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Tom |
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Post subject: UMUC Student is Terrorism Suspect
 Posted: Sep 21, 2005 - 02:57 PM
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Site Admin
Joined: Mar 03, 2005
Posts: 84
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This is a report in today's Diamondback:
| Quote: | Terrorism suspect released on bond
City man attended UMUC, taught at local Muslim school
By Laurie Au and Megha Rajagopalan
September 21, 2005
A local Muslim elementary school teacher and University of Maryland, University College graduate accused of aiding two terrorist groups was released on bond yesterday and will return to home on the condition that he won’t leave the country.
Prosecutors in a U.S. district court in Alexandria, Va., objected yesterday in a detention hearing to releasing Ali Asad Chandia, a 28-year-old College Park resident, fearing he would obtain a passport and flee the country.
Chandia will stay with his wife at the home and will be electronically tracked by a GPS bracelet. His mother will put up her home in Gaithersburg as collateral, U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa Carroll Buchanan decided. Chandia’s arraignment is scheduled for Friday in Alexandria.
Chandia graduated from the University of Maryland University College with a bachelor’s in information systems management in May. He also attended Montgomery College from fall 1995 to spring 2000. There, he served as the president of the Muslim Students Association from 1998 to 1999, according to the MSA national organization’s website.
Chandia is accused of providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, and serving as the personal assistant to Ali al-Timimi, the convicted spiritual leader of another terrorist group dubbed the “Virginia Jihad network” by federal prosecutors.
Chandia’s attorney, Marvin Miller, said prosecutors rushed to indict Chandia because they thought he would depart the country. Federal authorities searched Chandia’s Gaithersburg home in May 2003 after finding evidence of his involvement with these groups in previous years.
“The federal government decided suddenly and miraculously overnight he became a flight risk,” Miller said.
Chandia is a third-grade teacher at Al-Huda School in College Park, a leading Muslim institution that instructs students from kindergarten through eighth grade in Arabic and the Quran. The Washington Post reported Saturday that Chandia attended the University of Maryland. There are no university records to confirm his enrollment at this university.
“The name ‘Ali Asad Chandia’ does not show up anywhere in the database,” said university spokesman Neil Tickner. “Either his name was spelled differently or he wasn’t a student here.”
Beginning in 2000, Chandia conducted research on Islamic subjects and scheduled appearances and speaking engagements for al-Timimi, who was sentenced to life in prison in July, according to court documents.
Chandia submitted a handwritten resignation letter to his boss at Costco that said, “I have to leave now due to some family emergency,” sometime between September and November 2001, according to the documents. In November of that year, Chandia went to the headquarters of Lashkar-e-Taiba located in Lahore, Pakistan.
Prosecutors also presented evidence that Chandia communicated with convicted members of the Virginia Jihad network to supply them with 50,000 paint balls. Terrorist groups have used paint balls in training exercises.
In the 2003 search of Chandia’s home, federal authorities found books related to violent jihad, including a audiotape by al-Timimi that justified the Taliban’s destruction of ancient Buddhist statues, the indictment papers say.
However, Miller said 97 percent of the items found in Chandia’s home were harmless and prosecutors took parts of Chandia’s library out of context to use as evidence.
The U.S. Patriot Act states people can be arrested for conspiring to provide materials to terrorist groups, but it depends on what the materials are used for, said Lee Strickland, a visiting professor in the College of Information Studies and terrorism expert.
“The First Amendment provides free speech and association,” Strickland said. “But not when it crosses into activities which is in support of terrorism.”
Before Chandia is convicted, the court will have to examine what the group was doing with the paint balls, Strickland said.
Terrorism has grown into a bigger problem since the government’s crackdown on terrorist groups and leaders. Al-Qaeda, which took responsibility for the Sept. 11 attacks, has lost much of its power since then, with three-quarters of its leaders removed from power, Strickland said. However, their influence has strengthened new groups emerging in al-Qaeda’s shadow, Strickland said.
“In a way, this is a much more dangerous situation for the United States,” Strickland said. “Instead of facing the single enemy, we are now faced with a threat that is very much diffused.”
Terrorism expert and criminology and criminal justice professor Gary LaFree said there is a lot of new activity among smaller terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
“It’s interesting trying to identify these new groups as they emerge,” LaFree said. “Some become successful and lethal and others disappear.”
In a constant battle against terrorism, every citizen can contribute by being aware of their surroundings, Strickland.
“Unfortunately, the terrorist has to be lucky once,” Strickland said. “We have to be successful and vigilant every day.”
Source: Diamondback |
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Post subject: Terror at UMUC
Posted: Oct 12, 2005 - 07:07 PM
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This fellow doesn't seem like a terrorist. He's a 3rd grade teacher. What do his 3rd graders think?
If I'm wrong, and he is a terrorist, he should certainly be allowed in the main administration building of UMUC. He couldn't possibly do more damage than Allen and the other numbskulls have to UMUC.  |
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Tom |
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Post subject: Update: warrantless-wiretap?
Posted: Mar 01, 2006 - 04:53 PM
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Site Admin
Joined: Mar 03, 2005
Posts: 84
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Here's an update on the UMUC student, Ali Asad Chandia, who was charged with terrorism last year and is now free on bail.
| Quote: | NSA wiretaps focus in College Park case
Capital News Service
Originally published March 1, 2006
Federal prosecutors agreed this week to examine whether a College Park man arrested last fall on terrorism charges was tracked by a disputed federal warrantless-wiretap program.
Government lawyers said they will investigate whether defendant Ali Asad Chandia, 29, was tracked using the National Security Agency's surveillance program, defense attorney Marvin Miller said. The prosecution also agreed to look into other possible evidence, including interviews with two men held at Guantanamo Bay who reportedly have denied Chandia's involvement with a terrorist camp.
Miller said the discovery of additional information in the case is "potentially" good news for Chandia, who is free on bail.
Lawyers from both sides met with Judge Claude M. Hilton of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to discuss the emergence of new information in the case.
Prosecutors have evidence Chandia was tracked by at least one wiretap covered by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which allows for solely domestic wiretaps with a judge's permission, Miller said. The government is looking into whether Chandia was the subject of other FISA wiretaps, and the results are expected this month.
Prosecutors also agreed to look into exactly when a pair of men requested as witnesses by the defense were at camps run by Lashkar-e-Taiba -- also known as the Army of the Righteous -- which was designated a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department, Miller said. Both men were subsequently detained at a U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, but one has been released.
Chandia is accused of providing assistance to Lashkar-e-Taiba. |
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Post subject: FREE
Posted: Mar 02, 2006 - 02:43 PM
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I'm glad that fellow is free on bail, and that there may be some good news for him and his lawyer. I can't believe the guy is a terrorist. There's something wrong with the way the story unfolded, and in the way it's being reported in the press.
I'm guessing this was at Adelphi. Has anyone at Adelphi helped this fellow facing terorism charges?
-Skeptical |
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Post subject: RE: FREE
Posted: Apr 01, 2006 - 07:52 PM
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Post subject: Small Victory
Posted: Apr 02, 2006 - 01:20 PM
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A small victory for the fellow, but it's something.
It emphasizes the importance on knowing one's rights under law. For example, while reviewing the ratemyprofessors web site there is a section under FAQ listing the rights under law of site administrators and posters against lawsuits and such. I rather imagine the FFEDS people who posted their web link here needed that too. There's an interesting it on ant-SLAPP.
It's also been mentioned somewhere in a thread here about rights under federal FOIA and the State of Maryland PIA to access many records held by UMUC.
Glad the fellow has a web site and hope it casts light on the slight imperfections of the government that led to his abuse and imprisonment. It must be a small victory after what they did to him.
Nice flash. |
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Post subject: RE: Small Victory
Posted: Apr 04, 2006 - 07:17 PM
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Chandia Must be Provided With Documents Under the Possession of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), DOD (Department of Defense), and The State Department
Ali Asad Support Committee
Published on Friday, March 31, 2006
Judge Claude Hilton ruled today that if the government in their prosecution intends to establish that LeT was responsible for certain violent events in India prior to their designation as FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organization), then the defense is also entitled to some very specific documents from CIA, Department of Defense, and the State Department that would show the contrary. According to the defense, the documents would show that India believed that the attacks on India were committed by the Pakistani government, and that the Pakistani government blamed the Indian government itself for orchestrating such attacks; each side blaming the other for the attacks. “In any event, it would prove that it is not a renegade terrorist organization,” said Marvin Miller, Ali Asad Chandia attorney. The judge ruled that the government must look for these documents and submit them by May 31st, 2006. In the event that the government is unable to find these documents, they will be required to submit a sworn affidavit, under the penalty of perjury, that they do not have the desired documents. “We believe they have them,” said Marvin Miller, the attorney for Brother Ali Asad.
The documents that the defense has asked for are a series of cables between September 11th, 2001 and January 12th, 2002. The documents include cables that were sent to the State Department from New Delhi, India, by Ambassador Robert Blackwill outlining his views about Kashmir jihad groups and the support they received from Pakistan.
The documents also include statements by Brajesh Mishra, India’s National Security Advisor in December 2001, and India’s National Cabinet Committee on Security to the effect that the Indian government held the view that the attack on the Indian Parliament on December 13th, 2001 was the responsibility of the Pakistani government.
Another document being solicited is a report or written record of the meeting between the American Ambassador, Wendy Chamberlin, and a two-star Pakistani General. The commander was is in command of the Paramilitary Frontier Corps’ headquarters in Quetta, Pakistan. The report would outline the verbal exchange about the attack on the Indian Parliament and that India itself had orchestrated the attacks and then blamed Pakistan for it.
A government prosecutor demonstrated his frustration and unwillingness in a response to the motions filed by the defense that demanded these documents. “The defense is on a fishing expedition just to keep it going,” stated David Laufmann, the leading prosecutor in this case. The judge disagreed and ordered that the documents be produced. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Apr 04, 2006 - 08:57 PM
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Not to diminish this man's victory (and release from a federal jail) in anyway after all he's been through, nor to go too far off the subject, but isn't UMUC in really tight with the US Government, particularly the Department of Defense? All the overseas programs are really programs for the military. Doesn't UMUC through these contracts in the European Division and Asian Division indirectly support military policies like "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and some of the more recent excesses of US forces at Guantanamo Bay in Iraq and in Afghanistan? The overseas people -- and even Susan Aldridge in her annoucement to UMUC -- sound too much like super-patriots. And there's not a lot of diversity in those programs beyond 1960s- or 70s-era conceptions of what diversity means.
I haven't heard of a UMUC group for l/g/b people, or even a course in the UMUC program devoted exclusively to the subject. I'm glas to know there is a Muslim Student Association (but not in the military programs, rater in MD).
As far as this poor man of Pakistani decent is concerned, I didn't read anything about UMUC administrators or professors singing the man's praises while he was in a federal jail or demanding his release.
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. -- Samuel Johnson, April 7, 1775 (referring to false patriotism).  |
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Tom |
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Post subject: Jurors Hear Clashing Profiles of Accused Jihad Member
Posted: May 24, 2006 - 08:09 PM
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Site Admin
Joined: Mar 03, 2005
Posts: 84
Status: Offline
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Update from the Washington Post:
| Quote: | Jurors Hear Clashing Profiles of Accused Jihad Network Member
By Jerry Markon and Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, May 23, 2006; Page B06
The last man charged as a member of the "Virginia jihad network" went on trial yesterday, with prosecutors saying Ali Asad Chandia trained at a terrorist camp and helped a foreign terrorist group, while defense attorneys portrayed him as a kindly third-grade teacher who did nothing wrong.
Chandia, 29, is accused of helping Lashkar-i-Taiba acquire an electronic autopilot system and video equipment for use on model airplanes. The group, which the U.S. government has designated a terrorist organization, is battling the government of India and runs terrorist camps in Pakistan. Prosecutors said Chandia trained at one of those camps in late 2001 or early 2002, although they acknowledged that they have no eyewitnesses to that.
"He is a radical Islamic jihadist who glorified the use of lethal violence against non-Muslims whether they be in India or the United States," Assistant U.S. Attorney David Laufman said in opening statements at Chandia's trial in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. He said a search of Chandia's College Park home found materials praising the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, including "images of our fellow citizens jumping from the burning towers to their deaths." Chandia was indicted in September.
Defense attorney Marvin Miller said that Chandia, who teaches at a Muslim school in Maryland, is "a scholar in his Islamic faith." He denied that Chandia trained at a Lashkar camp, saying he was in Pakistan to attend his brother's wedding.
"He is not on trial for what he thinks -- or he shouldn't be. And he is not on trial for what he believes," Miller told the 10-woman, four-man jury, which includes two alternates. "He is on trial for you to decide whether or not he did anything."
The trial brought back some of the emotion surrounding what prosecutors called the jihad network case. Over the past several years, 10 Muslim men have been convicted of training for holy war against the United States or inspiring others to do so. The training included playing paint ball in the Virginia countryside, and some of the defendants attended Lashkar camps in Pakistan.
Federal officials have described the case as one of the most important domestic terrorism prosecutions since Sept. 11, but some Northern Virginia Muslims have accused prosecutors of targeting their religious community.
About a dozen supporters of Chandia's were in court yesterday. One Maryland man, Steve Lapham, briefly disrupted jury selection by yelling: "I object to these show trials against my Muslim American neighbors!" As court security officers led him away, he added: "It's a joke!"
Tanweer Ahmad, whose daughter attends Dar al-Huda school in College Park, where Chandia works, said in an interview that he views the case as "just the government, again, trying to play on people's fears."
Chandia is charged with four counts of providing or conspiring to provide material support to Lashkar. If convicted, he faces up to 60 years in prison. Also named in the indictment is Mohammed Ajmal Khan, a British national whom prosecutors called a top Lashkar official. He is serving a prison term in Britain for terrorism offenses.
Prosecutors said Chandia traveled to a Lashkar office in Lahore, Pakistan, in November 2001 shortly after resigning from his job at a Costco store. He is accused of working with other defendants to help Khan obtain equipment for the group. The equipment allegedly included 50,000 paint balls and components of an "electronic automatic pilot system" that can be installed on a small remote-controlled airplane using Global Positioning System coordinates.
It is unclear whether any of the equipment was used by Lashkar -- or if any was intended for use in the United States. "Nobody knows where it is. It's never been seen," Miller told the jury. |
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Post subject: RE: Jurors Hear Clashing Profiles of Accused Jihad Member
Posted: Jun 01, 2006 - 07:50 PM
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| UMUC is not mentioned in the latest article about the US attorney's persecution of this man. Did anyone from UMUC come to the man's defense, or did they do the usual cowardly thing and run away from the bad press? |
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Tom |
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Post subject: Jurors begin their first full day of deliberations
Posted: Jun 06, 2006 - 07:52 PM
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Site Admin
Joined: Mar 03, 2005
Posts: 84
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Update: Jurors begin their first full day of deliberations
| Quote: | Md. teacher accused of aiding terror group
Staff and agencies
06 June, 2006
By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A third-grade teacher at a Muslim school in Maryland traveled to Pakistan shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, trained with a terrorist organization there and later served as chauffeur for one of that group‘s leaders during his U.S. travels, prosecutors say.
Tuesday morning, jurors began their first full day of deliberations in the trial of Ali Asad Chandia, 29, who is charged with providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba, an organization that supports Muslim control of the disputed Kashmir territory on the India-Pakistan border.
Prosecutors have said Lashkar was a potential gateway for Americans and others who wanted to join the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan in its fight against U.S. troops. The U.S. government declared it a terrorist organization in December 2001.
Prosecutors do not allege that Chandia intended to take up arms against U.S. troops, but they say he received jihad training at a Lashkar camp in late 2001. Then, after returning to the U.S. in 2002, they say he helped Lashkar by assisting one of its officers, Mohammed Ajmal Khan, in his U.S. travels.
Prosecutor John Gibbs said the defense sought to portray Khan as an eccentric, largely innocuous character.
Defense attorney Marvin Miller said prosecutors had no evidence that Chandia attended a Lashkar camp, only testimony from a witness who reported seeing Chandia at a Lashkar office in Lahore. Miller said Chandia traveled to Pakistan to help arrange his brother‘s wedding there in January 2002.
Prosecutor David Laufman responded by putting a sinister-looking picture of Khan in front of the jury, and ridiculing the idea that Chandia had been an unwitting dupe.
Source: ELY Times |
Here's another article. |
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