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08/28/03
On August
26, three men pled guilty in the U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of Virginia to conspiracy and gun charges,
following their indictments with 8 others in June of this
year. Khwaja Mahmood Hasan, Yong Ki Kwon, and Donald Thomas
Surratt were accused of conspiring with others to train in
Virginia for jihad on behalf of Muslims in Kashmir, Chechnya,
the Philippines, and other states they believed to be the
enemies of Islam.
Mr. Hasan
and Mr. Kwon were further accused of training with firearms
in October 2001 at a camp of the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan,
a group identified by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization.
Mr. Surratt was further accused of instructing small-unit
military combat tactics in Virginia based on his experience
in the U.S. military. FBI Agents, who conducted the investigation,
had taken 6 of the accused 11 men into custody on June 27
after raids at their homes in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania
that recovered weapons, ammunition, and high-powered scopes.
Of the remaining 5 men, two were already in custody on other
charges and three had fled the country.
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