Daily Terrorism News Roundup

THURSDAY May 8, 2008

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U.S. citizen faces terrorism trial in Vietnam

Accused of planning to hand out political pamphlets in communist country

HANOI, Vietnam - A Vietnamese-American will be put on trial on terrorism charges for allegedly planning to distribute anti-government pamphlets in Vietnam, an official said Thursday.

Nguyen Quoc Quan, of Sacramento, Calif., and Vietnamese nationals Nguyen Hai and Nguyen The Vu face jail terms of up to seven years if convicted. Their trial begins Tuesday at the People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said.

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Ex-Gitmo prisoner in recent attack

A Kuwaiti freed from Guantanamo Bay carried out a suicide car bombing recently in Iraq, the U.S. military said Wednesday, confirming what is believed to be the first such attack by a former detainee at the U.S. military detention center in Cuba.

Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi took part in one of three suicide bomb attacks last month that targeted Iraqi security forces in the northern city of Mosul, said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Scott Rye, a military spokesman in Baghdad. At least seven people were killed in the attacks.

Al-Ajmi's American lawyer said incarceration at Guantanamo may have turned the Kuwaiti into a terrorist. But the U.S. military says he was already an enemy combatant when he was brought to Guantanamo in 2002 after being captured in Afghanistan.

Court refuses to ban Quran film

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - A Dutch court has refused to ban a lawmaker's Internet film criticizing the Quran.

A group representing Dutch Muslims sought an injunction banning right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders' film "Fitna," which links terror attacks by Muslim extremists with texts from Islam's holy book.

A civil judge at The Hague District Court says in a written judgment published Monday that the lawmaker's right to free speech allows him to criticize radical Islam and passages of the Quran.

Muslim polygamist goes on trial for torturing 3 wives and 19 children

Long-awaited trial begins in case of man accused of imprisoning 3 spouses, 19 children

MURRIETA – A man starved the 19 children under his roof, beat some of them and their mothers and made the youngsters and two of his three so-called wives virtual prisoners in their own home, a prosecutor told jurors Monday as the defendant's long-delayed trial got under way.

Mansa Musa Muhummed, who was arrested in 1999, faces eight counts of torture – each of which carries a potential life sentence – 11 counts of willful injury to a child, five counts of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse and two counts of false imprisonment.

Terrorism charges filed against arms dealer

The Justice Department today announced it is charging accused international arms dealer Viktor Bout with conspiracy to kill Americans and terrorism-related charges.

Federal prosecutors in New York unsealed an indictment against Bout for allegedly conspiring to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to the Colombian insurgent group the FARC, which the U.S. has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. The prosecutors allege that the weapons were to “be used to kill Americans in Colombia.”

Thai authorities arrested Bout last month, based on a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in New York charging conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. According to the indictment unsealed today, Bout “has carried out his weapons-trafficking business by assembling a fleet of cargo airplanes capable of transporting weapons and military equipment to various parts of the world, including Africa, South America and the Middle East.”

Prison chaplain still on duty pending assault inquiry

A San Quentin State Prison chaplain accused of choking his wife with an electrical cord will remain on duty pending the outcome of the investigation, a state spokeswoman said.

Rafeeq Hassan, 66, was arrested April 24 after an incident at his home on the prison grounds. Police determined that Hassan choked his wife with his hands and an electrical cord during an argument over "household issues," according to the sheriff's department.

Hassan, in a phone interview, said he was shaving at the time and was fending off his wife during a "ruckus."