2 charged in Seattle terror plot plead not guilty (AP)

SEATTLE – The two men charged with planning to attack a Seattle military recruiting station have pleaded not guilty.

An indictment released by the U.S. attorney's office Thursday charges 33-year-old Khalid Abdul-Latif of Seattle and 32-year-old Walli Mujahidh of Los Angeles with conspiracy to murder federal agents and officers, as well as conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.

Abdul-Latif and Mujahidh pleaded not guilty to all counts at a Thursday afternoon hearing. Trial was set to begin Sept. 7.

Both men also face additional weapons charges, and Abdul-Latif is accused of soliciting a crime of violence.

According to allegations previously laid out in an FBI complaint, the two were arrested June 22 after they arrived at a warehouse garage to pick up machine guns to use in the attack. Investigators said they learned of the plot when someone Abdul-Latif recruited to obtain weapons turned to Seattle police and then acted as a paid confidential informant.

View the original article here

McConnell: Send Iraqis charged in Ky. to Gitmo (AP)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The top-ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate wants two Iraqis facing terrorism-related charges in Kentucky sent to the prison at Guantanamo Bay rather than allow them to face trial in a civilian court.

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, spoke on the Senate floor Tuesday morning and called 30-year-old Waad Ramadan Alwan and 23-year-old Mohanad Shareef Hammadi "foreign fighters" who should be subject to the same system as combatants caught on a battlefield.

McConnell said sending the men to the facility on the southeastern tip of Cuba is the best way to ensure that there will be no disruptions that could come with a civilian trial.

"Send them to Guantanamo where they belong. Get these terrorists out of the civilian system — and out of our backyards," McConnell said. "And give them the justice they deserve."

Alwan and Hammadi are charged in a 23-count indictment with conspiring to send weapons and money to Al-Qaida in Iraq. Alwan is also charged with attacking American soldiers in Iraq. A grand jury in Bowling Green charged the men last month.

Hammadi's attorney, Jim Earhart, told The Associated Press that both men were legally in the country and should be afforded the same rights as anyone else legally in the United States.

"There simply is no exception to that, nor do we expect one for our citizens overseas," Earhart said. "It's a two-way street. You've got to be careful when you go there."

Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department, said the department coordinated with intelligence agencies and the U.S. Department of Defense during the probe and both Alwan and Hammadi underwent "extensive interrogation" after waiving their Miranda rights. Hundreds of people have been convicted in federal courts on terrorism-related charges since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and none have prompted retaliatory attacks, Boyd said.

"The successful investigation, arrests, and interrogation in this case show the effectiveness of our intelligence and law enforcement authorities in bringing terrorists to justice and preventing them from harming the American people," Boyd said. "Abandoning those proven methods would do nothing but risk the safety of the American people."

Scott Wendelsdorf, the federal public defender representing Alwan, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Tuesday. The White House press office referred questions to the Justice Department.

Alwan is charged with conspiracy to kill a United States national, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. Hammadi is charged with attempting to provide material support to terrorists and knowingly transferring, possessing or exporting a device designed or intended to launch or guide a rocket or missile.

Authorities say the weapons and money from Alwan and Hammadi didn't make it to Iraq because of a tightly controlled undercover investigation. The FBI said in an affidavit that Alwan spoke of setting roadside bombs near Bayji, Iraq from 2003 through 2006. The FBI said investigators found his fingerprints on an unexploded bomb, but didn't match the prints to Alwan until January.

No trial date has been set for the men. Attorneys in the case are scheduled to speak with U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell on June 21 about how the case will proceed.

Alwan and Hammadi were admitted into the United States with refugee status in 2009. Homeland Security officials have said the men slipped through cracks in the system that have since been fixed.

McConnell said Kentucky residents don't want Alwan and Hammadi treated like "common criminals in their own backyards."

"They don't want foreign fighters to be afforded all the legal rights and privileges of U.S. citizens," McConnell said.

The use of the facility at Guantanamo Bay has been politically charged since the Bush administration began sending captured combatants to the military post on the eastern edge of Cuba in 2001. President Barack Obama has pledged to close the prison, which houses about 170 detainees.

McConnell called the prison the "perfect solution" for cases like the one involving Alwan and Hammadi and ensure that Kentucky doesn't cover the cost of added security and potential disturbances should the two men go to trial.

"Sending them to Gitmo is the only way to ensure that they will not enjoy all the rights and privileges of U.S. citizens," McConnell said. "Sending them to Gitmo is the only way we can be certain there won't be retaliatory attacks in Kentucky."

McConnell's GOP colleague, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, has called for hearings into how Alwan and Hammadi got refugee status.

______

Associated Press reporter Brett Barrouquere is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BBarrouquereAP

View the original article here

Fla. imam, 2 sons charged with supporting Taliban (AP)

MIAMI – A Miami imam and two of his sons were arrested Saturday on charges they provided some $50,000 to the Pakistani Taliban, designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization, officials said.

Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, 76, was arrested after morning services at the Miami Mosque, also known as the Flagler Mosque, where he is an imam. One of his sons, Izhar Khan, 24, an imam at the Jamaat Al-Mu'mineen Mosque in nearby Margate, Fla., was arrested after morning services there. Another son, Irfan Khan, 37, was detained at his hotel room in Los Angeles around the same time. The men are U.S. citizens. Their mosques are not suspected of wrongdoing, officials said.

Attempts to reach the men's families, attorneys and mosques were unsuccessful Saturday.

Also named in the indictment are three others at large in Pakistan — Hafiz Khan's daughter, grandson and an unrelated man, all three of whom are charged with handling the distribution of funds.

The indictment lists about $50,000 in transactions. The funds were used to buy guns, support militants' families and promote the cause of the Pakistani Taliban, according to the indictment. It also alleges that Hafiz Khan owns a madrassa, or religious school, in his native Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan that shelters members of the Pakistani Taliban and trains children to become militants.

U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer noted that the investigation was sparked three years ago by suspicious financial activity and was not based on an undercover sting operation.

"This is based on the defendant's words, actions and records," Ferrer said at a news conference Saturday.

The indictment recounts recorded conversations in which Hafiz Khan allegedly voices support for attacks on the Pakistani government and American troops in the region.

The Pakistani Taliban is a wing of the terrorist group that began in Afghanistan. It claimed responsibility for a pair of suicide bombings that killed more than 80 people on Friday in what it said was vengeance for the killing of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. The group has also been linked to the Times Square car bombing in New York in May 2010.

If convicted, the South Florida men face 15 years in prison for each of the four counts listed in the indictment. All three are expected to appear in court Monday.

It's not the first terror case to come out of the area. In June 2006, a group that became known as the "Liberty City Seven" was arrested in the Miami neighborhood by that name. They had been accused in a plot to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower. Five men were convicted, while two were acquitted. The plot never got past the discussion stage, which led defense attorneys and national terrorism experts to describe the case as overblown.

View the original article here