Canadian man gets 26 years for aiding in murder of US troops in Iraq

The Bobster

Senior News Editor since 2004
https://nypost.com/2019/06/18/canadian-man-gets-26-years-for-aiding-in-murder-of-us-troops-in-iraq/

Canadian man gets 26 years for aiding in murder of US troops in Iraq
By Emily Saul and Tamar Lapin
June 18, 2019 | 8:23pm | Updated June 18, 2019 | 10:54pm

A Canadian man who aided in the 2009 murder of five American soldiers in Iraq was sentenced to 26 years in jail by a Brooklyn federal judge Tuesday — despite objections from the victims’ families.

Several of the slain soldiers’ grief-stricken relatives appeared in court to demand that Faruq Khalil Muhammad ‘Isa, 51, spend the rest of his life behind bars for supporting a gang of jihadists behind the 2009 suicide bomb attack in Mosul.

“Twenty-six years is not nearly enough time considering that this man had a hand in murdering five United State Soldiers and completely devastated the lives of five families,” Becky Johnson, the mother of 24-year-old Staff Sgt. Gary Lee Woods Jr., said in a victim impact statement.

The devastated mother said she was “appalled” by the plea deal offered by prosecutors in the case — which could see ‘Isa be set free by the time he’s 67.

“The prosecution is supposed to be representing the interests of our country and its citizens . . . [yet] they seem unconcerned that one day this terrorist will be released,” she continued.

“I will NEVER be released,” she added. “I will live this agony until I take my last breath. I get the life sentence while he gets just 26 years.”

Rachel Hall, the wife of 32-year-old slain Sgt. First Class Bryan Hall, blasted the plea deal as “belittling” the value of the men’s lives to “approximately five years a piece.”

“He should receive 26 years for each life taken,” she wrote in a statement, pleading the judge not to “release this malicious and vindictive man back into the world.”

“Evil has a face and he is it,” she charged.

As part of the deal, ‘Isa pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to murder Americans.

The Canadian citizen and Iraqi national had links to the multinational terror network that, on April 10, 2009, sent a truck laden with explosives to the US Base in Mosul and detonated near a US convoy vehicle, leaving a 60-foot crater in the ground, court documents say.

In addition to Woods and Hall, Sgt. Edward Forrest Jr., 25, Cpl. Jason G. Pautsch, 20, and Army Private First Class Bryce E. Gaultier, 22, were also killed.

‘Isa admitted to emailing with two of the jihadists and sending them $700 to help them get into Iraq from Syria.

He also provided “words of encouragement and religious guidance” to the co-conspirators, authorities said.

‘Isa was arrested in 2011 on a US warrant and has been in jail since his extradition from Canada in January 2015.

US District Judge Roslynn Mauskopf thanked the families for attending the sentencing but said ‘Isa just played a “comparatively limited role” in the conspiracy from Canada that didn’t warrant the life sentence called for under federal sentencing guidelines.

“There’s no excuse for even trying to kill American soldiers,” Mauskopf said, adding the sentence still “sends a message” to potential copycats.
 
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