"Al-Qaida member who flipped and helped US gets time served" by TOM HAYS Associated Press May 12, 2017
NEW YORK — A federal judge on Thursday decided to spare a terrorist known as Bashir the American a long prison term after he switched sides and became a prized US government cooperator, sentencing him to time served, about eight years.
The admitted terrorist, Bryant Neal Vinas, grew up in obscurity on Long Island but became a militant Muslim convert, relocated to an outlaw region of Pakistan, and schemed with senior Al Qaeda members on how best to attack the Long Island Rail Road.
Vinas, called Bashir al-Ameriki, was sentenced in federal court in Brooklyn on charges he tried to kill US soldiers and provide support to Al Qaeda before Pakistani authorities captured him in 2008 and turned him over to the United States.
In a letter to US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis, prosecutors wrote that once in custody, Vinas, 34, of Patchogue, eagerly became what ‘‘may have been the single most valuable cooperating witness’’ in efforts to identify members of Al Qaeda, pinpoint their hideouts, and disrupt their terror plots when the nation was still reeling from the Sept. 11 attacks. Vinas will be released in 90 days and will be on probation for life.
Prosecutors haven’t revealed details of classified FBI reports they gave to the judge to show the depth of cooperation.
Defense lawyers argued the cooperation came at great risk and should be rewarded with a term of time served.
Looks like one of their agents.
--more--"
FLASHBACKS:
"US-born man who fought with Al Qaeda pleads guilty; Cooperates with US
officials after conspiracy charges" by Sebastian Rotella and Josh Meyer,
Los Angeles Times | July 23, 2009
I SMELL "Al-CIA-Duh"
WASHINGTON - An American from Long Island, N.Y., who was captured while fighting as an Al Qaeda militant in Pakistan has pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to commit murder outside the United States and is now cooperating with authorities, according to a federal indictment and interviews with US and European officials.
Bryant
Neal Vinas, 26, is one of a handful of Americans known to have made the
trek to Al Qaeda’s secret Pakistani compounds, and his cooperation is opening a rare window into the world of Western militants in the network’s hide-outs, anti-terrorism officials said.
This is such absolute s***, readers!
Vinas has admitted to meeting Al Qaeda operations chiefs and giving them information for a potential attack on New York commuter trains, conversations that resulted in a public alert in November, said the officials, who requested anonymity because the case is ongoing.
So he was at Langley to talk with his case officer, huh?
Vinas
told investigators that he fired rockets during a militant attack on a
US military base in Afghanistan, the officials said. Pakistani forces
captured him in November, and he is in US custody.
What a crock!
An indictment was unsealed yesterday after repeated queries from the Los Angeles Times in recent weeks. Until then, the case had remained a closely guarded secret at the heart of interconnected investigations in at least seven countries.
Yeah, they don't like to expose their inform...., 'er, assets or agents!
“It is a massive case,’’ said a US Justice Department official.
The US-born son of immigrants from Peru and Argentina, Vinas was raised a Roman Catholic and played baseball in tidy working-class suburbs where Elks lodges mixed with taquerias. His unlikely transformation into an Al Qaeda fighter nicknamed “Bashir el Amriki’’ (Bashir the American) underscores fears that other Americans followed the same route, officials said.
Yeah, I guess now that ADAM GADAHN has been OUTED as Adam PEARLMAN they need a NEW AmeriKan "Al-CIA-Duh," huh?
“His background is clearly unusual,’’ said a senior European anti-terrorism official. “I am not aware of other Americans who went with him or who have trained recently in [Pakistan]. . . . He stands out. A Latino American is an unusual profile.’’
Really?: Memory Hole: What Four Years of Torture Will Do to an Innocent Man
The FURTHER YOU READ the MORE the PROPAGANDA REEKS!!
Since his capture, Vinas has been talkative and cooperative. He has provided a detailed account of his sojourn and lengthy testimony for upcoming terrorism trials in Europe, the officials said.
He's an AGENT, INFORMANT or ASSET, readers!!!
In
March, he gave a statement to a Belgian magistrate and investigators in
New York that will be used as evidence against three jailed Belgians
who admitted to training with Al Qaeda, according to European and US
officials. Vinas’s father says he does not know where his son is.
Or even who he is.
“The FBI asked me all kinds of questions about him, but they don’t tell me nothing,’’ said Juan Vinas of Patchogue, N.Y.
Even during the years when Osama bin Laden’s Afghan camps trained thousands, US recruits were scarce.
Ahem: U.S. Training Terrorists in Nevada
Bryant
Vinas told investigators that he arrived in December 2007 in the
northwestern Pakistani badlands dominated by Al Qaeda and the Taliban,
according to anti-terrorism officials.
Yeah, gimme that salt shaker; I need a grain.
--more--"
Did you see what he looks like?
UPDATE:
"Former Al Qaeda recruiter now a voice against jihad" New York Times August 29, 2016
WASHINGTON — A former recruiter for Al Qaeda who was imprisoned in the United States is now at the forefront of an experiment to counter the pull of groups like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda.
It would be nice if the U.S. government and its allies weren't playing both sides of this.
In the four years that he ran the Revolution Muslim website out of his walk-up apartment in Brooklyn, Jesse Morton became one of the most prolific Al Qaeda operatives, luring numerous Americans to the group’s violent ideology.
The men and women he inspired through his online posts and tutorials were accused of plots that included flying a remote-controlled plane strapped with explosives into the Pentagon and trying to kill a Swedish cartoonist who satirized the prophet Mohammed.
One of his collaborators was killed in a drone strike in Yemen, where he had joined Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Several are now fighting for the Islamic State.
After a stint as an FBI informant and his release from prison last year, Morton, 37, has been hired as a fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, where he will research the very ideology he once spread.
Meaning he always was one.
A native of Pennsylvania, Morton was radicalized in a Virginia prison while doing time for a drug offense. He later helped create the radical recruitment website and was arrested by US agents in 2011 on charges of inciting support for a militant group.
Although countries like Britain have for years been putting former extremists to work in think tanks to provide authentic voices against radical ideology, Morton is the first former jihadist to step into this public a role in the United States.
That has not come without some anxiety for his new employer, said Lorenzo Vidino, the director of the extremism program at George Washington’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security.
Vidino met with Morton after his release in February 2015, beginning a yearlong vetting process that involved interviewing seven law enforcement officials directly involved in his case.
“There was not a single dissenting voice,” Vidino said.
In an interview this month, after he was asked why anyone should believe he had truly changed, Morton insisted that he was trying to make amends...."
What a radical idea, huh?
