Brooklyn: Muslim found guilty of aiding al-Qaeda, helping build truck bomb in Afghanistan
Federal prosecutor Richard Tucker said: “This guy is for real and he is a bad guy. He is an honest-to-goodness al-Qaeda bad guy.”
Richard Tucker, like virtually all American officials, talks as if he is in fifth grade: “a bad guy.” This puerile usage is a manifestation of the general unwillingness to call things by their right names. Tucker et al won’t dare say “enemy,” or speak about the motivating ideology of the jihadis. Instead, it’s all playground cops and robbers, catching “bad guys.”
“Muhanad al-Farekh, one of Winnipeg’s ‘Lost Boys,’ found guilty in U.S. court of terrorism charges,” by Jane Rosenberg, Associated Press, September 29, 2017:
A former student at the University of Manitoba was found guilty of providing material support to al-Qaeda and helping to build a truck bomb in Afghanistan after leaving Canada with two friends in 2007.
On Friday, a federal jury in Brooklyn convicted Muhanad al-Farekh of nine criminal charges which carry a maximum punishment of life in prison. He is due to be sentenced on Jan. 11.
Mr. al-Farekh, an American citizen, was one of Winnipeg’s “Lost Boys,” three students who mysteriously disappeared and travelled to Pakistan, sparking alarm among intelligence officials in the U.S. and Canada….
Mr. Farekh, who was born in Houston and raised in Dubai, was once reportedly the subject of a debate at the highest levels of the U.S. government over whether he should be captured or killed in a drone strike. His return to the U.S. to face charges marks a victory for the officials who argued that American courts were the correct venue in which to weigh his crimes.
“This guy is for real and he is a bad guy,” said Richard Tucker, a federal prosecutor, of Mr. al-Farekh, during the closing arguments. “He is an honest-to-goodness al-Qaeda bad guy.”
The prosecution’s case relied heavily on the notion that Mr. al-Farekh was part of a trio who studied together, prayed together, became radicalized together and left Canada together….
A former close friend of the trio who also attended the University of Manitoba told jurors how they had discussed with excitement a sermon by a radical cleric on the duty to wage jihad. Jurors were shown a video in which Mr. al-Farekh urged friends, including Mr. Yar, to watch an online clip featuring attacks on American soldiers in Iraq.
Source: Brooklyn: Muslim found guilty of aiding al-Qaeda, helping build truck bomb in Afghanistan