Long
Islander Helped Qaeda, Then Informed |
|
| By William Rashbaum and Squad Mekhennet | |
| Thursday, 23rd July, 2009 | |
He
grew up in the solid middle class of Suffolk County, the son of an engineer,
the child of a couple that had emigrated from South America, a fan of
football and video games, an altar boy and, eventually, a Boy Scout. |
|
But
Bryant Neal Vinas became very angry, according to his mother, when his
parents’ bitter divorce cleaved through his adolescence. He opted against
college and instead joined the United States Army at 18. |
|
Years later, he became a Muslim, joined a mosque,
began visiting jihadist Web sites and, in 2008, found himself traveling
to Pakistan, and eventually Afghanistan. There, this young man from an
American suburb tried to kill American soldiers in a Qaeda rocket attack
against a military base, according to federal court papers unsealed in
Brooklyn on Wednesday. |
|
Some two months after the September assault, Mr.
Vinas, going by names like Bashir al-Ameriki, or Bashir the American,
was picked up by Pakistani authorities in Peshawar, according to American
officials. Days later, he was back in the United States, providing counterterrorism
officials with what they called “valuable information” gleaned from his
visits to Al Qaeda’s camps, leading to the arrests of senior Qaeda operatives
and to Predator drone strikes. |
|
Mr.
Vinas, 26, pleaded guilty in January to conspiring to murder United States
nationals, providing material support to Al Qaeda and receiving military
training from the group. |
|
Comment: |
|
| And the punishment for this what? But don't worry, because his lawyer wants 'the public to withhold judgement.' :) | |
| But he looks like a confirmed traitor to everyone to me. | |
The
full article is available at: |
|
 |
|
