The Incarceration of Edward Flinton

Edward Flinton was one of Fuqra's most notorious operators. During the 19990s, Flinton was a member of a Colorado-based Fuqra cell known as the "Sector 5 Muhammad Commandos". This cell was based out of Colorado at the Trout Creek Pass compound near Buena Vista. From here, they planned attacks and surveilled numerous targets, both infrastructure and military-related.

According the report "Identifying the Links Between White-Collar Crime & Terrorism" by the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), Flinton was alleged to be the "mastermind" responsible for developing Fuqra's assassination and bombing plans including the 1983 hotel bombing attempt in Portland, OR; the 1984 bombing of the Hare Krishna Temple in Denver, CO; and the 1990 murder of Imam Rashad Khalifa in Tuscon, AZ. Flinton was Caucasian, just like Fuqra's bombmaker, Stephen Paster. Seems Gilani liked to use them for operations when possible because they didn't fit the profile of a majority of his group's members. Al-Qaeda has tried to exploit that tactic as well.

In September 1989, Colorado investigators searched a storage locker that had been linked to the cell. Inside were all of the tools of the trade. Here is an excerpt from the NW3C report about the paper trail that they found:

One of the packets of documents discovered in the storage locker contained a detailed description of the methods that should be used to murder an occupant of a Muslim mosque in Tucson, Arizona. The following is an excerpt from a Colorado agency memorandum that describes efforts that investigators took to determine the facts that might be associated with this finding.

Colorado Springs police investigators checked with Tucson, Arizona police department and found that no attack on the mosque or any of its members had at that point taken place. Tucson police did visit the mosque and interview the Imman (the leader of the Tucson congregation), a man by the name of Rashad Khalifa. Mr. Khalifa acknowledged that he had written several documents concerning the Koran, and that the views he expressed in these articles were not very popular with many other Muslims. Mr. Khalifa said that as a result of his research and publication, he felt that he had enemies from Saudi Arabia to Arizona, but that he had never heard of an organization called Fuqra. He did say that he had received threatening telephone calls “from Colorado.” Approximately two weeks after his interview by the Tucson police, Mr. Khalifa was murdered at the mosque by an as yet unidentified intruder who stabbed him to death. The use of a knife to accomplish the murder was one of the methods discussed in the targeting package found in Colorado Springs.

According to documents collected in the investigation, Flinton, whose full name is Edward Nicholas Laurent Flinton, had used several aliases in his activities including Edward Solomon Katz, William Alfred Lemay, Idris Abdul Musawwir, Edward Lindsey. (The alias "Katz" stood out to me, having recently watched the new TV show called Sleeper Cell, where the Islamist cell leader pretends to be Jewish.)

In 1993, authorities indicted Flinton for conspiracy to commit murder.
After hiding out as a fugitive for years with his family at one of the other MOA/Fuqra compounds, Flinton was finally arrested in 1996 at Holy Islamville in York, SC. (That's the jamaat led by Ali Abdur-Rashid, who told a reporter recently, "We do not harbor fugitives here.")

Flinton is now serving his prison sentence in Colorado (Click here to see a picture and info about him courtesy of the Colorado Dept. of Corrections). His estimated discharge is 2015, however he is scheduled for a parole hearing in December of this year.

In custody, Flinton did admit to having personally authored the plan to kill Dr. Khalifa (Wikipedia bio). It is unclear whether or not he actually stabbed Khalifa, but it is believed that Flinton was under direct orders from Gilani to do so.

A source tells me following his capture that Flinton "sung like a parrot", and the atmosphere within the MOA became more tense.

After that we as the members of the MOA started being on guard 24/7. Asking if someone comes up here, when can we shoot, yes we were all trigger happy, this is what is taught.

Following the arrest, the heirarchy was nervous. One of the village mayors reportedly told his people, "we will be raided, and blood may be shed because of this."

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[Hat tip to Jihad Watch for the link!]
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