ISA Graduate-Terrorist Sentence Increased to Life!

saudiwatch — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:44:30 +0000

Brought to you by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors: the Islamic Saudi Academy valedictorian who joined al Qaeda, and plotted to kill President Bush…but thanks to a good court decision, he now faces a life sentence…

URGENT ALERT: On August 3, at 3:00 p.m., the Board of Supervisors will vote whether or not to greatly expand the Islamic Saudi Academy. They have heard hours of testimony from their constituents that the expansion of the school will endanger residents and drivers on Popes Head Road, that the expansion will pollute the Occoquan watershed that provides drinking water to the county, that it’s not even clear who the legal applicant is for this extraordinary “special exception” from the planning laws applied to other schools in Fairfax County.

Attend the August 3 hearing at 3:00 p.m., and let them know we will remember how they vote.

We also haven’t forgotten what their past actions on the ISA have produced:

From the Washington Post, July 28, 2009:

“By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 28, 2009

A Falls Church man convicted of plotting with al-Qaeda to kill President George W. Bush was resentenced to life in prison Monday after the judge said his release would threaten “the safety of the American citizenry.”

Ahmed Omar Abu Ali had been given a 30-year prison term after he was convicted in 2005 of joining an al-Qaeda conspiracy to mount a series of Sept. 11-style attacks and assassinations in the United States. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit upheld the conviction last year but sent the case back for resentencing, indicating that the sentence should be more severe.

U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee obliged on Monday, saying he had reevaluated the case and concluded that the danger of ever releasing Abu Ali is too great. “I cannot put the safety of the American citizenry at risk,” he said, citing Abu Ali’s “unwillingness to renounce the beliefs that led to his terrorist activities.”

The resentencing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria marked an apparent end to one of the most emotional and highest-profile terrorism cases since the Sept, 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Prosecutors portrayed Abu Ali, who was valedictorian of his 1999 class at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Fairfax County, as an example of the threat of homegrown terrorism.

His trial was the first in a U.S. criminal court to rely heavily on evidence gathered by a foreign intelligence service. Security officers from Saudi Arabia, where Abu Ali was jailed for 20 months, provided the bulk of the government’s case, testifying via video from the kingdom.

Abu Ali’s family, which mounted a highly public campaign for his return to this country, said that he was tortured by Saudi security officers and that U.S. officials were complicit — allegations that have gained resonance in recent years because of the fierce debate over the Bush administration’s treatment of detainees.

But the judge, jury and appellate court rejected that argument. A juror said after the trial that Abu Ali’s videotaped confession was “chilling” and showed no sign of coercion.

Before the judge imposed the tougher sentence Monday, Abu Ali said he was being mistreated at the highly secure federal prison in Colorado known as the “supermax,” and he blamed “a rogue Justice Department” for his conviction.

“I cannot pretend that this is justice,” said Abu Ali, who said he wanted to “remind” the judge “that one day you will go before the divine tribunal. Allah, he knows the doings of every soul. If you are comfortable with that, then you can decree whatever you want to decree.”
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As he left the courtroom, Abu Ali smiled and waved to a large crowd of supporters, some of whom called out in Arabic “Salaam aleikum,” or “Peace be with you.” Abu Ali’s parents declined to comment.

His attorney, Joshua Dratel, said in an interview that the life term was “unfortunate” and that the original sentence was reasonable. “What they are really doing is setting a mandatory minimum term of life in prison for terrorism cases,” said Dratel, who had urged Lee to resentence Abu Ali to no more than 30 years. “That’s contrary to what the law is.”

Prosecutors asked the judge to impose life. “This defendant planned acts of terrorism that were designed to inflict massive casualties on innocent civilians within the United States,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen M. Campbell.

David H. Laufman, who prosecuted the case and is now a Washington defense lawyer, attributed the sentence in part to “Abu Ali’s refusal to express even a scintilla of remorse for his conduct,” and he said the case “underscores the ability of federal courts to resolve the most complex legal issues” in terrorism matters.”

more….

And from the Washington Examiner….

“…..The 28-year-old was born in Houston, lived most of his life in Alexandria, graduated valedictorian from the Islamic Saudi Academy in Fairfax County and planned on joining al Qaeda for years, court documents show.

He finally joined the group while in Saudi Arabia in 2002.

“ ‘It was decided that I would go [to the United States] and live a normal life [overtly] to keep attention away from me, marry a Christian woman, and at the same time I would prepare as best I could for operations,’ ” Abu Ali said in his written confession.

He emulated Mohammed Atta and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, key players in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the documents show.
While in prison, Abu Ali requested “The Audacity of Hope” and “Dreams of My Father,” both books by then-Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, but was refused them…..”

more….

Posted in Shariah

ACTION ALERT – AUGUST 3, 3:00 PM!

saudiwatch — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:29:00 +0000

URGENT – AUGUST 3 2009, 3:00 p.m. – Attend the Fairfax Board of Supervisors Meeting announcing their decision on the expansion of the Islamic Saudi Academy -

WHERE: 12000 Government Center Parkway Fairfax, VA 22035 .

The Islamic Saudi Academy is planning to build an immense Shariah-ruled campus in Fairfax to teach the apartheid doctrines of Shariah. As usual, Fairfax officials are bending over to help, even though the Islamist campus may severely damage the environment of the neighborhood and cause unmanageable traffic. This massive ISA campus is opposed by a rapidly growing group of Fairfax taxpayers.

Please attend to show the Board of Supervisors that Fairfax residents HAVE JUST STARTED their protest against the ISA. We will not forget the votes cast on August 3, 2009.

Posted in Shariah

July 13, 2009 Hearing Videos

saudiwatch — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:41:16 +0000

VIDEOS

July 13, 2009 Fairfax Board of Supervisors Hearing on expansion of Islamic Saudi Academy Popes Head Road campus

FAIRFAX Hearing Part 1

FAIRFAX 13 SHOWING STUDENT OF BLIND SHEIKH

Posted in Shariah

Police and Fire Out in Force at ISA Hearing

saudiwatch — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:14:17 +0000

Fairfax PD and Fire Marshals Office were out in force. We had numerous reports from those who went to the Planning Commission hearing that they were intimidated and threatened on the way to their cars after the meeting. At this

Supervisors hearing, I spoke with at least one individual who had to time his exit from the meeting to avoid a known threat against him. Then of course, there was the testimony from the brave man who lives in constant fear for his life from the Wahhabists that caused to flee to the US from Egypt. But here’s Mernie Fitzgerald letting you know everything is ok, and that over 12 cops and 3 fire marshalls are the norm for planning meetings. Afterwards she told me that if I acted now, I could take advantage of a limited time offer while supplies last, to get a Shamwow, Snuggie, and secret Wall Street Insider trading tips for the low price of $19.95.

Perhaps they were afraid of all this.

H/T: Radio Free Dar al Harb

Posted in Shariah

Wahhabists Run From Praying Christians

saudiwatch — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:04:23 +0000

July 13, 2009, Fairfax County, VA
One of many posts on this subject.
Thanks to Marooned in Marin for the video.

Pray, pray, and pray more. It toppled the Romans and the first Communist Empire, add it to your arsenal against the evils of Sharia. In the videos below, we brought interfaith mutual understanding right to their feet. As you will notice, they run from it. A stark contrast from their efforts here.

Whenever you see this…

…you must do this.

H/T: Radio Free Dar al Harb

Posted in Shariah

2003 ISA Graduate Arrested Boarding Plane with Hidden Knife

saudiwatch — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:41:47 +0000

From The Investigative Project

And Tampa Bay Online News Service:

Yet another ISA graduate arrested….

A Saudi Arabian man living in Tampa is being held without bond after being arrested June 4 for attempting to board a US Airways flight carrying a concealed weapon. Raed Abdul-Rahman Alsaif was trying to fly to Phoenix.

According to a criminal complaint by Gregory J. Mertiz, Special Agent with the Transportation Security Administration in Tampa, Alsaif submitted three bags for screening to TSA officers. A Transportation Security Officer saw a large butcher knife inside one of the bags. The knife was “artfully concealed between the outside fabric and the expandable pull handles of the bag,” the complaint said, and the weapon was stored in a way that would have been “accessible to him [Alsaif] in flight.”

Alsaif initially was arrested for violating state concealed weapon laws. He told police a friend gave him the bag and he didn’t know there was a knife inside it. Police questioned the friend, who said that the bag wasn’t his and that he had not given Alsaif a bag or a knife.

Raed Alsaif is a 2003 graduate of the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) in Alexandria, Virginia, the same high school that was the subject of a report in June 2008 by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) which alleged that ISA was using radical Saudi textbooks. According to the report, passages in the textbooks used at ISA justify violent actions and intolerance to the reader including killing Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, apostates (converts from Islam) and adulterers. School officials say they have deleted the offending passages.

In 2003, the same year that Alsaif graduated from ISA, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a U.S. citizen and ISA graduate and valedictorian was arrested in Medina, Saudi Arabia on terrorism related charges. In 2005, Ali was convicted on nine counts including providing material resources to Al-Qaeda and conspiracy to assassinate President George W. Bush. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Alsaif has been previously arrested on drug charges and driving without a license in Hillsborough County.

In addition to his current concealed weapon charges, authorities found that Alsaif has been living in the country illegally. Alsaif had been a University of Tampa student, but was dismissed for poor academic performance in May 2009. Alsaif failed to file a timely appeal for his dismissal. As detailed in Alsaif’s Order of Detention, he is now in violation of his student visa and subject to deportation. The court document also claimed that there are reasons to believe that Alsaif “has not been entirely candid since his arrest.”

Posted in Shariah

ISA Immediate Action Required July 13

saudiwatch — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:27:35 +0000

Immediate action required!

The United American Committee, ACT for America, the Traditional Values Coalition, the Virginia Anti-Sharia Task Force, American Constitution and Capitalism Defense Front, and citizens of Fairfax County need your help. The Islamic Saudi Academy is seeking to expand a campus in Fairfax County, and our County Supervisors are too cowardly to hold the ISA accountable. The ISA has the Saudi Government and CAIR supporting it and we need reinforcements.

Please support us by following the schedule below in contacting Fairfax County Supervisors. For the amount of time it takes to scan the headlines of your favorite blog, you can support those of us on the frontline by delivering this simple message: No on the Islamic Saudi Academy.

Be kind, be courteous, but be firm: On July 13, No on ISA.

Download, print and distribute the “Speak Out July 13″ flyer from the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force:

Flyer – Speak Out July 13 – Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force

Background Information here at ACT-DC

John Cosgrove
Virginia Chapter Director
United American Committee
radiofreedaralharb@gmail.com

July 8 Wednesday 9-11

Braddock District

Supervisor John Cook

Phone: 703-425-9300

Fax: 703-503-9583

braddock@fairfaxcounty.gov

July 8 Wednesday 11-1

Dranesville District

Supervisor John W. Foust

Phone: 703-356-0551

Fax: 703-821-4275

dranesville@fairfaxcounty.gov

July 8 Wednesday 1-3

Hunter Mill District

Supervisor Cathy Hudgins

Phone: 703-478-0283

Fax: 703-471-6847

hntrmill@fairfaxcounty.gov

July 9 Thursday 9-11

Lee District

Supervisor Jeff McKay

Phone: 703-971-6262

Fax: 703-971-3032

leedist@fairfaxcounty.gov

July 9 Thursday 11-1

Mason District

Supervisor Penelope A. Gross

Phone: 703-256-7717

Fax: 703-354-8419

mason@fairfaxcounty.gov

July 9 Thursday 1-3

Mount Vernon District

Supervisor Gerry Hyland

Phone: 703-780-7518

Fax: 703-780-1491

mtvernon@fairfaxcounty.gov

July 10 Friday 9-11

Providence District

Supervisor Linda Q. Smyth

Phone: 703-560-6946

Fax: 703-207-3541

provdist@fairfaxcounty.gov

July 10 Friday 11-1

Springfield District

Supervisor Pat Herrity

Phone: 703-451-8873

Fax: 703-451-3047

springfield@fairfaxcounty.gov

July 10 Friday 1-3

Sully District

Supervisor Michael R. Frey

Phone: 703-814-7100

Fax: 703-814-7110

sully@fairfaxcounty.gov

July 10 Friday 3-5

County Chairman Sharon Bulova

Phone: 703-324-2321

Fax: 703-324-3955

sally.tomlin@fairfaxcounty.gov

Posted in Islamic Saudi Academy Tagged: Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Islamic Saudi Academy, Islamist Textbooks, July 13 Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Meeting

Planning Commission Public Hearing March 18, 2009 – Islamic Saudi Academy

saudiwatch — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:28:56 +0000

ACTION ALERT: Planning Commission Public Hearing on March 18th, 2009 at the Government Center in Fairfax County.

We need supporters to show up at this hearing on March 18th, 2009 (see information below).

If you are not familiar with the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA), please see these two articles:

http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/22384/sec_id/22384

http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/23796/sec_id/23796

View this document on Scribd

IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO SEE THE PDF FILE FROM ABOVE, PLEASE CLICK ON 4279532[1]

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Periodicals & Report ISA

Posted in Connolly, Fairfax Board of Supervisors, Islamic Saudi Academy, Islamist Textbooks, Saudi Arabian Wahhabi ideology Tagged: Action Alert

Behind the Veil at the Islamic Saudi Academy

saudiwatch — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:04:37 +0000

by Jerry Gordon and Isabelle Cruz , New English Review (Aug. 2008)

Last month we chronicled in a New English Review article the nearly 25 year saga of citizen opposition to the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA), a Royal Saudi Embassy sponsored private school with two campuses located in Fairfax County, Virginia. The ISA is one of 20 such Saudi funded schools around the world with ties to the Kingdom’s Ministry of Education that espouses the strict Islamic doctrine of Wahhabism.

When the US Commission on International Religious Freedom released a report on its review of 17 textbooks used in the Islamic Studies program at the embattled ISA on June 11^th, a fuse was lit that resulted in a protest outside the main Alexandria, Virginia Campus on June 17th. The group of 15 protesters who rallied outside the ISA had signs that said:

Honk to Stop Islamic Terrorism;

This Saudi school is Anti-Semitic and Anti-Christian.

Andrea Lafferty, executive director of Traditional Values Coalition organized the ISA protest with participation by the United American Committee, Virginia Chapter, the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Security Policy (CSP).

Lafferty commented:

They’re free to come here and worship, but they are not free to come here and teach hate.

Christine Brim of the CSP said:

They don’t have a First Amendment right in this country to incite violence against other groups.

Rahima Abdullah, the ISA education director replied to these allegations:

That’s absolutely not true. What we teach here is love and tolerance.
We have new books now and the ones the commission is talking about have been out of use for some time, and were misinterpreted, then.

A spokesman for ISA, a U.S. history teacher, David Kovalick, was shown this excerpt from an ISA textbook:

The Jews conspired against Islam and its people. A sly, wicked person who sinfully and deceitfully professed Islam infiltrated (the Muslims).

Kovalick’s response was:

Well, that is very anti-Semitic and uh, wow, no, but those don’t exist in our books.

An Al Jazeera report on the protest at the ISA noted this comment from Abd Al-Rahman Al-Ghufayli, principal of the Boys’ School: “We have nothing to hide. That’s why we invited them there and tried to discuss things with them, but I’m sad to say, they did not accept our invitation. This suggests that the commission has a certain agenda, which it is trying to implement.”

Then there were these additional observations from an Al Jazeera interview with ISA administrators and faculty inside the School during the June 17^th protest:

Reporter: “The local authority of Fairfax County, where the academy is located, has challenged the threats of closure. It determined that the allegations are invalid, and it approved the religious curricula after examining them. The non-Muslim teachers also expressed disgust and frustration at the allegations.”

Kate Schneider, English teacher: “The thing that frustrates me so much about these accusations is that first, they are not true, and second, it is so completely opposite from the truth. This school teaches faith and the same basic values we want all our children to have.”

Another non-Muslim faculty member was quoted in a Washington Post report parroting the same line:

School administrators said teachers were told to keep any inflammatory material out of the classroom. “I taught for 15 years,” said Dana Nicholas, assistant principal of the girls’ school. “I would not have stayed if I thought that my students that were coming into my classroom and dealing with me every day, as a Christian, as a woman, if they were being taught this kind of thing in the Islamic class.”

However, the realities about what prevails inside the ISA are 180 degrees away from these faculty comments quoted in Al Jazeera, the Washington Times and the Washington Post.

Following the June 17^th protests, we were contacted by former ISA faculty members who consented to present views on the atmosphere that pervades the Saudi Embassy sponsored school in Fairfax County, Virginia.

The comments by these confidential sources reveal a pervasive attitude towards non-Muslims that reflects Saudi autocracy and Wahhabi xenophobic doctrine.

According to the source, approximately 20 % of the ISA students were children from the Saudi and other Muslim diplomatic legations in Washington, DC. The school was very much under the control of the Saudis and had Arab Muslim long term faculty who had been there since the school’s founding in the mid-1980s. At the beginning of the school year, all of the teachers were informed that the ISA was an arm of the Saudi government.

The sources indicated that the majority of students were American Muslim children. The instructors were concerned male students would travel to the Middle East after graduation, ‘go over the edge’ and become Jihadists, just like 1999 ISA valedictorian, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, now in prison for thirty years for the attempted assassination of President Bush.

The administrators were ‘extremely arrogant’ and practiced the religiously sanctioned tradition of lying to non-Muslims (taqiyya) and enjoyed pulling the wool over the eyes of the infidels. An atmosphere of deception was at the heart of everything that they did. There was an attitude among administrators of “Don’t tell the Americans” regarding Wahhabi Jihadi doctrine. Whenever Saudi representatives came to the ISA, they would have nothing to do with the non-Muslim faculty. Non-Muslim faculty were allowed to attend general faculty meetings, but when there was something that the Muslim faculty did not want them to hear, the Muslim instructors would disappear and non-Muslim instructors would hear rumors of meetings. If the non-Muslim faculty asked about those meetings, the Muslim leadership at the school would tell them that it was going to be in Arabic anyway so they need not attend. There was an atmosphere of exclusion and oppression.

Classroom maps of the Middle East did not depict Israel on them.

There was an incident involving a Christian woman instructor. Her daughter had attended ISA. The daughter would come home in tears because she had been taught to hate Jews and that Christians were awful. The daughter had missed several days of school because she didn’t want to hear the hateful scorn. The girl became the object of a scurrilous campaign by Muslim girls in her class who spread rumors that her Christian mother had an illicit affair and was pregnant. When the girl’s mother heard of this, she approached the head of faculty and requested a denial of the allegations and an apology; none were given. The woman taught at ISA for a brief period and when the school year ended, resigned. According to the sources, to add insult to injury, the same Dana Nicholas who said she couldn’t have taught at the school if students ”were being taught this kind of thing in the Islamic class,” knew directly about the persecution of the Christian woman instructor and also helped to white wash the incident.

The sources noted that the turnover for non-Muslim teachers was huge, while some non-Muslim teachers wanted to leave but stayed because they needed the job. Not only American non-Muslims but other people who were considered lower in status by the Saudi administrators, including Pakistanis, Kurds and even Shia Muslims, suffered at the school. The sources described how the students “got away with murder.” An interesting side note is that many Muslim students from the Middle East came to the school for one or two semesters and in the English as a Second Language (ESL) classes received credits for English so that they could go on to an American university, whether they could speak English or not. All the students passed, no matter what their proficiency level. Students could not be failed or reprimanded. There is evidence that students’ grades were changed to allow them to pass and even the students told the teachers they couldn’t do anything about it.

Another telling incident involved a non-Muslim teacher who taught second and third grade students and apparently was liked by them. One day, after the children had returned from their Muslim Studies class, when the instructor walked into the classroom, the students were talking about how they hated Christians and that they were going to kill them. The teacher overheard this and said, “I’m a Christian”. The students said that they wouldn’t kill the instructor, but would kill all the rest of Christians. This should come as no surprise since the head of the Muslim Religion Department is himself a Wahhabist. The teacher who heard the students say these things resigned his position and left the school.

One last point to ponder, the sources said that it doesn’t matter if the textbooks are changed because the instructors teaching the Wahhabi doctrine know it by heart and teach it year after year. Even if the textbooks were to finally have the hateful Wahhabist and Islamic supremacy language removed, it would do nothing to change those teachers who have been filling young Muslim heads with this hate-filled xenophobic doctrine. While Rahima Abdullah may assure us that the books are new and were misinterpreted originally, our sources have experienced the Saudi agenda of teaching anything but “love and tolerance.”

It is the atmosphere of exclusion and hate directed at non-Muslim ISA faculty that raises serious questions about the tolerant, non-discriminatory representations by faculty and the School’s administrators. The ISA is an arm of the Saudi government Ministry of Education. Given the recent revelations of the second Saudi text book study, “Update: Saudi Arabia’s Curriculum of Intolerance,” released by the Hudson Institute Center for Religious Freedom on July 17^th, perhaps it is time for Congressman Frank Wolf and others on the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee to demand that the ISA be shut down. Certainly, the ISA accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools is seriously in question, and if xenophobic hate is taught there, should be withdrawn.

As attested by the comments of these knowledgeable sources, things are not quite what the Saudis allege behind the veil of taqiyya at the ISA.

Head of Islamic School Guilty Of Not Reporting Child Abuse

saudiwatch — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:40:11 +0000

By Tom Jackman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 31, 2008

The director general of a controversial private Islamic school in Fairfax County has been found guilty of a misdemeanor charge of failing to report child abuse and fined $500.

Abdalla I. Al-Shabnan, head of the Islamic Saudi Academy on Route 1 in the Mount Vernon area, was arrested last month by Fairfax police, who said Al-Shabnan had been informed of the possible sexual abuse of a 5-year-old student at the school. School authorities are required by law to report alleged child abuse within 72 hours.

Al-Shabnan was charged with misdemeanor counts of failing to report child abuse and obstruction of justice. He pleaded no contest July 24 to the failure to report charge, and Fairfax prosecutors agreed to dismiss the obstruction charge, according to court records.

Al-Shabnan did not return a phone call seeking comment yesterday. His attorney, Robert C. Whitestone, said, “We thought it was a fair resolution.”

The Islamic Saudi Academy has come under criticism because some of its textbooks contain passages that extol jihad and martyrdom, call for victory over one’s enemies and say the killing of adulterers and apostates is justified. The academy has rented the school from Fairfax County since 1984, and the county recently renewed its lease for three years.

Protesters picketed the school last month, saying it promotes religious intolerance. The county has asked the State Department to review the school’s texts.

Cultural differences might have led to the episode that resulted in Al-Shabnan’s arrest. A police affidavit filed last month said that detectives learned in May that the 5-year-old girl attended the academy’s West Campus on Popes Head Road, just south of Fairfax City, and her sexual abuse allegations had been reported to the school’s administrators. No report was made to any state agency.

Detectives interviewed the girl and then visited Al-Shabnan, who said he “did not believe her complaint and felt she may be attempting to gain attention,” according to the affidavit by Detective Doug Comfort.

Al-Shabnan told police that he met with the child’s parents and advised them to seek counseling for the girl. Al-Shabnan then reportedly told the detectives that he “was not aware that he was required to make such a report” to child protective agencies, Comfort wrote. Police also found that Al-Shabnan had “ordered the written report deleted from the computer” of the school.

Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Ian M. Rodway said the plea agreement “was satisfactory to all the people involved in the case.”