Insurgent Admits to U.S. Court He Planted IEDs
Wesam al Delaema is the first person prosecuted in the U.S. for Iraq insurgency.
Feb. 26, 2009— -- The first Iraq insurgent to be charged in the United States pleaded guilty today in federal court, admitting that he conspired to kill Americans in that country.
Wesam al Delaema, 36, pleaded guilty to charges that he "participated in a conspiracy… to murder nationals of the United States in Iraq" from October 2003 until his arrest in May 2005.
As part of his plea agreement, al Delaema also admitted that he created a "how-to recruitment video" and "filmed the effects of roadside attacks." Additionally, he "possessed video images of himself and his co-conspirators documenting their intentions to kill Americans in Iraq" and carrying out their activities, including prepping roadside bombs around Fallujah, Iraq.
Al Delaema, a Dutch citizen who was born in Iraq, has agreed to a 25-year prison term, under a deal that will allow him to return to the Netherlands to serve out his sentence.
Court documents say he traveled from the Netherlands to Iraq in October 2003 with a group that called themselves the Mujahideen from Fallujah.
Dutch law enforcement arrested him in May 2005 during a raid on his home where it found videotapes of insurgent attacks and operations in Iraq.
According to court documents filed in the case, on one of the recovered videos, al Delaema and another unidentified insurgent demonstrate how to hide improvised explosive devices or IEDs along a road.
In the video transcript, al Delaema says, "The operation will be carried out, if Allah wills, today, and if they come."
"This is not the first operation we carry out," he says. "We have executed several operations and most of them were successful."
Al Delaema also says on the videotape, "The American Army wouldn't admit to casualties. Their casualties have gone beyond our imagination. In Fallujah alone, they lost hundreds."
The court documents also say that once he returned to his home in the Netherlands, al Delaema continued to obtain videos and images of fighting in Iraq for propaganda purposes.
