Posted on 04/25/2008 1:59:22 PM PDT by KeyLargo
FrontPageMag.com
April 24, 2008 Virginia Muslim police sergeant who tipped off jihadist gets probation
Let's see. He hindered a counter terrorism case, may have tipped off the jihadist more than once, and checked to see if his own name was on the terror watch list. For that he gets six months probation, from a judge who clearly has no idea whatsoever of the larger issues involved in the case. Will he retain his job with the police? Is anyone concerned that he may again aid jihadists who are waging war against the United States? Is anyone with any influence asking these questions at all?
"Probation For Sergeant Who Misused Databases," by Tom Jackman for the Washington Post (thanks to Cindy):
A Fairfax County police sergeant was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Alexandria to two years' probation for his admission that he checked police databases for someone who was the target of a federal terrorism case.
Sgt. Weiss Rasool, 31, initially faced up to six months in jail, but federal prosecutors urged U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry R. Poretz to consider as much as a year of jail time after Rasool took a lie-detector test last week and "was not fully compliant" with the test procedures. Prosecutors also said in a motion filed with the court that FBI agents "do not believe that he has been truthful."
Before sentencing, Rasool stood and wept as he admitted breaking the law.
"If I could turn back time, I would maybe do things different," he said. "It was an error in judgment. I never intended for things to turn out this way. I don't know what to say to you or anyone. . . . I admit I made errors of judgment. But I never intended to put anybody's life at risk."
The police sergeant said after the sentencing that he hopes to remain with the Fairfax department. A misdemeanor conviction does not automatically disqualify him from continuing with the force. Rasool remains on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of an internal investigation, Fairfax police said.
In June 2005, when federal agents had a Fairfax man under surveillance, the man apparently asked Rasool to check the license plates of three vehicles he thought were following him. Rasool's lawyer described the man as a member of Rasool's mosque.
According to court records, Rasool checked the databases and left the following voice-mail message for the man:
"Umm, as I told you, I can only tell you if it comes back to a person or not a person, and all three vehicles did not come back to an individual person. So, I just wanted to give you that much."
The three vehicles were undercover FBI vehicles, according to a letter from the FBI filed in court yesterday, and Rasool's message "likely alerted the subject of the FBI investigation which had a disruptive effect on the pending counterterrorism case." Prosecutors said the vehicles were listed with a leasing company, which an experienced officer might have known was an indicator of law enforcement vehicles.
The target was arrested in November 2005, then convicted and deported, according to court filings in Rasool's case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeanine Linehan said that the target and his family were already dressed and destroying evidence at 6 a.m. when agents arrived to make the arrest, indicating that they had been tipped off. The target's name and the charges against him have not been disclosed.
In October 2007, the FBI confronted Rasool about his computer inquiries on the man's behalf. According to a brief written by Linehan, Rasool denied knowing the man. When presented with the recording of his message for the man, Rasool admitted checking the databases, Linehan wrote.
Linehan also noted that Rasool made computer inquiries about himself, through the National Crime Information Center system, about 17 times in 18 months, purportedly to see whether his name appeared on the terrorism watch list. His lawyer, James W. Hundley, said Rasool checked the database because of increased scrutiny of Muslims in the United States after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.[...]
Poretz told Rasool that some of his conduct "appears to strain credulity, to this court." But he declined to consider a sentencing range of six to 12 months in jail and gave Rasool credit for "acceptance of responsibility," a key factor in federal sentencing guidelines.
The magistrate judge then offered a stern analysis, saying: "What we have here is a defendant doing stupid things. What we have here is a credibility issue as to the defendant." But he found no evidence that Rasool intended to disrupt the federal investigation.
He placed the sergeant on two years of supervised probation and fined him $1,000.
Posted by Robert at April 24, 2008 7:42 AM
Probation For Sergeant Who Misused Databases
"According to court records, Rasool checked the databases and left the following voice-mail message for the man:
"Umm, as I told you, I can only tell you if it comes back to a person or not a person, and all three vehicles did not come back to an individual person. So, I just wanted to give you that much."
The three vehicles were undercover FBI vehicles, according to a letter from the FBI filed in court yesterday, and Rasool's message "likely alerted the subject of the FBI investigation which had a disruptive effect on the pending counterterrorism case." Prosecutors said the vehicles were listed with a leasing company, which an experienced officer might have known was an indicator of law enforcement vehicles.
The target was arrested in November 2005, then convicted and deported, according to court filings in Rasool's case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeanine Linehan said that the target and his family were already dressed and destroying evidence at 6 a.m. when agents arrived to make the arrest, indicating that they had been tipped off. The target's name and the charges against him have not been disclosed. ..... excerpt
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/22/AR2008042201994.html
6 Months? Good thing we have proiorities in this country!
I was caught with a whopping 6 grams of pot. Cost me $6,000 in bond fees, legal fees, probation fees, drug education classes etc... 1 year probation and loss of my rights as an American citizen for that time. This guy is a traitor to his country and gets 6 months probation?
Trust, but verify. And never turn your back.
The judge probably wanted to give him a medal but figured that might be a bit much. The day will come when the media refers to people like this cop as "freedom fighter" or "insurgent" or some such nonsense.
This is sick. Those who supported probation for this traitor are obviously on the side of the enemy.
I realize that newspaper quotations are many times pretty shoddy, but consider that nothing in the above indicates remorse for anything other than being caught. Perhaps he would do things differently so that he wouldn't be caught!?
Maybe he would, maybe. What a crock! Truely the enemy within freely roaming our streets.
Oh, but it’s ok to lie to infidels. We must have diversity.
If the "target" waited 5 months to start shredding docs, something else must have tipped him off later. The database search was only one part of the puzzle that helped the "target" put 2+2 together otherwise he'd started shredding in June.
Can’t this be taken care internally?
Unbelievable, and yet there it is for all to see. Morons and appeasers doing what morons and appeasers do best.
NEVER trust a muzzie or any of their lib/dem sympathizers!!!!
Didn’t they used to hang people like that way back in the day?
yep, all if fine in the name of Allah, what a joke,,I’m too sick to barf..
“NEVER trust a muzzie or any of their lib/dem sympathizers!!!!”
Sgt. Hassan Akhbar convicted & sentenced to death: Murdered fellow soldiers because ‘he was concerned they would kill Muslims in Iraq’
Carried out attack with ‘cool mind’ to ‘acheive maximum carnage’ - father portrays his son as the victim
April 21, 2005
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-04/29/content_2893574.htm
US soldier sentenced to death for attacking fellow
WASHINGTON, April 28 (Xinhuanet) — A soldier from the 101st Airborne Division of the United States was sentenced to death Thursday night for a fatal grenade attack on his fellow soldiers days before the invasion of Iraq.
A military jury at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, gave Sergeant Hasan Akbar the death penalty for killing two officers and wounding 14 others in Kuwait in 2003.
The 15-person jury deliberated seven hours before returning thesentence. The same jury last week convicted Akbar of two counts ofpremeditated murder and three counts of attempted premeditated murder.
Earlier Thursday, Akbar, 34, apologized for his action in a brief statement to the court.
Akbar threw grenades into troop tents at his Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait in an early March morning and then fired on soldiers in the ensuing chaos. Prosecutors said the attack was driven by Akbar’s religious extremism.
GREAT article. Thanks for posting it. I just found out about this. If he wasn’t on the “terrorist list” before, he is now!
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