Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer, formerly of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), has pleaded guilty to charges connected to his attempt to join the global jihad. This from the Washington Post, with thanks to LGF:
A key member of an alleged Virginia jihad network pleaded guilty to federal weapons and explosives charges today, denying that he intended to harm Americans but acknowledging that he and his co-defendants had sought to fight on behalf of Muslim causes abroad.
Well, that's reassuring for about a millisecond. Against whom are "Muslim causes" around the world fighting? If they're not fighting Americans now, they still consider America the Great Satan and primary ultimate target.
Randall Todd Royer, 30, of Falls Church, entered his surprise plea in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. He faces at least 20 years in prison when he is sentenced April 9. Another of the 11 men originally charged in the case, Ibrahim Ahmed al-Hamdi, 26, of Alexandria, pleaded guilty to similar charges and faces at least 15 years in prison.A St. Louis native who became an activist for Muslim causes, Royer was at the center of the government's case against a group of men who played paintball in the Virginia countryside to prepare for jihad training that could have targeted the United States, prosecutors say. By his own admission, he played a key role in organizing the men.
Today's court action brings to six the number of men who have pleaded guilty in the high-profile case that the Justice Department had publicized as an important milestone in the war on terrorism. A federal grand jury originally charged the 11 men in June with weapons counts and with training with Lashkar-i-Taiba, a group that is trying to drive India from Kashmir and has been labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
Nor was just Kashmir involved:
In September, the charges were upgraded against the seven remaining defendants. Two, including Royer, were charged in the new indictment with conspiring to provide material support to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization and to his Taliban protectors in Afghanistan. A third is accused of supplying services to the Taliban.
However, that's why he pled guilty:
Those charges against Royer were dropped in exchange for today's plea.
What will Royer's old colleague, Ibrahim Hooper, say? That Royer is being railroaded? That the evidence against him has no substance? The guilty plea will be hard to finesse. Unfortunately, however, Hooper will most likely never have to finesse it at all, or to answer any uncomfortable questions about how a jihadist like Royer managed to get a job in such a sterling moderate Muslim organization as CAIR. Hooper will not have to answer them because any journalist whom he doesn't hang up on will not ask them.
Homeland Turbulence:
If Mr. Royer swears that he was only interested in battling in the name is Islam abroad, and not in the United States, I would have to ask why he remained in the United States, and didn't pick up arms and fight abroad. Perhaps because he's well aware that if he had, our troops would've removed him from the planet.
I'm sure the United States wouldn't have been depressed or lonely over his absence here. I am no friend of CAIR, as I have had a run-in with them myself, because I addressed them regarding their stance that Muslims are treated unfairly in America, and my stance that many Muslim immigrants mistreat women and behave in an ignorant, arrogant manner toward Americans.
"Sterling"=Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)? Just one person's opinion here, but this appears to be a major contradiction in terms.
I have a few very good friends who are Sunni Muslims, and they speak for themselves. They are good, hard working, American Law abiding, family oriented people that don't whine and try to manipulate American Constitutional Law in the name of Islam in an effort to disrupt.
They simply live peacefully, in America. I am a Christian, and I'm a very proud American. However, I realize that Church and State are separate in the United States.
It appears that some of the Muslim organizations in America, (and my Muslim friends agree when I say this), are forgetting that no religion takes precedence over our laws. ie; The Florida DMV, and the Muslim woman who sued them for refusing to let her cover her face when getting her driver's licence taken. Hello, Earth to you....this is an Identification picture.
There are many Muslim nations that do not require faces to be covered in ID pictures. Iran, Jordan, Bahrain, United Arab Emerates, & Egypt, just to name a few.
Yet this woman wants to waste everyone's time and tax dollars to fight in court in America over this issue. Shouldn't this be considered a farce?, or should I rent a BATMAN outfit for the next time I go to renew my license? Simply, abide by our laws, or take your Jihad and hit the road. Many Americans have grown tired of your tactics and antics. Savvy?
May God Bless Us All.
D.C. Watson, USA