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Monday, March 25, 2013

Seattle, WA: convert to Islam and wannabe jihadist sentenced to 18 years in prison

See you in 2031


Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif formerly known as Joseph Anthony Davis seems to have misunderstood his new religion.  Jihad is not about killing infidels, it is the inner struggle to better oneself and make a noble impact on friends and humanity...isn't it?

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer March 25 by Levi Pulkkinen 

18-year sentence in ‘a classic crime of terrorism'

A SeaTac man whose plans to wage “jihad” against a South Seattle military office were derailed by a child-molesting friend was sentenced Monday to 18 years in prison.

Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, 35, was nabbed after a rapist he tried to recruit went to police; he was arrested in a sting operation before he could attack the Military Entrance Processing Station, an induction center where young recruits to all military branches take their oaths and are sent to basic training.

The would-be terrorist planned to storm the East Marginal Way South center alongside Los Angeles resident Walli Mujahidh and the informant. Once inside, they were to open fire with automatic weapons and grenades on the Department of Defense workers and new recruits headed to basic training in the hope of killing as many as possible before being killed or captured.

Mujahidh pleaded guilty shortly after his arrest and is scheduled to be sentenced later in the year. Abdul-Latif’s guilty plea came in December, as his attorneys and prosecutors were preparing to argue over the improper destruction of hundreds of text messages exchanged between the informant and his Seattle Police Department handler.

The unlikely hero in the federal prosecution was a Seattle rapist who went to police after Abdul-Latif approached him about the attack. The man ultimately spent weeks working with police and recording conversations with the conspirators, and was paid about $90,000 for the work.

Abdul-Latif pleaded guilty to conspiring to murder government employees and to use weapons of mass destruction. He was sentenced Monday morning by U.S. District Judge James Robart at the federal courthouse in Seattle; in addition to the prison term, Robart ordered Abdul-Latif 10 years under supervised release.

Sentencing Abdul-Latif, U.S. District Judge James Robart described the government’s handling of the text message as “at best sloppy.” Robart added the Seattle Police detective’s deletion of those texts would have impacted the government’s case had a plea agreement not been struck.

That plea agreement limited the sentencing range available to Robart to 17 to 19 years in prison. Life in prison is the suggested sentence for the crimes Abdul-Latif admitted to, and he would have faced a minimum term of 30 years in prison if not for the plea agreement. Had Robart imposed such a sentence, though, Abdul-Latif could have withdrawn his guilty plea, and doubtlessly would have done so.

Robart chastised the government for the detective’s conduct – which was discovered by the defense months after charges were filed – while also dismissing Abdul-Latif’s contention that he was led astray by the paid informant.

The motivation for this attack was terrorism, and the idea for the attack was the defendant’s,” Robart said. “The government did not provide the instigation for this plot.”

The motive is a tactic, says the judge, blind to the ideology that drove Abdul-Latif.  Even if he knew what drove the action, he would never say it in open court.

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