Free Republic

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Iraqi Kurdish imam and a Bangladeshi-American pizzeria owner on Wednesday lost an appeal of their convictions for plotting to kill a Pakistani diplomat in what turned out to be an FBI sting operation. The U.S Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of Yassin Aref, 37, and Mohammed Hossain, 53, who were sentenced last year to 15 years each in prison for their roles in a fake plot to attack the Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations in New York with a missile. Both appealed their convictions of money-laundering and conspiring to provide material...

ALBANY - The prosecutor who sent two local Muslim men ensnared in an FBI terror sting to prison is on the short list for a federal judgeship. Many in the Capital District's growing Muslim community are outraged. Members of Albany's Muslim Solidarity Committee say they will do everything in their power to ensure Glenn Suddaby doesn't receive the nomination. The activists formed their group after the arrest and conviction of Mohammad Hossain, an Albany pizza shop owner, and Yassin Aref, an Albany imam. Despite grass roots opposition, Suddaby has at least one pretty big name supporter - U.S. Sen. Charles...

ALBANY -- Jurors heard three opening statements this morning in the federal trial of two Albany men facing terrorism-related charges. Yassin M. Aref, 36, the jailed spiritual leader of a Central Avenue mosque, and Mohammed M. Hossain, 51, a city pizza shop owner, are accused of taking part in a plot to sell missile launchers to terrorists during an FBI sting that began in July 2003. The men face up to 400 years in prison if convicted. Assistant U.S. Attorney William Pericak for the government; Kent Sprotbery for Aref; and Kevin Luibrand for Hossain made brief opening statements in U.S....

Loan goes to heart of terror case Jury must decide if Albany defendants linked money with talk of attack ALBANY -- It all started, according to a federal prosecutor, because the FBI needed to know what was in Yassin Aref's mind. That was the catalyst of a year-long counterterrorism sting that ultimately ensnared Aref, a Kurdish refugee from Iraq, and Mohammed M. Hossain, an Albany pizzeria owner, on charges they helped launder thousands of dollars from the sale of a missile launcher to terrorists. "They had a choice, and that's what a sting is," Assistant U.S. Attorney William Pericak told...

ALBANY -- The spiritual leader of an Albany mosque repeatedly called a phone number in Syria that an FBI report indicates had been used to gather terrorist intelligence for Osama bin Laden, according to classified documents unsealed late Tuesday in U.S. District Court. The FBI report, which was based on information from a confidential informant, was among several once-secret documents that federal authorities say raise questions about Yassin Aref's connections to terrorist organizations across the Middle East. Aref, 35, a Kurdish refugee who moved to Albany with his family in 1999, is in jail without bond while awaiting trial on...

Judge Won't Drop Charges in Mosque Sting Saturday March 11, 2006 11:46 PM By MICHAEL VIRTANEN Associated Press Writer ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - A federal judge refused to dismiss charges against two Muslims arrested in an FBI anti-terrorism sting, rejecting claims that evidence was tainted by use of illegal warrantless wiretaps. U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy's ``classified'' order leaves secret his reasons for also turning down defense requests to suppress any evidence acquired from warrantless wiretaps or force authorities to disclose whether they were used in the Albany case. His three-sentence public order was issued late Friday. Yassin Aref, 35,...

ALBANY, N.Y. - Two Muslim men caught up in an anti-terrorism sting operation pleaded innocent Friday as details emerged about 10 new charges against them. Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain were accused Thursday of attempting to provide support to Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistan-based group listed by the federal government as a terrorist organization. Aref, who leads a mosque, also was charged with lying to federal officials. The pair were initially charged in August 2004 with conspiring to launder money and promoting terrorism. They now face a total of 30 charges. Entered as new evidence against Aref were entries in his personal...

Two New York mosque leaders charged with conspiring to support terrorists. Amazing how they could have risen to the leadership of a Muslim religious center while so thoroughly misunderstanding Islam. Funny thing: the same thing happened in Lodi, California. And all over the world, as we document here every day, we see Islamic clerics -- people who have dedicated their lives to studying and living out the religion -- at the forefront of terrorist movements. And yet so many people refuse to see what is right in front of their faces: maybe they aren't misunderstanding Islam at all. Aref and...

ALBANY -- A federal grand jury charged two members of an Albany mosque Thursday with new terrorism-related counts, including allegations that the mosque's spiritual leader has ties to key figures in overseas terrorist organizations.The superseding indictment delves deeply into the background of Iraqi-born Yassin M. Aref, 35, a Kurdish refugee who is the imam at a Central Avenue mosque that has been in the cross hairs of the FBI since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The FBI now claims that entries in Aref's personal journals, which were seized 13 months ago during a series of raids across Albany, link...

Muslims Angry Over FBI Terrorism Sting in Albany ALBANY, N.Y. (Reuters) - Angry and saddened, members of a Muslim community in New York state's capital have been staying away from their mosque for fear of being labeled terrorists as they await a bail hearing on Tuesday for two men accused of supporting terrorism. The hearing is the second proceeding against the pair associated with an Albany mosque and arrested in an FBI sting operation. It was granted by U.S. Magistrate David Homer after a possible translation error turned up in key evidence against them. Yassin Aref, 34, and Mohammed Hossain,...

ALBANY - A mosque leader charged with helping launder money in a missile plot thought all the weapon talk was a joke, his lawyer said yesterday - but prosecutors were not laughing. Imam Yassin Muhiddin Aref was jailed without bail after prosecutors questioned why his name was found in a notebook in a terrorist camp listed as "Commander Yassin, United States." They also unveiled a photo of the imam's co-defendant watching as an informant shouldered a real surface-to-air missile in the back room of an Albany-area convenience store. That was among the evidence cited by prosecutors in Albany Federal Court...

WASHINGTON - Documents found by American troops at a terrorist camp in Iraq last year contained the name of a New York mosque imam now facing federal charges of plotting to obtain a shoulder-fired grenade launcher, law enforcement officials said Friday. An entry in an address book found by the soldiers at an Ansar al-Islam camp last summer in northern Iraq referred to Yassin Aref as "the commander" and included his address and telephone number in Albany, N.Y., the officials said. Although Aref had come to the FBI's attention before the address book's discovery, two law enforcement officials speaking on...

August 6, 2004 2 Mosque Leaders Are Arrested in Plot to Import Missile and Kill DiplomatBy ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. ASHINGTON, Aug. 5 - Two leaders of a mosque in Albany have been arrested in a government sting operation on charges that they took part in what they thought was a plot to import a shoulder-fired missile and assassinate a Pakistani diplomat in New York City, law enforcement officials said on Thursday.Officials charged that the two leaders, Mohammed M. Hossain and Yassin M. Aref, conspired with a man who claimed to have ties to Islamic terrorists in...

ALBANY, N.Y. — Federal agents and Albany police raided a Muslim mosque overnight Wednesday and arrested two men for helping someone they thought was a terrorist, a law enforcement official confirmed to FOX News on Thursday. A block of downtown Albany (search) was sealed off with armed officers for several hours after the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agents executed search warrants at the Masjid As-Salam mosque (search) and two Albany-area residences, officials said. Yassin Muhhiddin Aref, 34, the Imam of the mosque, and Mohammed Mosharref Hoosain, the 49-year-old founder of the mosque, were arrested early Thursday morning....