Ohio jury convicts 3 in plot to kill U.S. troops

MSNBC ^ | 6/13/08 | AP

[Dawnsblood]

A jury on Friday convicted three men of Middle Eastern descent of plotting to recruit and train terrorists to kill American soldiers in Iraq.

The men — Mohammad Amawi, 28, Marwan El-Hindi, 45, and Wassim Mazloum, 27 — face a maximum sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors said the men were learning to shoot guns and make explosives while raising money to fund their plans to wage a holy war against U.S. troops.

Defense attorneys charged that the three defendants, who all lived in the Toledo area, were manipulated by a government informant.

The jury returned its verdict after three days of deliberations. U.S. District Judge James G. Carr did not set a sentencing date, said Bill Edwards, acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

Amawi, El-Hindi and Mazloum were convicted of conspiring to kill or maim people outside the United States, including military personnel. Amawi and El-Hindi were convicted of distributing information regarding explosives to terrorists.

The government's case against the three revolved around an undercover FBI informant who recorded the men for about two years beginning in 2004 while they talked about training in explosives, guns, and sniper tactics.

They often met at a tiny storefront mosque where they prayed together and in their homes.

[HardStarboard]

I’m sure that their lawyers tactic will be to appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court - seems their is a 5 to 4 plurality for sympathetic treatment fot terriorists there!!

[Diver Dave]

Hussein Obami will be deeply saddened to lose three sure votes come November

[TChris]

These three are enemy combatants in the war on terror. They should have been tried by a military tribunal and summarily executed.

Fighting a war in courts of law is sheer lunacy.

[weegee]

Any Code Pinko protesters picketing for their appeal?

How about antiwar protesters condemning them for furthering the length of the war?

[Past Your Eyes]

"manipulated by a government informant"

...who singled them out because of their ethnicity. It's racial profiling, I tell you. They are innocent as newborn lambs.

[centurion316]

Ohio jury convicts 3 in plot to kill U.S. troops

This is good news, I didn't know that Durbin, Pelosi, and Reid had been charged. Glad that a jury figured out what they have been up to.

[samtheman]

Don’t worry. The supreme court will award them their freedom, a million dollars each for their troubles, and free iphones all around (to their lawyers to).

Yippee! The supremes love terrorists! Hip! Hip! Hooray!

Terrorists get to strike another day!

[John123]

Two years is a pretty long time to manipulate someone to do something they don’t want to do...

[singfreedom]

I view this defense attorney's arguments the way I view Obama’s 20 relationship with Rev. Wright. If this had been an investigation of a few weeks duration, maybe, but 2 years? An FBI agent is supposed to have “influenced” these weak minded jackasses for 2 YEARS? Give me a break!

Defense attorneys are the scum of the earth.

[doug from upland]

Amazing. The story did not name the defense attorneys.

[Unicorn]

Hang the bastards.

[piasa]

The men — Mohammad Amawi, 28, Marwan El-Hindi, 45, and Wassim Mazloum, 27 — face a maximum sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors said the men were learning to shoot guns and make explosives while raising money to fund their plans to wage a holy war against U.S. troops.

The FBI initially heard about El-Hindi in 00 , while investigating a group of men suspected of promoting fundamentalist Islam in Iraq. The FBI videotaped a meeting in Washington, D.C. in 2002 attended by Rafil Dhafir, a doctor from New York, and two others in which Dhafir mentioned El-Hindi as "one of the brothers from Toledo" who was adept at coming up with money-making schemes. 6 El-Hindi was involved in numerous business endeavors supported by Dhafir over the years. Dhafir was arrested in 00 and charged with funneling proceeds from an Islamic charity, called Help the Needy, to Iraq in violation of U.S. sanctions. He received a 22-year sentence. It remains unclear how Dhafir and El-Hindi originally met. ---------Preventing Jihad in Toledo June 22, 2006 http://www.preventivestrategies.net/public/library_file_proxy.cfm?lid=37.

[piasa]

MORE RELATED STUFF:

* Dr. Rafil Dhafir : (Iraqi-born USA citizen) 55, a founder of Help the Needy, was a respected Iraqi-born oncologist practicing in upstate Rome [NY] and has been a member of the medical staff at Rome Memorial Hospital since 1982. The four (Dhafir, al Wahaidy, Jarwan & Zagha) were accused of conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions against Iraq by transferring cash to unidentified people in Baghdad without a license. Dhafir and Zagha also were charged with 13 counts of money laundering, as were Help the Needy and a related charity, Help the Needy Endowment. Dhafir, Al Wahaidy and Jarwan pleaded innocent. ...
Dhafir, Al Wahaidy and Jarwan pleaded innocent. ...”Is this guilt by association? Far too many people from the Mideast have been placed under suspicion,” said Edward Menkin, lawyer for Dhafir. A tentative April 27 trial date was set.- “Upstate charity tied to illegal Iraqi cash: Feds say N.Y. group laundered millions,” by DOUGLAS FEIDEN, New York Daily News, April 6, 2003

* Bassem Khafagi : Also, [Bassem] Khafagi was co-owner of a Sir Speedy printing franchise until 1998 with Rafil Dhafir, who was a former vice president of IANA and a Syracuse-area oncologist convicted in February 2005 of illegally sending money to Iraq during the Saddam Hussein regime as well as defrauding donors by using contributions to his “Help the Needy” charitable fund to avoid taxes and to purchase personal assets for himself. Dhafir was sentenced to twenty-two years in prison.[40] -———— “CAIR: Islamists Fooling the Establishment ,” by Daniel Pipes and Sharon Chadha, MEF News, SPRING 2006

[piasa]

AND MORE RELATED STUFF:

JUNE 2002 : (UK : LONDON : DR RAFIL DHAFIR IS INTRODUCED — SEE IRAQ) One of the men charged in New York, oncologist Rafil Dhafir, 55, was identified last year as vice president and a board member for IANA. At a London conference last June, Dhafir also was introduced as founder and president of Help the Needy and a graduate of the University of Baghdad School of Medicine. -———— “Suspects linked to bin Laden, Iraq: Arrests of Arabs in Idaho, New York target terror financing ,” By Art Moore, WorldNetDaily.com, Friday, February 28, 2003

JANUARY 2003 : (KENNEDY AIRPORT IN NYC, NY : DR RAFIL DHAFIR’S OVERNIGHT ENVELOPE TO ZAGHA TRADING EST. IN JORDAN IS INTERCEPTED——— See HELP THE NEEDY)    In January 2003, investigators intercepted an overnight envelope at Kennedy International Airport in New York City that Dr. Dhafir addressed to Zagha Trading Establishment in Amman, Jordan. The packet was forwarded to postal inspectors in Syracuse for inspection. Pursuant to a search warrant, agents found a sealed business envelope containing a $200,000 Oneida Savings Bank cashier’s check payable to “M. Zagha Trading Est.”. Officials suspect $2.73 million in bank checks bought with Help the Needy money reached Zagha this way. Maher Zagha, 34, went to college in Central New York and was living in Amman, Jordan.————— “Iraqi “Help The Needy” Dr. Seeks Bail for Fourth Time,” Posted by Ross on Tuesday January 27, 2004 at 9:11 am MST via PHXNews.com, http://www.phxnews.com/fullstory.php?article=8947 Link to story: http://www.anthraxandalqaeda.com

[piasa]

Both Dr. Rafil Dhafir [associate of Toledo’s el Hindy] and another IANA official, an Iraqi-American by the name of Ali Al-Timimi [of PAINTBALL JIHAD FAME & well known on our anthrax threads] have visited China at least once. They arrived in late August of 1995 for a UN conference on women’s health issues... but the conference wasn’t until September 5 - 15.