Daniel Joseph Maldonado, center, is escorted into the federal courthouse for his sentencing hearing Friday in Houston. Maldonado pleaded guilty in April to a charge of receiving training from a foreign terrorist organization.
David J Phillip: AP
Posted on 07/20/2007 7:14:46 PM PDT by Dubya
Daniel Joseph Maldonado, a former Houston resident who convereted to Islam and admitted training with terrorists, was sentenced today to 10 years in prison and given a $1,000 fine.
Maldonado, 28, pleaded guilty in April to training with al-Qaida in East Africa. He is the first American charged with joining the terrorist organization in Somalia. The charge carried a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and a fine up to $250,000.
He admitted his association with terrorists in exchange for no further prosecution by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Houston. Maldonado came to the attention of federal investigators in late 2005 while his family was living in a southwest Houston apartment.
In handwritten statements during overseas interviews with U.S. agents, Maldonado confessed to attending training camps to prepare for jihad, or holy war, in December 2006 and January 2007. He also acknowledged associating with al-Qaida while receiving firearms ad explosives training. In one statement, he said he had "no problem" with fighting or killing Americans, nor with the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
In a five-page letter to U.S. District Judge Gray Miller, Rena Maldonado pleaded for leniency and said her son was not a terrorist.
"Danny agreeing with 9/11 is completely absurd and a complete lie," she wrote.
In an emotional interview this week, Rena Maldonado said her son was coerced into a confession and is being used as an example, though she did not pinpoint exactly who was targeting him or why.
Daniel Maldonado, who was raised Catholic in New Hampshire, was a teen rapper when he met his wife, Tamekia Cunningham.
They were recent converts to Islam when they moved to Houston with their two children in August 2005 for Daniel to work with the Houston-based IslamicNetwork.com. By the end of the year, the family was living in Egypt. Tamekia Maldonado delivered the couple's third child there last summer.
Late last year, the family moved to Somalia, where Tamekia Maldonado died of malaria.
While fleeing civil war in Somalia, Daniel Maldonado was captured by Kenyan authorities. He and the children were turned over to U.S. officials.
He was charged in Houston with terrorism crimes in February.
Rena Maldonado said she and her husband, Jose, both in their 60s and nearing retirement, could not afford the trip from New Hampshire to attend or testify at their son's sentencing. That's why she sent the letter, along with dozens of childhood photos of her son — in hopes that the package would move the judge to hand down minimal prison time, Rena Maldonado said.
The couple has custody of their three grandchildren: a 9-year-old boy and two girls, ages 4 and 1.
cindy.george@chron.com
Daniel Joseph Maldonado, center, is escorted into the federal courthouse for his sentencing hearing Friday in Houston. Maldonado pleaded guilty in April to a charge of receiving training from a foreign terrorist organization.
David J Phillip: AP
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/11/12/fbi_accuses_man_of_lying_in_terror_case/
HOME / NEWS / LOCAL
“FBI accuses man of lying in terror case
Sudbury resident arrested on way to job overseas”
By Shelley Murphy and Milton J. Valencia
Globe Staff / November 12, 2008
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Statements that Tarek Mehanna allegedly made to the FBI two years ago in the midst of a terrorism investigation came back to haunt him last weekend, when the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy graduate was arrested as he was about to board a Boston flight to start a new job overseas.
Mehanna, 26, who was living in a sprawling house in Sudbury with his parents, is charged with lying to the FBI in December 2006 when questioned about the whereabouts and activities of Daniel J. Maldonado, a former Methuen resident who was suspected of training at an Al Qaeda terrorist camp to overthrow the Somali government.”
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http://www.sofir.org/sarchives/005925.php
“SUBJECT: MALDONADO, DANIEL JOSEPH”
(February 22, 2007)
http://www.sofir.org/resources/daniel/index.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1810409/posts?page=1008#1008
JANUARY 2009 : (TAREK MEHANNA IS INDICTED) Mehanna was previously indicted in January 2009 for making false statements to members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force of the FBI in connection with a terrorism investigation.-——— “Massachusetts Man Charged with Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Terrorists,” http://boston.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/bs102109a.htm
OCTOBER 21, 2009 Wed AM : (TAREK MEHANNA IS ARRESTED) Mehanna was arrested Wednesday morning at his parents’ home in Sudbury, an upscale suburb 20 miles west of Boston.
Prosecutors said the 27-year-old Mehanna — a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in Boston, where his father is a professor — conspired with two other men: Ahmad Abousamra, who authorities say is now in Syria, and an unnamed man, who is cooperating with authorities in the investigation.
(Excerpt) Read more at myfoxboston.com ...————Feds: Sudbury man planned terror attacks on malls
My Fox Boston ^ | 10/21/09 | Mike Levine
Posted on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 4:58:09 PM by Blood of Tyrants
Thank you piasa for updating this thread.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/stay-strong-boston-article-1.1318038
“Stay strong, Boston
I know that one of the nation’s great cities will rally in the wake of marathon attacks”
by S.E. Cupps
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2013, 10:41 AM
SNIPPET: “According to a 2011 infographic from Boston.com, the website of the Boston Globe, Boston’s high-profile events, including the marathon, made it one of the top 10 potential terror targets in the country, even though there had been no attacks in Massachusetts over the last decade.
And though there had been no attacks, there had recently been some significant ties to terrorist plots hatched in the area.
In 2007, Daniel Maldonado, who had ties to Methuen and Lowell, was charged with supporting terrorists in Somalia.
In 2008, Sudbury resident Tarek Mehanna was arrested for allegedly plotting to kill U.S. troops in Iraq, conspiring to support Al Qaeda and traveling to Yemen in an attempt to get terrorist training.
And in 2011, Rezwan Ferdaus, an Ashland man with a physics degree from Northeastern University, was charged with an Al Qaeda-inspired plot to send a remote-controlled aircraft carrying explosives into the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol.
His arrest prompted Rep. William Keating, the state’s only member of the House Homeland Security Committee, to remind his constituents of the dangers of homegrown extremists, even in Boston’s tony suburbs.”
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