Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Home Front: WoT

Appeals court rules Brooklyn federal judge went easy on ISIS wannabe

2019-12-30

[NYPost] An appeals court ruled Friday that a Brooklyn Federal judge went easy on an ISIS-terrorist wannabe by giving him a “shockingly low” 17-year sentence, according to court papers.

Your supervisor would like to make it very clear that he is not in the least bot pleased with you. Or more briefly: You screwed up; fix it.

Judge Margo K. Brodie

...an Obama nominee born in Antigua...

sentenced Fareed Mumuni

...the nice college boy whose name was also reported as Fereed Mumuni and Freed Mumuni, who through co-conspirator Munther Omar Saleh (sentenced to 18 years) was connected to Junaid Hussain, the ISIS recruiter/hacker/English footballer previously known for marrying elderly rocker chick Sally Jones before being droned in Raqqa. Their little cell of six included Nader Saadeh (sentenced to 10 years after being arrested in Jordan), Alaa Saadeh (sentenced to 10 years) — the Saadeh lads being dual citizens with Jordan, whose parents were expelled a decade earlier for credit card fraud — half-Jewish convert Samuel Rahamin Topaz (sentenced to 8 years), and youngster Imran Rabbani (sentenced to 20 months)...

in February 2017 after the failed terrorist was convicted of trying to provide support for ISIS and for stabbing an FBI agent on Staten Island 2015.

Circuit Judge Jose A. Cabranes said Friday that the sentence meted out to Mumuni, 23, was 80% below the advisory guidelines of 85 years — and he sent the ruling back to the lower court for possible resentencing.

Given the sentences received by the other lads from this judge, more resentencings will likely appear on the docket in the near future.

Prosecutors in June 2018 had asked that Mumuni receive 85 years. His lawyer argued that he should get much less time because he was a victim of ISIS recruiters.

That’s certainly one perspective.

Brodie called the idea of 85 years “excessive” at the sentencing and cited Mumuni’s age and lack of criminal record in her decision.

“This clearly erroneous assessment of the evidence leaves us with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed,” Cabranes wrote for the majority in the new ruling. “[It was] a mistake that resulted in a shockingly low sentence that, if upheld, would damage the administration of justice in our country.”

Link

Home Front: WoT

College student is jailed for 18 years after helping ISIS plot a pressure-cooker bomb attack on New York City

2018-02-08

[DailyMail]

Munther Omar Saleh was sentenced on Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn

The 22-year-old pleaded guilty last year to charges that he planned to help ISIS

'I'm in NY and trying to do an Op,' Saleh told a confidential source in an intercepted conversation

In March of 2015, a police officer observed Saleh on successive days on foot at the George Washington Bridge seemingly looking around

The behavior prompted officers to interview Saleh, who denied sympathizing with ISIS

The one thing the article neglects to mention: Mr. Saleh was in contact with Junaid Hussain (also cleverly known as "Abu Hussain"), the young former Birmingham, Englander who was briefly the proud husband of middle aged, former punk rocker Sally Jones and one of ISIS' long-distance jihad coaches. Mr. Hussain was killed at age 21 by a drone in Raqqa in August 2015. So our villain is not nearly the remorseful naif he is presented to be.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Queens ISIS wannabe pleads guilty to attacking FBI agent with a knife in the name of the terror group

2017-02-11

Some more connected lone wolves.

[NYDailyNews] An ISIS devotee leading a small cell of fellow wannabes admitted Friday to plotting attacks for the terror group.

Munther Omar Saleh, 21, pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court to planning to aid the organization and scheming to attack law enforcement.

He was enjugged
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
, armed with knives and charging at a federal officer tailing him.

His co-defendant, Fareed Mumuni,

...a.k.a. Fereed Mumuni and Freed Mumuni because of those layers of editors and fact checkers...

22, admitted to the plot Thursday -- plus charges Mumuni tried to fatally stab an FBI agent with a kitchen knife.

The agent, helping execute a search warrant at Mumuni's house, was protected by body armor.

Saleh, the one-time Queens college student, said Friday he spoke with others about traveling to join ISIS. He said he got hiking boots for a co-conspirator trying to get to Syria, and passed along contact information for someone he thought was an ISIS recruiter. The group of terror wannabes included several New Jersey men.

If Saleh opted for trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Solomon said the government would've shown Saleh was in contact with "attack controller" Junaid Hussain.

...also cleverly known as "Abu Hussain", the young former Birmingham, Englander was briefly the proud husband of middle aged, former punk rocker Sally Jones and one of ISIS' long-distance jihad coaches. He was killed at age 21 by a drone in Raqqa in August 2015.

Solomon said Hussain relayed instructions to Saleh on how to build a pressure cooker bomb like the one that killed three people during the 2014 Boston Marathon.

Hussain, a hacker with a big role in ISIS online recruitment, was killed in an August 2015 U.S. air strike in Syria.

As Brooklyn Federal Judge Margo Brodie made sure Saleh understood what he was doing by pleading, she asked if anyone threatened or forced him to plead.

Saleh paused before saying yes.

The judge noted the hesitation and asked again if he'd been pushed into the plea.

"Partly. More like, my counsel said, between a rock and a hard place," he said.

Both Saleh and Mumuni are scheduled for May 16 sentencing. Saleh faces up to 53 years and Mumuni could get a maximum 85 years.

"In the name of ISIS's false and hateful ideology, these defendants attacked the law enforcement officers who work tirelessly to preserve the safety of our communities," said U.S. Attorney Robert Capers.

Saleh's lawyer, Deborah Austern Colson, and Saleh's parents did not comment after the plea.

The Daily Mail has more here.

Link

Home Front: WoT

At Least 15 US 'Citizen Terrorists' Are Also Legal Immigrants

2015-11-19

Dozens of the U.S. citizens arrested in recent years on terror-related charges are immigrants admitted to the United States legally who later obtained citizenship.

More than 70 U.S. residents have been publicly arrested and charged with conspiring to help, attempting to help, or actually helping terror networks such as Islamic State in recent years. At least 15 of them received U.S. citizenship after being admitted to the country legally, including one of the Boston bombers.

Here are five examples.

Two immigrants from Pakistan who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship were convicted of plotting to detonate a bomb in New York City in 2012, and were sentenced to a combined 55 years in prison.

Raees Qazi, 22, and Sheheryar Qazi, 32

Federal prosecutors accused a Somalian immigrant who became a U.S. citizen of plotting to "go to a military base in Texas and kill three or four American soldiers execution style." The man had trained with a terrorist group in Syria and was told to return to the U.S. and carry out an act of terror.

Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud, 23, whose brother was killed fighting in Syria

An immigrant brought by his family from Kuwait at a young age and later approved for U.S. citizenship killed four Marines in a shooting rampage at two military centers in Chattanooga, Tenn., in July.

Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, 24

A woman born in Saudi Arabia who obtained U.S. citizenship and taught pre-school in Queens, N.Y., was arrested on terror charges in April. She and a friend also living in Queens pledged allegiance to Islamic State and considered bombing a police funeral. FBI raids on their apartments turned up bomb-making materials, including propane tanks and a pressure cooker, in addition to bomb recipes and jihadi literature.

Noelle Velentzas, 28, and Asia Siddiqui, 31

An immigrant from Ghana who obtained U.S. citizenship was arrested in June and charged with conspiring to support a terrorist group after investigators allegedly found he was plotting a terror attack on New York City landmarks in the name of Islamic State.

Munther Omar Saleh, 20, who was studying electrical circuitry at a college specializing in aeronautics in Queens

The Obama administration has ignored a request from Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Jeff Sessions for detailed immigration histories of 72 U.S. residents arrested in the past year on terror-related charges.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Fourth alleged IS suspect arrested in New York area

2015-06-19

[IsraelTimes] Fort Lee's Samuel Rahamin Topaz, 21, could face 15 years in prison for plans to assist terror group

A fourth US citizen has been tossed in the clink
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
in the greater New York area in less than a week on allegations of supporting the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
terror group, officials said Thursday.

Samuel Rahamin Topaz, 21, from Fort Lee, New Jersey, was charged with conspiracy to provide material support to the IS group, which has declared a "caliphate" based in Iraq and Syria.

He faces 15 years in prison if convicted and was remanded without bail after being arrested at home on Wednesday, prosecutors said.

Court papers allege he was in close contact with Munther Omar Saleh, a 20-year-old student from New York who was arrested last Saturday after trying to stab an FBI surveillance officer.

Ynet connects Munther Omar Saleh to Freed Mumuni here. We had the report of Mr. Mumuni's arrest yesterday here.

The FBI accused Saleh of trying to recruit Topaz, who was allegedly making plans to travel to join the IS group in the Middle East.

The pair allegedly met up at a Manhattan subway station a few blocks from the World Trade Center on May 31.

Prosecutors in New York have accused Saleh of planning to carry out a kaboom in the city.

Topaz told a friend that "they" promised him $7,000 a week and four wives, possibly in Iraq, and cited this as reason not to enroll at community college, court papers show.

He allegedly posted selfies on Facebook dressed in holy warrior-style head garb and wrote about his intention to go to Jordan, which prosecutors called a cover story for travel to IS-controlled territory.

Court papers released on Thursday listed two other co-conspirators, both of whom were dual US-Jordanian citizens.

The first, a 20-year-old, left the country on May 5, flying from New York to Jordan after browsing online holy warrior propaganda.

The second was an unidentified 23-year-old in New Jersey.

Presumably that would be our own Mr. Freed Mumuni, who was very much identified when he was arrested.

Topaz allegedly told a friend, when asked what he thought of IS that "it was not bad because they are protecting what they believe in" and that "news in the United States is corrupted."

After his arrest, prosecutors said he confessed to sympathizing with the IS cause. had watched the group's videos and discussed plans to reach it.

US intelligence officials warned in February that more than 20,000 volunteers from around the world, including more than 150 Americans, had gone to Syria to link up with holy warriors.

Link

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