Missiles In Annandale, Virginia

Falls Church had the paintball jihadists, Annandale the Hamed cousins - Amjad and Ibrahim.

From this artice in the Fairfax Times (Thanks to an email from VA Flag Waver):

"You want to hit the Pentagon. You can put the bottle on it, the blue bottle, and hit the Pentagon."-- Amjad Hamed, as quoted in a U.S. District Court affidavit.

The full article is below. The last paragraph has a quotation from the defense attorney for Ibrahim Hamed:

Annandale man offers to sell missile to FBI informant

By Gregg MacDonald

Two Annandale men have been arrested in an FBI sting that uncovered visa fraud, gun smuggling and references to Lebanon, Yasir Arafat and bombing the Pentagon with a missile.

According to a recently unsealed U.S. District Court affidavit, an FBI informant met with Annandale resident Amjad Hamed, a Jordanian native, in April 2006.

Hamed provided the informant with six valid Palestinian passports and asked him to obtain U.S. visas for them.

According to the affidavit, Hamed revealed that he was part of an international visa fraud scheme. "I challenge anyone in the world who can bring so many passports without being inspected," he is quoted as saying.

Hamed is also quoted as saying he was a member of the Palestinian Authority who met regularly with Yasir Arafat.

Hamed's references to smuggling were also quoted in the affidavit. "Yes, I have connections to transport from America directly to the middle of Lebanon ... no one does anything through the airport ... the airport is hard. All the companies have to disclose their shipment. Do you know through what? ... via the port ... By the sea."

According to the affidavit, Hamed also sold the FBI informant an 8 mm semi-automatic handgun and a SKS sniper rifle on June 21, 2007.

During that transaction, Hamed is quoted as saying that he could obtain a missile that could reach the Pentagon. "You want to hit the Pentagon. You can put the bottle on it, the blue bottle, and hit the Pentagon," he is quoted as saying in the affidavit.

Hamed's cousin, Ibrahim Hamed, allegedly also sold the FBI informant an altered 9 mm handgun in August 2007, and offered to sell him other weapons that he said would come from a source in Florida.

According to the affidavit, Ibrahim Hamed said that his cousin did not have the connections to get the guns and the missile, but that he did.

Amjad Hamed is charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud, and Ibrahim Hamed is charged with conspiracy to transport in interstate commerce a firearm with a serial number that was removed and obliterated.

Both men are being held without bond and will be sentenced on January 30.

"Some of the statements in the affidavit are overblown," said Attorney Gregory Stambaugh, who represents Ibrahim Hamed. "He said some things that probably didn't help him, but the charge against him is for the sale of a handgun. It's really a rather mundane case."

Stambaugh's office is in Manassas, Virginia, way west and out of range of the Hameds.