New Jersey Man Sentenced to 15 Years for Supporting Islamic State

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Essex County Correctional Facility

by JOHN HAYWARD11 May 20169

Alaa Saadeh, a New Jersey man who pled guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State in October, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Tuesday.

“The 24-year-old West New York resident, a former supervisor at a Staples store, planned to travel overseas to join the Islamic State group and allowed his brother to buy a plane ticket with Saadeh’s credit card to fly there to join the organization, federal prosecutors said. The government also alleged Saadeh sought to erase evidence of his brother’s trip by tampering with a cellphone, and counseled an associate to lie to the FBI if questioned,” reports theAssociated Press.

NBC News adds that Saadeh was accused of helping to organize a “small army” of ISIS fighters in New Jersey and New York, allowing the cell to meet at his apartment.

Another member of the group, Samuel Rahamin Topaz, has previously entered a guilty plea. His lawyer said that if they could not get to Syria to join the Islamic State, they considered “buying guns inside the US and targeting the White House and other landmarks for an attack.”

The AP adds that at Saadeh’s plea hearing in December, he admitted to looking at diagrams for bombs and discussing Times Square, the World Trade Center, and Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in Queens as possible targets with his terror cell.

NBC notes that Saadeh’s parents were deported over a decade ago due to allegations of credit card fraud, but their children were “allowed to stay with custodians in New Jersey because they were US citizens.”

During his sentencing hearing, Saadeh admitted to smoking a lot of weed before he became radicalized and said his friends misled him when they talked about Islam and ISIS.

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“These people are not who they claim they are,” he said. “They are making it worse for Muslim people.”

“I feel I could have taken so many different routes concerning this situation,” Saadeh added. “It saddens me that I had any part in even a little of this.”

The AP reports that U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton was skeptical of Saadeh’s apology, as was Assistant U.S. Attorney L. Judson Welle, who noted that Saadeh could easily have blown the whistle on the terrorist cell, but instead he “planned it, facilitated it, and agreed to help cover it up.”

Prior to this case, Saadeh reportedly had no criminal record. He was employed as the supervisor at a Staples office-supply store.

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Machete-Wielding Muslim Man Attacks Israeli-Christian’s Ohio Restaurant, Several Wounded

AP Photo/Kantele Franko

by JORDAN SCHACHTEL12 Feb 20161632

Police have shot and killed a man who allegedly attacked patrons of a Columbus, Ohio, restaurant Thursday night, wounding several people. One of the victims is in critical condition, according to reports.

The suspected attacker is a Somali national named Mohammad Barry, CBS reports. There are also reports that Barry was on a terrorist watchlist.

“Law enforcement is concerned that this incident has the hallmarks of the type of so-called “lone wolf” terrorist attack that they have been working to stop,” the report reads.

The suspect entered the restaurant earlier in the day and asked for the owner. He was then told the owner was not at the restaurant, and he left the building, WBNS-10TV reports.

Thirty minutes later, allegedly armed with a machete, the now-deceased suspect entered the Nazareth Restaurant and Deli at 6:30PM local time, witnesses say.

The owner of the restaurant is an Israeli Christian who formerly lived in Nazareth, Israel, according to reports.

“He came in and started beating up on another man, I thought it was a personal thing. Then he just started down the row hitting everybody; people were bleeding,” a witness told a local ABC affiliate.

A waitress said of the events as they unfolded:

He looked straight at me but he went over to the booths and just started going down the booths. It all seemed to happen in slow motion.

Karan Bass, who was in the restaurant at the time of the assault, said:

He came to each table and just started hitting them. There were tables and chairs overturned there was a man on the floor bleeding, there was blood on the floor… I fell like five times. My legs felt like jelly. I just thought he was going to come behind me and slash me up.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is now assisting with the investigation, policespokesperson Todd Lindgren revealed. The FBI is well-known as the nation’s preeminent domestic counterterrorism agency.

Police Sgt. Rich Weiner said there did not seem to be any “rhyme or reason” for the attack. He did not reveal the name of the suspect and did not explain why the FBI had gotten involved in the investigation.

Micki Zakas, one of the employees of the restaurant, had nothing but good things to say about the owner of the dining establishment.

“Everybody leaves here with a smile,” she told a local NBC affiliate. “It’s a real happy place, he [the owner] has been in business for 26 years, so he’s got a great reputation around here. The restaurant’s got a great reputation.”

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Iran Pledges to Defy U.S. Sanctions, Build up Ballistic Missile Program

Getty Images

by JORDAN SCHACHTEL18 Jan 2016Washington, DC1,431

Iran will ignore recently-passed U.S. sanctions against its ballistic missile program, the regime’s defense minister pledged on Monday, promising to unveil new homemade weapons systems in the near future.

“[Any] attempt to impose new sanctions [against Iran] under irrelevant pretexts is indicative of the continued US hostile policy and acrimony toward the Iranian nation, and a futile effort to undermine Iran’s defense might,” said Iranian Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehqan on Monday.

U.S. sanctions enacted over the weekend will have minimal effect on Iran’s missile development programs, he added.

“Hence, sanctions against [certain] people and companies will have no impact on the development of the industry, and we will actually demonstrate [their ineffectiveness] by displaying new missiles,” Dehqan said, in comments reported by state-run PressTv.

The Defense Minister’s comments follow a statement from Iran’s foreign ministry statement pledging to thwart the United States’ “destructive” sanctions against Iran’s weapons program.

“We will respond to such propaganda stunts and disruptive measures by more robustly pursuing our lawful missile program and promoting our defense capabilities and national security,” read a statement from Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari.

On Sunday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it would impose sanctions against a number of individuals and organizations over Iran’s ballistic missile program.

“Iran’s ballistic missile program poses a significant threat to regional and global security, and it will continue to be subject to international sanctions,” read a statementfrom Adam Szubin, acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “We have consistently made clear that the United States will vigorously press sanctions against Iranian activities outside of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – including those related to Iran’s support for terrorism, regional destabilization, human rights abuses, and ballistic missile program.”

The new sanctions come as Iran is expected to receive tens of billions of dollars in frozen assets in accordance with the Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), agreed upon by the regime in Tehran and the P5+1 world powers.

On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerryannounced the U.S. had granted Iran $1.7 billion dollars, repaying the Ayatollah’s theocracy a $400 million dollar debt plus $1.3 billion in interest. Kerry called the payment a “fair settlement.” President Obama agreed, claiming “the settlement could save us billions of dollars that could have been pursued by Iran.”

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Philadelphia: Police Shooter Confesses to Attempted ‘Execution’ for Islam

The Associated Press

by JOHN HAYWARD8 Jan 201613

A gunman ambushed 33-year old Philadelphia police officer Jesse Hartnett on Thursday night. His attacker is in custody and claims it was an attempted “execution” in the name of Islam.

CBS News in Philadelphia reports Hartnett was sitting in his patrol car at around 11:30 PM when the attacker fired 13 shots through the driver’s side window at point-blank range. The CBS report describes the shooter as walking toward the police car while he fired. Three of the shots struck Hartnett’s arm. His injuries do not appear to be life-threatening.

“Shots fired! I’m shot! I’m bleeding heavily!” Hartnett called out on police radio, as can be heard in the CBS report:

Hartnett was able to return fire, and hit the as-yet unnamed suspect three times. Other offices swiftly caught the wounded assailant while attempting to flee the scene, and he has made a full confession, according to CBS. The confession reportedly describes Islam as part of the motive for the attack.

Police also recovered his weapon. The New York Daily News identifies it as a 9mm handgun.

Commissioner Ross said there is video of the entire attack. “This is absolutely one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen,” he declared. “I mean, this guy tried to execute the police officer. The officer had no idea he was coming. It’s amazing he’s alive.”

The shooter is described as a male in his 30s. According to a news description of the surveillance video, he was wearing a “long white frock and black pants” as he approached the police cruiser with his gun drawn. The current condition of the shooter has not been disclosed at the time of this writing.

Ross said Hartnett suffered “significant damage” to his arm, including nerve damage, but is awake and coherent. According to the New York Daily News, he underwent surgery early Friday at Presbyterian Hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.

NJ.com cites Officer Hartnett’s social media profiles to describe him as a native of East Landsdowne, Pennsylvania, who attended Delaware County Community College, served in the U.S. Coast Guard for over a decade, and then became a four-year veteran of the police force.

CBS News reported late Friday morning that the FBI has become involved in the investigation.

Update, 11:05 AM EST: ABC News has published images of the attacker, from the surveillance video:

Update, 11:15 AM EST: Philly.com reports the shooter has been identified as Edward Archer, 30, of Yeadon.

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National Security, Islam, Jihad, terrorism,Execution, police shooting, Philadelphia