Daniel Maldonado
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Daniel Maldonado (born c.1979
Maldonado, of
After being captured by
Early life and education
Maldonado was born in
Marriage and family
Maldonado started dating Tamekia Cunningham in high school. She dropped out of school and worked retail jobs, but got her
Tamekia also converted from Christianity to Islam and took to wearing full-length burqas to please her husband. Her mother said Tamekia wanted to share her husband's religion.[6] They moved around New Hampshire and Massachusetts, where Maldonado had difficulty keeping work. Tamekia started a store for some Islamic goods.[6]
By 2005 the couple were living with their two children in
There Maldonado met
Attraction to Somalia
In November 2006, the two men decided to go to Somalia where there was a struggle to set up an Islamic society by insurgents. According to statements that Maldonado gave to the FBI, he hoped to find an Islamic society, as he said he had not felt at home in Egypt. Maldonado took his family with him, installing his wife and children in the capital of Mogadishu.[7] The United States supported the government, not the Islamic insurgents.
Maldonado went on with Hammami to an
The family left Somalia with others, with the men and women traveling separately. His wife Tamekia was with their daughters and was described as dying after a high fever, likely due to malaria, shortly before the group reached Kenya in January 2007. She was buried immediately along the way.[6]
On January 21, 2007, Maldonado was captured by Kenyan military authorities as he went over the border from Somalia, seeking to escape invasion by Ethiopian and other forces. By that time, he had his daughters with him, and the three children were with him briefly in jail. His multi-national interrogators included a police terrorist investigator from Houston.
US officials returned his three children to the care of their grandparents in New Hampshire.[1] Maldonado's parents, now living in Londonderry, New Hampshire, have custody and Yolanda Cunningham sees the children frequently.[6]
In mid-February 2007 the United States federal government charged the 28-year-old Maldonado is notable because his charge in a
The
... such as the arrest of suspected terrorist Daniel Maldonado. Maldonado, an American citizen who converted to the Muslim faith, moved from Houston to Egypt in November 2005. He then traveled to Somalia to practice what he called 'true Islam'. According to the indictment, while in
suicide bomber. Kenyan military authorities captured Maldonado in January. Members of the Houston Joint Terrorism Task Forcetransported him back to the United States.
Rodwan Saleh, president of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston, said "the enthusiasm of recent converts can be exploited by some extreme groups."[1] He had not known Maldonado, but said that perhaps he had been attracted to the dark side of Islam.[1]
The case moved rapidly in the court. In April 2007, Maldonado pleaded guilty to receiving military training from Al-Shabaab. His conviction was due to work by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, with members from the FBI and the Houston Police Department. On July 20, 2007, the judge sentenced him to the statutory maximum of ten years in prison for the crime, with an additional three years of supervised release, and a $1000 fine.[5]
See also
- Omar Hammami
- Al-Shabaab
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k CINDY GEORGE and RACHEL GRAVES, "Terrorist suspect's unexpected journey to Houston jail", Houston Chronicle, 16 February 2007, accessed 15 January 2013
- ^ a b c d e f
Boston Globe. Archived from the originalon June 20, 2010. Retrieved 2007-04-09.
- ^ a b c Elliott, Andrea (27 January 2010). "The Jihadist Next Door". New York Times Magazine. Archived from the original on 4 February 2010. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
- ^ Findlaw. February 13, 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
- ^ a b "US Citizen Sentenced to Prison for Receiving Military Training from a Terrorist Organization", Press Release, 20 July 2007, FBI, Houston Field Division, accessed 15 January 2013
- ^ Eagle-Tribune, from Houston Chronicle. Archived from the originalon October 28, 2009. Retrieved May 27, 2009.
- ^ Eagle-Tribune. Archived from the originalon 2009-10-28. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
- ^ a b
Robert S. Mueller III (March 28, 2007). "Robert S. Mueller, III at National Defense University". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Archived from the originalon 2007-04-11. Retrieved 2007-04-09.