Witness testifies against Al-Timimi (More American Jihadis)

TRIBUNE-REVIEW ^ | April 10, 2005 | Debra Erdley

[Straight Vermonter]

FAIRFAX, Va. -- He never made it to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban, but Yong Ki Kwon -- a Northern Virginia engineer who fled the United States nine days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks -- said it wasn't for lack of effort.

Kwon, 29, is a South Korea-born graduate of Virginia Tech who is serving an 11-year prison sentence as a result of his guilty plea last year on federal conspiracy and weapons charges. He has emerged as the prosecution's star witness in the case against Ali Al-Timimi, an American Islamic scholar charged with recruiting soldiers for the Taliban just five days after Sept. 11.

Al-Timimi, 41, who maintains his innocence, sat quietly with his attorneys as the case against him unfolded last week during Kwon's testimony in an Alexandria, Va. courtroom. Al-Timimi was indicted last year on 10 counts, including charges of soliciting others to levy war and inducing others to join the Taliban. If convicted on all counts, he could face life in prison.

[Straight Vermonter]

I recommend reading the entire article.

[SIDENET]

My first read of the morning. Good article about these vermin.

[Americanexpat]

"I recommend you reading the entire article".

Good advice.

Isn´t it amazing how they can immigrate to this country, get their citizenship then conspire to destroy it?

Let me see, conspir to commit Jihad (Holy WAR) against the US. Conspire to kill Americans, etc..
Sounds like treason to me.

He wants to cut a deal by rating out his friends for a reduced sentence. Okay, when he goes in front of the firing squad use three bullets instead of six.

[Valin]

A long piece I ran across a while ago.

Pakistan Facts
http://www.pakistan-facts.com/article.php?story=20040521214030855

The truth about Lashkar-e-Taiba
Friday, May 21 2004 @ 05:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Kaushik Kapisthalam
When it comes to the common terrorist thread between Willie Brigitte, Izhar-ul-Haque, David Hicks and Faheem Lodhi, Australians constantly hear the name "Lashkar-e-Taiba" (LeT) bandied about. Given the preponderance of LeT connections to terror plans within Australia therefore, it is critical that Australians understand the origins and activities of Lashkar-e-Taiba. To begin with, one must be disabused of the notion that the LeT is a "Kashmiri" group. It is not. The LeT was founded in Pakistan and is made up of mostly Pakistani Punjabis with a smattering of Afghans, Arabs, Bangladeshis, South East Asians and the occasional Western or Indian Muslim recruit. To understand the LeT, it is critical to appreciate its position in the Pakistani as well as the global jihadist movement.

Islamists today are a fractious bunch, but they can agree on the notion that the creation of a 'pure' Islamic state represents the best hope for salvation in both this world and the next, and as such Muslims everywhere are obliged to strive for such a goal. The Jihadist movement represents a subset of Islamists who intensely believe that near-perpetual war, pursued by any and all means against the unbeliever offers the best way to meet their obligations and make the Islamist dream real. In particular those inspired by the 18th century Saudi preacher Ibn Abd al-Wahhab - often known as 'Wahhabis' or 'Salafis'- are among the most persistent, energetic and emphatic promoters of this kind of jihad.

(snip)

Lashkar-e-Taiba – know Jihad, will travel
Kaushik Kapisthalam

The previous article in this series - The truth about Lashkar-e-Taiba - laid out the facts behind the origins and development of the Pakistani Al Qaeda affiliate – Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The LeT, despite its current stated goal of helping Pakistan annex Kashmir, is in fact a pan-Islamist terrorist group, with activities in and members from all over the world. The reader might still wonder if the LeT’s threat to Australia is as serious as the Australian law enforcement and intelligence authorities claim it to be. After all, despite the arrests of Faheem Lodhi, Willie Brigitte and their cohorts, there has not been a successful LeT attack on Australian soil to date. Some Australians might feel that despite LeT’s brutalities in Kashmir, the threat to Australia is in fact exaggerated. Even prominent terrorism expert Clive Williams of the ANU has cast doubts on the extent of LeT’s threat to Australia and Australians overseas. But some recent developments, not all related to Lodhi and Brigitte, suggest that the LeT threat to Australia is too alarming to be ignored.

Lashkar’s Global Reach
In what has come to be known as the “Virginia Jihad” case, American authorities broke up a terrorist cell in the state of Virginia earlier this year. The ringleader of that terrorist cell was a man named Randall Royer, an American convert to Islam. During the trial, six men pleaded guilty while three more were convicted of terrorism related charges. The men, belonging to various ethnic backgrounds, admitted to being members of LeT and the published indictment laid out the dates and periods when they went to Pakistan to train in LeT’s camps. The indictment also pointed out that LeT’s own website, which keeps changing its address constantly, said that the group has four facilities for training “Mujahideen” from around the world, including camps named ‘Taiba’, ‘Aqsa’, ‘Um-al-Qur’a’ and ‘Abdullah bin Masud’. The trained LeT fighters, the website claimed, participated in jihad in Afghanistan, Kashmir, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo and the Philippines. The website also prominently displayed a banner portraying Lashkar-e-Taiba’s dagger penetrating the national flags of the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, India, and Israel.

During the Virginia Jihad trial it was revealed that a local Islamic cleric named Ali al-Timimi was instrumental in motivating the cell members to go to Pakistan and train with LeT. The Daily Telegraph’s Ben English recently reported that American authorities have linked al-Timimi to Sheikh Abdul Salam Mohammed Zoud, the Imam of Lakemba. It must be noted here that Zoud was named by Brigitte as the right hand man of Faheem Lodhi and the chief recruiter of LeT in Australia. English also noted that Zoud was an associate of Abu Dahdah, chief of the Spanish based Al Qaeda cell that helped finance and organise the 9/11 atrocities. One of Dahdah's protégés, Jamal Zougam is now under arrest in Spain in connection with the March 11 bombings in Madrid.
(snip)