Muhammad Junaid Babar, naturalized U.S. citizen convicted for directly aiding Al Qaeda, was recently sentenced to time served after serving a whopping five years in prison.
While this sentence drew harsh criticism from the British government – Babar admitted that he aided one of the suicide bombers of the July 2005 London attacks – it still seemed somewhat reasonable that he was released considering he cooperated with the FBI and foreign governments in at least five different terrorism investigations.
It all appeared reasonable until a court document unsealed this week (filed in November 2010), which detailed Babar’s offenses and cooperation, revealed one small caveat:
According to Babar, he still supports today the killing of American military service members on battlefields in Muslim countries. Babar has advised that he also supports the killing of Americans (both military and civilian) in Muslim countries "occupied" by the United States.
What is most troubling about this statement is that it was written by the U.S. government in a formal request to give Babar a reduced statement. Perhaps the U.S. government shouldn’t be arguing for reduced sentences for people that still support killing Americans, regardless of their cooperation.
Babar himself also submitted a letter to the court, saying that he enrolled in community college to finish the education he started over a decade ago. It was during his previous college education, at SUNY-Stonybrook in 2000, that Babar first began associating with extremists and extremist groups. While a student at SUNY, Babar joined Al Muhajiroun in New York, which is now known as Islamic Thinkers Society (and a number of Americans linked to the group have been charged on terror-related offenses). It was through Al Muhajiroun that Babar made it as far as he did in the Al Qaeda world, even working in the Al Muhajiroun office in Lahore, Pakistan after moving abroad for the purpose of providing “support to the Afghan jihad,” according to court documents.
No comments:
Post a Comment