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Home Front: WoT
New Jersey man convicted of getting Hezbollah training, cleared of scouting targets
2022-05-12
[IsraelTimes] Mixed verdict returned in trial of Alexei Saab who had been accused of researching and photographing US landmarks for possible attacks from 2000 to 2005

A Manhattan federal court jury returned a mixed verdict Wednesday in the trial of a New Jersey software developer who authorities say researched and photographed US landmarks for possible attacks.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on one terrorism charge — providing material support for a terrorist group — but found Alexei Saab,
... also known as Ali Hassan Saab, Alex Saab, and Rachid. Until his 2019 arrest he worked as director of information technology for a Morristown, New Jersey energy company, supplementing his income as an adjunct lecturer at Baruch College. He joined Hezbollah in 1996, soaked up all sorts of advanced spy & sabotage training, and by 2003 was collecting information about potential targets in the US, which proved no barrier to his naturalization in the fateful year of 2008. There is also the small matter of marriage fraud because he married a fellow agent...
44,
had received military-type training from Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
Organization, which is based in Lebanon Hezbollahstan
...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years. It produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. That's three statements. Only the first is subjective....
Saab was also found guilty of conspiring to commit marriage fraud and making false statements. The Morristown, New Jersey, resident was exonerated on three other charges after a two-week trial.

Saab’s lawyer, Marlon Kirton, said much of the evidence came from what Saab himself told FBI
...Formerly one of the world's premier criminal investigation organizations, something for a nation to be proud of. Now it's a political arm of the Deep State oligarchy that is willing to trump up charges, suppress evidence, or take out insurance policies come election time...
Sherlocks that was "un-credible, crazy, unsubstantiated information," and which can’t be considered reliable.

Saab spoke with the FBI in 11 sessions over several weeks prior to his 2019 arrest, but was never read his rights, Kirton said in an email after the verdict.

US Attorney Damian Williams highlighted the jury’s unanimous verdict that Saab was trained by a terrorist organization.

"The evidence at trial showed that Saab surveilled some of New York’s most iconic and highly trafficked locations," Williams said in a statement, "in order to provide critical intelligence on how they could be most effectively attacked."

Judge Paul G. Gardephe questioned whether the terrorism count conviction will stand based on rules about how the statute of limitations pertains to terrorism charges. He asked lawyers on both sides to submit written arguments within weeks about the charge, which has a potential maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Gardephe said he wanted to know if it was the intent of Congress that there would be no limit to how long the government could wait to bring charges against someone who received military-type training from a terrorist organization.

Prosecutors were also given a week to decide whether to seek a retrial on the material support charge, which carries a potential penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

The other two convictions for conspiring to commit marriage fraud and making false statements each carry a potential penalty of up to five years in prison.

Prosecutors say that, according to Saab, he joined Hezbollah in 1996 and once tried to kill a man he later understood to be a suspected Israeli spy by pointing a weapon at the individual at close range, but the firearm jammed. They said he surveilled potential targets for terrorism attacks from 2000 to 2005 while working by day as a technology software engineer.
Related:
Alexei Saab: 2022-04-26 New Jersey software developer, 45, was sleeper Hezbollah agent who planned to carry out terror attacks on famous US landmarks if Iran was bombed, court hears
Alexei Saab: 2019-09-24 Who is the Morristown man charged as a Hezbollah sleeper agent?
Alexei Saab: 2019-09-21 Hezbollah terrorist scouted NYC-area locations: feds
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