Posted on 12/15/2009 7:48:45 AM PST by La Lydia
Is a Northwest Knoxville convenience store operator a jihad jokester or a terrorist-in-waiting? That was the question U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton faced Monday as federal prosecutors pushed for the detention pending trial of Hazam Ali Ahmed...
However, testimony at Monday's hearing shows Ahmed has been on the radar screen of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force since at least January 2006. FBI Agent Mark D. Murphy testified that an informant clandestinely recorded chats with Ahmed in early 2006 during which Ahmed allegedly tried to recruit the informant into the terrorist network al-Qaeda...
...Ahmed told the informant, with whom he was acquainted, that he planned to wait "until his son reached the age of seven" before putting into action a plan to carry out a terrorist attack at a shopping mall.
However, defense attorney Barbara Clark elicited testimony from Murphy that Ahmed told agents "he was joking." ...
Clark said Ahmed is a U.S. citizen. He has a 1997 conviction in Pennsylvania for "interstate transportation of securities," Theodore said. Although he did not elaborate, court records indicate that conviction may be related to admissions Ahmed made to Knoxville FBI agents that he had been smuggling cigarettes...
Theodore argued that terror threats - even if unformulated - should not be ignored. Guyton managed to sidestep a decision on whether Ahmed poses a terror threat by limiting his detention ruling to Ahmed's ties with Yemen and lack of roots in the U.S. Guyton noted Ahmed's wife and five children live in Yemen, and he has a business venture under way there...
(Excerpt) Read more at knoxnews.com ...
“...Ahmed told the informant, with whom he was acquainted, that he planned to wait “until his son reached the age of seven” before putting into action a plan to carry out a terrorist attack at a shopping mall.”
...believe me the mall attacks are coming...we must prepare to defend ourselves...put “get a conceaaled carry permit” on the top of your New Year’s resolutions list.
“Isn’t cigarette smuggling how a lot of these guys have raised money for terrorism? “
Yes, and for many years.
You are correct. A few years ago, (maybe 10 or so) the FBI busted a huge ring of cigarette-tax violaters in Charlotte, North Carolina that was sending millions of $$$$ to the fanatics in Palestine and elsewhere. Seems like we would have learned from that.
bttt
I never go to the mall unarmed. This time of the year I usually carry a S&W .40 and a couple of extra mags. I sometime carry a S&W .38SP as a backup. I agree, the mall attacks are coming. I’m surprised they haven’t yet.
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