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New York ex-lawyer in terror case ordered to prison
A federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered a disbarred civil rights lawyer convicted in a terrorism case to go to prison and said a judge must consider whether her sentence of a little more than two years behind bars was too lenient.
Lynne Stewart, 70, has been free on appeal since she was sentenced in 2006. The three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its nearly 200-page ruling almost two years after hearing arguments in the case.
Stewart was sentenced to two years and four months in prison after she was found guilty of passing messages between her client, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, and senior members of an Egyptian-based terrorist organization.
The appeals court suggested that the sentence was too lenient, especially when compared with the 20-month prison term given to her co-defendant, Mohammed Yousry, a translator who was working for her. The appeals court said the sentencing judge can also reconsider the sentences of Yousry and Ahmed Abdel Sattar, a former postal worker, depending on what the judge decides with Stewart.
The court also ordered Yousry to begin serving his sentence. Sattar is already serving his 24-year sentence.
In its ruling, the appeals court said Stewart must be resentenced because Judge John G. Koeltl declined to determine at sentencing whether Stewart committed perjury when she testified at her trial.
The appeals court said it was necessary for the judge to make the determination because of "the seriousness of her criminal conduct, her responsibilities as a member of the bar and her role as counsel for Abdel-Rahman."
It added: "We think that whether Stewart lied under oath at her trial is directly relevant to whether her sentence was appropriate. ... Any cover-up or attempt to evade responsibility by a failure to tell the truth upon oath or affirmation at her trial would compound the gravity of her crime."
In a partial dissent to the ruling, Judge John Walker complained that the appeals court did not go far enough, saying it should have rejected Stewart's sentence as "substantively unreasonable" and required resentencing on that basis.
Stewart's lawyer, Joshua Dratel, did not immediately return a call for comment. Prosecutors did not immediately comment.
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Five arrested in anti-terror raids
Anti-terror police arrested five people on Monday in pre-dawn raids in Manchester and near London's Heathrow airport, officials said.
The detentions, including a 26-year-old man seized in a hotel near Heathrow, were linked to an alleged overseas threat, media reported, while officials sought to play down the immediate danger.
"This is a complex and ongoing investigation, which has now reached the point where it was necessary to make arrests and speak to a number of people," said Assistant Chief Constable Dave Thompson of Greater Manchester Police.
"Protecting people both at home and abroad is our primary concern, which is why we take such steps," said Thompson, adding that the raids, starting at 4:00 am, were carried out by the North West Counter Terrorism Unit.
No armed officers were involved in the arrests, which he described as "low-key." No further details were available.
Britain reduced its national terror alert status in July from "severe" to "substantial," its lowest since July 2005 suicide attacks in London which killed 56.
In June 2007 there were failed car bomb attacks in central London and at Glasgow airport in Scotland, days after Prime Minister Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair.
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Illinois lobbies to land Guantanamo detainees
The state of Illinois is lobbying hard to land relocated Guantanamo detainees despite strenuous opposition to bringing the terrorism suspects to the United States, top lawmakers said Sunday.
The aim is to sell a nearly vacant maximum security prison to the federal government, something Governor Pat Quinn called a "once in a lifetime opportunity."
"It's safe and secure it provides lots of economic opportunity," Quinn told reporters in Chicago as he toured the state to tout the plan.
Fewer than 100 detainees would be housed in a separate facility within the 1,600-cell prison, said Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Senate.
That facility would be run by the defense department and would hold "the only group of Guantanamo detainees" on US soil, Durbin said at the joint press conference.
Bringing the prisoners to the United States is necessary to both "make America safer" and to convince other countries to repatriate some of the 215 detainees still held at the prison camp on a US naval base in Cuba, Durbin said.
"We have an argument after closing Guantanamo that they can be delegated safely to other places around the world," Durbin said at a press conference. "We don't have that argument now."
Durbin insisted that the prisoners could be "safely and securely" held in whichever facility wins the contract and dismissed those who were "sowing the seeds of fear" in order to win political points.
"No one has ever escaped from one of these facilities," Durbin said, noting that the US prison system currently holds "some of the most dangerous people you could imagine" including more than 340 convicted terrorists, gang leaders, and drug cartel members.
The announcement came two days after President Barack Obama's administration announced it would try five accused plotters of the September 11, 2001 attacks -- including self-proclaimed mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- in a civil court in New York City, just steps away from the scene of their alleged crime.
In a sharply-worded rebuke of the prison plans, Republican Representative Mark Kirk urged the White House "to put the safety and security of Illinois families first and stop any plan to transfer Al-Qaeda terrorists to our state."
"If your administration brings Al-Qaeda terrorists to Illinois, our state and the Chicago metropolitan area will become ground zero for jihadist terrorist plots, recruitment and radicalization," Kirk, a Senate candidate, said in a letter to Obama circulated among state lawmakers and officials.
But Quinn insisted that the prison, Thomson, would bring much-needed jobs to the state and that the public not be at risk.
"We're not going to let the fear-mongers carry the day," Quinn said at the press conference.
"Any future decisions regarding Thomson will first and foremost focus on ensuring public safety, while also bringing thousands of new jobs and a major investment to our state."
Federal officials will tour the facility this week and are also considering sites in Colorado, Montana and several other locations, Quinn said.
Located across the Mississippi River from Iowa in a rural area, Thomson Correctional Center has remained essentially vacant since it was opened eight years ago due to budgetary constraints.
It is protected by a 12-foot (four-meter) high exterior fence and a 15-foot (three-meter) interior fence, which includes a dual-sided electric stun barrier.
Quinn said he hopes to sell the facility to the federal government at a "fair market price" and is confident he could get approval from the legislature.
Durbin said Illinois stands a good shot at landing the deal because Obama knows the area well from his time as an Illinois senator.
The federal government's purchase of the prison could bring an estimated 2,340 to 3,250 direct and indirect jobs, with an economic benefit to the region of between 790 million dollars and 1.1 billion dollars over four years, according to a preliminary administration analysis.
It estimated that the unemployment rate in Carroll County, home to the prison, could be halved.
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Somali terror suspect had US residency
A Somali man suspected of recruiting youth in Minneapolis for Islamic terrorism in Somalia has a U.S. green card, Dutch media reported Friday.
Mohamud Said Omar, 43, was arrested last weekend at the request of U.S. authorities in an asylum seeker's center in Dronten, Netherlands, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) northeast of Amsterdam.
According to Dutch prosecutors, U.S. authorities suspect Omar of bankrolling the purchase of weapons for Islamic extremists and helping other Somalis travel to Somalia in 2007 and 2008. They have requested his extradition.
FBI officials in Minneapolis have confirmed that the arrest of the suspect detained in the Netherlands is related to an investigation into the departure of more than a dozen young men to Somalia, including one who carried out a suicide attack there in October 2008.
Omar's Dutch attorney, Audrey Kessels, told the daily newspaper De Volkskrant that given Omar's U.S. green card, he was ineligible for asylum in the Netherlands and his request was quickly rejected.
However, she had appealed the decision on the basis of illness. Omar had told her he couldn't find work in America and "didn't have any peace in his head."
"He didn't make a healthy impression," she said.
Kessels, who represented Omar when he applied for asylum in December 2008, was unavailable for further comment Friday, her law firm said.
She told the paper that Omar's filing for asylum would have alerted authorities to his presence.
Omar also told Kessels he had traveled to Somalia, Djibouti and the United Arab Emirates in early 2008.
As many as 20 young Somali men left the Minneapolis area over the last two years to go to Somalia and possibly fight with terror groups. At least three have died, including the one who carried out the suicide bombing in the semiautonomous Puntland region.
Three others have pleaded guilty in federal court in Minneapolis to terror-related charges. A fourth man has pleaded guilty to perjury, and a fifth has pleaded not guilty to lying to the FBI.
Omar is being held for 60 days after an initial appearance in a closed session in Rotterdam court. His extradition could take up to a year to complete if he contests it.
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Attacks kill 16 in Pakistan, spy agency targeted
A suicide bomber in a pickup truck attacked the northwestern regional headquarters of the Pakistani spy agency overseeing a campaign against militancy, killing 10 people Friday. Another suicide assault in the area killed six more.
The bombings were the latest in a string of attacks on security forces, civilians and Western targets since the government launched an offensive in mid-October against militants in the border region of South Waziristan, where al-Qaida and Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding out.
The attack on the Inter-Services Intelligence agency building occurred in the city of Peshawar, which has borne the brunt of the militants' retaliation against the army offensive. A wave of bombings in the last week alone in and around the city has killed more than 50 people.
"This is a guerrilla war," said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister for North West Frontier Province, where Peshawar is the capital. "We will continue our action against these militant terrorists. That is the only way we can survive."
Security forces guarding the intelligence complex opened fire on a pickup laden with explosives, but the bomber was able to detonate his payload, said an intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
The early morning blast, heard across the city, destroyed much of the three-story building and killed 10 people, including seven who worked for the spy agency, the army said in a statement. Another 55 people were wounded, officials said.
"I was going to work when the blast took place and shattered the windows of our vehicle," said witness Abdul Rahim Khan. "Thank God we are safe. There were a lot of dead bodies lying around."
About an hour later, a second suicide car bomber attacked a police station farther south near the Afghan border, killing six people, said police official Tahir Shah. Five of the dead were policemen working at the station in Bakkakhel village in Bannu district; the other was a civilian. Another 27 people were wounded, he said.
The station is close to the border with North Waziristan, an area in Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal region where officials believe many militants have fled to escape the recent army offensive.
The bombings took place as U.S. National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones visited the country for talks with top political and security officials, including military chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
The government has vowed the surging militant attacks will not dent the country's resolve to pursue the operation in South Waziristan, where officials say the most deadly insurgent network in Pakistan is based. The army claims to be making good progress.
The U.S. has urged Pakistan to persevere with its South Waziristan offensive because militants have used the area as a base to attack Western troops across the border in Afghanistan.
Friday's attack in Peshawar was the second to target a spy agency complex this year. A suicide squad using guns, grenades and a van packed with explosives attacked a police and an ISI building in Lahore in May, killing 30 people.
The ISI has been involved in scores of covert operations in the northwest against al-Qaida targets since 2001, when many militant leaders crossed into the area following the U.S. led invasion of Afghanistan. The region is seen as a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden.
Its offices in Peshawar are on the main road leading from the city to Afghanistan. The agency was instrumental in using CIA money to train jihadi groups to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Despite assisting in the fight against al-Qaida since then, some Western officials consider the agency an unreliable ally and allege it still maintains links with militants.
Taliban and al-Qaida fighters are waging a war against the Pakistani government because they deem it un-Islamic and are angry about its alliance with the United States. The insurgency began in earnest in 2007, and attacks have spiked since the run-up to the offensive in South Waziristan.
A car bomb exploded in a market in Peshawar at the end of October, killing at least 112 people in the deadliest attack in Pakistan in over two years. On Oct. 10, a team of militants staged a raid on the army headquarters close to the capital, Islamabad, taking soldiers hostages in a 22-hour standoff that left nine militants and 14 others dead.
Militants have also targeted convoys in Pakistan delivering supplies to soldiers in Afghanistan.
Attackers fired rockets at a group of tankers near the southwestern city of Quetta on Friday that were delivering fuel to U.S. and NATO troops. One driver was killed and five tankers were torched, said local police chief Bedar Ali Magsi.
About 80 percent of all nonessential supplies to Western forces in Afghanistan are trucked through Pakistan after landing at the Arabian Sea port of Karachi. NATO and U.S. officials say the attacks do not affect their operations.
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Italy: 17 Algerians arrested in terrorism probe
Italy's top security official said Thursday that authorities have smashed an international terror cell with the arrest in Italy and elsewhere in Europe of 17 Algerians who were raising money to finance terrorism.
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, speaking to reporters in Rome, called the terror cell "significant."
"An Algerian terror cell that gathered money for terrorist activities outside of Europe has been dismantled," Maroni said.
The arrests stemmed from an anti-terrorism investigation in Milan, and anti-terrorist units from Algeria, Austria, Britain, France, Spain and Switzerland cooperated in the probe, Milan police said.
Six of the arrests were in Italy, police said in a statement.
Milan Prosecutor Armando Spataro said the initial investigation involved terrorism, but the suspects were being held on charges of criminal association and falsifying documents — not the charge of international terrorism introduced in Italy after the Sept. 11 attacks. He said investigators were still working on the case.
Milan police said the investigation, which started in 2007, uncovered an active organization with several international connections.
Police said the organization had the aim of sending money to Algeria, and raised an estimated euro1 million ($1.5 million) over the past three years from crimes such as burglaries and thefts. It sent the money to Algeria in tranches of about euro10,000 ($15,000), according to police.
The organization forged documents and on some occasions stole the identities of Algerian soccer players who play in European professional leagues, police said, without naming any of the players. The fake documents were given to associates, allowing them to move freely in Europe and North Africa.
The suspects maintained contact with other North Africans who are the subject of anti-terror investigations in European countries, the statement said.
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Marine reservist accused of attacking Greek priest
A Marine reservist was charged with attacking a Greek Orthodox priest he said he thought was a terrorist.
Jasen D. Bruce allegedly hit 29-year-old Alexios Marakis over the head with a tire iron and chased him for three blocks Monday evening before Tampa police officers intervened.
Marakis, a Greek Orthodox priest visiting from Crete, told police he had stopped to ask the 28-year-old reservist for help after getting lost in downtown Tampa. He had just performed a blessing of another priest and accidentally got off the highway.
Marakis approached Bruce as he was unloading his dry-cleaning, police said.
"Please, please help," Marakis said to Bruce in his limited English.
Bruce pulled out a tire iron and attacked the priest, police said. He then called 911 as he chased Marakis, saying an Arab man was trying to rob him. When officers arrived, Bruce told them the man was a terrorist.
Bruce also told police he heard Marakis yell, "Allahu akbar!" — Arabic for "God is great," according to Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy.
Marakis, however, does not speak Arabic, McElroy said. He speaks Greek.
Police are working to determine if the offense meets the standard for a hate crime.
Authorities could not immediately provide the name of Bruce's attorney.
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