"Mehanna gets more than 17 years in jail; Sudbury man says he acted in defense of oppressed Muslims" by Milton J. Valencia | Globe Staff, April 12, 2012
A defiant Tarek Mehanna was sentenced Thursday to 17 1/2 years in prison for conspiring to kill American soldiers and supporting Al Qaeda, culminating a dramatic terrorism case in which the Sudbury man emphatically professed his devotion to Islam and his anger at America’s support of “unjust policies against its minorities.’’
The 29-year-old Mehanna compared his call for jihad against US soldiers who kill Muslim civilians to America’s Revolutionary War against England. He showed no remorse as he was about to be sentenced in US District Court in Boston, and at one point called a prosecutor a liar.
Must be a qualification for government because so many of them do.
“It is because of America that I am who I am,’’ he declared.
“We all do acts, both good and evil, in the course of our life,’’ the judge said. “But just as two wrongs don’t make a right, two rights don’t excuse a wrong, and the wrong still must be punished.’’
The judge said he was disappointed with the show of defiance and “frankly concerned by the defendant’s apparent absence of remorse.’’
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Mehanna’s case was the latest in the federal government’s crackdown on so-called home-grown terrorists: Americans who travel to foreign lands seeking training in jihad or to support Al Qaeda.
Prosecutors say Mehanna, who grew up in an Islamic home in a suburb of Boston and earned a doctorate in pharmacology, became a young radical who praised Osama bin Laden and cheered the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. They say he emerged as a leader and traveled to Yemen in 2004 in search of terrorism training, so he could carry out jihad, or holy war, against US soldiers in Iraq. He failed to find a camp, however.
Upon his return, the prosecutors said, he deliberately promoted Al Qaeda’s ideology on the Internet, hoping it would lure others to the cause. He posted documents and videos glorifying suicide bombings and jihad and translated Al Qaeda-promoted documents, including “39 Ways to Make and Participate in Jihad.’’
“It’s the perverted interpretation of a great faith to motivate other people to take up arms against’’ the United States, said Assistant US Attorney Aloke Chakravarty. “The crimes the defendant has been convicted of are among the most significant in the criminal justice system. When you inspire others to take up arms against your country, it deserves penalties.’’
Mehanna had long maintained that his two-week trip to Yemen was for educational purposes. He does not deny promoting controversial material, but said it was his First Amendment-protected views opposing US foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he has sought to draw a line between his support of mujahideen, or holy warriors, and the indiscriminate killing of civilians attributed to groups like Al Qaeda.
Much of his support stemmed from his assertion that he was threatened with prosecution for his refusal to be an informant, which federal officials deny.
That was the ESSENCE of the CASE to ME! He TURNED DOWN the FBI and THEY RETALIATED!
Prosecutors said he makes himself out to be a martyr.
But in his lengthy, emphatic address to the judge, in which he said he wanted to introduce himself, Mehanna denied that he was a terrorist.
He said his anger at the historic struggles of Muslims was based on the lessons of oppression he found in paradigms in his readings, from the Batman stories he read as a child to the struggles of Malcolm X and the suffering of Native Americans. He spoke of the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela in South Africa and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. He said he found the same oppression of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Throughout history there has been a constant struggle between the oppressed and the oppressor,’’ he said. “I found myself consistently siding with the oppressed.’’
At one point, he held up a photo of an Iraqi girl who was raped by US soldiers, who murdered her parents and burned her house to cover up the crime.
“How can someone not be angry when they hear something like that?’’ he said. “Hundreds of Muslims were killed and maimed by the United States. Yet, somehow I’m the one standing here because I support the mujahideen, who are defending these people.’’
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Also see: 25-year term sought for Tarek Mehanna
Al Qaeda supporter pleads with judge for leniency
Juror says Tarek Mehanna deserved mercy
I Missed the Mehanna Trial
