Voting Al-Qaeda in Ohio
As the off-year elections approach, the most attention-getting statewide race in Ohio is a ballot question on casinos. But one Ohio registered voter who might miss having his say on that critical question is convicted al-Qaeda terrorist Christopher Paul, who was sentenced back in February to 20 years in prison on charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction to kill Americans.
A quick check of the Franklin County Board of Elections website finds that Paul is still registered to vote in Ohio. Speaking with Board of Elections spokesman Ben Piscitelli last week, he confirmed that Paul’s registration was still active and blamed the federal courts for not informing the board of his change of status. Piscitelli finally offered that the best way to have the al-Qaeda terrorist removed from the voter rolls is for me to file an official challenge to his registration.
Christopher Paul can hardly be described as a jihadist wanna-be. As Andy Cochran at the Counterterrorism Blog noted at the time of his plea agreement, Paul is the earliest known American al-Qaeda operative, joining the mujahadeen in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the early 1990s (though long after the departure of the Soviets) and continuing to communicate and obtain supplies for al-Qaeda operatives based in Europe.
As the statement of facts Paul admitted to in court describes, upon his return to the U.S. he began conducting jihadist training based out of the Columbus, Ohio, mosque he worked for as a paid martial arts instructor. He would also conduct training sessions at an Ohio state park, eventually building a sizable terrorist cell. According to documents filed in his case and the earlier cases against his two co-conspirators, Iyman Faris and Nuradin Abdi, the Columbus al-Qaeda cell grew to at least a dozen members, only three of which (Paul, Faris, and Abdi) have been charged. Paul was specifically convicted of planning terrorist attacks against U.S. citizens at home and abroad.
The implications of election authorities not able to remove convicted terrorists from voter rolls would seem to be self-evident. Unfortunately, this is not a new problem for the Franklin County Board of Elections.
In fact, it was only last year when I reported prior to the November 2008 presidential elections that Paul was still on the Ohio voter rolls. At that time, the Board of Elections claimed that since Paul had only pled guilty and had not yet been sentenced, he would be removed within of month of the court doing so. He was sentenced in February of this year and the paperwork finally was signed by the federal judge in March. However, after seven months, it seems whatever communications between the court and the Board of Elections needed to occur to remove Paul from the voter rolls have not happened yet.
Maybe I’m naive, but I believe in government by the governed. Shouldn’t convicts have the right to vote?
In my opinion anyone on the governemnt dole should not be alowed to vote. That would include convicts. If you are on the government dole you will vote for people who will get you more money for doing nothing. That is one reason the liberals want to hand out more money, and keep people on welfare, etc.
Convicted criminals have no rights,Philip. This guy looks like he would be a typical oblammo voter. Why isnt he on death row- or eating a bullet?
In the old west days criminals were declared outlaws for living outside the law and were deemed to no longer have rights. They could be gunned down or hung by anyone who had the opportunity due to the criminals lack of rights. This unfortunately led to a few innocents being killed but it sure kept those that thought about becoming criminals in line.
Fast forward to present day and you will find in several states and puerto rico that even convicted felons not only keep their rights but have voting rights as well while in prison. Not long ago a new law to deny bail to career criminals was on the ballot in PR(too many witnesses to crimes were being murdered)but was voted down. Funny how that works.
Macko-
I never met another “Macko” outside of my immediate family… I guess sharing a discussion board counts as a meeting.
Steve
a pleasure to meet you although it is an alias
At that time, Democrats charged that the active registrations of Faris and Abdi were proof of the supposed corruption and incompetence of then-Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a Republican.
Really? Do you have proof of this? Who were these Democrats?
I suppose it’s bad taste to bring this up, but I’ll say it anyway: The article doesn’t tell us what party they’re registered under.
Don’t worry, in 72 hours ACORN will have him registered to vote 14 more times! One quess for which party those folk will vote!
Another Republican terrorist?
Gitmo for all of PNAC.