Free Republic

SAN DIEGO - A former military intelligence officer was sentenced Monday to a year in federal prison for helping a convicted arms trafficker export parts for jet fighters and other aircraft that were ultimately destined for Iran. George Charles Budenz II, a retired Navy commander, pleaded guilty in November to three counts of illegally exporting engine parts for F-5 fighters, T-38 military trainers and Chinook helicopters to Malaysia and Belgium on behalf of Pakistani arms dealer Arif Ali Durrani. In court, Budenz called Durrani a "lying snake" who took advantage of him at a time of personal and financial distress....

VETERAN PAKISTANI ARMS DEALER CONVICTED IN PLOT TO ILLEGALLY EXPORT U.S. FIGHTER JET COMPONENTS TO MIDDLE EAST SAN DIEGO – -- United States Attorney Carol C. Lam announced that today a federal jury in San Diego found Arif Ali Durrani guilty of multiple violations of the Arms Export Control Act. Specifically, the jury convicted Durrani of four counts of Exporting Defense Articles Without a License and one count of Conspiracy to Commit Offenses Against the United States. According to Assistant United States Attorney William Cole, who prosecuted the case, the evidence at trial established that Durrani intentionally conspired with other...

MEXICO CITY, June 22 (Reuters) - A man arrested in Mexico and named as a key terrorism suspect with possible links to the Sept. 11 attackers, is in fact a tourist who poses no security risk, red-faced Mexican authorities said on Wednesday. The attorney general's office set bells ringing on Tuesday when it announced it had detained Lebanese-born British citizen Amer Haykel at a fire station in the state of Baja California Sur in cooperation with U.S. authorities. It said Haykel was wanted in the United States and was "linked to extremist groups presumably involved in the Sept. 11,...

Mexico arrested Amer Haykel, a British man of Arab extraction, sought by US authorities in connection with the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, the Attorney General's office (PGR) said on Tuesday. Haykel was arrested in Todo Santos, a town in the northeastern Mexican state of Baja California, officials said. "The PGR arrested... Haykel, whom US authorities have linked to extremist groups presumably involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York," the office said in a statement. Officials said Haykel was arrested at the Todo Santos fire department, following "investigative and intelligence work and...