Tarek Mehanna - 4/12/12

AMS · Apr 15, 2012

http://www.salon.com/2012/04/13/the_real_criminals_in_the_tarek_mehanna_case/

TAREK’S SENTENCING STATEMENT
APRIL 12, 2012

Read to Judge O’Toole during his sentencing, April 12th 2012.

In the name of God the most gracious the most merciful Exactly four years ago this month I was finishing my work shift at a
local hospital. As I was walking to my car I was approached by two federal agents. They said that I had a choice to make: I could do things the easy way, or I could do them the hard way. The “easy ” way, as they explained, was that I would become an informant for the government, and if I did so I would never see the inside of a courtroom or a prison cell. As for the hard way, this is it. Here I
am, having spent the majority of the four years since then in a solitary cell the size of a small closet, in which I am locked down
for 23 hours each day. The FBI and these prosecutors worked very hard-and the government spent millions of tax dollars – to put me in that cell, keep me there, put me on trial, and finally to have me stand here before you today to be sentenced to even more time in a cell.

In the weeks leading up to this moment, many people have offered suggestions as to what I should say to you. Some said I should plead for mercy in hopes of a light sentence, while others suggested I would be hit hard either way. But what I want to do is just talk about myself for a few minutes.

When I refused to become an informant, the government responded by charging me with the “crime” of supporting the mujahideen fighting the occupation of Muslim countries around the world. Or as they like to call them, “terrorists.” I wasn’t born in a Muslim country, though. I was born and raised right here in America and this angers many people: how is it that I can be an American and believe the things I believe, take the positions I take? Everything a man is exposed to in his environment becomes an ingredient that shapes his outlook, and I’m no different. So, in more ways than one, it’s because of America that I am who I am.

When I was six, I began putting together a massive collection of comic books. Batman implanted a concept in my mind, introduced me to a paradigm as to how the world is set up: that there are oppressors, there are the oppressed, and there are those who step up to defend the oppressed. This resonated with me so much that throughout the rest of my childhood, I gravitated towards any book that reflected that paradigm – Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and I even saw an ehical dimension to The Catcher in the Rye.

By the time I began high school and took a real history class, I was learning just how real that paradigm is in the world. I learned about the Native Americans and what befell them at the hands of European settlers. I learned about how the descendents of those European settlers were in turn oppressed under the tyranny of King George III.

I read about Paul Revere, Tom Paine, and how Americans began an armed insurgency against British forces – an insurgency we now celebrate as the American revolutionary war. As a kid I even went on school field trips just blocks away from where we sit now. I learned about Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, John Brown, and the fight against slavery in this country. I learned about Emma Goldman, Eugene Debs, and the struggles of the labor unions, working class, and poor. I learned about Anne Frank, the Nazis, and how they persecuted minorities and imprisoned dissidents. I learned about Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King,
and the civil rights struggle.

I learned about Ho Chi Minh, and how the Vietnamese fought for decades to liberate themselves from one invader after another. I learned about Nelson Mandela and the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Everything I learned in those years confirmed what I was beginning to learn when I was six: that throughout history, there has been a constant struggle between the oppressed and their oppressors. With each struggle I learned about, I found myself consistently siding with the oppressed, and consistently respecting those who stepped up to defend them -regardless of nationality, regardless of religion. And I never threw my class notes away. As I stand here speaking, they are in a neat pile in my bedroom closet at home.

From all the historical figures I learned about, one stood out above the rest. I was impressed be many things about Malcolm X, but above all, I was fascinated by the idea of transformation, his transformation. I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie “X” by Spike Lee, it’s over three and a half hours long, and the Malcolm at the beginning is different from the Malcolm at the end. He starts off as an illiterate criminal, but ends up a husband, a father, a protective and eloquent leader for his people, a disciplined Muslim performing the Hajj in Makkah, and finally, a martyr. Malcolm’s life taught me that Islam is not something inherited; it’s not a culture or ethnicity. It’s a way of life, a state of mind anyone can choose no matter where they come from or how they were raised.

This led me to look deeper into Islam, and I was hooked. I was just a teenager, but Islam answered the question that the greatest scientific minds were clueless about, the question that drives the rich & famous to depression and suicide from being unable to answer: what is the purpose of life? Why do we exist in this Universe? But it also answered the question of how we’re supposed to exist. And since there’s no hierarchy or priesthood, I could directly and immediately begin digging into the texts of the Qur’an and the teachings of Prophet Muhammad, to begin the journey of understanding what this was all about, the implications of Islam for me as a human being, as an individual, for the people around me, for the world; and the more I learned, the more I valued Islam like a piece of gold. This was when I was a teen, but even today, despite the pressures of the last few years, I stand here before you, and everyone else in this courtroom, as a very proud Muslim.

With that, my attention turned to what was happening to other Muslims in different parts of the world. And everywhere I looked, I saw the powers that be trying to destroy what I loved. I learned what the Soviets had done to the Muslims of Afghanistan. I learned what the Serbs had done to the Muslims of Bosnia. I learned what the Russians were doing to the Muslims of Chechnya. I learned what Israel had done in Lebanon – and what it continues to do in Palestine – with the full backing of the United States. And I learned what America itself was doing to Muslims. I learned about the Gulf War, and the depleted uranium bombs that killed thousands and caused cancer rates to skyrocket across Iraq.

I learned about the American-led sanctions that prevented food, medicine, and medical equipment from entering Iraq, and how – according to the United Nations – over half a million children perished as a result. I remember a clip from a ’60 Minutes‘ interview of Madeline Albright where she expressed her view that these dead children were “worth it.” I watched on September 11th as a group of people felt driven to hijack airplanes and fly them into buildings from their outrage at the deaths of these children. I watched as America then attacked and invaded Iraq directly. I saw the effects of ’Shock & Awe’ in the opening day of the invasion – the children in hospital wards with shrapnel from American missiles sticking but of their foreheads (of course, none of this was shown on CNN).

I learned about the town of Haditha, where 24 Muslims – including a 76-year old man in a wheelchair, women, and even toddlers – were shot up and blown up in their bedclothes as the slept by US Marines. I learned about Abeer al-Janabi, a fourteen-year old Iraqi girl gang-raped by five American soldiers, who then shot her and her family in the head, then set fire to their corpses. I just want to point out, as you can see, Muslim women don’t even show their hair to unrelated men. So try to imagine this young girl from a conservative village with her dress torn off, being sexually assaulted by not one, not two, not three, not four, but five soldiers. Even today, as I sit in my jail cell, I read about the drone strikes which continue to kill Muslims daily in places like Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. Just last month, we all heard about the seventeen Afghan Muslims – mostly mothers and their kids – shot to death by an American soldier, who also set fire to their corpses.

These are just the stories that make it to the headlines, but one of the first concepts I learned in Islam is that of loyalty, of
brotherhood – that each Muslim woman is my sister, each man is my brother, and together, we are one large body who must protect each other. In other words, I couldn’t see these things beings done to my brothers & sisters – including by America – and remain neutral. My sympathy for the oppressed continued, but was now more personal, as was my respect for those defending them.

I mentioned Paul Revere – when he went on his midnight ride, it was for the purpose of warning the people that the British were marching to Lexington to arrest Sam Adams and John Hancock, then on to Concord to confiscate the weapons stored there by the Minuteman. By the time they got to Concord, they found the Minuteman waiting for them, weapons in hand. They fired at the British, fought them, and beat them. From that battle came the American Revolution. There’s an Arabic word to describe what those Minutemen did that day. That word is: JIHAD, and this is what my trial was about.

All those videos and translations and childish bickering over ‘Oh, he translated this paragraph’ and ‘Oh, he edited that sentence,’ and all those exhibits revolved around a single issue: Muslims who were defending themselves against American soldiers doing to them exactly what the British did to America. It was made crystal clear at trial that I never, ever plotted to “kill Americans” at shopping malls or whatever the story was. The government’s own witnesses contradicted this claim, and we put expert after expert up on that stand, who spent hours dissecting my every written word, who explained my beliefs. Further, when I was free, the government sent an undercover agent to prod me into one of their little “terror plots,” but I refused to participate. Mysteriously, however, the jury never heard this.

So, this trial was not about my position on Muslims killing American civilians. It was about my position on Americans killing Muslim civilians, which is that Muslims should defend their lands from foreign invaders – Soviets, Americans, or Martians. This is what I believe. It’s what I’ve always believed, and what I will always believe. This is not terrorism, and it’s not extremism. It’s what the arrows on that seal above your head represent: defense of the homeland. So, I disagree with my lawyers when they say that you don’t have to agree with my beliefs – no. Anyone with commonsense and humanity has no choice but to agree with me. If someone breaks into your home to rob you and harm your family, logic dictates that you do whatever it takes to expel that invader from your home.

But when that home is a Muslim land, and that invader is the US military, for some reason the standards suddenly change. Common sense is renamed ”terrorism” and the people defending themselves against those who come to kill them from across the ocean become “the terrorists” who are ”killing Americans.” The mentality that America was victimized with when British soldiers walked these streets 2 ½ centuries ago is the same mentality Muslims are victimized by as American soldiers walk their streets today. It’s the mentality of colonialism.

When Sgt. Bales shot those Afghans to death last month, all of the focus in the media was on him-his life, his stress, his PTSD, the mortgage on his home-as if he was the victim. Very little sympathy was expressed for the people he actually killed, as if they’re not real, they’re not humans. Unfortunately, this mentality trickles down to everyone in society, whether or not they realize it. Even with my lawyers, it took nearly two years of discussing, explaining, and clarifying before they were finally able to think outside the box and at least ostensibly accept the logic in what I was saying. Two years! If it took that long for people so intelligent, whose job it is to defend me, to de-program themselves, then to throw me in front of a randomly selected jury under the premise that they’re my “impartial peers,” I mean, come on. I wasn’t tried before a jury of my peers because with the mentality gripping America today, I have no peers. Counting on this fact, the government prosecuted me – not because they needed to, but simply because they could.

I learned one more thing in history class: America has historically supported the most unjust policies against its minorities – practices that were even protected by the law – only to look back later and ask: ’what were we thinking?’ Slavery, Jim Crow, the internment of the Japanese during World War II – each was widely accepted by American society, each was defended by the Supreme Court. But as time passed and America changed, both people and courts looked back and asked ’What were we thinking?’ Nelson Mandela was considered a terrorist by the South African government, and given a life sentence. But time passed, the world changed, they realized how oppressive their policies were, that it was not he who was the terrorist, and they released him from prison. He even became president. So, everything is subjective - even this whole business of “terrorism” and who is a “terrorist.” It all depends on the time and place and who the superpower happens to be at the moment.

In your eyes, I’m a terrorist, and it’s perfectly reasonable that I be standing here in an orange jumpsuit. But one day, America will change and people will recognize this day for what it is. They will look at how hundreds of thousands of Muslims were killed and maimed by the US military in foreign countries, yet somehow I’m the one going to prison for “conspiring to kill and maim” in those countries – because I support the Mujahidin defending those people. They will look back on how the government spent millions of dollars to imprison me as a ”terrorist,” yet if we were to somehow bring Abeer al-Janabi back to life in the moment she was being gang-raped by your soldiers, to put her on that witness stand and ask her who the “terrorists” are, she sure wouldn’t be pointing at me.

The government says that I was obsessed with violence, obsessed with ”killing Americans.” But, as a Muslim living in these times, I can think of a lie no more ironic.

-Tarek Mehanna
4/12/12
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AroundTheWorld · Apr 15, 2012

Tarek Mehanna Sentenced in Boston to 17 Years in Prison on Terrorism-Related Charges

BOSTON—A Sudbury, Massachusetts man who was convicted last year on charges that he conspired to kill Americans was sentenced today to 17.5 years in federal prison.

Following a two-hour hearing in U.S. District Court in Boston, Judge George A. O’Toole, Jr. sentenced Tarek Mehanna, 29, to 210 months, to be followed by seven years of supervised release. In December 2011, Mehanna was convicted by a jury, after 10 hours of deliberation, of four terrorism-related charges and three charges related to providing false information to the government.

Following an eight-week trial, Mehanna was convicted of conspiracy to provide material support to al Qaeda, providing material support to terrorists (and conspiracy to do so), conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, conspiracy to make false statements to the FBI, and two counts of making false statements.

According to testimony at trial, Mehanna and co-conspirators discussed their desire to participate in violent jihad against American interests and their desire to die on the battlefield. The co-conspirators attempted to radicalize others and inspire each other by, among other things, watching and distributing jihadi videos. Mehanna and two of his associates traveled to the Middle East in 2004, seeking military-type training at a terrorist training camp that would prepare them for armed jihad against U.S. interests, including U.S. and allied forces in Iraq. One of Mehanna’s co-conspirators made two similar trips to Pakistan in 2002.

After returning to the United States, Mehanna continued his efforts to provide material support by, among other things, translating and posting on the Internet al Qaeda recruitment videos and other documents.

In December 2006, Mehanna was interviewed by federal authorities regarding a trip by Mehanna, Ahmad Abousamra, and another individual to Yemen in 2004. During that interview, Mehanna provided false information and made fraudulent and fictitious statements about the purpose of that trip and his relationship with co-conspirator Daniel Joseph Maldonado, aka Daniel Aljughaifi. Mehanna lied to the FBI concerning where Maldonado was living at the time and what Maldonado was doing. Just a few days prior to the FBI interview, Mehanna received a call from Maldonado, who was in Somalia receiving military-type training for jihad. Mehanna admitted in recorded conversations that he had lied to the FBI about Maldonado’s whereabouts and training in Somalia. Mehanna also lied to the FBI concerning his trip to Yemen in 2004. Mehanna did, in fact, go to Yemen with Abousamra and another individual to conduct, and to subsequently engage in, jihad.

In 2007, Maldonado pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Texas, admitting that he had traveled from Houston to Africa in November 2005 and then on to Somalia in December 2006 to join the Islamic Courts Union and elements of al-Qaida to fight against the Transitional Federal Government to establish an independent Islamic State in Somalia. Maldonado was sentenced to 10 years in prison, the maximum statutory penalty for receiving military training from a terrorist organization.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) members: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs Border Protection, the Massachusetts State Police, and the Lowell, Massachusetts Police Department, in addition to other members of the FBI’s JTTF. The JTTF includes officers and agents from a number of other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey Auerhahn and Aloke S. Chakravarty of the Anti-Terrorism and National Security Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts and by Jeffrey Groharing, Trial Attorney with the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

http://www.fbi.gov/boston/press-rel...-years-in-prison-on-terrorism-related-charges

esteban · Apr 15, 2012

I learned about Ho Chi Minh, and how the Vietnamese fought for decades to liberate themselves from one invader after another

This fool needs a remedial history lesson!

AroundTheWorld · Apr 15, 2012

Isn't it interesting that adeelsiddiqui would post a propagandist statement of a convicted terrorist? Apparently he can very much relate to this guy.

bigtexxx · Apr 15, 2012

AroundTheWorld said: ↑

Isn't it interesting that adeelsiddiqui would post a propagandist statement of a convicted terrorist? Apparently he can very much relate to this guy.
Click to expand...

Is he sympathetic towards the guy because they share a religious faith?

AroundTheWorld · Apr 15, 2012

bigtexxx said: ↑

Is he sympathetic towards the guy because they share a religious faith?
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Well, the terrorist's co-conspirator traveled from Houston to Africa to get his terrorist training, according to the FBI press release I posted...

adeelsiddiqui...explain yourself.

Let's not forget that the Houston Da'Wah Center gave money to terrorist organizations.

This person, Aafia Siddiqui, who tried to murder Americans, similar to what Tarek Mehanna, whose propagandist statement Adeel Siddiqui posted, had planned, also had ties to Houston.

AMS · Apr 15, 2012

bigtexxx said: ↑

Is he sympathetic towards the guy because they share a religious faith?
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Do you hate all people that share that faith?

Ubiquitin · Apr 15, 2012

AroundTheWorld said: ↑

Well, the terrorist's co-conspirator traveled from Houston to Africa to get his terrorist training, according to the FBI press release I posted...

adeelsiddiqui...explain yourself.

Let's not forget that the Houston Da'Wah Center gave money to terrorist organizations.

This person, Aafia Siddiqui, who tried to murder Americans, similar to what Tarek Mehanna, whose propagandist statement Adeel Siddiqui posted, had planned, also had ties to Houston.
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You're going on Hakeem status with your rep, ATW

AMS · Apr 15, 2012

Interesting, From his website:

A Brief Clarification From Tarek:

"Since the end of my trial, I've been asked repeatedly about particular aspects of my case. Rather than respond to each individual inquirer, I figured it to be more practical to address those points publicly so that the general public may also be aware of some of the background information often buried under headlines:

Yes, I was charged by the government after refusing to become an FBI informant.

In April of 2008, as I was nearing my college graduation date, I was in the process of obtaining a position as a pharmacist at a large hospital in Saudi Arabia. Days after I sent an email to the employer accepting the job offer, the FBI (who were monitoring my communications) were waiting for me outside my workplace in Natick, MA and revealed that they were aware that I was moving to the middle East, but that they wanted to file terrorism charges against me, and that 'we could either handle this the easy way or the hard way.' I was told to get a lawyer, and he would explain what the 'easy way' was.

I hired a lawyer that week, and he called the U.S. Attorney's office as I sat next to him. Jeffrey Auerhahn explained to him that the government wanted me to work as an informant, and that if I did not, I would be arrested and charged with terrorism. Since I wouldn't agree to do this, my lawyer at the time (Norman Zalkind) told Auerhahn that if they wanted to arrest me, I was more than willing to turn myself in at a time and place of the government's choosing. We even documented this offer of surrender in a letter sent to the government (this letter can be read online as an attached exhibit to my Feb. 2011 bail motion). The government responded that they were not interested in my surrender, and were planning to arrest me at my upcoming college graduation ceremony. This didn't happen, and I in fact heard nothing from the government for the following seven months.

Finally, in November of 2008, after seven months of silence, I decided to begin working at the hospital that had hired me in the capitol of Saudi Arabia. I had to move on with my life at some point. So my parents and I booked plane tickets, went to the airport, passed a search, and once we were given our boarding passes, I was arrested by the FBI inside the plane's terminal.

I was charged not with terrorism, but with giving a false statement to an FBI agent years earlier. I was taken to jail, where I spent 44 days before being released on $1.2 million bail, in December of 2008. I was out on bail for approximately nine months when, in September of 2009, I was approached by a man who was sent by the prosecutors to tell me that I had one final chance: if I became an informant, they would drop the false statement charge, and i would eventually be let go to move on with my career plans. Again, I refused. One month later, on October 21st, 2009, I was arrested a second time, this time with all of the terrorism charges that I was threatened with back in April 2008, and convicted on in 2011. And here I am today, having chosen 'the hard way.'

(The judge would not allow my lawyers to mention any of this background information to the jury at trial.)

Yes, I was offered numerous plea deals by the government. The most recent on offered before trial was that they would drop all of the terrorism charges, except that I would plead guilty to translating a book ('39 Ways'), and we would jointly seek a sentence of five to ten years, as opposed to the life sentence I currently face. These deals were offered by the government of their own accord to avoid a trial, and were never sought by me. I refused each deal and insisted on going to trial.

It should be noted that during these discussions between my lawyers and the prosecutors, the prosecutors admitted that they do not think I am a 'terrorist.'

All of this contrasts with Carmen Ortiz's statement to the press outside the courthouse following my conviction that my arrest was necessary to 'catch terrorists,' as well as the initial government claims that I was a maniac bent on shooting up a shopping mall."
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Ubiquitin · Apr 15, 2012

So Tarek traveled to other countries seeking military training, lied to FBI agents about his travel, and he is now being labeled a terrorist on the basis of conspiracy. Does that sound right?

bigtexxx · Apr 15, 2012

adeelsiddiqui said: ↑

Do you hate all people that share that faith?
Click to expand...

No I don't.

AroundTheWorld · Apr 15, 2012

adeelsiddiqui, do you share this guy's beliefs about jihad? Are you his spokesman? Are you guys linked to each other? Why do you keep posting a convicted terrorist's statements without your own comment? Are you concerned that the FBI could arrest you as well if you were to post your own thoughts on this matter?

AMS · Apr 15, 2012

Azadre said: ↑

So Tarek traveled to other countries seeking military training, lied to FBI agents about his travel, and he is now being labeled a terrorist on the basis of conspiracy. Does that sound right?
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Seems about right.

However, what I find interesting is what he was initially accused of (Terrorist attack at a mall) and what he was in the end found guilty of (translating stuff)

DaDakota · Apr 15, 2012

Well, sounds like he should have cooperated....now he can think about Batman in his prison cell for the next 10 years.

DD

Zboy · Apr 15, 2012

So let me get this straight....

He is getting 17 years for translating??

trustme · Apr 16, 2012

Zboy said: ↑

So let me get this straight....

He is getting 17 years for translating??
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Yup. The cover photo in the FB group sums it up perfectly.

https://www.facebook.com/FreeTarekMehanna?ref=ts

AMS · Apr 16, 2012

Zboy said: ↑

So let me get this straight....

He is getting 17 years for translating??
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Yep, but he didn't cooperate (by becoming a snitch) , and apparently that justifies the punishment...

AroundTheWorld · Apr 16, 2012

The following is what he was convicted of (copied from above, reading does not seem to be some people's strong suit):

Following an eight-week trial, Mehanna was convicted of conspiracy to provide material support to al Qaeda, providing material support to terrorists (and conspiracy to do so), conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, conspiracy to make false statements to the FBI, and two counts of making false statements.

According to testimony at trial, Mehanna and co-conspirators discussed their desire to participate in violent jihad against American interests and their desire to die on the battlefield. The co-conspirators attempted to radicalize others and inspire each other by, among other things, watching and distributing jihadi videos. Mehanna and two of his associates traveled to the Middle East in 2004, seeking military-type training at a terrorist training camp that would prepare them for armed jihad against U.S. interests, including U.S. and allied forces in Iraq. One of Mehanna’s co-conspirators made two similar trips to Pakistan in 2002.

After returning to the United States, Mehanna continued his efforts to provide material support by, among other things, translating and posting on the Internet al Qaeda recruitment videos and other documents.
Click to expand...

But it is interesting who has a problem with that - the usual suspects, including zboy, who is a Jazz at heart, and who wants the terrorists to win.

Zboy · Apr 16, 2012

AroundTheWorld said: ↑

But it is interesting who has a problem with that - the usual suspects, including zboy, who is a Jazz at heart, and who wants the terrorists to win.
Click to expand...

This post has no substance considering it is coming form a well-known bigot on this site.

DaDakota · Apr 16, 2012

Zboy said: ↑

This post has no substance considering it is coming form a well-known bigot on this site.
Click to expand...

And well know Scola lover !

DD

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