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"I don't know why I'm guilty." One might think that agreeing "to launder $50,000 from the sale of a shoulder-fired missile from China that would be used to kill a Pakistani diplomat in New York City" would give him a clue about why.
By Michael Hill for Associated Press, with thanks for all who sent this in:
ALBANY, N.Y. - Two leaders of an Albany mosque who were snared in an FBI sting involving a fictional terror strike were sentenced Thursday to 15 years in federal prison.The former imam, Yassin Aref, professed innocence before his sentencing and criticized the government's treatment of Muslims.
"I never had any intention to harm anyone in this country," said Aref, a 36-year-old Kurdish refugee. "And I don't know why I'm guilty."
Pizzeria owner Mohammed Hossain, a founder of the Masjid As-Salam mosque, said in a voice choked with emotion that he knew nothing about bombs and terrorism.
"I do not know why it was me who was chosen. I was not a criminal," he said. "I was not even thinking of committing a crime."
The two were convicted in October for their roles in a money laundering scheme involving an FBI informant who posed as an illegal arms dealer.
The informant asked Hossain to launder $50,000 from the sale of a shoulder-fired missile from China that would be used to kill a Pakistani diplomat in New York City, authorities said.
The informant said he needed to conceal the source of the income and asked Hossain to take the money and return it through a series of $2,000 checks, according to court documents. Authorities said Hossain agreed to issue checks from his businesses and planned to keep $5,000 for laundering the money.
Aref, spiritual leader of Hossain's mosque, acted as a witness to the transactions.
Though the assassination plot was fictional, prosecutors in 2004 accused the pair of supporting terrorism.
Posted by Robert at March 8, 2007 1:45 PM
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We are seeing more and more stings. Good it is a very effective tool of law enforcement.
Sort of off topic; Of the seven thousand guns sent to Palestine that were only supposed to go to Fatah. Well Israel approved this deal???
World Net Daily has a story today about IDF catching a bunch of bad guy with the guns. Pretty quick work.
When I saw it I thought about a story I saw last night about Daytona Beach cops putting out Motorcylces with GPS to temp and catch Bike theifs during Bike week going on now.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54597
Posted by: auntbea![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 8, 2007 2:12 PM
When will the college crowd start chanting "Free The Albany Duo"? After all, they didn't actually kill anyone so surely they must be innocent victims of that dreaded phenomenon called Islamophobia.
Posted by: ISLAMSFORLOSERS at March 8, 2007 2:43 PM
One of the prime directives in the Al-Qaeda field manuel (availiable for downloading on the internet)is : if caught, deny everything...
Posted by: exsgtbrown at March 8, 2007 2:46 PM
ban muslim immigration
Posted by: exsgtbrown at March 8, 2007 2:48 PM
U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy cited the men's lack of criminal records, their character and a high level of community support in giving them lesser sentences than the maximum 30 years to life in prison.
Thanks judge for verifying jihadi manual tactics work.
Lets see...first time offenders, non-violent crime, time served, 2 for 1 prison overcrowding program, good behavior, volunteer work for prison masjid, high recommendations from the prison imam,...
Yeah, they might serve five years tops.
Posted by: Arm A. Geddon at March 8, 2007 3:31 PM
"When will the college crowd start chanting "Free The Albany Duo"?
Given the judges remarks, today.
Posted by: Arm A. Geddon at March 8, 2007 3:33 PM
5 grande for laundering money. No wonder terrorists are all in the business. Arafat ran off with 700 million dollars the Europeans paid him to murder Judeans and Hamas had a fortune it lost in the stock market.
Of course they are all innocent too.
Posted by: Lame Cherry at March 8, 2007 3:37 PM
Aunt Bea, I responded to your question on another thread re. Syria. Check it out.
Posted by: fedupinamerica at March 8, 2007 3:39 PM
Two leaders of an Albany mosque who were snared in an FBI sting involving a fictional terror strike were sentenced Thursday to 15 years in federal prison.
What a waste of hard-working, tax-paying, honest American's tax-dollars.
Posted by: Alert at March 8, 2007 4:24 PM
Well of course this guy is wondering what he did wrong besides get caught.
And that is because he has been brainwashed by Islam into believing that first-degree murder is ethical Islamic behavior.
Maybe we should ask the likes of Democ such as Bill Conyers, Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi or Gerry Ferraro what they think is wrong with what this guy did. These and other Democrats evidently consider this to be a major contribution of Islam's towards America's diversity! (Since Islam hasn't contributed anything ELSE to America except terror, they must be referring to THIS type of activity).
Posted by: pythagoras at March 8, 2007 4:41 PM
Yassin Aref said
I don't know why I'm guilty
"I was just following the very clear instructions of my core religious texts, as dictated verbatim from Allah to His Prophet, the Perfect Man for all time. How can this be wrong, to be following the will of Allah? This only confirms the corruption of the infidels' kaffirocracy, and proves why the Qur'an teaches that Muslims must dominate, and not be dominated."
Posted by: special_guest at March 8, 2007 6:08 PM
"Maybe we should ask the likes of Democ such as Bill Conyers, Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi or Gerry Ferraro what they think is wrong with what this guy did. "
..They would blame Bush for not know about such things earlier, then they would continue their efforts to tie up or eliminate all anti terror funding or efforts...
at March 9, 2007 2:18 PM
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