Free Republic

Hundreds of Islamic centers in the United States have become a hot-bed of extremist activity; they promote violence, terrorism and hatred against America. “Our initial investigation has concluded there are between 400 to 500 radical Islamic centers in the U.S.,” said David Gaubatz, the director of counterintelligence and counterterrorism for the Society of Americans for National Existence. “In those places, they preach an extreme version of Islam that says America and the West is the enemy. They espouse violence, hatred and the need for terrorism.” Gaubatz is a former senior U.S. intelligence official, who now works for the Mapping Shari’a...

He never made it to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban, but Kwon -- a Northern Virginia engineer who fled the United States nine days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks said it wasn't for lack of effort. Kwon, 29, a South Korea-born graduate of Virginia Tech who is serving an 11-year prison sentence as a result of his guilty plea last year on federal conspiracy and weapons charges. He has emerged as the prosecution's star witness in the case against Ali Al-Timimi, an American Islamic scholar charged with recruiting soldiers for the Taliban just five days after Sept....

ASHINGTON, Oct. 17 — Federal law enforcement authorities said in court documents unsealed on Friday that they suspected a group of Islamic charities in Northern Virginia of laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars or more from Saudi Arabia to help finance terrorist attacks by Hamas and other militant groups.The authorities said in documents that they suspected that the network of charitable and educational institutions known as the Saar group in Herndon, Va., used an elaborate system of domestic and overseas financial transactions to "blur the trail" of its revenues and disguise the fact that it was sending money to aid...

The conviction last week of Ali al-Timimi, an American-born Islamic scholar, on terrorism charges thrust the so-called "Virginia Paintball Jihad" case to the forefront as the federal government's greatest court victory against terrorism. All told, federal prosecutors counted 10 convictions in the case. Al-Timimi's conviction marked the first post-Sept. 11 case in which the government won a terrorism conviction for actions tied to philosophy and words designed to help the enemy, rather than deeds, such as providing money, equipment or actual combat help to that enemy. "Until now these people have escaped. It is a very powerful position to be...

U.S. case against Muslim scholar is religious attack: defense 04/18/2005 By MATTHEW BARAKAT / Associated Press The government's prosecution of a prominent Islamic scholar accused of recruiting for the Taliban in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks is an assault on religious freedom, a defense lawyer said Monday during the trial's closing arguments. "The government wants you to think Islam is your enemy," said Edward MacMahon, who represents Ali al-Timimi, 41, of Fairfax. "They want you to dislike him so much because of what he said that you'll ignore the lack of evidence." Prosecutors, on the other hand, said...

Virginia man charged in alleged plot to assassinate Bush By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press Writer ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- A former high school valedictorian in Virginia was charged Tuesday with conspiring to assassinate President Bush and conspiracy to support the al-Qaida terrorist network. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23, a U.S. citizen, made an initial appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court. He claimed that he was tortured while detained in Saudi Arabia since June of 2003 and offered through his lawyer to show the judge his scars. The indictment said that in 2002 and 2003 Abu Ali and an unidentified coconspirator...

Ahmed Omar Abul Ali, the Virginia Muslim charged with conspiring to assassinate President Bush, met several times with Zubayr al-Rimi—Al Qaeda’s number two man in Saudi Arabia, killed in a shootout with Saudi forces in September 2003: Abu Ali linked to Saudi Arabia al Qaeda leader. (Hat tip: The Jawa Report.) A Falls Church man accused of conspiring to assassinate President Bush met several times with an al Qaeda leader in Saudi Arabia who once was the target of a global manhunt and a key suspect in an attack that killed nine Americans in Riyadh, law-enforcement authorities said. Ahmed Omar...

Feds raid Saudi-based organization in N.Va. The Associated Press Jul 2, 2004 FAIRFAX - Federal agents raided the Fairfax offices of a Saudi-based institute yesterday. No arrests were made. A task force of federal agents, including the FBI, raided the offices of the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences. Earlier this year, 16 Saudi diplomats affiliated with the institute had their passports revoked. State Department officials said the diplomats were teaching at the institute rather than serving as diplomats. The institute, in the Merrifield section of Fairfax County, also served as a meeting point for a group of Islamic men...

Per Fox News...

As a columnist for FrontPage Magazine who gravitates toward controversial subjects, I get my share of responses, sometimes from unexpected quarters. In April of 2003, I received an e-mail from someone calling himself “Ismail Royer.” At the time, I didn’t realize the importance of this correspondence: I had just been contacted by a terrorist. Background Randall Todd “Ismail” Royer, a native of St. Louis, converted to Islam at the age of 19, at the impetus of an acquaintance and a “singing bird.” He began attending mosque and, in 1994, took a position with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a self-proclaimed Islamic civil rights group. CAIR, at the...

<p>A founding member of a U.S. Muslim group that endorsed an Army chaplain now accused of espionage has himself been arrested on criminal charges.</p> <p>Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi, 51, who helped organize the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veteran Affairs Council and is a board member of the Washington, D.C.-based American Muslim Council, was taken into custody Sunday by agents from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the FBI.</p>

<p>June 27 (Bloomberg) -- Eight men were arrested on charges they formed a ``Virginia jihad network'' with ties to the Kashmiri separatist group Lashkar-E-Taiba and planned terrorist attacks overseas, the U.S. government said.</p> <p>The men, along with three others believed to be in Saudi Arabia, are accused of plotting to engage in a ``jihad,'' or holy war, in Kashmir, Chechnya, the Philippines and other countries. U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty, who announced the indictment today in Alexandria, Virginia, declined to say whether any attacks were planned in the U.S.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI made a series of arrests in three states Friday of men suspected of ties to an anti-U.S. terrorist organization whose main goal is driving India out of the disputed Kashmir territory in South Asia. The arrests of at least seven suspects were made in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, said federal law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity. Federal charges against the men, and several others who are overseas, were to be announced later in the day. The men are alleged to be part of an extremist Muslim organization called Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is on the...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- Federal prosecutors who accuse nine U.S. citizens and two other men of conspiring to join a Muslim terror group presented an address list and other evidence Friday to try to link the suspects to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida group. But the evidence wasn't enough to persuade U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema to keep one defendant, Sabri Benkhala, in jail. Brinkema ordered Benkhala released to home detention at his father's house in Falls Church, upholding a previous release order issued by a magistrate. "There's no question the government has raised some significant issues here," the judge said....

On 3 July, 2003, ABC News announced that the government has presented information leading to the federal indictment of eleven men who had trained in the woods of Fairfax County, Virginia with “AK-47” style assault weapons. According to the government, the men had also participated in warlike paintball games to practice military tactics in Spotsylvania County and had practiced shooting at various shooting ranges. Of the eleven indicted, one name stands out: Mr. Randall Todd Royer, who has served as a communications specialist and as a civil rights coordinator for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). The government alleges...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- Three American Muslims accused of undergoing paramilitary training in hopes of joining up with the Taliban were convicted Thursday of conspiring to support terrorism. Prosecutors said the three were part of a "Virginia jihad network" that used paintball games in 2000 and 2001 to train for holy war around the globe. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the group allegedly focused efforts on defending the Taliban. Masoud Khan, 34, of Gaithersburg, Md., was convicted of the most serious charges, including conspiracy to levy war against the United States and conspiracy to contribute services to the...

<p>Islamic radicals are being trained at terrorist camps in Pakistan and Kashmir as part of a conspiracy to send hundreds of operatives to "sleeper cells" in the United States, according to U.S. and foreign officials.</p> <p>The intelligence and law-enforcement officials say dozens of Islamic extremists have already been routed through Europe to Muslim communities in the United States, based on secret intelligence data and information from terrorists and others detained by U.S. authorities.</p>

"A key member of an alleged Virginia jihad network pleaded guilty to federal weapons and explosives charges [Friday], denying that he intended to harm Americans but acknowledging that he and his co-defendants had sought to fight on behalf of Muslim causes abroad," the Washington Post reports: Randall Todd Royer, 30, of Falls Church, entered his surprise plea in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. He faces at least 20 years in prison when he is sentenced April 9. Another of the 11 men originally charged in the case, Ibrahim Ahmed al-Hamdi, 26, of Alexandria, pleaded guilty to similar charges and faces...

A key member of an alleged Virginia jihad network pleaded guilty to federal weapons and explosives charges today, denying that he intended to harm Americans but acknowledging that he and his co-defendants had sought to fight on behalf of Muslim causes abroad. Randall Todd Royer, 30, of Falls Church, entered his surprise plea in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. He faces at least 20 years in prison when he is sentenced April 9. Another of the 11 men originally charged in the case, Ibrahim Ahmed al-Hamdi, 26, of Alexandria, pleaded guilty to similar charges and faces at least 15 years...

<p>WASHINGTON - Randall Royer converted to Islam in St. Louis just after the 1992 Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, with racial tensions high nationwide. When the 19-year-old Caucasian kid from Manchester walked into a mosque on the St. Louis University campus, he felt those tensions subside.</p>