Al Qaeda in Yemen scams US donors

AP/CBS St Louis:
A Kansas City man and two other aspiring holy war combatants in the U.S. thought their contributions to al-Qaeda would buy them front-row seats in global jihad, but instead the money was divvied up among leaders in Yemen for their personal gain, according to court records.

Hundreds of pages of court documents in Kansas City and New York illustrate how Khalid Ouazzani — a Kansas City used auto parts salesman and failed real estate investor — and two other naturalized American citizens were fleeced out of tens of thousands of dollars by al-Qaeda leaders who exploited their zeal to wage holy war, The Kansas City Star reported.

In a recent letter to a New York federal judge, a lawyer representing cell member Sabirhan Hasanoff — a Brooklyn accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers who moved to Dubai in 2007 — acknowledged that Hasanoff once dreamed about jihad glory but instead got taken by a Yemeni con man.

“The defendants never had any authentic access to terrorism networks or Islamic extremists, and were victims of a rudimentary fraud,” the lawyer wrote.
...
Their problem is and a demonstrated intent to facilitate terrorism by aiding the enemy.  I would not be sympathetic to their plight.  They are little different from defendants in a sting operation.

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