Virginia Methodist offers to sell missile to FBI informant -- no, wait...

Surprise of surprises, he turns out not to have been a Methodist at all, but a Jordanian who was able to supply Palestinian passports, and who said: "You want to hit the Pentagon. You can put the bottle on it, the blue bottle, and hit the Pentagon."

Now why on earth would a Jordanian in Annandale, Virginia, want to "hit the Pentagon" or help others to do so? What ideology might motivate him? Of course, as far as the Fairfax County Times is concerned, he is just some sort of rogue. Why he might have wanted to do this is not news that is fit to print.

"Annandale man offers to sell missile to FBI informant," by Gregg MacDonald for the Fairfax County Times, November 25 (thanks to Brian at Snapped Shot):

Two Annandale men have been arrested in an FBI sting that uncovered visa fraud, gun smuggling and references to Lebanon, Yasir Arafat and bombing the Pentagon with a missile.

According to a recently unsealed U.S. District Court affidavit, an FBI informant met with Annandale resident Amjad Hamed, a Jordanian native, in April 2006.

Hamed provided the informant with six valid Palestinian passports and asked him to obtain U.S. visas for them.

According to the affidavit, Hamed revealed that he was part of an international visa fraud scheme. "I challenge anyone in the world who can bring so many passports without being inspected," he is quoted as saying.

Hamed is also quoted as saying he was a member of the Palestinian Authority who met regularly with Yasir Arafat.

Hamed's references to smuggling were also quoted in the affidavit. "Yes, I have connections to transport from America directly to the middle of Lebanon ... no one does anything through the airport ... the airport is hard. All the companies have to disclose their shipment. Do you know through what? ... via the port ... By the sea."

According to the affidavit, Hamed also sold the FBI informant an 8 mm semi-automatic handgun and a SKS sniper rifle on June 21, 2007.

During that transaction, Hamed is quoted as saying that he could obtain a missile that could reach the Pentagon. "You want to hit the Pentagon. You can put the bottle on it, the blue bottle, and hit the Pentagon," he is quoted as saying in the affidavit.

Hamed's cousin, Ibrahim Hamed, allegedly also sold the FBI informant an altered 9 mm handgun in August 2007, and offered to sell him other weapons that he said would come from a source in Florida....

Posted by Robert at November 25, 2008 1:50 PM
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