Queens Man Syed Hashmi Facing 15 Years After Pleading Guilty To Helping Al Qaeda

The NY Dailly News reports that "on the eve of his federal trial, a Queens man charged with helping Al Qaeda pleaded guilty Tuesday. Syed Hashmi, 30, faces up to 15 years in prison on one count of providing material support to a terrorist organization... The feds said he was a radical who was in cahoots with terrorists when he lived in New York and later when he went to London for grad school. Hashmi allegedly sheltered an Al Qaeda operative who organized training camps in Pakistan - and let him use his cell phone to arrange meetings with other alleged terrorists. Hashmi was also charged with giving the same man $300 and helping him store rain ponchos and socks collected for Al Qaeda soldiers. Prosecutors claimed he also joined the New York chapter of the radical Al Muhajiroun, which advocated the overthrow of Western society. They said he befriended Al Qaeda operative Junaid Babar and acted as a go-between, relaying emails between Babar in Pakistan and London-based terrorist Omar Khyam. Khyam is a member of a British Al Qaeda cell now serving life for plotting to detonate bombs at shopping malls and clubs across Britian. Babar had testified against Khyam in the British trial, and was expected to testify against Hashmi, saying he stayed at the Queens man's flat, used his cell phone and store waterproof clothing at his apartment." Tweet