“He repeatedly shouted at his arresting officers that he hoped they would be killed.”
Syed Hashmi Update. “Jihadi’s airport tantrum,” by Kati Cornell for the New York Post:
June 2, 2007 — A Queens man accused of supplying military equipment to terrorists had a direct pipeline to al Qaeda’s No. 3 leader and showed he was quick to turn
violent at the time he was nabbed, attacking arresting officers in a London airport, prosecutors revealed.
Manhattan federal Judge Loretta Preska was quick to dismiss a bid for bail by Syed “Fahad” Hashmi after the feds detailed how the accused terror supporter
showed his true colors as he was arrested while fleeing London for Pakistan last year.
“He was extremely violent,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Baroni said, describing the outburst last June 6 at Heathrow Airport. “He repeatedly shouted at his arresting officers that he hoped they would be killed.”
Hashmi, who was brought to New York from London last week after nearly a year
fighting extradition, faces up to 50 years behind bars for allegedly providing material support to al Qaeda by holding military gear to be worn by jihad fighters in his apartment.
Hashmi shipped the goods – primarily rain gear – to Sheik Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi
in Pakistan, an al Qaeda leader who was running anti-U.S. military operations in Afghanistan at the time, the feds said.
Defense lawyer Sean Maher unsuccessfully argued that Hashmi should await trial
at his parents’ Flushing home, instead of solitary confinement at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, calling him a “humanitarian” and “an intellectual, not a terrorist.”