Civic News
Federal government / Public safety

Brooklyn techie sentenced to 15 years for aiding Al Qaeda

A local technologist gets 15 years in prison.

Wesam El-Hanafi had plotted to blow up the New York Stock Exchange. (Photo by Flickr user Cristian, used under a Creative Commons license)

Wesam El-Hanafi, a former Lehman Brothers employee, was sentenced to 15 years behind bars Tuesday by a Federal judge in Manhattan, according to the New York Post.
El-Hanafi is said to have conspired to blow up the New York Stock Exchange and to have provided technological advice to members of Al Qaeda in Yemen. Read more on the sophisticated communication between him and his fellow Brooklynite and codefendant in this story from the AP.
From the Post:

El-Hanafi met with two al Qaeda members in Yemen in 2008, and he taught them how to modernize the terror network’s IT capabilities and also bought seven Casio digital watches, potentially to use as timers for terrorist bombs.
He also instructed the members of al Qaeda on how to communicate covertly over the Web to avoid law enforcement detection, prosecutors say.

Read the full story
Series: Brooklyn
Engagement

Join the conversation!

Find news, events, jobs and people who share your interests on Technical.ly's open community Slack

Trending
Technically Media