Ali Al-Tamimi is a former Fairfax County resident, biologist, and Islamic teacher who was convicted in 2005 of soliciting treason in connection with what prosecutors have called the "Virginia Jihad Network" and sentenced to life imprisonment. Al-Tamimi has been described as "arguably the first American born activist Salafi preacher."
Early life
Al-Timimi was born in 1963 and grew up in Washington, DC, where he attended Georgetown Day School until age fifteen. His father, a lawyer, worked at the Iraqi embassy, and his mother was a psychologist. Knowing the family personally, journalist Milton Viorst, who talks of how his father got a M.A. in law at George Washington University "in his free time", and says of his mother that "she took pride in telling me that she had acquired three master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in psychology", also describes the family as "not particularly ethnic or religious". Like other Americans, they celebrated Halloween and Christmas, while Ali was into sports. It all changed in 1978, when the family moved to Saudi Arabia because his father wanted to reconnect with his Arab-Islamic roots, and where Ali himself became interested in Islam, learning its basics whereas before he didn't even knew Muslims pray towards Mecca. Upon returning to the U.S. two years later, he attended The George Washington University and the University of Maryland, College Park. In 2004, he received a doctorate in computational biology from George Mason University on the topic of "Chaos and Complexity in Cancer". Al-Tamimi pursued Islamic studies, where he became influenced by Islamist thinkers like Sayyid Qutb, Safar Al-Hawali and Muhammad Surur, before returning to the United States.
Work and Islamic activities
Ali Al-Tamimi worked at an IT company named Xpedior, Inc. Clients he provided service to included America Online. He reportedly worked for two months for Andrew Card, former Chief of Staff of the George W. Bush Whitehouse, while Card was Secretary of Transportation under George H. Bush. In the early 1990s, Al-Tamimi led a five-person delegation from the Islamic Assembly of North America to the United Nations 4th World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China. Al-Tamimi contacted Shaikh Abdel Rahaman Abdel Khaliq, who wrote a book about women in Islam, which Al-Tamimi translated into English. He was a lecturer at the Center for Islamic Information and Education in Falls Church, Virginia. He was a founding member of the Center, which is also known as Dar al-Arqam. In late 2002, the then-former Dar al-Hijrah imam Anwar al-Awlaki visited al-Timimi and inquired about recruiting men for "violent jihad.". But Al-Timimi became suspicious of al-Awlaki's motives, believing it to be an entrapment attempt and asked al-Awlaki to leave.
Trial and sentencing
Prior to Al-Timimi's prosecution, nine members of the "Virginia Jihad Network" were convicted on charges related to their travels to a militant training camp in Pakistan called Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group that the United States would later designate as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on December 26, 2001. Al-Timimi was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in that case. According to prosecutors, Al-Timimi told his followers at a private gathering on September 16, 2001 that the 9/11 attacks were an omen that foreshadowed a looming end-of-times battle between Muslims and the West, and that "the time had come for them to go abroad and join the mujaheddin engaged in violent jihad in Afghanistan." Another attendee at the gathering, Randall Royer, advised the men that they could receive military training from Lashkar-e-Taiba, and put the men in contact with the group. Several of the attendees went on to travel to Lashkar-e-Taiba and participate in military training exercises, though none ultimately did any fighting. After the conclusion of the Virginia Jihad Network trials, prosecutors tried Al-Timimi for encouraging their travel to Lashkar-e-Taiba. The case was tried before U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia, and charged Al-Timimi with 10 criminal counts, including solicitation of treason and attempting to aid the Taliban. Al-Timimi's defense lawyers argued his case was an attack on the freedom of speech and religious freedom, arguing that their client only told young Muslims that it might be better to emigrate from the United States to better practice their faith. After a week of deliberation, the jury found Al-Timimi guilty of all 10 counts in April 2005. At a sentencing hearing on July 14, 2005, he received a mandatory lifetime prison sentence. Judge Brinkema described the sentence as "very draconian," but said "I don't think any well-read person can doubt the truth that terrorist camps are a crucial part of the new terrorism that is perpetrated in the world today. People of good will need to do whatever they can to stop that."
Appeals
, handling the appeal, argued together with dozens of Muslims convicted of terror charges, that al-Timimi's wiretaps were illegal. This was one of a series of cases challenging the NSA warrantless surveillance. The appeal alleged mistreatment in prison and denial of access to counsel. The appeals court did not rule on the merits of the appeal, but sent the case back to federal court for a rehearing, with broad latitude given to the trial judge. The Justice department did not confirm or deny the use of NSA wiretaps against al-Timimi. In September 2015, the Fourth Circuit court remanded the terrorism case on the grounds that "the FBI withheld evidence of its 2002 investigation into the first American on the CIA's kill or capture list, Anwar al-Awlaki".
