuradin Abdi, a Somali immigrant, has tentatively agreed to plead guilty to plotting with a convicted al-Qaida terrorist to blow up a shopping mall the day after Thanksgiving 2003.^[1] He was due in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, to enter his plea, according to the two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the appearance had not yet happened.^[2]

Originally, Abdi was expected to plead guilty to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, an admission coming a week before the expected Aug. 6 start of his trial.^[3]

Abdi's federal criminal defense attorney, Mahir Sherif, confirmed the last-minute hearing before U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley to discuss a possible plea.^[4]

The Justice Department accused Abdi of suggesting the plan to attack an unidentified Columbus mall during an August 2002 coffee shop meeting with now-convicted terrorist Iyman Faris and a third suspect, Christopher Paul.^[5] Faris is currently serving 20 years in a maximum-security federal prison in Florence, Colo., for his role in an al-Qaida plot to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge.^[6]

Prosecutors 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.^[7] They have said the stolen numbers were never used and 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.^[8]

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 home for morning prayers.^[9]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has previously discussed the crime of providing material support to terrorists in this blog, these discussions can be found here.

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^[1] Lara Jakes Jordan, Shopping Mall Plotter to Plead Guilty, Associated Press Newswire, July 31, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services File.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.

Hashmi is First Terror Suspect Extradited to U.S.

Syed Hashmi was an American student before he was arrested last year in London on allegations of providing al-Qaida fighters with equipment to attack American soldiers was in federal custody Saturday.^[1] Hashmi is the first terror suspect extradited to the United States by British authorities.^[2]

The Pakistani native is an American citizen, but lived in Britain for the three years preceding his arrest; he was arrested boarding a plane to Pakistan at Heathrow Airport.^[3] In March, the British High Court rejected Hashmi’s claim that the U.S. arrest warrants were flawed.^[4]

Hashmi, also known as "Fahad," was indicted in May 2006 on charges of supplying unspecified equipment for al-Qaida "to fight against United States forces in Afghanistan," he was also charged with agreeing to help others provide military gear for al-Qaida to use in Pakistan.^[5]

It has been alleged that Hashmi was associated with Mohammed Junaid Babar, who pleaded guilty in August 2004 to smuggling night-vision goggles, money and military supplies to an al-Qaida official establishing a "jihad training camp" in Pakistan.^[6] Babar acknowledged meeting with a terrorist official near the Afghanistan border in the same area where the gear provided by Hashmi was allegedly brought.^[7]

Hashmi is to be arraigned Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska, and could face up to 50 years in prison if he is convicted of all charges in the three-count indictment, including the top count of conspiring to contribute funds, goods or services to the terrorist group.^[8]

Contributing or supplying services to designated terrorist groups (or conspiring to contribute or supply services to these entities), is a violation of regulations issued under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act,^[9] we have previously discussed IEEPA in this blog, here.

---

^[1] Larry McShane, Terror suspect extradited to U.S., Associated Press Newswire, May 26, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] 50 U.S.C. §§ 1701-07 (2007).

Sabir Convicted of Providing Material Support

Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir has been on trial for pledging to use his medical expertise to help al-Qaeda.^[1] Monday he was convicted of providing material support to terrorists by agreeing to treat injured al-Qaeda fighters so they could return to Iraq to battle Americans.^[2]

The case centered on an oath that Sabir and his close friend Tarik Shah made in Arabic in May 2005 to an undercover FBI agent posing as an al Qaeda recruiter.^[3] He taped both men pledging support to the militant Islamic group and "Sheikh Osama."^[4] Sabir was convicted in a U.S. district court in Manhattan, after a three-week trial that featured testimony from him and Ali Soufan, the undercover FBI agent who posed as the al-Qaeda recruiter in a sting operation that led to Sabir’s arrest.^[5]

Sabir, testified during the trial that he did not realize during the meeting that "Osama" referred to Osama bin Laden and had misunderstood the pronunciation of "al Qaeda" due to his limited Arabic; he thought the oath was a “bayat” -- a general Islamic declaration -- and only agreed to help treat his "brothers" out of his medical obligations to treat all people.^[6]

Prosecutors, however, questioned why Sabir never realized or inquired as to who he was pledging allegiance to when al Qaeda was mentioned during the four-hour meeting upwards of 14 times and "Sheikh Osama" up to 10 times.^[7]

The charges against Sabir, including conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, carry a potential maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.^[8] Shah pleaded guilty just before the trial to providing material support to a terrorist organization and agreed to serve 15 years in prison, though he has not been formally sentenced.^[9]

We have followed this case and previously discussed the crime of providing material support on this blog here and here.

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^[1] Larry Neumeister, Doctor Convicted of Supporting al-Qaida, Associated Press Newswire, May 22, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services
^[2] Id.
^[3] Edith Honan, U.S. doctor convicted of supporting al Qaeda, Reuters Newswire, May 22, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Neumeister, supra note 1.
^[6] Honan, supra note 3.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.

Tamil Tigers U.S. Director Arrested

A complaint was unsealed this morning in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn charging Karunakaran “Karuna” Kandasamy with material support of a foreign terrorist organization.^[1] Karuna is a senior U.S. representative of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers), a designated foreign terrorist organization since 1997.^[2]

Karuna was arrested in Queens, New York, and was scheduled to have his initial appearance on April 25 before United States Magistrate Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto at the U.S. Courthouse in Brooklyn.^[3] ''As alleged in the complaint, for years that [Tamil Tigers] has covertly operated within the United States drawing on America's financial resources and technological advances to further its war of terror in Sri Lanka and elsewhere….[w]e refuse to allow this to continue,'' stated U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf.^[4]

According to the complaint, Tamil Tigers was founded in 1976 and relies on terrorism, including suicide bombings, ethnic cleansing, and political assassinations to achieve its objective of establishing an independent Tamil state in northern Sri Lanka.^[5] The group's elite Black Tiger squad has conducted hundreds of suicide attacks and several assassinations, including the May 1991 assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the 1993 assassination of the President of Sri Lanka, Ranasinghe Premadasa, more than 4,000 people have been killed in the past 15 months in this escalating conflict.^[6]

The Tamil Tigers rely on compassionate Tamil expatriates residing in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, to raise and launder money; smuggle arms, explosives, equipment, and technology into Tamil Tigers-controlled territory; obtain intelligence about the Sri Lankan government; coordination of these efforts comes from the “branch offices” of the Tamil Tigers in at least 12 countries, including the United States. It is alleged that Karuna is the director of the U.S. branch in Queens.^[7]

In the summer and fall of 2004, for example, the Tigers allegedly undertook a massive worldwide campaign to raise money for its planned offensive against the Sri Lankan government in late 2005.^[8] In support of this planned offensive, Karuna allegedly held fundraising events in November and December 2004 at a church and a public high school in Queens, New York, and a school in South Brunswick, New Jersey; hundreds attended.^[9]
He is also accused of arranging meetings in Sri Lanka between Tamil Tigers leaders and prominent U.S. supporters, who typically have backgrounds in engineering, technology, weaponry, medicine, and other scientific fields.^[10]

Whoever provides “material support” or resources or conceals or disguises the nature, location, source, or ownership of material support or resources, knowing or intending that they are to be used in preparation for, or in carrying out, a violation of §§ 32, 37, 81, 175, 229, 351, 831, 842 (m) or (n), 844 (f) or (i), 930 (c), 956, 1114, 1116, 1203, 1361, 1362, 1363, 1366, 1751, 1992, 1993, 2155, 2156, 2280, 2281, 2332, 2332a, 2332b, 2332f, or 2340A of title 18, section 236 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2284), §46502 or §60123 (b) of title 49, or any offense listed in section 2332b (g)(5)(B) (except for sections 2339A and 2339B) or in preparation for, or in carrying out, the concealment of an escape from the commission of any such violation, or attempts or conspires to do such an act, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both, and, if the death of any person results, shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life.^[11]

A violation of §2339A may be prosecuted in any Federal judicial district in which the underlying offense was committed, or in any other Federal judicial district as provided by law.^[12] “Material support” is defined as any property, tangible or intangible, or service, including currency or monetary instruments or financial securities, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safe-houses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel (one or more individuals who may be, or include, oneself), and transportation, except medicine or religious materials.^[13]

---

^[1] U.S. Dep’t of Justice Press Release, Leader of U.S. Arm of Sri Lankan Terrorist Group Arrested for Providing Material Support to Terrorists, PRNewswire-USNewswire, Apr. 25, 2007, available at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nye/pr/2007/2007Apr25.htm (last visited Apr. 27, 2007).
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.
^[11] 18 U.S.C. § 2339A(a)(2007).
^[12] Id.
^[13] Id., at § 2339A(b)(1).