3 Convicted Of Plot To Kill U.S. Soldiers
A jury on Friday convicted three men of Middle Eastern descent of plotting to recruit and train terrorists to kill American soldiers in Iraq.
The men - Mohammad Amawi, 28, Marwan El-Hindi, 45, and Wassim Mazloum, 27 - face a maximum sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors said the men were learning to shoot guns and make explosives while raising money to fund their plans to wage a holy war against U.S. troops.
Amawi, El-Hindi and Mazloum were convicted of conspiring to kill or maim people outside the United States, including military personnel. Amawi and El-Hindi were convicted of distributing information regarding explosives to terrorists.
Amawi and El-Hindi are U.S. citizens, and Mazloum came to the U.S. legally from Lebanon. El-Hindi was born in Jordan, and Amawi was born in the U.S. but also has Jordanian citizenship.
Patrick Rowan, acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security, in a written statement that the case "underscores the need for continued vigilance in identifying and dismantling extremist plots that develop in America's heartland."
Defense attorneys charged that the three defendants, who all lived in the Toledo area, were manipulated by a government informant. Messages seeking comment from defense attorneys were not immediately returned.
The jury returned its verdict after three days of deliberations. U.S. District Judge James G. Carr did not set a sentencing date, said Bill Edwards, acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.
The government's case against the three revolved around an undercover FBI informant who recorded the men for about two years beginning in 2004 while they talked about training in explosives, guns, and sniper tactics.
Defense attorneys said the informant lied and manipulated the defendants by putting words in their mouths so that he could stay on the government payroll.
Attorneys for the men also questioned how the three men could have been involved in a conspiracy when they never practiced shooting guns together or watched training videos together.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The men - Mohammad Amawi, 28, Marwan El-Hindi, 45, and Wassim Mazloum, 27 - face a maximum sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors said the men were learning to shoot guns and make explosives while raising money to fund their plans to wage a holy war against U.S. troops.
Amawi, El-Hindi and Mazloum were convicted of conspiring to kill or maim people outside the United States, including military personnel. Amawi and El-Hindi were convicted of distributing information regarding explosives to terrorists.
Amawi and El-Hindi are U.S. citizens, and Mazloum came to the U.S. legally from Lebanon. El-Hindi was born in Jordan, and Amawi was born in the U.S. but also has Jordanian citizenship.
Patrick Rowan, acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security, in a written statement that the case "underscores the need for continued vigilance in identifying and dismantling extremist plots that develop in America's heartland."
Defense attorneys charged that the three defendants, who all lived in the Toledo area, were manipulated by a government informant. Messages seeking comment from defense attorneys were not immediately returned.
The jury returned its verdict after three days of deliberations. U.S. District Judge James G. Carr did not set a sentencing date, said Bill Edwards, acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.
The government's case against the three revolved around an undercover FBI informant who recorded the men for about two years beginning in 2004 while they talked about training in explosives, guns, and sniper tactics.
Defense attorneys said the informant lied and manipulated the defendants by putting words in their mouths so that he could stay on the government payroll.
Attorneys for the men also questioned how the three men could have been involved in a conspiracy when they never practiced shooting guns together or watched training videos together.
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Re: "No these guys are definately not Israli, they are way to scumming looking. Mossad takes more pride in themselves to look like that, get real."
Posted by onlythereal
Anyone who has ever seen photographs of the "dancing Israeli" Mossad clowns that were seen celebrating the 9/11/01 attacks in New York, would know how laughable your claim is here.
www.erichufschmid.net/TFC/img/ThreeOfFiveDancingIsraelis.JPG
Sheesh!
Re: "Does this make me a terrorist?"
Posted by wwudiver
That depends....is your dog an FBI informant?
Re: "Attorneys for the men also questioned how the three men could have been involved in a conspiracy..."
Indeed.
Are these government prosecutors some kind of conspiracy theorists, or something?
Re: "Defense attorneys said the informant lied and manipulated the defendants by putting words in their mouths so that he could stay on the government payroll."
Isn''t that always the case?
Re: "A jury on Friday convicted three men of Middle Eastern descent of plotting to recruit and train terrorists to kill American soldiers in Iraq."
Middle Eastern descent?
Israeli, most likely.
Re: "The government''s case against the three revolved around an undercover FBI informant who recorded the men for about two years beginning in 2004 while they talked about training in explosives, guns, and sniper tactics."
Of course. The only "convictions" that the Bush regime seems capable of securing, are ones that involve government "informants".
Assuming that these guys are for real, and not Mossad agents/dupes, clearly they lacked the ability to do anything more than talk without assistance from the U.S. government "informants", as usual.
At any rate, these guys probably posed no real threat to anyone other than themselves.