Posted on 11/09/2003 6:44:00 AM PST by knighthawk
WASHINGTON: Three members of Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, accused of a scheme to engage in "holy jehad" against Indian forces in Jammu and Kashmir , have been sentenced by a US court to prison terms ranging from three to 11 years following guilty pleas in August to conspiracy and weapons charges.
US District Judge Leonie M Brinkema in Alexandria on Friday sentenced Yong Ki Kwon, 27, a naturalised US citizen of Fairfax, Khwaja Mahmood Hasan, 27, a Pakistani-born US citizen who lived in Alexandria, and Donald T Surratt, 30, a former US soldier of Suitland.
The three men were among 11 named in a 41-count indictment handed up in June in a conspiracy to "prepare for and engage in violent jehad" against foreign targets. Nine of the 11 were identified as US citizens.
Hasan and Kwon could have received life sentences, while Surratt faced up to 15 years. All three have agreed to cooperate with authorities in the government's ongoing investigation.
US Attorney Paul J McNulty said that the men were members of LeT, listed by the State Department in 2001 as a terrorist organisation. He said that they "secretly plotted in this community and perversely planned and travelled to camps in Pakistan" to carry out the scheme.
The indictment said that the men conspired and trained at shooting ranges and other locations in Maryland and Virginia with AK-47 assault rifles, other military weapons and equipment from early 2000 through May for possible military action in Jammu and Kashmir.
Other training, including military tactics, also took place in St Louis and at the Quantico Marine Corps base in Prince William County. Three of the men, including Surratt, are former US military personnel who reportedly assisted in training the others.
At least a dozen homes were searched in raids during the arrests and FBI agents confiscated an assortment of weapons, ammunition and high-powered scopes, along with several unidentified documents.
Authorities said that there was no specific information the men planned any attacks in the US , although the indictment noted they had "an intent to serve in armed hostility against the US" and that one had an Internet photo of the FBI headquarters building in Washington.
Search warrants in the probe sought "materials relating to any kind of military-style training, jehad, violence against the US, support of the al-Qaeda , Osama bin Laden , and/or any other terrorist group." They also authorised the seizure of literature concerning LeT.
Others indicted and pleading not guilty were Randall T Royer, 30, of Falls Church; Ibrahim Ahmed al-Hamdi of Alexandria; Masoud Ahmad Khan, 31, of Gaithersburg; Hammad Abdur-Raheem, 35, of Falls Church; Caliph Basha Ibn Abdur-Raheem, 29, of Arlington; Sabri Benkhala, 28; and Seifullah Chapman, 30, also of Alexandria.
Another man, Mohammed Aatique, 30, of Norristown, pleaded guilty in September and is awaiting sentencing. The LeT, prosecutors said, was the armed wing of Pakistan-based religious organisation Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad, a Sunni anti-US missionary organisation formed in 1989 and led by Abdul Wahid Kashmiri.
All three apologised for supporting what the government said were terrorist missions abroad.
Yong Ki Kwon received the longest sentence - 11 and 1/2 years - because of what prosecutors and a federal judge called his larger role in the conspiracy.
Khwaja Mahmood Hasan was sentenced to 11 years and three months. Donald T Surratt, described by prosecutors as "less culpable," would go to jail for just less than four years.
"In the government's view, this is an offence of people who were going to fight against US forces overseas," assistant US attorney Gordon Kromberg said in court. "This is a serious offence."
The sentencing was another milestone in the high-profile case that the Justice Department has billed as a key step in the war on terrorism. Authorities originally charged 11 men in June with weapons counts and with training with the LeT.
Muslims in the military, trouble.
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