McHenry County Blog

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

TAHAWWUR RANA SENTENCED TO 14 YEARS IN PRISON FOR SUPPORTING PAKISTANI TERROR GROUP AND TERROR PLOT IN DENMARK

CHICAGO — A Pakistani native who operated a Chicago-based immigration business was sentenced today to 14 years in prison for conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist plot in Denmark and providing material support to Lashkar e Tayyiba, a terrorist organization operating in Pakistan that was responsible for the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India. The defendant, TAHAWWUR HUSSAIN RANA, was convicted of the charges on June 9, 2011, following a three-week trial in U.S. District Court.

Rana, 52, a Canadian citizen, was ordered to serve 14 years, followed by five years of supervised release by U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber.

“This certainly was a dastardly plot,” Judge Leinenweber said in imposing the sentence.

Rana was convicted of conspiracy to provide material support to a plot from October 2008 to October 2009 to commit murder in Denmark, including a horrific plan to behead employees of Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper, and throw their heads on to the street in Copenhagen, as well as providing material support, from late 2005 to October 2009, to Lashkar, a militant jihadist organization operating in Pakistan.

Lashkar planned and carried out the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai that killed more than 160 people, including six Americans, before initially planning the terrorist attack in Denmark in retaliation for the newspaper’s publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

Rana was acquitted of conspiracy to provide material support to the Mumbai attacks.

Gary Shapiro

“This serious prison sentence should go a long way towards convincing would-be terrorists that they can’t hide behind the scenes, lend support to the violent aims of terrorist organizations, and escape detection and punishment,” said Gary S. Shapiro, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

“Today’s sentence demonstrates that, just as vigorously as we pursue terrorists and their organizations, we will also pursue those who facilitate their violent plots from a safe distance. As established at trial, Tahawwur Rana provided critical support to David Headley and other terrorists from his base in the United States, knowing they were plotting attacks overseas. I thank the many agents, analysts and prosecutors who helped bring about today’s result,” said Lisa Monaco, Assistant Attorney General for National Security.

“It is my hope that the judge’s decision today sends a message to those who plot attacks and those who provide the support to make the plots possible, both here and abroad, that you will be held accountable for your actions. Our mission, detecting and preventing terrorist acts and eliminating the enabling support provided by terrorist sympathizers, remains our top priority,” said Cory B. Nelson, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Rana is one of two defendants to be convicted, among a total of eight defendants who have been indicted, in this case since late 2009.

Co-defendant David Coleman Headley, 52, pleaded guilty in March 2010 to 12 terrorism charges, including aiding and abetting the murders of the six Americans in Mumbai. Headley, who is scheduled to be sentenced next Thursday, has cooperated with the Government since he was arrested in October 2009, and testified as a Government witness at Rana’s trial. He is facing a maximum of life in prison

The evidence at Rana’s trial showed that he knew he was assisting a terrorist organization and murderers, knew their violent goals, and readily agreed to play an essential role in achieving their aims.

The government contended that Rana knew the objective of his co-conspirators was to retaliate against and influence the Danish government for its perceived role in the publication of the Prophet Mohammed cartoons, and he knew that the goal of Lashkar was to retaliate against and influence the Indian and Danish governments and intended that the support he provided – enabling Headley’s activities – would be used toward that purpose.

In a post-arrest statement in October 2009, Rana admitted knowing that Lashkar was a terrorist organization and that Headley had attended training camps that Lashkar operated in Pakistan.

Headley testified that he attended the training camps on five separate occasions between 2002 and 2005.

In late 2005, Headley received instructions from members of Lashkar to travel to India to conduct surveillance, which he did five times leading up to the Mumbai attacks three years later that killed more than 160 people and wounded hundreds more.

In the early summer of 2006, Headley and two Lashkar members discussed opening an immigration office in Mumbai as a cover for his surveillance activities.

Headley testified that he traveled to Chicago and advised Rana, his long-time friend since the time they attended high school together in Pakistan, of his assignment to scout potential targets in India.

Headley obtained approval from Rana, who owned First World Immigration Services in Chicago and elsewhere, to open a First World office in Mumbai as cover for his activities.

Rana directed an individual associated with First World to prepare documents supporting Headley’s cover story, and advised Headley how to obtain a visa for travel to India, according to Headley’s testimony, as well as emails and other documents that corroborated his account.

Between Nov. 26-28, 2008, 10 attackers trained by Lashkar carried out multiple assaults with firearms, grenades and improvised explosive devices against multiple targets in Mumbai, some of which Headley had scouted in advance.

Regarding the Denmark terror plot, Headley testified that in the fall of 2008, he met with a Lashkar member in Karachi, Pakistan, and was instructed to conduct surveillance of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper offices in Copenhagen and Aarhus.

In late 2008 and early 2009, after reviewing with Rana how he had performed surveillance of the targets attacked in Mumbai, Headley testified that he advised Rana of the planned attack in Denmark and his intended travel there to conduct surveillance of the newspaper’s facilities.

Headley obtained Rana’s approval and assistance to identify himself as a representative of First World and gain access to the newspaper’s offices by falsely expressing interest in placing advertising for First World in the newspaper.

Headley and Rana caused business cards to be made that identified Headley as a representative of the Immigration Law Center, the business name of First World, according to the evidence at trial.

The trial evidence also included transcripts of recorded conversations, including those in September 2009, when Headley and Rana spoke about reports that a co-defendant, Ilyas Kashmiri, an alleged Pakistani terrorist leader, had been killed and the implications of his possible death for the plan to attack the newspaper.

In other conversations, Rana told Headley that the attackers involved in the Mumbai attacks should receive Pakistan’s highest posthumous military honors.

In the late summer of 2009, Rana and Headley agreed that funds that had been provided to Rana could be used to fund Headley’s work in Denmark, and the evidence showed that Rana, pretended to be Headley in sending an email to the Danish newspaper.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel Collins and Sarah E. Streicker, with assistance from the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have worked on a broader investigation of the Mumbai attacks. The investigation has been conducted by the Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Force, led by the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from FBI offices in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., as well as both U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Juxtaposed with a "Leaving Wisconsin, Scott Walker, Governor," is this Entering Illinois sign. "We should be so lucky," it says.

Friday’s editorial cartoon in the Chicago Sun-Times by Jack Higgins is trenchant.

I knew the word worked, but had to look up its meaning: “vigorously effective and articulate.”

He shows traffic leaving Wisconsin.

The sign says, “”Leaving Wisconsin, Scott Walker, Governor.”

The next sign is over the Illinois border:

Entering Illinois
We should be
so lucky

Unfortunately, the Sun-Times has not posted the cartoon, so I can’t link to it.

The email read, “Here’s a picture of the convicted IL governor’s first night in prison of his 14 year sentence. Gosh! They make a handsome couple!”

A cartoon sent to me from out-of-state after disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was incarcerated in Colorado. "They call me Rod, too," the larger inmate with his hand on Rod's arm says.

As those who have followed my 1990′s political career, my social conscious cause of that decade was stopping rape in prison.

The latest newsletter from Just Detention International, which used to be called Stop Prison Rape, has the headline you see below:

Headline of an article in the Just Detention International March newsletter.

Joking may have ended at the prison, but the cartoon above indicates that those on the outside still joke about rape in prison.

In 2003, the Prison Rape Elimination Act was passed.

Unanimous consent.

President George W. Bush signed the bill.

A commission was formed which held hearings and made recommendations.

These were submitted to the United States Department of Justice.

Regulations were put out for public comment. People, including yours truly, did so.

Since then, President Barack Obama’s Justice Department has done nothing.

The regulations were supposed to have been issued by Eric Holder last summer.

One of the Congressmen who pushed the bill through the House, Frank Wolf (R-VA), commented,

“I’ve talked to people who have been raped in prison. [PREA] passed in 2003.

“It was signed by President Bush.

“This was one of the few times I ever went to the Oval Office for a bill signing — because I cared about it. That’s nine years.

“There have been a lot of bad things that have happened to a lot of people during that period of time.

“We really have to finish this thing.”

I know nothing counts for the White House but winning the next election, but it’s time to promulgate the regulations.

And it’s time to stop joking about rape in prison.

And, no, this is not an April Fool’s joke.

The following press release arrived from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago:

CHICAGO MAN CHARGED WITH PROVIDING MATERIAL SUPPORT
TO AL QAEDA BY ATTEMPTING TO SEND FUNDS OVERSEAS

CHICAGO — A Chicago man who claims to be acquainted with an alleged terrorist leader in Pakistan was arrested today on federal charges of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization for allegedly attempting to provide funds overseas to al Qaeda, federal law enforcement officials announced.

Chicago Sun-Times article from the day after the press release was issued.

Although the defendant, Raja Lahrasib Khan, a Chicago taxi driver and native of Pakistan who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1988, allegedly discussed attacking a stadium in the United States this summer, there was no imminent domestic danger, officials said.

The investigation leading to Khan’s arrest is unrelated to a separate investigation that resulted  in federal terrorism charges against Chicagoans Tahawwur Hussain Rana and David Coleman Headley in connection with the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai and a plot to attack targets in Denmark, the officials added.

Khan, 56, of the city’s north side, was charged with two counts of providing material support to terrorism in a criminal complaint that was filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Chicago and unsealed today following his arrest, announced Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  The investigation is continuing, they said.

Khan was arrested this morning while working in downtown Chicago without incident by the Chicago FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.  He was scheduled to appear at 3:30 p.m. today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Geraldine Soat Brown in Federal Court in Chicago.

“While there was no imminent danger in the Chicago area or elsewhere, these charges, once again, affirm that law enforcement must remain constantly vigilant to guard against domestic support of foreign terrorist organizations.  I am deeply grateful to the FBI agents and other members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force for their extremely hard work on this matter,”

said Mr. Fitzgerald.

Mr. Grant said:

“Over the past six months, FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Forces across the country have disrupted plots, charged and apprehended a number of individuals and secured significant intelligence, which has been of benefit here and to our allies overseas.

“Notable as most of these successes have been, it also illustrates the reality of the environment we face today, along with the critical responsibility domestic law enforcement agencies and intelligence services have in protecting the public from the violent designs of others.

“It is a complex threat that we face and we are pleased with the results today.”

“Today’s arrest and charges are the result of an outstanding cooperative law enforcement and intelligence effort and underscore the domestic and international aspects of the terror threat we face,” said David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security.

According to a 35-page complaint affidavit, by at least 2008, Khan, who claims to have known Ilyas Kashmiri for approximately 15 years, learned that Kashmiri was working with al Qaeda, and that Kashmiri was purportedly receiving orders from al Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden.

According to Khan, during his meeting or meetings with Kashmiri, among other things, Khan learned that Kashmiri wanted to train operatives to conduct attacks in the United States; Kashmiri showed Khan a video depicting the detonation of an improvised explosive device; and  Kashmiri told Khan that he needed money, in any amount, to be able to purchase materials from the “black market.”

Chicago Tribune article the day after the press release was sent.

The complaint identifies Kashmiri as the leader in Kashmir of Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami (HUJI), a Sunni extremist group located in Pakistan and Kashmir with links to al Qaeda.

In a reported interview last October, Kashmiri purportedly said that he had joined forces with al Qaeda.  In January 2010, Kashmiri, together with a former Pakistani military officer, Rana and Headley, were indicted in Chicago for their alleged roles in a conspiracy to murder and maim persons in a planned attack against the facilities and employees of the Danish newspaper Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten, in Denmark, as retribution for the publication of cartoons that depicted the Prophet Mohammed.

The charges against Khan allege that on Nov. 23, 2009, he sent a money transfer of approximately $950 from a currency exchange located on North LaSalle Street in Chicago to Individual A, who was in either Mirpur or Bhimber, in Pakistan.

Khan later spoke with Individual A by telephone and instructed him to give “Lala” 25,000 Pakistani rupees (approximately $300) of the money he had sent.  According to the affidavit, Khan told an undercover agent that “Lala,” which means “older brother” in Urdu, is a nickname Khan uses to refer to Kashmiri, who he told the agent he had met most recently in 2008 in Miran Shah in northwest Pakistan.

Khan also told the agent that Khan believed that his telephones were being monitored, and if Khan or the undercover agent were ever questioned about their discussions regarding “Lala,” they should claim to have been referring to Khan’s actual older brother.

Just two weeks ago, on March 11, Khan and an associate, identified as “Individual B,” allegedly had a discussion during which they appeared to talk about attacking a stadium in the United States in “August.”

Among other things, Khan described that bags containing remote controlled bombs could be placed in several different locations, and then

“boom, boom, boom, boom.”

Khan further said that he would ask “Lala” [Kashmiri] to teach him how to conduct such an attack, the complaint alleges.  However, there are no allegations that Khan either knew Kashmiri’s current whereabouts or had yet discussed his stadium plan with him.

On March 17, after agreeing to personally deliver to Kashmiri any funds that the undercover agent wanted to provide, Khan allegedly accepted $1,000 (ten $100 bills) from the agent.

The complaint states that Khan accepted these funds after having had prior conversations with the undercover agent in which:

• Khan confirmed that Kashmiri was working with al Qaeda;
• Khan assured that Kashmiri would use the undercover agent’s funds to purchase weapons and, possibly, other supplies;
• Khan assured that he had provided Kashmiri with money in the past, including in approximately December 2009; and
• Khan discussed the possibility of having his son transport the money from the United States to England, where Khan would rendezvous with his son, retrieve the money, and deliver it to Kashmiri in Pakistan.

On March 23, government agents at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport came into contact with Khan’s son, who was traveling to England.  During this contact, agents discovered that Khan’s son possessed seven of the ten $100 bills that the undercover agent had given to Khan, according to the affidavit.

Each count of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.  If convicted, the court is required to impose a reasonable sentence under the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

The ongoing investigation is being conducted by the Chicago FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, with particular assistance from the Chicago Police Department, the Illinois State Police, and the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher Veatch and Steven Dollear, of the Northern District of Illinois, with assistance from the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

The public is reminded that a criminal complaint contains mere allegations that are not evidence of guilt.  The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Zane Seipler, the man challenging almost 11-year incumbent Republican McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren has issues a press release challenging the incumbent’s credentials as a Republican. The statement follows:

Republican Sheriff Keith Nygren’s Support of the Democratic Party

Woodstock, IL, September 30, 2009- In the latter part of the 1970’s, Keith Nygren embarked on a political career.

Record states that Mr. Nygren was a Democratic committeeman in Algonquin Township.

At the age of 32, Keith Nygren was endorsed as the candidate for the appointment of sheriff by the McHenry County Democratic Central Committee. He did not get the appointment but his career as a politician began.

Keith Nygren was appointed Sheriff of McHenry County in 1997, this time as a Republican.

Prior to 1997, Mr. Nygren never participated in Republican Party politics.

According to recent record, Sheriff Nygren has not completely left his Democratic ideologies behind.

At a time when the Republican Party struggles to rebuild, Sheriff Nygren gives financial aid to a local Democratic leader.

Not just once but several times over the past couple of years.

When the Republican Party is in need of cohesiveness, leadership and support, Sheriff Nygren openly undermines the party that appointed him to office.

By providing campaign contributions to members of the Democratic Party, Keith Nygren turns his back on the Republican campaign donors that have helped solidify his tenure over the past 12 years.

Bi-partisan relationships are necessary in all aspects of government, including law enforcement.

Financing the other team crosses the line.

If Mr. Nygren has formed personal relationships with members of the opposing party, those relationships are to be respected.

Party unity and loyalty should also be respected.

Republican campaign contributions should not end up in Democratic coffers.

County Republican leaders should not be attending breakfast fundraisers for any member of the Democratic Party.

I am asking Republican Sheriff Keith Nygren to publically withdraw his support for any and all Democrats running for office, or to resign from the Republican Party.

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I presume Seipler is referring to Keith Nygren’s name being listed as a member of State Rep. Jack Franks’ “Host Committee” for his October 3, 2009, fund raiser.

He is not the only Republican whose name was published–a couple of letters at a time–over the last two weeks on McHenry County Blog.

If don’t want to go down on the blog to find the article you seek, just click on the image you wish to enlarge.

Zane Seipler is the head shot on top of the article. Keith Nygren’s is just below.

The big news in the Northwest Herald Sunday was that State Representative Jack Franks was not going to run for governor.

He had been teasing the media that he might make such a run for a long time, gathering about a million dollars of mainly family money into his campaign fund to generate a July publicity push.

He was getting mentioned into late August. But not so much after State Comptroller Dan Hynes entered the race against appointed Governor Pat Quinn.

He said he would decide by Labor Day.

But didn’t.

Instead he went to Ireland with the two guys who will have the most to say about reapportionment for Congress for the 2012 election.

And, Sunday the big news was Franks’ congressional ambitions, about how he’d like to have McHenry County all be in one congressional district, which, I would point out, it would come close to dominating.

And, in order to wait for that, he would run for state representative again.

Which brings us to the question about his run for governor:

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?“

So, I anxiously watched to see if any of the statewide media would report that Franks was not running for governor.

Last night, I typed “Jack Franks, governor” into Google’s news search engine and set it to be from newest to oldest story.

I discovered that only one paper had written a story besides the Northwest Herald. That was the Galesburg Register-Mail. The story appeared on its web site Tuesday night at about 6 P.M.

= = = = =
The cartoon of Jack Franks wearing a cook’s hat is from his invitation to his Bull Valley Country Club breakfast on October 3rd.

We’re to the point on the list of names on the invitation of State Rep. Jack Franks’ fund raiser where we see the P’s and Q’s. For your edification, they follow:

Tim and Debbie Pace
Dennis Palys
Jack and Sue Peleck
Mario J. Perez
Claudett Peters
Edward Peters
Fred Pflueger
John and Jennifer Phil
Craig and Myra Pleva
Ted and Penny Poehlmann
Lloyd and Sharon Pohlman
Michael and Debbie Poper

Joseph and Sharon Porebski
Kathryn Porep
Kathy Posner
Virginia Povidas
Ron Powell
Kim Presbrey
Alan and Joanne Prihoda
The Prindiville Family
Paul and Dawn Psilos
Elizabeth Puchmetter
Kim and Darnell Quails

Take a look at this May 1st article I found in Elgin’s Courier-News.

It tells of how the head of the State Police Merit Board got “a 2006 Dodge Charger, boasting a ‘Hemi” V-8 engine that blasts from zero to 60 in 5 seconds.”

Fewer than 12,000 miles.

So, why didn’t State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias just cozy up to the State Police and ask for a fancy vehicle instead of buying a Ford Escape hybrid SUV, instead of buying it with Bright Start college savings money?

You remember reading about the $85 million lost in that investment program, right?

Ray Hanania asks in his SWNewsHerald online column,

“Why is the Bright Star controversy so important in all of this? It’s such a small breach of ethics. Yet that small breach of ethics is symbolic of the problem Giannoulias presents to this state.

“If he will take money from a fund set up to help little kids one day have the money to go to college so he can buy an SUV, then he would surely look you straight in the eye and tell you he is the champion of the public and quietly pat the bankers on the bank as they continue to pillage the consumer.”

For additional context, please read the column.

= = = = =
Editorial cartoonist Chris Britt of the State Journal-Register drew the cartoon from which this image is extracted. Entitled “A NOT SO BRIGHT START,” he has Giannoulias saying, “This shows ya what a college education can buy.”

The State Journal-Register’s cartoonist Christ Britt has penned an empathetic cartoon concerning Governor Pat Quinn’s income tax hike efforts.

It is not demeaning like Chicago Sun-Times’ editorial cartoonist Jack Higgins’.

This cartoon has a big wave about to crash on Quinn, why is holding an umbrella labeled “TAXES” above his head.

Not only is Quinn about to be inundated, but the sand castle that he has just built with his bucket will be washed away.

The wave is labeled “DEFICIT.”

It seems to me that the sand castles should be labeled “ILLINOIS ECONOMY.”

What do you think business will do when they figure out that 9.7% of their income will be extracted by state taxes?

Will they want to move here?

Only Iowa at 12%, Minnesota at 9.8%, Pennsylvania at 9.99%, and DC at 9.975% have higher tax rates for business.

If you owned a business that did not have to be in Illinois, would you stay?

In a “Dumb and Dumber” take off, yesterday Chicago Sun-Times cartoonist took off on the re-naming of the Sears Tower and Governor Pat Quinn’s 50% income tax proposal.

Higgins has stuck an arrow through Quinn’s head.