Enaam M. Arnaout ( Kunya: ''Abu Mahmoud'';Fitzgerald, Patrick J. United States of America v. Enaam M. Arnaout,
Governments Evidentiary Proffer Supporting the Admissibility of Co-Conspirator Statements
, before Hon. Suzanne B. Conlon born 1962) is a

Syrian American Syrian Americans are Americans of Syrian descent or background. The first significant wave of Syrian immigrants to arrive in the United States began in the 1880s. Many of the earliest Syrian Americans settled in New York City, Boston, and Detroi ...

who pleaded guilty to using

charitable The practice of charity is the voluntary giving of help to those in need, as a humanitarian act, unmotivated by self-interest. There are a number of philosophies about charity, often associated with religion. Etymology The word ''charity'' ori ...

donations to support fighters in

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

without informing the donors of this,Benevolence Int'l Chief Pleads Guilty: Arnaout pleads to lesser charges to avoid facing potentially biased jury
'' About.com'', February 11, 2003 during his tenure as a director of the charity

Benevolence International Foundation The Benevolence International Foundation (Benevolence International Fund in Canada, Bosanska Idealna Futura in Bosnia) (BIF) was a purported nonprofit charitable trust based in Saudi Arabia. It was determined to be a front for terrorist group A ...

(which is now banned worldwide by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

Life

Arnaout was raised in

Hama Hama ( ar, حَمَاة ', ; syr, ܚܡܬ, ħ(ə)mɑθ, lit=fortress; Biblical Hebrew: ''Ḥamāṯ'') is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located north of Damascus and north of Homs. It is the provinci ...

, Syria. In 1987, Arnaout participated in the Battle of Jaji, and was photographed alongside Osama bin Laden and quoted in the Arab News as saying the Soviet forces had destroyed the trees that the Mujahideen had hoped to use for fortifications. * The government claimed that Enaam Arnaout, aided by

Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri ( ar, أبو عبيدة البنشيري; May 1950 – 23 May 1996) was the ''nom de guerre''Mohammed Atef Mohammed Atef ( ar, محمد عاطف, ; born Sobhi Mohammed Abu Sitta Al-Gohary, also known as Abu Hafs al-Masri) was the military chief of al-Qaeda, and was considered one of Osama bin Laden's two deputies, the other being Ayman Al Zawahiri, ...

and

Yaseen al-Iraqi Yasin, Yassin, Yassine, Yacine or Yaseen may refer to: People * Yasin (name), an Arabic-based name * Yassin (name), an Arabic-based name * Yassine (name), an Arabic-based name * Yacine (name), an Arabic-based name * Yaşın (name), a Turkish-based ...

, purchased

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms des ...

s and mortar rounds from a Pashtun tribesman named Haji Ayoub in about 1990, and that these were subsequently delivered by truck to the Jawr and Jihad Wahl training camps.

Trial

Arnaout entered into a plea agreement on February 10, 2003, in which he pleaded guilty to a single count of racketeering.Statement of Enaam Arnaout: BIF chief pleads guilty to racketeering, releases statement to media and American Muslim community
'' About.com'', February 10, 2003 In that agreement, the prosecution acknowledged that neither Arnaout nor BIF had acted contrary to the interests of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, or had any ties to Osama bin Laden or

Al Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...

. Arnaout's statement of guilt acknowledges subverting on the order of $300,000 to $400,000 of charitable funds (out of a total of about $20,000,000) to buy boots, uniforms, tents, and an ambulance for Bosnian fighters, without the knowledge of the charitable donors. Judge Conlon sentenced Arnaout to 136 months in prison. During a sentencing hearing in August 2003, U.S. District Judge Suzanne Conlon told prosecutors they had "failed to connect the dots" and said there was no evidence that Arnaout "identified with or supported" terrorism.Few convictions on terror since 9/11: Most arrested not linked to extremists
''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'', June 12, 2005 Both Arnaout and the government appealed to the

United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (in case citations, 7th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the following districts: * Central District of Illinois * Northern District of Il ...

. On December 2, 2005, the Seventh Circuit reversed the sentence and remanded the case to Judge Conlon for resentencing. In February 2006, Judge Conlon resentenced Arnaout to 120 months (10 years) in prison."New Sentence for Charity Director"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', February 18, 2006

Incarceration

In 2010, Arnaout and "American Taliban"

John Walker Lindh John Philip Walker Lindh (born February 9, 1981) is an American convicted felon who was captured as an enemy combatant during the United States' invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001. He was detained at Qala-i-Jangi fortress, used as a pr ...

sued to lift restrictions on group prayer by Muslim inmates in the

Communication Management Unit A communications management unit (CMU) is a type of self-contained group within a facility in the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons that severely restricts, manages and monitors all outside communication (telephone, mail, visitation) of inmat ...

at the Federal Correctional Institution at Terre Haute, Indiana. On January 11, 2013, a federal judge ruled in their favor, saying that the government had shown no compelling interest in restricting the religious speech of the inmates by prohibiting them from praying together. On February 8, 2011, Arnaout was released from prison.

Life

Trial

Incarceration

References

Further reading