20 years: Muslim ‘civil rights’ and ‘anti-war’ activist pleads guilty to terror conspiracy

A Muslim "civil rights" leader and "anti-war" activist who was a spokesman for the Muslim American Society (MAS) has pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges that he was the ringleader of a Virginia-based jihadist network. A federal judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

Randall T. Royer, age 31, says he never intended to harm any Americans, but in a plea bargain he admitted guilt for organizing fellow jihadis to join a Pakistan-based terrorist groups after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Royer, who called himself Ismail after converting to Islam, served as MAS communications director. A search of the MAS website shows no references to Royer, though the MAS homepage has an article in defense of another federal terrorist suspect, Abdurahman Alamoudi, who financed Islamist support activity in Washington and gave seed money to the Islamic Free Market Institute.

Royer previously worked for the American Muslim Council (AMC) and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). He was also an outspoken "anti-war" activist, writing in the MAS magazine in support of International ANSWER-sponsored protests International ANSWER is a front of the pro-North Korea Workers World Party.

After his arrest last summer, Royer sought legal counsel from Hamas lawyer Stanley Cohen, who once said after 9/11 that he would consider serving as a defense lawyer for Osama bin Laden if the al Qaeda leader was ever captured.