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Iraqi native sentenced to nearly five years in weapons case

An Iraqi-born man arrested while trying to buy machine guns and hand grenades from undercover agents was sentenced Monday to nearly five years in prison.

Ahmed Hassan Al-Uqaily, 34, was arrested last October during a sting operation prompted by the man's alleged threat about "going jihad" against the United States, investigators said.

The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force said Al-Uqaily paid $1,000 for two disassembled machine guns, four disassembled hand grenades and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Al-Uqaily pleaded guilty in May before U.S. District Court Judge Robert Echols to illegal possession of weapons and possession of unregistered firearms.

Under a plea agreement reached earlier this year, Al-Uqaily was sentenced to 57 months in prison and three years supervised release. He can be deported to Iraq after he serves the prison time.

"The court believes this sentence is fair and reasonable under the circumstances," Echols said.

Defense attorney David Baker declined to comment.
http://www.tkb.org/NewsStory.jsp?storyID=91569

Kentucky lands grant to protect bingo halls from terrorists

Kentucky has been awarded a federal Homeland Security grant aimed at keeping terrorists from using charitable gaming to raise money.

The state Office of Charitable Gaming won the $36,300 grant and will use it to provide five investigators with laptop computers and access to a commercially operated law-enforcement data base, said John Holiday, enforcement director at the Office of Charitable Gaming.

The idea is to keep terrorists from playing bingo or running a charitable game to raise large amounts of cash, Holiday said.

But to some, the idea of protecting bingo halls from terrorists is nonsensical.

"It's almost ludicrous," said Rick Bentley, a Henry Clay High School sports booster as he volunteered last Thursday at a noisy, smoke-filled Lexington bingo parlor. "The thought would never even enter my mind."

Holiday, who applied for the grant, said that terrorists do not currently profit from charitable gaming in Kentucky to the best of his knowledge.

"But the potential there, to me, is just huge," he said. "You can earn a lot of money very fast and deal entirely in cash."

With more than 1,300 organizations licensed to raise money through gambling, charitable gaming raised $51 million in 2003.

Holiday said if the grant stretches far enough, he also wants to offer forensics accounting training to his 10 auditors.

http://www.tkb.org/NewsStory.jsp?storyID=91561