FBI promised 'martyrdom payments' to sting target

Philly.com, The Associated Press, Matthew Barakat, 10 Sept 2012

McLEAN, Va. - An FBI sting operation promised "martyrdom payments" of up to $1,000 a month to a Moroccan immigrant who eventually volunteered to kill himself in a plot to bomb the U.S. Capitol, according to court papers.

Amine El-Khalifi, 29, who was living in Alexandria as an illegal immigrant until the time of his arrest in February, will be sentenced Friday in federal court in Alexandria. He pleaded guilty in June.

In court papers, El-Khalifi's lawyers said their client received more than $5,700 in living expenses from undercover FBI agents during the six-month investigation. He was also promised that his parents would receive what the lawyers describe as "martyrdom payments" of up to $1,000 a month after he completed the attack.

"Mr. El-Khalifi believed that one of his most important obligations was to care for his mother and father. Failing to do so would, again, meet with God's disapproval. Without the promise of the `martyrdom payments' to his parents, Mr. El-Khalifi would have had great difficulty completing the mission as he would have been shirking his responsibility to ensure their well-being," federal public defender Kenneth Troccoli wrote in court papers.

The martyrdom payments were to have gone to El-Khalifi's parents in Morocco. The family was in financial straits after his father was forced to close down a bazaar in Casablanca that had been a primary source of income. There was apparently some confusion about the payments, but El-Khalifi understood that each of his parents would be given $500 a month for an indefinite period of time after the suicide bombing occurred.

El-Khalifi's plea deal requires a sentence of between 25 and 30 years be imposed. The defense is seeking 25; prosecutors are asking for 30.

In its documents, the government emphasizes that El-Khalifi was a willing participant in the plot, and that El-Khalifi himself came up with the idea to attack the Capitol.

"Had the defendant not found (the undercover agents) in the fall of 2011, there is every reason to believe that he would have taken any opportunity he encountered in the future to commit mass murder," prosecutors Michael Ben'Ary and Gordon Kromberg wrote.

The defense traces el-Khalifi's change from a young adult on the D.C. club scene toward radical Islam. They say El-Khalifi's religious schooling was largely self-taught. After several years of working retail in D.C.'s Georgetown neighborhood and producing club music, he began taking drugs and in 2007 was convicted of misdemeanor assault and received a five-day jail sentence. The incident prompted El-Khalifi to re-examine his life, and his mother urged him to embrace the Quran. He embarked on what the defense says was a largely self-taught indoctrination into more extreme interpretations of the religion.

The sting operation served only to reinforce those views, Troccoli said. The undercover agents, who said they were part of al-Qaida, appeared to hold like-minded views. They urged El-Khalifi not to discuss the plot, further isolating him.

The agents, who went by the names Hussien and Yusuf, "assured him they would be with Mr. El-Khalifi every step of the way, even promising to detonate the bomb if Mr. El-Khalifi were prevented from doing so. He was made to feel part of an insular group on a mission, with a purpose," Troccoli wrote.

The defense lawyers emphasized that they do not believe the FBI actions constitute entrapment, and do not excuse El-Khalifi's conduct.

However, defense attorneys urged the judge to consider how El-Khalifi may have acted differently if, instead of being told to keep the plot secret, he was encouraged to "validate his beliefs with outsiders, for example an Imam at his mosque or a family member," the defense wrote.

The defense memo states that "Mr. El-Khalifi bears no ill-will against the American people. He is relieved that his attempted crime was foiled and that no one was actually injured."

The El-Khalifi case is one of many in the past few years in which the FBI has run sting operations targeting "homegrown terrorists." El-Khalifi's case stands out in part because he chose such a high-profile target and because he planned to kill himself in carrying out the operation. Before he was arrested, El-Khalifi had already traveled to a Capitol parking garage wearing what he thought was an explosive-laden suicide vest. The vest, provided by the undercover agents, was actually inert. A gun he planned to use to shoot his way past security was also inoperable.

It is not clear whether the FBI has promised martyrdom payments in any of the other cases. An FBI spokesman declined to comment Monday.

 The FBI and the U.S. Capitol Police arrested a Moroccan

 man Friday in downtown Washington after a lengthy

 investigation into an alleged plot to carry out a

 shooting spree and a suicide bombing at the Capitol.

Related Articles:

Federal agents arrest Amine El Khalifi; he allegedly planned to bomb Capitol

Ex-CIA Agent: America creates its own enemies

(Religions – Zionism - March 1, 2012 - Matthew Channelled by Suzanne Ward)

9. It can be no other way—simply, this is the physics that governs life in this universe. As Earth continues apace into successively higher planes, nothing with low vibrations in any form—physical bodies, subversive plans, theft, dishonesty, unjust laws and imprisonment, bigotry, cruel customs and deeds—can survive.

10. Moving on, no, it will not be quite like religions being “totally discarded and replaced by universal laws in the Golden Age.” When the truths come forth that science and spirit are one and the same and that religious dogmas were originated by early leaders of church and state to control the masses, people whose consciousness has risen beyond the constraints of third density will adhere to the spiritual aspects of their respective religions and the devised, controlling aspects will fall by the wayside.

11. One of the truths to come forth is that Zionism, which by dark intent has been made synonymous with Judaism, actually is a bellicose political movement within the Illuminati, and its aim for more than six decades has been to create conflict and instability in the entire Middle East. Zionists, who have wielded powerful influence within and behind major governments and their military forces, do NOT represent the Jewish peoples in Israel or anywhere else. And, like all other Illuminati factions, they have been committed to that cabal’s goal of global domination.

12. Although Semites are of diverse national origins and religions, the Zionists have been successful in convincing many that “anti-Semitic” is exclusively prejudice against the Jewish peoples and opposition to Israel’s right to defend itself from its “enemies.” By means of that blatant distortion, they obtained not only world sympathy, but also massive defense funding from Israel’s allies, most especially the United States, all of which served to increase the Illuminati’s vast profits from their industrial-military machine.

13. In addition to controlling the masses through dogmatic teachings, religions have served the dark purpose of divisiveness to such an extent that it resulted in centuries of trauma and bloodshed. Witness the Crusades, wars between Catholics and Protestants, pogroms against Jews, executions of “blasphemous” individuals who refused to “recant.”  (Read More …)