Virginia Jihadi Gets Life
The Virginian jihad group that trained for holy war against the United States shortly after September 11 is going to jail for a very long time: Sentences Lengthy for ‘Virginia Jihad’.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A Maryland man convicted of traveling to Pakistan and seeking to fight with the Taliban against the United States just days after Sept. 11 was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison.
Masoud Khan was one of three people sentenced Tuesday on charges they trained for holy war against the United States by playing paintball games in the Virginia woods as part of a “jihad” network. Prosecutors said Khan’s actions were worse than the other suspects because he also traveled overseas to train with a Pakistani militant group after Sept. 11.
“While the Pentagon is still smoking, Mr. Khan decided now is the time to fight against Americans in Afghanistan. He deserves every day he gets,” prosecutor Gordon Kromberg said.
A second suspect, Seifullah Chapman, was sentenced to 85 years in prison, and a third, Hammad Abdur-Raheem, was given eight years.
The sentences against Chapman and Khan are among the longest prison terms the government has obtained in the war on terrorism.
Khan said before he was sentenced that he was innocent and that he was prosecuted only because he is Muslim.
“To put it bluntly … had I been a Zionist Jew or a Christian training to fight (in Palestine), I would never have been charged with violating the Neutrality Act,” he said, referring to the seldom-used U.S. law that formed the basis for the government’s conspiracy charges.
The lengthy terms for Khan and Chapman resulted largely from mandatory minimum sentences stemming from firearms convictions related to the conspiracy.