Posted on 10/20/2011 7:48:32 PM PDT by MplsSteve
A federal jury Thursday convicted two Rochester women of conspiring to help an Al-Qaida affiliate in their native Somalia under the guise of raising money for the poor.
Amina Farah Ali, 35, and Hawo Mohamed Hassan, 64, were the first people to go on trial in connection with a sweeping federal investigation into alleged recruitment and fundraising activities in Minnesota for Al-Shabab -- classified by U.S. authorities in February 2008 as a foreign terrorist organization.
Under U.S. law, it is illegal to support a foreign terrorist group.
Both were found guilty on all counts.
Al-Shabab and other militia groups are fighting a United Nations-backed transitional federal government in Somalia's long-running civil war.
Prosecutors said Ali and Hassan were part of a "deadly pipeline" that supplied money and fighters from the United States to Somalia. They said from September 2008 through July 2009, the women conspired to provide material support to Al-Shabab, knowing it was considered a terrorist group.
Lawyers for Ali and Hassan, however, said that their clients did not know about the designation and were sincere in their efforts to help the needy back in Somalia.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
As you read the article, one of the defendants was particularly defiant during the trial, claiming that standing up in court was somehow an offense to her religion.
Even more telling were the words uttered by one defendant (in Somali of course - she couldn't or wouldn't speak English) to the judge that she was happy because she was "...going to heaven no matter what," and condemned those in authority, saying: "You will go to hell."
The judge was less than impressed and ordered the defendant into immediate custody pending her sentencing.
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Speedy trial and conviction then execution for treason. I can dream, can’t I?
Obama has mandated that we import 80,000 more of these Muslims this year alone as part of his Diversity Initiative. Next year 100,000?
These people do not play nice when they are thwarted.
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