Gufran Ahmed Kauser Mohammed, 31, a naturalized U.S. citizen who once lived in California has been sentenced in Miami federal court to the maximum 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to providing thousands of dollars in support to U.S.-designated terrorist organizations.
Fifteen years seems incredibly light for someone who funds Jihad. The US desperately needs to reform its terrorism and material support for terrorism statutes.
Not that this man was no impoverished, oppressed “victim.” He holds a master’s degree in computer science.
Prosecutors claim that he has “a deep hatred for the country that provided him shelter, citizenship and education” and that “his intent was to kill innocent American civilians.”
Mohammed was arrested last year in a Miami-based terrorism investigation led by an FBI employee, who engaged him and a co-defendant, Mohamed Hussein Said, 26, in an online, undercover financial scheme.
Mohammed and Said were charged with conspiring to provide a combined total of about $25,000 to what court records describe as “Al Qaeda splinter groups.”
Said, who is being held without bond and pleaded not guilty, is set for trial next May.
Mohammed and Said met in Saudi Arabia in May 2011 and agreed to provide financial and other resources to Al Shabaab, which was seeking to overthrow the government in Somalia and establish an Islamic state ruled by Shariah.
Through September of that year, Mohammed allegedly wired Said more than $11,000 via Western Union to back Al Shabaab.
This illustrates the crucial error committed by Congress early this year to loosen restrictions on bank wires to Somalia.
Last December, Mohammed also met in person with a purported associate of the FBI undercover employee and gave him 14,400 Saudi Arabian riyals, worth about $3,800, which also was meant to support the Nusra Front.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article4571488.html
