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| Three Men Sentenced in Jihad Paintball Training Case |
| 2003-11-07 |
| Three men accused of practicing military tactics at a paintball field outside Washington were sentenced to prison Friday for their roles in a Virginia jihad network that trained members to support a Pakistani terrorist group. Yong Ki Kwon and Khwaja Mahmood Hasan of Fairfax, Va., and Donald T. Surratt of Suitland, Md., pleaded guilty to conspiracy and gun charges in August. Humm, Mary Surratt from Maryland was convicted of complicity in Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and hanged, wonder if Donald is related? They were part of a group of 11 men accused of training at the paintball field to support Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Muslim extremist group trying to oust India from the disputed region of Kashmir. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema sentenced Hasan on Friday to 11 1/4 years in prison, Yong to 11 1/2 years, and Surratt to three years and 10 months. Hasan and Yong could have faced up to life in prison, while Surratt could have faced up to 15 years. "At best, what Hasan and Yong did in Pakistan was attempt to receive training. I don’t see how this is giving service to an entity," Brinkema said, referring to the terrorist group. Huh? Seven of the other defendants were accused in September of training to eventually join al-Qaida and Taliban fighters against American troops in the Afghanistan war. During his plea hearing in August, Yong told Brinkema that the group possessed a variety of weapons and trained in secret so they wouldn’t arouse suspicion. Well, that worked, NOT! |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 I'm sure there is some value to training using paintballs but not much. My own experience was that combat veterans were terrible at paintball games because in a real war bullets go through bushes and in paintball a bush is better than a wall because it allows vision while blocking enemy fire. |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-11-7 3:52:30 PM |
| #2 and then we have the black sheep of the Rantburg family, Mary sURrATt |
| Posted by: john 2003-11-7 1:08:24 PM |
| #1 wonder if Donald is related? I'll bet she is. Conspiracy seems to run in the family. (And Surratt was in on it) |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-11-7 12:14:02 PM |