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3 plead guilty training kashmir { August 26 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44793-2003Aug25.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44793-2003Aug25.html
3 Plead Guilty in Jihad Conspiracy
Man Says He Trained With Guns in N.Va. for Possible Mission Abroad
By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 26, 2003; Page A01
Three men charged as part of a local jihad network have pleaded guilty to conspiracy and gun charges, with one admitting in federal court yesterday that he trained with firearms in Northern Virginia to prepare for a possible mission fighting for Muslims abroad.
Yong Ki Kwon, 27, told a federal judge in Alexandria that he also trained in Pakistan at a camp run by the Lashkar-i-Taiba organization, which is fighting to end Indian control over much of Kashmir and has been designated a terrorist group by the U.S. government. At the camp, he said, he fired weapons ranging from machine guns to rocket-propelled grenades.
Kwon said he and the other 10 men charged as part of the network, who are accused of possessing a variety of weapons and practicing military tactics while playing paintball in the Virginia countryside, had deliberately trained in secret. Asked why by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, Kwon replied: "We didn't want any undue attention, and we didn't want any trouble with the government."
The admissions by Kwon and Khwaja Mahmood Hasan, 27, who both live in Fairfax County, and Donald T. Surratt, 30, of Suitland, who are all cooperating in the investigation, signal a significant victory for the Justice Department. Prosecutors have trumpeted the case as a key step in the war on terrorism and said the men were part of a conspiracy to support "violent jihad" overseas. They have presented no evidence that the men were plotting attacks in the United States.
Muslim groups, defense attorneys and others vigorously defended the men, portraying them as quiet residents who blended easily into the Washington suburbs and were being victimized by an overzealous prosecution.
Kwon and Hasan face up to life in prison when they are sentenced Nov. 7, though under federal sentencing guidelines they will probably serve less than 20 years. Surratt faces up to 15 years in prison.
The other eight men named in last month's indictment have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to go on trial in November.
Attorneys for Kwon would not comment after yesterday's court hearing, and Surratt's attorney did not return calls. But Hasan's attorney, Thomas Abbenante, blamed his client's actions, in part, on "his being persuaded by the preaching of a misguided Islamic cleric."
"Deciding to go to the Lashkar-i-Taiba training camp was a terrible mistake," Abbenante wrote in a statement that said Hasan "regrets the actions he took which brought him before the court." He added that Hasan "never participated in any terrorist attacks."
Abbenante would not comment beyond the statement, but sources and court papers identified the cleric as Ali Al-Timimi of Fairfax County, a U.S. citizen and graduate student at George Mason University who also is a prominent Islamic preacher in Northern Virginia. An attorney for Timimi would not comment yesterday but said last week that Timimi expects to be indicted in the case. Prosecutors have said in court that further indictments are expected shortly.
Prosecutors did not name Timimi in the original indictment against the 11 men, but the grand jury alleged that in mid-September 2001, a conspirator later identified as Timimi told seven of the defendants "that the time had come for them to . . . join the mujaheddin engaged in violent jihad in Kashmir, Chechnya, Afghanistan or Indonesia" and that they could "fulfill their duty to engage in jihad by joining Lashkar-i-Taiba" because it was "on the correct path." He added that "American troops were legitimate targets of the jihad," the indictment alleged. Timimi has denied encouraging the men in jihad.
Federal agents arrested six of the men in June in raids in the Washington suburbs and Pennsylvania. Two others, including Kwon, already were in custody as part of the investigation that began in 2000. Three others, including Hasan, were arrested in Saudi Arabia.
The men -- nine of whom are U.S. citizens -- were charged with weapons counts and violating the Neutrality Act, a nearly century-old, seldom-enforced law forbidding Americans to carry out military expeditions against nations friendly with the United States. Federal officials have portrayed the unusual use of this law to fight terrorism as part of their stepped-up effort at preventing terrorist attacks.
Hasan pleaded guilty last week to one count of conspiracy and a charge of discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. In a statement of facts accompanying his plea, Hasan admitted to attending a Lashkar camp in Pakistan, where he fired a semiautomatic pistol and other weapons.
On Friday, Surratt pleaded guilty to conspiracy and illegal transportation of a firearm in interstate commerce. A former U.S. Marine Corps instructor, he says in court documents that he used his U.S. military training to help his co-conspirators prepare "to become mujaheddin and die shaheed -- that is, as martyrs in furtherance of violent jihad -- in Kashmir, Chechnya, and elsewhere around the world."
Kwon pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiracy, transfer of a firearm for use in a crime of violence and discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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