Two accused in S. Florida 'Islamic jihad' called bumbling amateurs

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Two accused in S. Florida 'Islamic jihad' called bumbling amateurs

By Jeff Shields, Sun-Sentinel, Posted May 29 2002

A federal magistrate ordered two Broward County men held without bail Tuesday after listening to government recordings of the men planning their Islamic jihad in South Florida.

Imran Mandhai, 19, and Shueyb Mossa Jokhan, 24, will be held in federal custody until their trial on charges that they conspired to bomb electrical transformers and a National Guard Armory in Hollywood. After throwing the area into anarchy, as per their plan, they would issue a list of sweeping demands, including the United States’ withdrawal from the Middle East and the release of all Muslim prisoners in U.S. jails, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

They face from five to 20 years in prison.

U.S. Magistrate Lurana Snow said the two represented a danger to the community. She rejected defense attorneys’ claims that they were bumbling amateurs incapable of harming anyone without the government informant who fanned their militant fantasies.

“The fact that they themselves didn’t have the capacity to construct the bombs…may be the only reason they did not succeed in wreaking havoc on the community,’’ Snow said in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sloman presented as evidence wiretap excerpts from meetings between Mandhai and Jokhan with a government informant in March and April 2001. On those tapes, Mandhai, a devoutly religious Muslim who immigrated from Pakistan, talks of bombing electrical transformers and the Israeli Consulate in Miami, hoping to cause “chaos’’ in South Florida.

“It is an effective kind of warfare,’’ Mandhai said of his plan, according to government transcripts.

He also spoke of training a “circle’’ of 30 men in South Florida to be activated in time by “Big Brother.’’ Sloman said “Big Brother” was a code name for Osama bin Laden. Mandhai, who was befriended first by one would-be government informant, then set up in earnest by a real FBI informant, later recruited Jokhan, who suggested the National Guard Armory. The men drove around Broward and Miami-Dade counties scouting out transformer stations and the armory, Sloman said.

“These defendants had the will, they were seeking the way and, if given an opportunity…they would find the way,’’ Sloman said.

Sloman said Mandhai expressed a willingness to accept civilian casualties when Jokhan raised the concern that a hospital near one of the electrical transformers could be damaged in the explosion. Jokhan’s attorney, Philip Horowitz, said his client bowed out of the conspiracy because he did not want to hurt civilians.

Defense attorneys and Mandhai’s father said Tuesday that there would be no conspiracy without two provocateurs: “Mohammad,’’ the government informant who infiltrated the Darul Uloom Institute in Pembroke Pines and befriended first Mandhai, then Jokhan; and an American who befriended Mandhai and alerted the FBI of his alleged plans.

The FBI did not regard the men as a danger, said Robert Berube, the federal public defender representing Mandhai. “And the government has told us that by sitting on their hands for nine months.’’

The government let nine months pass between the time Mandhai and Jokhan backed out of the conspiracy in May 2001 and Mandhai was arrested by immigration officials in February, Berube noted. Even after Sept. 11, no one visited the two men, he said.

But the tapes also reveal a willingness by Mandhai and Jokhan to pursue a holy war against American and, in particular, the Jewish people, by targeting Jewish businesses and community centers. The following conversation was recorded on April 24, 2001.

MOHAMMAD: “You want to make a bomb to blow their business, U.S. military, the Jewish (sic), everything, yes?’’

JOKHAN: “Yeah.’’

MOHAMMAD: “And how we can do it? Alone?’’

JOKHAN: “No.”

MOHAMMAD: “With who?”

JOKHAN: “With help.’’

MOHAMMAD: “With, from who?”

JOKHAN: “From God.”

The tapes illustrate that Mohammad was the ringleader of the conspiracy, while the other two were amateur followers with half-baked notions of how they were going to pursue their Jihad. In one instance, at the prodding of Mohammad, Jokhan talks about blowing up a military base, “like, like a air force base or something. And you hit like where, where they have all the gasoline and stuff like that…it explodes.’’

On another tape, Mandhai giggles as Mohammad shows him some fake explosives. “Should we touch it?’’ Mandhai says excitedly.

Outside the federal courthouse Tuesday, Mandhai’s father, Muhammad Farooq Mandhai, said the government’s case against his son did not represent what the United States stands for.

“This is not freedom — this is not justice,’’ he said. “These are terrible things — but who is the mastermind of these things? Who is every time trying to push my son?’’

Farooq Mandhai said Mohammad, the government informant, told Mandhai he would kill his family if he shared his plans with anyone.

The FBI learned of Mandhai through an American named Howard Gilbert, who had also visited Darul Uloom on his own and “converted” to Islam under the name Seif Allah — Sword of Allah, according to federal law enforcement sources. He approached the FBI with his information but the FBI did not work with him, instead inserting Mohammad into the Mandhai investigation.

FBI special agent Paul Carpinteri identified Gilbert under cross-examination Tuesday and testified that he didn’t know what motivated Gilbert to get close to Mandhai.

Worshippers at Darul Uloom said Mandhai’s demeanor changed from reserved to outspokenly militant as a result of his association with Gilbert.

While the government presented as evidence Tuesday documents obtained from Mandhai entitled, List of Skills and Skills Necessary for Jihad, Berube suggested those documents were crafted by Mandhai at the urging of Gilbert. And while the government trumpeted the fact that Mandhai had in his possession the The Anarchists Cookbook — a well-known terrorist handbook — he had bought it from Gilbert for $20.

WFOR-Ch. 4 contributed to this report.

Jeff Shields can be reached at jshields@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4531.

Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-plot052902.story?coll=sfla%2Dhome%2Dheadlines



-- Anonymous, May 29, 2002

Answers

Just love those conspiracists who say that 9/11 had to have been orchestrated by .gov because it was SO well thought out...

These jokers remind me of the Blues Brothers..."We're on a mission from God..."

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2002


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