ADDING TO POST NO. 102:
August 4, 2008
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/August/08-nsd-687.html
Aafia Siddiqui Arrested for Attempting to Kill United States Officers in Afghanistan
NEW YORK- Michael J. Garcia, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Mark J. Mershon, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (”FBI”), and Raymond W. Kelly, the Police Commissioner of the City of New York, announced today the arrest of Aafia Siddiqui on charges related to her attempted murder and assault of United States officers and employees in Afghanistan. Siddiqui arrived in New York this evening and will be presented tomorrow before a United States Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. According to the Complaint filed in Manhattan federal court:
On July 17, 2008, officers of the Ghazni Province Afghanistan National Police (”ANP”) observed Siddiqui outside the Ghazni governor’s compound. ANP officers questioned Siddiqui, regarded her as suspicious, and searched her handbag. In it, they found numerous documents describing the creation of explosives, as well as excerpts from the Anarchist’s Arsenal. Siddiqui’s papers included descriptions of various landmarks in the United States, including in New York City. Siddiqui was also in possession of substances that were sealed in bottles and glass jars.
On July 18, 2008, a party of United States personnel, including two FBI special agents, a United States Army Warrant Officer, a United States Army Captain, and United States military interpreters, arrived at the Afghan facility where Siddiqui was being held. The personnel entered a second floor meeting room — unaware that Siddiqui was being held there, unsecured, behind a curtain.
The Warrant Officer took a seat and placed his United States Army M-4 rifle on the floor next to the curtain. Shortly after the meeting began, the Captain heard a woman yell from the curtain and, when he turned, saw Siddiqui holding the Warrant Officer’s rifle and pointing it directly at the Captain. Siddiqui said, “May the blood of [unintelligible] be directly on your [unintelligible, possibly head or hands].” The interpreter seated closest to Siddiqui lunged at her and pushed the rifle away as Siddiqui pulled the trigger. Siddiqui fired at least two shots but no one was hit. The Warrant Officer returned fire with a 9 mm service pistol and fired approximately two rounds at Siddiqui’s torso, hitting her at least once.
Despite being shot, Siddiqui struggled with the officers when they tried to subdue her; she struck and kicked them while shouting in English that she wanted to kill Americans. After being subdued, Siddiqui temporarily lost consciousness. The agents and officers then rendered medical aid to Siddiqui.
Siddiqui, a 36-year-old Pakistani woman who previously resided in the United States, is charged in a criminal Complaint filed in the Southern District of New York with one count of attempting to kill United States officers and employees and one count of assaulting United States officers and employees. If convicted, Siddiqui faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each charge.
Mr. Garcia praised the investigative work of the Joint Terrorism Task Force (”JTTF”), the Federal Bureau of Investigation and New York City Police Department. He also expressed his gratitude to the Office of International Affairs of the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice and the United States Department of State for their assistance in the case. Mr. Garcia also thanked the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts for their assistance.
Mr. Garcia said that the investigation is continuing.
Assistant United States Attorney Christopher L. Lavigne is in charge of the prosecution.
The charges and allegations contained in the Complaint are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Criminal Complaint
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Here is the criminal complaint:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/August/siddiqui-aafia-complaint.pdf
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/farc
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Note: The following text is a quote:
August 4, 2008
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/August/08-nsd-684.html
Senior Member of FARC Terrorist Organization Indicted for His Role in Hostage-Taking of Three Americans Recently Rescued in Colombia
WASHINGTON - Hely Mejia Mendoza, known better by his alias “Martin Sombra,” was indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., on Friday on seven counts of terrorism and weapons charges arising out of his participation in the hostage-taking of three American citizens, Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes, in the Republic of Colombia, Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security Patrick Rowan and District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced today. The three former hostages had been held in the Colombian jungle by the members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for over five years, until they were rescued last month by Colombian military forces.
The Indictment charges Sombra, 55, with one count of Conspiracy to Commit Hostage Taking, three counts of Hostage Taking, one count of Using and Carrying a Firearm During a Crime of Violence, and two counts of Providing Material Support to Terrorists and a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. If convicted of these charges, Sombra would face a maximum term of up to 60 years of incarceration, which is the maximum sentence permitted under Colombian law for Colombian nationals extradited to the United States for prosecution.
Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes were conducting counter-drug aerial surveillance in southern Colombia on February 13, 2003, when their Cessna aircraft experienced engine failure and was forced to make an emergency landing on a remote mountainside. Two of the five occupants of the plane were captured and immediately executed by FARC guerrillas. The other three, Mr. Gonsalves, Mr. Stansell, and Mr. Howes, were held under barbaric conditions in the jungle for over five years.
The Indictment alleges that Martin Sombra served as “jailer” of the American hostages for most of their first two years of captivity. He designed and supervised the construction of a large barbed-wire concentration camp in which he held the Americans and dozens of other hostages in the jungle. The Indictment charges that Sombra used chains and wires to bind the necks and wrists of the American hostages to prevent their escape, and forced the hostages on a grueling 40 day “death march” with heavy backpacks through dense jungle to outrun Colombian military forces. Sombra ordered his confederates to kill the Americans and the other hostages rather than allow them to be rescued by the Colombian police or military. The Indictment also alleges that Sombra was involved in filming a proof of life video of the three Americans on July 25, 2003, in which the FARC announced that the Americans would be held hostage until the FARC’s various political demands were met.
Sombra was one of the 43 men who originally founded the FARC in 1964, and allegedly served on the “Estado Mayor Central,” or central general staff, of the terror group at a time when the organization’s ranks grew to over 16,000 armed guerrillas. Sombra was arrested by the Colombian National Police in the outskirts of the capital city of Bogota on February 28, 2008. He is the most senior member of the FARC ever captured during the 44-year-old conflict in Colombia.
The U.S. Department of Justice also announced today the unsealing of an Indictment previously returned against six other FARC senior commanders involved in the hostage taking of Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes. Two of the six defendants named in the unsealed Indictment are now believed to be deceased, including FARC Secretariat member Luis Edgar Devia Silva, better known as “Raul Reyes,” and the FARC’s former “Supreme Leader” Manuel Marulanda Velez. The other four defendants named in the newly unsealed Indictment remain at large. They include the commanders of the FARC’s Teofilo Forero Mobile Column and others FARC members directly involved in the abduction of the three American hostages on February 13, 2003: (1) Carlos Alberto Garcia, aka “Hermides Buitrago,” aka “El Paisa,” aka “Oscar Montero;” (2) Yurley Capera Quezada, aka “La Pilosa;” and (3) Pedro Gonzalez Perdomo, aka “Alfredo Arenas,” aka “Commandante Alfredo.”
The newly unsealed Indictment also names the FARC’s overall “military” commander, Jorge Briceno Suarez, aka “Mono Jojoy” for his role in the hostage taking of the three Americans. A proof of life video of the three Americans released by the FARC in 2003 shows defendant Mono Jojoy telling the Americans that they are “prisoners . . . in the power of the FARC,” and that the governments of the United States and Colombia have “abandoned and forgotten you.”
The United States government, through the Rewards for Justice Program of the Department of State, is offering a reward of up to five million dollars for information leading to the apprehension or conviction of any FARC commanders involved in the hostage taking of Keith Stansell, Thomas Howes, and Marc Gonsalves, and the murder of Thomas Janis, including the four fugitives named in the Indictment unsealed today.
The Department of State’s Rewards for Justice Program has been employed worldwide to fight terrorism. Since the program’s inception in 1984, the United States has paid more than $77 million to more than 50 persons who provided credible information that led to the apprehension of individuals or prevented acts of international terrorism.
Both indictments announced today were the result of an investigation led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Miami Field Office and are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Kohl of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia, with the support of the Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of criminal laws. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless found guilty.
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