NEW YORK, Feb. 16, 2007
NY Man Charged With Trying To Fund Terror
Prosecutors Allege Suburban NYC Businessman Tried To Send $152K For Afghan Terrorist Training Camp
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Court sketch of Abdul Tawala Alishtari at his initial appearance in Manhattan federal court. He was denied bail. (Jane Rosenberg/CBS)
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Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, 53, of Ardsley, N.Y., pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to an indictment accusing him of terrorism financing, material support of terrorism and other charges. The charges carried a potential penalty of 95 years in prison.
Alishtari, also known as Michael Mixon, was detained pending a court appearance next week after Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan S. Kolodner said Alishtari was a danger to the community and a risk to flee. He was arrested on Thursday in Manhattan, prosecutors said.
Alishtari's court-appointed lawyer, Richard Greenfield, said he was not familiar enough with the case to present a bail package. Outside court, Greenfield declined to comment.
The indictment said Alishtari tried to support terrorists between June and December by accepting an unspecified amount of money to transfer $152,000 that he believed was being sent to Pakistan and Afghanistan to support an Afghanistan terrorist training camp.
He believed the money would be used to fund the purchase of night vision goggles and other equipment, the indictment said.
He was also charged with money laundering for allegedly causing the transfer on Aug. 17 of about $25,000 from a bank account in New York to a bank account in Montreal, Canada. The money was to be used to provide material support to terrorist, prosecutors said.
The indictment also charged him with wire fraud conspiracy and wire fraud. It said he devised a scheme to administer and promote a fraudulent loan investment program known as "Flat Eletronic Data Interchange" through which Alishtari and others fraudulently obtained millions of dollars from investors by promising high guaranteed rates of return.
CBS News has confirmed that Alishtari is a donor to the Republican Party, as he claims on his curriculum vitae. Alishtari gave $15,500 to the National Republican Campaign Committee between 2002 and 2004, according to Federal Election Commission records. That amount includes $13,000 in 2003, a year when he claims to have been named NRCC New York State Businessman of the Year.
Alishtari also claims to be a lifetime member of the National Republican Senate Committee's Inner Circle, which the NRCC describes as "an impressive cross-section of American society – community leaders, business executives, entrepreneurs, retirees, and sports and entertainment celebrities – all of whom hold a deep interest in our nation's prosperity and security."
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 57 CommentsThis man does not even have a college degree and created him self at the expense of others and I believe some how justice should be served to all of the people he stole money from. This is another part of American Greed and I am sorry this man had to do it behing a religion that already has a hard time in America. His name is Michael Mixon and he is from Harlem, he used religion as a front to get people to believe him while living off of others.
What this terrorist is an example of, is that the Bush administration is allowing the sacrifice of our service men and women to be exploited. Just as our nation has been up for sale to the highest bidder since he took office, this war is little more than an opportunity for him to allow his cronies to bleed this country's tax dollars.
Posted by jdweymouth at 11:44 AM : Feb 17, 2007
Of course I would wish to see our warriors not wasted as they are being now. But four years of failure give us no concrete reason to expect anything but more of the same.
Continuing bad strategy is like starting off on a trip in the wrong direction and convincing yourself that if you just drive long enough in that wrong direction, you arrive at your destination anyway.
if this terrorist contributed to the DEMS,
it would be so quiet that you could hear a pin
drop.
Posted by notproperly at 07:33 PM : Feb 17, 2007
Perhaps you would prefer a state run media such as they have in China to prohibit any news that the administration doesn't care for making it into print?
necessary to mention US POLITICS in this article.
Do you guys ever pass up a chance to dig the
Republican party. I would bet the farm that
if this terrorist contributed to the DEMS,
it would be so quiet that you could hear a pin
drop.
You're a little confused. "Wolverines" is Patrick Swayze and his hish school insurgents from the movie Red Dawn.
The Nazi insurgents you think you're talking about were called "Werewolves," and the reality of what they actually did and did not do is far from what you're saying:
http://www.slate.com/id/2087768/
What many people do not know is the fact that when dealing with foreigners, whether temporary or permanent citizens, probable cause is not used in order to charge people with terrorism. Instead reasonable cause is used. Whats the difference?
Probable Cause: A reasonable ground for belief in the existence of facts warranting the proceedings complained of (eg, probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed and that the person accused may have committed it). (State of Virginia's Definition)
Reasonable Cause: is the suspicion that a crime is being committed or is being planned to be committed. It requires a much lower standard than probable cause, which requires evidence of criminal matters. Controversially, reasonable cause is used by FISA and the USA PATRIOT Act when the FISC approves a surveillance order. (Wikipedia definition)
The differences? The time period in which a crime is committed. Probable cause indicates a crime has occurred. Reasonable cause is a suspicion that a crime is being committed or is being planned to be committed. It also doesn't require evidence of criminal behavior.
What is really going on here?
Lastly, as someone already pointed out, we bombed North Vietnam into the Stone Age; in other words, we forced them to the peace table. In addition, by that time, the Viet Cong had been nearly neutralized completely by South Vietnamese, and American forces. We never lost a battle in that war.
I%u2019ll give plenty of examples where a %u201Ccompetent%u201D insurgency has been crushed by a standing army:
The Philippines, 1905-American forces under General Pershing crushed an Islamic insurgency by fighting them where it hurts: their religion. Find the specifics yourself.
Russia, 1941-1944-German occupational guerrilla hunters crushed Russian partisan opposition. (Note: opposition only started after the Russians realized the Germans weren%u2019t liberators, a fair epitaph of communism)
Germany, 1945-Allied occupation forces crushed the insurgency that had the support of the local population.
The Boer Wars, South Africa, 1902-1902-The British crushed a separatist guerrilla movement, that had been started by the original Dutch settlers of South Africa.
Posted by hillaryin08 at 09:39 AM : Feb 17, 2007
Head up your a$$ as usual, hillary. We went in under Eisenhower and came out under Nixon. You do the math. You have enough fingers and toes for that.
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