Yassin M. Aref
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Yassin Aref is poet, writer, and religious scholar of
Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...
background who was the central figure of a controversial sting operation leading to years of incarceration in the
Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Justice that is responsible for all List of United States federal prisons, federal prisons ...
. A resident of Albany,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
, Aref was arrested by Federal authorities in August 2004 as part of a
sting operation In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime. A typical sting will have an undercover law enforcement officer, detective, or co-operative member of the public play a rol ...
, convicted in October 2006 of conspiracy and money laundering charges and sentenced to 15 years in prison in March 2007. The sting operation revolved around FBI informant Shahed Hussein, who later became notorious for his involvement in othe
controversial cases of entrapment
as well as th

In 2023, a federal judge ordered the release of 3 other defendants who were also entrapped in a separate sting by Shahed Hussein, saying that FBI had used a "villain” of an informant, and that "the real lead conspirator was the United States". Aref's case drew criticism from human rights groups such as the
ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. ...
and the
NYCLU The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) is a civil rights organization in the United States. Founded in November 1951 as the New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, it is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization with nearly ...
br>.
In July 2008, an appellate court upheld the convictions, rejecting all of the defense's arguments. The decision caused outrage amongst the local community, as supporters maintained the position that he was being persecuted. Aref completed his 15-year prison sentence in October, 2018 and was deported to
Iraqi Kurdistan Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan () refers to the Kurds, Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of Greater Kurdistan in West Asia, which also includes parts of southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdist ...
in June, 2019. Aref wrote a
memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

''Son of Mountains: My Life as a Kurd and a Terror Suspect'' (2008)


Background

US forces found Aref's name, address, and phone number in a notebook in a bombed-out Iraqi encampment in 2003.Suspects raise domestic spy issue: 2 Albany Muslim men accused in FBI sting seek information
'' Times Union'', January 5, 2006
The information was classified, and the defense, despite defense counsel having received security clearances, was provided with almost no information about the notebook. Originally the government claimed that the notebook entry said "commander" next to Aref's name; however, when the judge asked the government to provide the notebook page, the government admitted that there had been a "mistranslation" and the word in question was "kak," which means "brother," not "commander," and is a common
Kurd Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...
ish term of respect.Error In Albany 'Terror' Case Terror Camp Document Said Defendant Was 'Brother,' Not 'Commander'
''
CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...
'', August 18, 2004
Aref is from (
Iraqi Kurdistan Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan () refers to the Kurds, Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of Greater Kurdistan in West Asia, which also includes parts of southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdist ...
), and his grandfather was a famous
imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...
; Aref was already known and respected in the area. There was no way to know what group was bombed by US forces at the encampment; at times, groups such as the
Kurdistan Justice Group The Kurdistan Justice Group (), colloquially called Komell, formerly the Kurdistan Islamic Group (), is a movement in Iraqi Kurdistan established in May 2001 by Ali Bapir, a former leader of the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan and a former depu ...
, run by
Ali Bapir Ali Bapir, also known as Mamosta Ali Bapir, () is a Kurdish Islamic scholar and politician in Iraqi Kurdistan. He is the founder and current president of the Kurdistan Justice Group (formerly known as the Islamic Group of Kurdistan). He was bor ...
, were bombed by the US, even though they did not oppose US forces.Kurd chief who taught mercy to Saddam's men
''Guardian Unlimited'', May 27, 2005
The
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
(FBI) claimed that Aref is tied to
Mullah Krekar Najmadin Faraj Ahmad (, July 7, 1956), better known as Mullah Krekar (), is a Kurdish Sunni Islamic scholar. He was a commander for the Peshmerga unit belonging to the Kurdistan Islamic Movement during the 1991 Iraqi uprisings. Later, he founded ...
, the founder of Ansar al-Islam.Terror suspect wants own trial: Albany pizza shop owner says case against imam hurts his chance with jurors
''Times Union'', December 10, 2005
When Aref left Iraq as a refugee in 1994, he lived in Syria for 5 years. During that time he was approved by the UN as a refugee to be sent to a third country, which ended up being the US. While in Syria, Aref worked first as a gardener for a rich businessman, and then for the Damascus Office of the IMK ( Islamic Movement in Kurdistan), an Islamic Kurdish group which had worked with the US to oppose
Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...
, and which helped Kurdish refugees in Syria. IMK was never claimed to be a terrorist organization. Mullah Krekar was an IMK official who, at the end of 2001, two years after Aref had left Syria and the IMK job, split from IMK to form Ansar al Islam, which is a designated terrorist organization. While Aref had met Krekar briefly a couple of times through his IMK job, he did not really know him, and was opposed to his extremist politics. Aref came to the US as a
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
refugee in 1999 with his wife and three young children. He initially found work as a janitor at a local hospital and as an ambulance driver. After a year he was hired as the
imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...
of the Masjid As Salam Mosque.


Sting operation

Based perhaps on the discovery of the notebook in Iraq in 2003, the FBI launched a sting operation targeting Aref. FBI agents convinced a Pakistani informant (who was facing a long prison sentence and deportation for fraud) to approach a friend of Aref's, Mohammed Mosharref Hossain, as a means of getting to Aref.Mosque welcomed in informant
, '' Times Union'' August 8, 2004
The FBI plan was that the informant, Shahed Hussein, would offer to loan $50,000 cash to Hossain, and get back $45,000 in checks from Hossain's business (a pizza shop), telling him that the money was made from buying a Chinese
surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...
, which was to be provided to a group called JEM (
Jaish-e-Mohammed Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) is a Pakistani Deobandi jihadist Islamist militant group active in Kashmir.: "as soon as he was freed, Masood Azhar was back in Pakistan where he founded a new jihadist movement, Jaish-e-Mohammed, which became one of ...
), which was to use it to attack the Pakistani Ambassador in New York City. However, none of that was true. Needing a witness to the loan, as is obligatory for Muslims, the men then brought Aref into the arrangement, solely as a witness to the loan transactions. The government eventually arrested both men, claiming that Aref chose to support
money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...
by witnessing the loan. The defense argued that Aref, who spoke very poor English at the time, did not understand that this was anything other than a legitimate loan. Defense attorneys claimed that both Aref and Hossain were unfairly convicted–that Hossain was
entrap Entrapment is a practice in which a law enforcement agent or an agent of the state induces a person to commit a crime that the person would have otherwise been unlikely or unwilling to commit.''Sloane'' (1990) 49 A Crim R 270. See also agent prov ...
ped, and that Aref did not realize any laws were being broken.
Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
protested the sting having been based on a fictional plot to
assassinate Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...
the Pakistani ambassador to the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
.From one blunder to the next
''
Asia Times ''Asia Times'' (), formerly known as ''Asia Times Online'', is a Hong Kongbased English language news media publishing group, covering politics, economics, business, and culture from an Asian perspective. ''Asia Times'' publishes in English and ...
'', August 11, 2004


Shahed Hussein

The informant, Shahed Hussein, went on to target people in at least two other cases (and appeared unknowingly in two documentaries), was paid ove
$100,000
by the FBI, and then started a limousine business whic

and caused an accident which killed 20 people in 2018. Hussein targeted James Cromitie in the Newburgh 4 sting case, where he promised Cromiti
$250,000
when he became uninterested in the plot. The case was the subject of a 2014 HBO documentary calle

The prosecution admitted that Hussei
lied on the stand
during the trial, and the judge late
wrote to prosecutors
(see page 7 of the link) recommending they investigate, but that never occurred. In 2012, Hussein was brought in to join an FBI sting operation in Pittsburgh
targeting Khalifah Al-Akili
As documented in the award-winning documentary, ''(T)error'' (available on Netflix) Al-Akil
realized Hussain was an FBI informant
an
blew the whistle
on the sting. Al-Akili still got an eight-year sentence on an un-related gun charge, and wa
interviewed
by Democracy Now in prison in 2015, before his release in 2018. In October, 2018, the brakes on one of Hussein's limousine
completely failed
killing 20 people in the worst US transportation disaster since 2009. Hussei
had left the country
shortly before, leaving his son, Nauman, to run it in his absence. As of September, 2019, Nauman Hussein is facin
20 homicide counts
while his father, Shahed Hussain, has not returned to the US.


Trial

The trial occurred in September and October 2006. Hossain was convicted of all the counts, and Aref was convicted of 10 of the 30 counts, of conspiring to aid a terrorist group and provide support for a weapon of mass destruction, as well as money-laundering and supporting a foreign terrorist organization, Jaish-e-Mohammed, a group in Pakistan that the informant told the men he supported. Both men filed appeals. The Aref defense attorneys argued on appeal that there was insufficient evidence, and that this was shown by the fact that Aref was acquitted of all the counts based on the most significant of the recorded conversations with the informant-the two conversations underlying the counts on which he was convicted provided him with no new information. On March 8, 2007, both Aref and Hossain were sentenced to 15 years in prison–half the sentence called for under the
Federal Sentencing Guidelines The United States Federal Sentencing Guidelines are rules published by the U.S. Sentencing Commission that set out a uniform policy for sentencing individuals and organizations convicted of felonies and serious (Class A) misdemeanors in the Unite ...
. Aref's defense counsel filed a lengthy sentencing memorandum which described Aref's background and the support shown for him in the community.United States of America v. Yassin Aref
''Sentencing Memorandum'', January 29, 2007
Aref professed innocence before his sentencing, and criticized the government's treatment of Muslims.United States of America v. Yassin Aref
''Court Transcript'', March 8, 2007
After sentencing, Aref was taken to 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 ...
(CMU) at the federal prison in
Terre Haute, Indiana Terre Haute ( ) is a city in Vigo County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 58,389 and Terre Haute metropolitan area, its metropolitan area had a populati ...
. He was assigned BOP# 12778–052. ''The Times Union''

) and the ''Daily Gazette''

, Albany's two main daily newspapers, both ran editorials at the time of the sentencing asking for extreme leniency, the ''Times Union'' on March 8 and 9 and the ''Gazette'' on March 9. In addition, ''Times Union'' columnist Fred LeBrun, who had followed the trial closely, wrote, prior to the sentencing,
Someday we'll look back on the present national paranoia over terrorism and the excesses done in its name with the same national embarrassment that Americans feel for Sen. Joe McCarthy's communist witch hunts of the 1950s and our appalling treatment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Someday. But not anytime soon, and certainly not before Yassin M. Aref, the former imam at an Albany mosque, and Mohammed M. Hossain, a pizza shop owner, are sentenced ... Looking up from a warm seat somewhere, Senator Joe must be viewing all this with a knowing smile.History will remember Albany terrorism sting as a witch hunt
''Times Union'', January 12, 2007
Carl Strock, the columnist for the ''Gazette'', wrote many columns attacking the process as extremely unfair.
''Daily Gazette'', February 4, 2007
The FBI responded by contacting the editorial boards of the ''Times Union'' and the ''Gazette'' and running an op-ed piece in the ''Gazette'' upholding the sting operation as legitimate.


Muslim Solidarity Committee

After the convictions, the Muslim Solidarity Committee (MSC)
/ref> was formed to support Aref, Hossain, and their families. It generated over 50 letters, and nearly 1,000 signatures on a petition, to the judge in support of leniency,Summary of Letters in Support of Yassin Aref
/ref> and raised over $30,000 to support the two families. Its founders won an award from the
NYCLU The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) is a civil rights organization in the United States. Founded in November 1951 as the New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, it is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization with nearly ...
NYCLU Annual Awards Ceremony
November 8, 2007
in November 2007. In 2008, supporters formed another group
Project Salam
which started studying other Muslim “terrorism” convictions, and advocating for others they believed had been treated unfairly. In 2010, Project Salam joined with other groups to form th
National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms
(NCPCF) (later shortened to the Coalition for Civil Freedoms CF which does essentially the same thing, on a larger scale. In 2018, members of Project Salam recorded a podcast
''Terror Talk''
in which they discussed the Aref/Hossain case and the larger context over several episodes.


Appeal

Aref's appeal, along with that of Hossain, was denied by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on July 2, 2008. A petition for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court was denied on March 9, 2009. As reported on the front page of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' on August 26, 2007, the Aref appeal could have been an important test case for the NSA warrantless wiretapping program, as it appeared to be the only criminal case where there was strong evidence that the program was used to target a defendantSpying Program May Be Tested By Terror Case
August 26, 2007
Both the ACLU and the NYCL
got involved
in the case. However, in its opinion, the Second Circui
held
that Aref had no right to know about this because it was classified. In an accompanying summar
order
the court also sidestepped the issue by claiming that Aref hadn't shown a “colorable basis” for asserted he had been wiretapped under the NSA program. In July, 2009, the Inspector General for the Department of Justice published
report
saying that DOJ should re-examine criminal cases to see if exculpatory evidence had been unfairly kept from the defense due to the evidence having been classified. Nothing ever came of that. On April 5, 2010, the Albany, NY Common Council passed

asking DOJ to act on the Inspector General's Report and re-examine the Aref case as well as others. That never occurred.


Background on the wiretapping issue in the case

In December 2005, ''The New York Times'' revealed that President Bush had taken the controversial step of secretly authorizing the NSA to expand its surveillance to within the US.
December 16, 2005
A month later another NYT article quoted government officials as saying that the NSA program led them to Aref.
January 17, 2006
On January 20, 2006, Aref's lawyers filed a motion challenging the case against Aref as tainted by the illegality of the NSA program–the motion stated,
The government engaged in illegal electronic surveillance of thousands of US persons, including Yassin Aref, then instigated a sting operation to attempt to entrap Mr. Aref into supporting a non-existent terrorist plot, then dared to claim that the illegal NSA operation was justified because it was the only way to catch Mr. Aref!
''The 10,000 Things'', January 28, 2006
On March 10, 2006, the government filed a response to the defense motion which was completely classified, something defense attorneys and the NYLCU said was virtually unheard of and a violation of the 6th Amendment right to confront evidence. Approximately two hours later Judge McAvoy denied the defense motion in a "Classified Order," something even more unheard of.Secret Prosecution; Secret Judicial Decisions; Illegal Surveillance
''Daily Kos'', March 11, 2006
Then on March 22, 2006, the defense filed a petition for
mandamus A writ of (; ) is a judicial remedy in the English and American common law system consisting of a court order that commands a government official or entity to perform an act it is legally required to perform as part of its official duties, o ...
with the
Second Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory covers the states of Connecticut, New York, and Vermont, and it has appellate jurisdic ...
, challenging Judge McAvoy's decision and arguing that the process had violated Aref's constitutional rights–the NYCLU also filed a brief supporting the right of public access to court decisions. United States of America v. Aref et al. Case Description
, ''NYCLU'', March, 2006
In July 2008, the Second Circuit turned down the petition. The federal appeals court upheld the conviction. "The evidence sufficed for a jury to conclude that Aref nd Hossainintended to aid in preparing a missile attack on American soil."


PBS program

On April 20, 2007, the Aref/Hossain case was featured on the
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
Documentary "Security Versus Liberty: The Other War," which contained interviews with defense attorneys, the mosque President, and representatives from the FBI and the US Attorney's Office.Security versus Liberty: The Other War
''
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
'', April 20, 2007


''Son of Mountains''

While he was in Rensselaer County Jail awaiting sentencing, Aref wrote a memoir. Stephen Downs helped him put the story into standard English, and editor Jeanne Finley did further editing. The book was published in March 2008. ''Son of Mountains'' is the non-fiction story of the life of Aref, an Iraqi Kurd who grew up under the rule of Saddam Hussein and later risked his life opposing him. Aref traverses the landscape of his childhood in Iraqi Kurdistan under Saddam; details the decision to leave Kurdistan for Syria, where he and his wife and children, although poor, make a new life, and then as UN refugees come to the United States; describes his brief residence in America as an immigrant and imam at a small mosque before his arrest, prosecution, and conviction in the "terror case"; and records his experiences over 18 months at the Rensselaer County Jail.


Return to Kurdistan

Aref returned to Iraqi Kurdistan on June 11, 2019 after finishing his 15-year sentence in October, 2018. When Yassin was released from prison, he didn't want to fight deportation - he was taken to York County Prison (an ICE detention center) to await an eventual flight home to northern Iraq, where his wife and daughters were waiting for him. After his attorney filed a habeas petition, and a hearing was held in Scranton, PA on June 7, Aref called his son, Salah, on June 9 to say he was being taken to the airport. Aref made it safely home on June 11, 2019. A few days later his two sons flew there, and the family was reunited in freedom for the first time since 2005, before the youngest daughter was born. On August 4, 2019 Aref's Albany, NY supporters held their annual commemoration of the August 4, 2004 arrests of him and Mohammed Hossain, and Aref spoke to the gathering over video link from Kurdistan. Salah then returned to the US in mid-August, 2019 to start Harvard Law School. On August 30, a long Kurdish TV interview with Aref was aired.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aref, Yassin Living people Writers from Albany, New York Iraqi Kurdish people 20th-century imams 21st-century imams American imams Civil liberties in the United States 1970 births Persecution Iraqi emigrants to the United States