Two Florida imams among six accused of sending $50,000 to Pakistani Taliban

You missed my point entirely, though you cited it.

“And if the prosecutor ever, EVER, pulled another stunt like that, I wouldn’t care if he was prosecuting John Wilkes Booth, I would dismiss the case.”

This doesn’t mean the current case. This means future cases.

My concern is not for the current case, but for a downright evil erosion that has happened and is happening in criminal courts around the US, that is screwing us all up, not just terrorists.

Trying the case in the press, and trying to prejudice juries is just the tip of the iceberg of these bad practices.

It usually begins with the arrest itself. Far too often, when the police arrest someone, it isn’t a perfect “slam dunk” for a conviction, so they are tempted to fudge the evidence, so someone they *think* is guilty will be convicted. Far too often, this results in lying under oath.

Then prosecutors have huge discretion. One young man I knew gently slapped a stripper on the backside. Because he was a big tipper and cute, she turned around, giggled and smiled at him. But the undercover cop behind him arrested him for sexual assault.

He faced in rapid succession four prosecutors. One wanted him to serve 5 years in prison and lifetime sex offender status. The next wanted only 1 year and status. The third was willing to go for probation, but still wanted status. The fourth said, “this is nonsense” and dropped the case.

Then there is the horrific plea bargain and sentencing abuse. “If you plead guilty, you’ll serve two years and probation. If you plead not guilty and are convicted, you will get the max of 25 years to life.” Is that a choice, especially if you are innocent?

Then if someone insists they are not guilty, but are convicted, the judge and the prosecutor want to sleep at night feeling that they didn’t convict an honest man, so try a sentencing deal. “If you continue to say you are innocent, you will get the maximum sentence, but if you admit your guilt, you will get a lesser sentence, but lose your right to appeal.”

That is just wrong. If someone commits a crime, they should get a given punishment, no matter if they admit to it or not. And they shouldn’t lose their appellate rights out of fear, because a successful appeal demonstrates a failure in the trial court process, and is far more important than an individual case.

Other major problems are “hired gun” expert witnesses, who if paid to, will testify that night is day and down is up, without any scientific basis.

And juries are aggravating in their own right. Often the entire jury will be dismissed if it is “tainted” by a juror mentioning “jury nullification”, which is their right and responsibility, because the judge and prosecutor do not want them to be aware of it.

Court cases are overturned if jurors consult the Bible, but it is legal for them to decide guilt or innocence by coin toss.

So the bottom line is that, while these defendants are likely guilty, we are all harmed if the process of trying them is abused. It doesn’t matter if it is the prosecutor or defense attorney who is trying the case in the newspapers, or trying to tamper with prospective juries.

And it isn’t even their case where it matters most, but subsequent cases, where police and prosecutors come forward and say, “We have arrested a guilty suspect, which is clearly shown in the evidence, and will get them convicted unless the defense uses some sneaky trick or the judge is a weakling.”

ADDING to post no. 19:

May 14, 2011

NOTE The following text is a quote:

miami.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel11/mm051411.htm

Six Individuals Charged for Providing Material Support to the Pakistani Taliban

MIAMI—Six individuals located in South Florida and Pakistan have been indicted in the Southern District of Florida on charges of providing financing and other material support to the Pakistani Taliban, a designated foreign terrorist organization. The charges were announced today by Wifredo A. Ferrer, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami Field Office, and the members of the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF).

The four-count indictment charges Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan (hereafter “Khan”), 76, a U.S. citizen and resident of Miami; his son Irfan Khan, 37, a U.S. citizen and resident of Miami; and one of his other sons, Izhar Khan, 24, a U.S. citizen and resident of North Lauderdale, Fla. Three other individuals residing in Pakistan, Ali Rehman, aka “Faisal Ali Rehman;” Alam Zeb; and Amina Khan, aka “Amina Bibi,” are also charged in the indictment. Amina Khan is the daughter of Khan and her son, Alam Zeb, is Khan’s grandson.

All six defendants are charged with conspiring to provide and providing material support to a conspiracy to murder, maim, and kidnap persons overseas, as well as conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, specifically, the Pakistani Taliban. Defendants Khan, Rehman, and Zeb are also charged with providing material support to the Pakistani Taliban.

FBI agents arrested Hafiz Khan and his son Izhar Khan today in South Florida. They are scheduled to make their initial appearance in federal court in Miami at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, May 16, 2011. In addition, Irfan Khan was arrested in Los Angeles and is expected to make his initial appearance there. If convicted, each faces a potential 15 years in prison for each count of the indictment. The remaining defendants are at large in Pakistan.

The defendants are originally from Pakistan. Hafiz Khan is the Imam at the Miami Mosque, also known as the Flagler Mosque, in Miami. His son, Izhar Khan, is an Imam at the Jamaat Al-Mu’mineen Mosque in Margate, Fla. The indictment does not charge the mosques themselves with any wrongdoing, and the individual defendants are charged based on their provision of material support to terrorism, not on their religious beliefs or teachings.

U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer stated, “Despite being an Imam, or spiritual leader, Hafiz Khan was by no means a man of peace. Instead, as today’s charges show, he acted with others to support terrorists to further acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming. But for law enforcement intervention, these defendants would have continued to transfer funds to Pakistan to finance the Pakistani Taliban, including its purchase of guns. Dismantling terrorist networks is a top priority for this office and the Department of Justice.”

“Today terrorists have lost another funding source to use against innocent people and U.S. interests. We will not allow this country to be used as a base for funding and recruiting terrorists,” said John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Miami Office. “I remind everyone that the Muslim and Arab-American members of our community should never be judged by the illegal activities of a few.”

This investigation was initiated by the FBI in conjunction with the JTTF based upon a review of suspicious financial transactions and other evidence; it was not an undercover sting. According to the allegations in the indictment, from around 2008 through in or around November 2010, the defendants provided money, financial services, and other forms of support to the Pakistani Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, Tehrik-I-Taliban, Tehrik-e-Taliban, and Tehreek-e-Taliban, is a Pakistan-based terrorist organization formed in December 2007 by an alliance of radical Islamist militants. On Aug. 12, 2010, the U.S. State Department formally designated the Pakistani Taliban as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

According to the indictment, the Pakistani Taliban’s objectives include resistance against the lawful Pakistani government, enforcement of strict Islamic law known as Sharia, and opposition to the U.S. and coalition armed forces fighting in Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban has committed numerous acts of violence in Pakistan and elsewhere, including suicide bombings that resulted in the death of civilians and Pakistani police, army, and government personnel, and other acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming. The Pakistani Taliban has also been involved in, or claimed responsibility for, numerous attacks against U.S. interests, including a December 2009 suicide attack on a U.S. military base in Khost, Afghanistan, along the border with Pakistan, which killed seven U.S. citizens; an April 2010 suicide bombing against the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan, which killed six Pakistani citizens; and the attempt by Faisal Shahzad to detonate an explosive device in New York City’s Times Square on May 1, 2010. Most recently, on May 13, 2011, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the suicide attacks that killed at least 80 people at a military training facility in northwestern Pakistan. The Pakistani Taliban has links to both al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

As set forth in the indictment, the defendants sought to aid the Pakistani Taliban’s fight against the Pakistani government and its perceived allies, including the United States, by supporting acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming in Pakistan and elsewhere, in order to displace the lawful government of Pakistan and to establish strict Islamic law known as Sharia.

To this end, the defendants, assisted by others in the United States and Pakistan, conspired to provide and provided material support to the Pakistani Taliban by soliciting, collecting and transferring money from the United States to supporters of the Pakistani Taliban, primarily using bank accounts and wire transfer services in the United States and Pakistan. According to the indictment, these funds were intended to purchase guns for the Pakistani Taliban, to sustain militants and their families, and generally to promote the Pakistani Taliban’s cause. In addition, the indictment alleges that defendant Khan supported the Pakistani Taliban through a madrassa, or Islamic school, that he founded and controlled in the Swat region of Pakistan. Khan has allegedly used the madrassa to provide shelter and other support for the Pakistani Taliban and has sent children from his madrassa to learn to kill Americans in Afghanistan.

According to the allegations in the indictment, the defendants endorsed the violence perpetrated by the Pakistani Taliban. On one occasion in July 2009, defendants Khan and Irfan Khan participated in a recorded conversation in which Khan called for an attack on the Pakistani Assembly that would resemble the September 2008 suicide bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan. On another occasion in September 2010, Hafiz Khan participated in a conversation in which he stated that he would provide that individual with contact information for Pakistani Taliban militants in Karachi, and upon hearing that mujahideen in Afghanistan had killed seven American soldiers, declared his wish that God kill 50,000 more.

In closing, Mr. Ferrer noted, “Let me be clear that this is not an indictment against a particular community or religion. Instead, today’s indictment charges six individuals for promoting terror and violence through their financial and other support of the Pakistani Taliban. Radical extremists know no boundaries; they come in all shapes and sizes and are not limited by religion, age or geography.”

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the FBI, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of State, Broward Sheriff’s Office, Miami-Dade Police, City of Miami Police, City of Miramar Police, City of Margate Police, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and the members of the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Shipley and Sivashree Sundaram, from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, and Trial Attorney Stephen Ponticiello from the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

An indictment is only an accusation and a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

Muzzies were allied with the Nazis and are no better.

The muzzie commie clown named Hussein in the WH included.

"Islam" is just as unacceptable as "National Socialism", and when we get a leader with half a brain that makes that declaration, we will be on track to wipe these vermin out, before they nuke the West and the Jews.

Amin Al Husseini seen inspecting his Hanzar Division made up exclusively of Muslims, mostly from the Crotia/Bosnia/Serbia region. They actively lead the genocide against Serbs, Serbian Jews and Gypsies.

Amin Al Husseini meets with Adolf Hitler in November 1942, weeks before the decision to implement the Final Solution which sent Europe's Jews to the gas chamber. The Third Reich provided Amin Al Husseini with a salary and appointed him Head of the Hanzar SS Division. The Hanzar Division was made of Nazi Muslims and implemented the genocide of 250,000 Serbs, Gypsies and Jews during WWII.

Amin Al Husseini shown here on a Nazi poster recruiting fellow Muslims to join Hitler in the fight against the West and the Jews. His disciples today include Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein and the leaders of Hamas, Al Qeida and Islamic Jihad.

Amin Al Husseini, future President of the World Islamic Congress (1961) and founding father of the Arab League (1944) inspects his Muslim Nazi troops, the Hanzar Division. Amin Al Husseini making the traditional nazi salute.

Yasser Arafat became a disciple of Amin Al Husseini since the age of 17. Here: recent picture of Palestinian soldiers under the leadership of Arafat making the traditional Nazi salute.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/crime/fl-terrorism-charges-dropped-20120613,0,6911229.story

“Feds drop terrorism charges against South Florida imam’s son, accused of helping Taliban”

By Paula McMahon, Sun Sentinel
6:15 p.m. EDT, June 13, 2012

SNIPPET: “Federal prosecutors dropped all terrorism charges against one member of a South Florida family accused of sending tens of thousands of dollars to the Pakistani Taliban terrorist group, according to court documents filed Wednesday in Miami.

No reason was given in prosecutors’ one-paragraph filing dismissing the charges against Irfan Khan, 39, of Miami.”

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2012/06/doj-secretly-drops-terrorism-charges-in-taliban-case

“DOJ Secretly Drops Terrorism Charges In Taliban Case”
June 19, 2012

SNIPPET: “The Department of Justice (DOJ) refuses to explain why it has abruptly dropped terrorism charges against a member of a Middle Eastern family indicted in south Florida last year with providing material support for the Pakistani Taliban.

In all, six people were charged with sending tens of thousands of dollars to the terrorist organization, which is associated with Al-Qaeda and has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks against American interests, including a 2009 suicide bombing at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan. The ringleader in this case is a Pakistani imam (Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan) who ran a mosque in Miami. The others include his sons, daughter and grandson.”

http://www.investigativeproject.org/3936/miami-imam-convicted-of-supporting-pakistani

For The Record - The IPT Blog

“Miami Imam Convicted of Supporting Pakistani Taliban”
by IPT News • Mar 4, 2013 at 6:13 pm

SNIPPET: “The 77-year-old former leader of Miami’s oldest mosque was convicted Monday of providing material support to the Pakistani Taliban and of aiding a conspiracy to murder, maim and kidnap people abroad.

Hafiz Khan faces up to 15 years in prison for each of the four counts on which he was convicted and is scheduled to be sentenced in May. He sent $50,000 overseas, including money that went to a madrassa where children “learn to kill Americans in Afghanistan,” the indictment said.

He had been imam at Miami’s Flagler Mosque since 1999. Though supporters decried his 2011 indictment, evidence showed he wanted Pakistan’s government replaced by one adhering to strict Islamic law and that he wished that “all opponents of Islam [need] to be destroyed.”

He also praised the failed 2010 Times Square bombing attempt by Faisal Shahzad.

The Pakistani Taliban is suspected of training Shahzad.”

###
###

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2013/03/ap-florida-imam-hafiz-khan-convicted-in-pakistani-taliban-case-030413/

“Fla. imam convicted in Pakistani Taliban case”

By Curt Anderson - AP Legal Affairs Writer
Posted : Monday Mar 4, 2013 11:13:34 EST

MIAMI —

SNIPPET: “The case began with six defendants indicted in May 2011 but ended with only Khan on trial. Two of Khan’s sons, Izhar and Irfan, were cleared of all charges, and three more defendants have remained free in Pakistan, which does not extradite its citizens to face U.S. criminal charges.”

NOTE The following text is a quote:

www.fbi.gov/miami/press-releases/2013/defendant-convicted-of-providing-material-support-to-terrorism

Defendant Convicted of Providing Material Support to Terrorism

U.S. Attorney’s Office
March 04, 2013

Southern District of Florida

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Michael B. Steinbach, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office; and the members of the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), announced today that a Miami federal jury today convicted Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, 77, on all counts in the indictment charging him with providing material support to terrorists, including the Pakistani Taliban. According to public records, defendant Hafiz Khan was the Imam at the Miami Masjid in Miami, Florida. The indictment did not allege that the masjid participated in the defendant’s scheme.

More specifically, after two months of trial, the jury convicted Khan on charges of conspiring to provide, and providing, material support to a conspiracy to murder, maim, and kidnap persons overseas, 18 U.S.C., 2339A, and conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, specifically, the Pakistani Taliban, 18 U.S.C., 2339B. Sentencing has been scheduled for May 30, 2013. At sentencing, the defendant faces up to 15 years’ imprisonment on each count.

U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer stated, “Despite being an Imam, or spiritual leader, Hafiz Khan was by no means a man of peace. Instead, he acted with others to support terrorists to further acts of murder, kidnapping, and maiming. But for law enforcement intervention, these defendants would have continued to transfer funds to Pakistan to finance the Pakistani Taliban, including its purchase of guns. Dismantling terrorist networks is a top priority for this office and the Department of Justice.”

“Today, terrorists have lost another funding source to use against innocent people and U.S. interests,” said Michael B. Steinbach, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Miami. “We will not allow this country to be used as a base for funding terrorists. Individuals such as Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, who support terror, represent a threat to our safety and provide an example of why the FBI’s number one priority is counterterrorism.”

The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik e Taliban Pakistan, Tehrik I Taliban, Tehrik-e-Taliban, and Tehreek e Taliban, is a Pakistan-based terrorist organization formed in or around December 2007 by an alliance of radical Islamist militants. On September 1, 2010, the United States Department of State formally designated the Pakistani Taliban as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

According to the evidence at trial, Khan, with the help of persons in South Florida and Pakistan, sent money and other material support to Pakistani Taliban contacts and sympathizers overseas. The Pakistani Taliban’s objectives include resistance against the lawful Pakistani government, enforcement of strict Islamic law known as Sharia, and opposition to the United States and coalition armed forces fighting in neighboring Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban has committed numerous acts of violence in Pakistan and elsewhere, including suicide bombings that resulted in the death of civilians as well as Pakistani police, army, and government personnel, and also provided financing and training for the attempted bombing of New York City’s Times Square in May 2010.

According to the evidence at trial, Khan sought to aid the Pakistani Taliban’s fight against the Pakistani government and its perceived allies, including the United States, by supporting acts of murder, kidnapping, and maiming in Pakistan and elsewhere in order to displace the lawful government of Pakistan and to establish Sharia. Khan transferred money from the United States to Pakistani Taliban supporters in Pakistan, primarily using bank accounts and wire transfer services in the United States and Pakistan. These funds were intended to purchase guns for the Pakistani Taliban, to sustain militants and their families, and generally to promote the Pakistani Taliban’s cause. Khan also solicited and collected money in the United States for that purpose, taking great care to conceal his activities. In one recorded conversation introduced as evidence at trial, Khan stated that money cannot be sent openly to the Pakistani Taliban but must instead be sent covertly through its supporters. Khan also used a madrassa he founded in Pakistan (where he was born) to provide shelter and other support to Pakistani Taliban militants. In another recorded conversation introduced as evidence at trial, Khan claimed that children from his madrassa have gone to train to kill Americans in neighboring Afghanistan.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the FBI, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of State, Broward Sheriff’s Office, Miami-Dade Police, City of Miami Police, City of Miramar Police, City of Margate Police, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and the members of the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Shipley, Sivashree Sundaram, and Michael Patrick Sullivan from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, and Trial Attorney Bridget Behling from the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

NOTE The following text is a quote:

www.fbi.gov/miami/press-releases/2013/defendant-sentenced-for-providing-material-support-to-terrorists

Defendant Sentenced for Providing Material Support to Terrorists

U.S. Attorney’s Office
August 23, 2013

Southern District of Florida

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Michael B. Steinbach, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office; and the members of the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), announce today that Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, 77, was sentenced to 25 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Robert N. Scola, Jr. for providing material support to terrorists, including the Pakistani Taliban. According to public records, defendant Hafiz Khan was the Imam at the Miami Masjid in Miami, Florida. The indictment did not allege that the masjid participated in the defendant’s scheme.

Khan was convicted by a jury on March 4, 2013, after two months of trial, on charges of conspiring to provide, and providing, material support to a conspiracy to murder, maim, and kidnap persons overseas, 18 U.S.C. 2339A, and conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, specifically, the Pakistani Taliban, 18 U.S.C. 2339B.

U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer stated, “The sentence today demonstrates that no matter who you are or what your motive may be, financing terrorism will not be tolerated by our criminal justice system and will be punished severely. Today’s sentence sends a powerful message to anyone who thinks they have a reason to support terrorism: you cannot use the freedoms of this country to support terrorism. It will not be tolerated. You will be brought to justice.”

“Terrorists in Pakistan have lost a reliable source of funding, and the man responsible for that funding, Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, is now paying the price for his actions,” said Xanthie Mangum, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Miami. “Terrorism remains the FBI’s top priority.”

The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, Tehrik-I-Taliban, Tehrik-e-Taliban, and Tehreek-e-Taliban, is a Pakistan-based terrorist organization formed in or around December 2007 by an alliance of radical Islamist militants. On September 1, 2010, the United States Department of State formally designated the Pakistani Taliban as a foreign terrorist organization under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

According to the evidence at trial, Khan, with the help of persons in South Florida and Pakistan, sent money and other material support to Pakistani Taliban contacts and sympathizers overseas. The Pakistani Taliban’s objectives include resistance against the lawful Pakistani government, enforcement of strict Islamic law known as Sharia, and opposition to the United States and coalition armed forces fighting in neighboring Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban has committed numerous acts of violence in Pakistan and elsewhere, including suicide bombings that resulted in the death of civilians, as well as Pakistani police, army, and government personnel, and also provided financing and training for the attempted bombing of New York City’s Times Square in May 2010.

According to the evidence at trial, Khan sought to aid the Pakistani Taliban?s fight against the Pakistani government and its perceived allies, including the United States, by supporting acts of murder, kidnapping, and maiming in Pakistan and elsewhere, in order to displace the lawful government of Pakistan and to establish Sharia.

Khan transferred money from the United States to Pakistani Taliban supporters in Pakistan, primarily using bank accounts and wire transfer services in the United States and Pakistan. These funds were intended to purchase guns for the Pakistani Taliban, to sustain militants and their families and generally to promote the Pakistani Taliban’s cause.

Khan also solicited and collected money in the United States for that purpose, taking great care to conceal his activities. In one recorded conversation introduced as evidence at trial, Khan stated that money cannot be sent openly to the Pakistani Taliban but must instead be sent covertly through its supporters. Khan also used a madrassa he founded in Pakistan (where he was born) to provide shelter and other support to Pakistani Taliban militants. In another recorded conversation introduced as evidence at trial, Khan claimed that children from his madrassa have gone to train to kill Americans in neighboring Afghanistan.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the FBI, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of State, Broward Sheriff’s Office, Miami-Dade Police, City of Miami Police, City of Miramar Police, City of Margate Police, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and the members of the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Shipley, Sivashree Sundaram, and Michael Patrick Sullivan from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorney Bridget Behling from the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls.

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