Hydrablog

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/us/11convict.html
June 11, 2009
Georgia Man Is Convicted of Conspiring With Terrorists
By ROBBIE BROWN [Obama white house] [bush white house] [from bureaucrats to nsc principals] [shortly after 9/11 designation of combatants as “enemy combatants”] [attempts to circumvent the Geneva Accords and U.S. Constitutional protections] [federal courts] [111th Congress, 1st session] [continued difficulties with prosecuting jihadis in America (and Europe)] [use psci469b] [***]
ATLANTA — A former Georgia Tech student was convicted by a federal judge on Wednesday of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. [**

The former student, Syed Haris Ahmed, 24, faces up to 15 years in prison for making videos of landmarks in Washington that were sent to people suspected of being recruiters for terrorist groups in Iraq and Pakistan. [**]

Mr. Ahmed, a United States citizen born in Pakistan and raised near Atlanta, filmed brief digital videos of the Capitol, the Pentagon, a Masonic Temple, the World Bank and fuel tanks near Interstate 95 in Northern Virginia in 2005. [wtf?] [**]

Prosecutors said a co-conspirator, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, sent the videos to Younis Tsouli, suspected of being a recruiter for Al Qaeda in Iraq, and Aabid Hussein Kahn, who the authorities said had ties to terrorist groups in Pakistan.

Mr. Ahmed also discussed terrorist plots in America, including attacking Dobbins Air Reserve Base near Atlanta, [**]the authorities said, but never posed an imminent threat.

Mr. Ahmed’s lawyer, Jack Martin, said his client’s actions were “boastful, immature talk” from a man “searching for the responsibilities of his religion, but never really entering into any deliberate conspiracy.” [his lawyer has probably stumbled onto some truth there] [I have no idea with the bill of particulars here] [but he sounds like a young many who struggle to grasp his own religious identity] [willing to help in certain ways ot ease his likely sense of guilt but not willing to do the brutal wet work] [**]

Mr. Ahmed and Mr. Sadequee traveled to Canada in March 2005 and met three other targets of an F.B.I. investigation, with whom they discussed strikes against military bases, oil refineries and a Global Positioning System, the authorities said.

Mr. Ahmed then traveled to Pakistan in July 2005 as part of a plan to train with the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, [**]although he returned to Atlanta early, according to federal authorities.
Judge William S. Duffey Jr. of Federal District Court delayed sentencing Mr. Ahmed until after Mr. Sadequee’s trial, which is scheduled to begin in August.
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company