Yassin M. Aref
Encyclopedia
Yassin M. Aref is a resident of Albany
, New York
, who was arrested by Federal authorities in August 2004 as part of a counter-terrorism
sting operation
, convicted in October 2006 of conspiring to aid a terrorist group and provide support for a weapon of mass destruction, as well as money-laundering and supporting a foreign terrorist organization, Jaish-e-Mohammed
, and sentenced to 15 years in prison in March 2007. In July 2008 the appellate court upheld the convictions, rejecting all of the defense's arguments.
Aref wrote a memoir
, Son of Mountains: My Life as a Kurd and a Terror Suspect (2008).
Originally the government claimed that the notebook entry said “commander” next to Aref’s name; however, when the judge asked the government to provide the notebook page, the government admitted that there had been a “mistranslation” and the word in question was “kak,” which means “brother,” not “commander,” and is a common Kurd
ish term of respect. Aref is from (Iraqi Kurdistan
), and his grandfather was a famous imam
; Aref was already known and respected in the area.
There was no way to know what group was bombed by US forces at the encampment; at times, groups such as the Kurdistan Islamic Group, run by Ali Bapir
, were bombed by the US, even though they did not oppose US forces.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) claimed that Aref is tied to Mullah Krekar
, the founder of Ansar al-Islam
. When Aref left Iraq as a refugee in 1994, he lived in Syria for 5 years. During that time he was approved by the UN as a refugee to be sent to a third country, which ended up being the US. While in Syria, Aref worked first as a gardener for a rich businessman, and then for the Damascus Office of the IMK (Islamic Movement in Kurdistan), an Islamic Kurdish group which had worked with the US to oppose Saddam Hussein
, and which helped Kurdish refugees in Syria. IMK was never claimed to be a terrorist organization. Mullah Krekar was an IMK official who, at the end of 2001, two years after Aref had left Syria and the IMK job, split from IMK to form Ansar al Islam, which is a designated terrorist organization. While Aref had met Krekar briefly a couple of times through his IMK job, he did not really know him, and was opposed to his extremist politics.
Aref came to the US as a United Nations
refugee in 1999 with his wife and three young children. He initially found work as a janitor at a local hospital and as an ambulance driver.[3] After a yearhe was hired as the imam
of the Masjid As Salam Mosque.
, as a means of getting to Aref.
The FBI plan was that the informant, Shahed Hussein, would offer to loan $50,000 cash to Hossain, and get back $45,000 in checks from Hossain’s business (a pizza shop), telling him that the money was made from buying a Chinese surface to air missile, which was to be provided to a group called JEM (Jaish-e-Mohammed
), which was to use it to attack the Pakistani Ambassador in New York City. However, none of that was true.
Needing a witness to the loan, as is obligatory for Muslims, the men then brought Aref into the arrangement, solely as a witness to the loan transactions. The government eventually arrested both men, claiming that Aref chose to support money laundering
by witnessing the loan. The defense argued that Aref, who spoke very poor English at the time, did not understand that this was anything other than a legitimate loan. Defense attorneys claimed that both Aref and Hossain were unfairly convicted–that Hossain was entrapped, and that Aref did not realize any laws were being broken.
Pakistan
protested the sting having been based on a fictional plot to assassinate the Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations
.
Both men filed appeals. The Aref defense attorneys argued on appeal that there was insufficient evidence, and that this was shown by the fact that Aref was acquitted of all the counts based on the most significant of the recorded conversations with the informant-the two conversations underlying the counts on which he was convicted provided him with no new information.
On March 8, 2007, both Aref and Hossain were sentenced to 15 years in prison–half the sentence called for under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines
. Aref’s defense counsel filed a lengthy sentencing memorandum which described Aref’s background and the support shown for him in the community. Aref professed innocence before his sentencing, and criticized the government's treatment of Muslims. After sentencing, Aref was taken to the Communications Management Unit (CMU) at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana
.
The Times Union (http://www.timesunion.com ) and the Daily Gazette (http://www.dailygazette.com), Albany’s two main daily newspapers, both ran editorials at the time of the sentencing asking for extreme leniency, the Times Union on March 8 and 9 and the Gazette on March 9.
In addition, Times Union columnist Fred LeBrun, who had followed the trial closely, wrote, prior to the sentencing,
Carl Strock, the columnist for the Gazette, wrote many columns attacking the process as extremely unfair.
The FBI responded by contacting the editorial boards of the Times Union and the Gazette and running an op-ed piece in the Gazette upholding the sting operation as legitimate.
As reported on the front page of The New York Times
on August 26, 2007, the Aref appeal may be an important test case for the NSA warrantless wiretapping program, as it appears to be the only criminal case where there is strong evidence that the program was used to target a defendant.
In December 2005, The New York Times revealed that President Bush had taken the controversial step of secretly authorizing the NSA to expand its surveillance to within the US. A month later another NYT article quoted government officials as saying that the NSA program led them to Aref. On January 20, 2006, Aref’s lawyers filed a motion challenging the case against Aref as tainted by the illegality of the NSA program–the motion stated,
On March 10, 2006, the government filed a response to the defense motion which was completely classified, something defense attorneys and the NYLCU said was virtually unheard of and a violation of the 6th Amendment right to confront evidence. Approximately two hours later Judge McAvoy denied the defense motion in a “Classified Order,” something even more unheard of.
Then on March 22, 2006, the defense filed a petition for mandamus
with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, challenging Judge McAvoy’s decision and arguing that the process had violated Aref’s constitutional rights–the NYCLU also filed a brief supporting the right of public access to court decisions. In July 2008, the Second Circuit dismissed Aref's petition in part, and in remaining part denied it; it also dismissed NYCLU's petition for lack of jurisdiction and denied the organization's motion to intervene as moot. In a separate ruling the appellate court The federal appeals court upheld the conviction and rejected all the defense's arguments, including that the men did not know missiles were involved. "The evidence sufficed for a jury to conclude that Aref intended to aid in preparing a missile attack on American soil," the ruling said, concluding the same for Hossain.
Documentary “Security Versus Liberty: The Other War,” which contained interviews with defense attorneys, the mosque President, and representatives from the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office.
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, who was arrested by Federal authorities in August 2004 as part of a counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt to prevent or in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed.The tactic of terrorism is available to insurgents and governments...
sting operation
Sting operation
In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person committing a crime. A typical sting will have a law-enforcement officer or cooperative member of the public play a role as criminal partner or potential victim and go along with a suspect's actions to gather...
, convicted in October 2006 of conspiring to aid a terrorist group and provide support for a weapon of mass destruction, as well as money-laundering and supporting a foreign terrorist organization, Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jaish-e-Mohammed is a Pakistani-based, militant Islamic group established by Maulana Masood Azhar in March 2000...
, and sentenced to 15 years in prison in March 2007. In July 2008 the appellate court upheld the convictions, rejecting all of the defense's arguments.
Aref wrote a memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
, Son of Mountains: My Life as a Kurd and a Terror Suspect (2008).
Background
US forces found Aref's name, address, and phone number in a notebook in a bombed-out Iraqi encampment in 2003. The information was classified, and the defense, despite defense counsel having received security clearances, was provided with almost no information about the notebook.Originally the government claimed that the notebook entry said “commander” next to Aref’s name; however, when the judge asked the government to provide the notebook page, the government admitted that there had been a “mistranslation” and the word in question was “kak,” which means “brother,” not “commander,” and is a common Kurd
Kürd
Kürd or Kyurd or Kyurt may refer to:*Kürd Eldarbəyli, Azerbaijan*Kürd Mahrızlı, Azerbaijan*Kürd, Goychay, Azerbaijan*Kürd, Jalilabad, Azerbaijan*Kürd, Qabala, Azerbaijan*Qurdbayram, Azerbaijan...
ish term of respect. Aref is from (Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr...
), and his grandfather was a famous imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
; Aref was already known and respected in the area.
There was no way to know what group was bombed by US forces at the encampment; at times, groups such as the Kurdistan Islamic Group, run by Ali Bapir
Ali Bapir
Ali Bapir, also called Mamosta Ali Bapir and Sheikh Ali Bapir born 1961 in Peshdar area, Kurdistan, Iraq, is the prince of the Kurdistan Islamic Group.-External links:*...
, were bombed by the US, even though they did not oppose US forces.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI) claimed that Aref is tied to Mullah Krekar
Mullah Krekar
Mullah Krekar , is a Kurdish Sunni Islamist terrorist who came to Norway as a refugee from northern Iraq in 1991. His wife and four children have Norwegian citizenship, but not Krekar himself. He speaks Kurdish, Arabic, Norwegian and English...
, the founder of Ansar al-Islam
Ansar al-Islam
Ansar al-Islam is a Sunni Islamist group of Iraqis, promoting a radical interpretation of Islam, close to the official Saudi ideology of Wahhabism with strict application of Sharia. The group was formed in the northern provinces of Iraq near the Iranian border, and previously had established...
. When Aref left Iraq as a refugee in 1994, he lived in Syria for 5 years. During that time he was approved by the UN as a refugee to be sent to a third country, which ended up being the US. While in Syria, Aref worked first as a gardener for a rich businessman, and then for the Damascus Office of the IMK (Islamic Movement in Kurdistan), an Islamic Kurdish group which had worked with the US to oppose Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
, and which helped Kurdish refugees in Syria. IMK was never claimed to be a terrorist organization. Mullah Krekar was an IMK official who, at the end of 2001, two years after Aref had left Syria and the IMK job, split from IMK to form Ansar al Islam, which is a designated terrorist organization. While Aref had met Krekar briefly a couple of times through his IMK job, he did not really know him, and was opposed to his extremist politics.
Aref came to the US as a United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
refugee in 1999 with his wife and three young children. He initially found work as a janitor at a local hospital and as an ambulance driver.[3] After a yearhe was hired as the imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
of the Masjid As Salam Mosque.
Sting operation
Based perhaps on the discovery of the notebook in Iraq in 2003, the FBI launched a sting operation targeting Aref. FBI agents convinced a Pakistani informant (who was facing a long prison sentence and deportation for fraud) to approach a friend of Aref's, Mohammed Mosharref HossainMohammed Mosharref Hossain
Mohammed Mosharref Hossain is the proprietor of an Albany New York pizza parlour, and a founder of the Masjid As-Salam mosque in Albany, N.Y., who was arrested by Federal authorities on August 6, 2004, as part of a counter-terrorism sting. Hossain, and an associate, Yassin M...
, as a means of getting to Aref.
The FBI plan was that the informant, Shahed Hussein, would offer to loan $50,000 cash to Hossain, and get back $45,000 in checks from Hossain’s business (a pizza shop), telling him that the money was made from buying a Chinese surface to air missile, which was to be provided to a group called JEM (Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jaish-e-Mohammed is a Pakistani-based, militant Islamic group established by Maulana Masood Azhar in March 2000...
), which was to use it to attack the Pakistani Ambassador in New York City. However, none of that was true.
Needing a witness to the loan, as is obligatory for Muslims, the men then brought Aref into the arrangement, solely as a witness to the loan transactions. The government eventually arrested both men, claiming that Aref chose to support money laundering
Money laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
by witnessing the loan. The defense argued that Aref, who spoke very poor English at the time, did not understand that this was anything other than a legitimate loan. Defense attorneys claimed that both Aref and Hossain were unfairly convicted–that Hossain was entrapped, and that Aref did not realize any laws were being broken.
Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
protested the sting having been based on a fictional plot to assassinate the Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
.
Trial
The trial occurred in September and October 2006. Hossain was convicted of all the counts, and Aref was convicted of 10 of the 30 counts, of conspiring to aid a terrorist group and provide support for a weapon of mass destruction, as well as money-laundering and supporting a foreign terrorist organization, Jaish-e-Mohammed, a group in Pakistan that the informant told the men he supported.Both men filed appeals. The Aref defense attorneys argued on appeal that there was insufficient evidence, and that this was shown by the fact that Aref was acquitted of all the counts based on the most significant of the recorded conversations with the informant-the two conversations underlying the counts on which he was convicted provided him with no new information.
On March 8, 2007, both Aref and Hossain were sentenced to 15 years in prison–half the sentence called for under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines
Federal Sentencing Guidelines
The Federal Sentencing Guidelines are rules that set out a uniform sentencing policy for individuals and organizations convicted of felonies and serious misdemeanors in the United States federal courts system...
. Aref’s defense counsel filed a lengthy sentencing memorandum which described Aref’s background and the support shown for him in the community. Aref professed innocence before his sentencing, and criticized the government's treatment of Muslims. After sentencing, Aref was taken to the Communications Management Unit (CMU) at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute is a city and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, near the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a population of 170,943. The city is the county seat of Vigo County and...
.
The Times Union (http://www.timesunion.com ) and the Daily Gazette (http://www.dailygazette.com), Albany’s two main daily newspapers, both ran editorials at the time of the sentencing asking for extreme leniency, the Times Union on March 8 and 9 and the Gazette on March 9.
In addition, Times Union columnist Fred LeBrun, who had followed the trial closely, wrote, prior to the sentencing,
“Someday we'll look back on the present national paranoia over terrorism and the excesses done in its name with the same national embarrassment that Americans feel for Sen. Joe McCarthy's communist witch hunts of the 1950s and our appalling treatment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Someday. But not anytime soon, and certainly not before Yassin M. Aref, the former imam at an Albany mosque, and Mohammed M. Hossain, a pizza shop owner, are sentenced… Looking up from a warm seat somewhere, Senator Joe must be viewing all this with a knowing smile.”
Carl Strock, the columnist for the Gazette, wrote many columns attacking the process as extremely unfair.
The FBI responded by contacting the editorial boards of the Times Union and the Gazette and running an op-ed piece in the Gazette upholding the sting operation as legitimate.
Muslim Solidarity Committee
After the convictions, the Muslim Solidarity Committee (MSC) was formed to support Aref, Hossain, and their families. It generated over 50 letters, and nearly 1,000 signatures on a petition, to the judge in support of leniency, and raised over $30,000 to support the two families. Its founders won an award from the NYCLU in November 2007.Appeal
Aref’s appeal is currently pending, along with that of Hossain, before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City. Oral argument on the appeal was expected in January 2008, and a decision sometime after that, most likely in the winter or spring.As reported on the front page of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
on August 26, 2007, the Aref appeal may be an important test case for the NSA warrantless wiretapping program, as it appears to be the only criminal case where there is strong evidence that the program was used to target a defendant.
In December 2005, The New York Times revealed that President Bush had taken the controversial step of secretly authorizing the NSA to expand its surveillance to within the US. A month later another NYT article quoted government officials as saying that the NSA program led them to Aref. On January 20, 2006, Aref’s lawyers filed a motion challenging the case against Aref as tainted by the illegality of the NSA program–the motion stated,
“The government engaged in illegal electronic surveillance of thousands of US persons, including Yassin Aref, then instigated a sting operation to attempt to entrap Mr. Aref into supporting a non-existent terrorist plot, then dared to claim that the illegal NSA operation was justified because it was the only way to catch Mr. Aref!”
On March 10, 2006, the government filed a response to the defense motion which was completely classified, something defense attorneys and the NYLCU said was virtually unheard of and a violation of the 6th Amendment right to confront evidence. Approximately two hours later Judge McAvoy denied the defense motion in a “Classified Order,” something even more unheard of.
Then on March 22, 2006, the defense filed a petition for mandamus
Mandamus
A writ of mandamus or mandamus , or sometimes mandate, is the name of one of the prerogative writs in the common law, and is "issued by a superior court to compel a lower court or a government officer to perform mandatory or purely ministerial duties correctly".Mandamus is a judicial remedy which...
with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, challenging Judge McAvoy’s decision and arguing that the process had violated Aref’s constitutional rights–the NYCLU also filed a brief supporting the right of public access to court decisions. In July 2008, the Second Circuit dismissed Aref's petition in part, and in remaining part denied it; it also dismissed NYCLU's petition for lack of jurisdiction and denied the organization's motion to intervene as moot. In a separate ruling the appellate court The federal appeals court upheld the conviction and rejected all the defense's arguments, including that the men did not know missiles were involved. "The evidence sufficed for a jury to conclude that Aref intended to aid in preparing a missile attack on American soil," the ruling said, concluding the same for Hossain.
PBS program
On April 20, 2007, the Aref/Hossain case was featured on the PBSPublic Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
Documentary “Security Versus Liberty: The Other War,” which contained interviews with defense attorneys, the mosque President, and representatives from the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office.