This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/5010
July 15, 2011
July 15, 2011 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In an unbelievably short sighted move which will have major negative repercussions in the what remains of the war on Islamic terrorism, the Obama administration has asked a U.S. District Court to potentially release Aldurahman [aka Abdulrahman] M. Alamoudi, an admitted al-Qaeda financier, from prison after having served only 7 of his 23 year sentence.
"The government's request for a reduced sentence must be approved by U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton. A hearing on the issue had been scheduled for Friday but Hilton canceled the hearing and said he will issue a written ruling based on the papers that have been submitted to him."[source, Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/07/08/general-us-libya-muslim-activist_8556135.html]
Alamoudi was convicted of raising nearly $1 million from Libya to be used in a plot to destabilize Saudi Arabia by assassinating the country's Crown Prince Abdullah. At the time of his arrest in the UK, Alamoudi had $340,000 of Libyan cash in his personal possession.
From a January 31, 2005 Dept. of Justice press release, http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/168.pdf
"Aldurahman M. Alamoudi, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Eritrea, was sentenced to 276 months in jail by District Judge Claude M. Hilton in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, this morning. On July 30, 2004, Alamoudi pleaded guilty to three federal offenses: one count of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which imposes terrorism-related sanctions prohibiting unlicensed travel to and commerce with Libya; one count of false statements made in his application for naturalization; and a tax offense involving a long-term scheme to conceal from the IRS his financial transactions with Libya and his foreign bank accounts and to omit material information from the tax returns filed by his charities.""...As part of a plea agreement, Alamoudi agreed to cooperate fully and truthfully in any and all investigations, including an ongoing investigation into a plot to assassinate an ally in the war against terrorism. Under the terms of that plea agreement, Alamoudi also agreed that he should be sentenced under the terrorism provision of the federal sentencing guidelines, and he agreed to forfeit all proceeds from his illegal dealings with Libya, which total at least $910,000, including $340,000 seized from him in the United Kingdom."
"...Initially, during a meeting on March 13, 2003, Alamoudi and Libyan government officials discussed creating "headaches" and disruptions in Saudi Arabia. As the scheme continued, however, Alamoudi learned that the actual objective was the assassination of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. Alamoudi participated in recruiting participants for this plot by introducing the Libyans to two Saudi dissidents in London and facilitating the transfer of hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash from the Libyans to those dissidents to finance the plot.
"This is a clear victory in the war against terrorism," said U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty of the Eastern District of Virginia. "Terrorists need money to operate, and the defendant was caught in the act of financing their deadly schemes."
From a July 14, 2005 Dept. of Treasury press release, http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/js2632.aspx
"...In 2003, MIRA and Faqih [two designated international terrorist organizations] received approximately $1 million in funding through Abdulrahman Alamoudi. According to information available to the U.S. Government, the September 2003 arrest of Alamoudi was a severe blow to al Qaida, as Alamoudi had a close relationship with al Qaida and had raised money for al Qaida in the United States. In a 2004 plea agreement, Alamoudi admitted to his role in an assassination plot targeting the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and is currently serving a 23 year sentence."
That such an irresponsible effort by DOJ is taking place on Friday - the journalistic equivalent of a black hole for news - is a sure indication that Team Obama knows how harmful its effort which might well free Alamoudi - a convicted al-Qaeda financier - will be both to national security and to the administration's already well deserved reputation of coddling Islamic terrorists.
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This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/5010