Friday, January 8, 2016

Feds Arrest 2 Iraqi Muslim Refugees in California and Texas on Terror-Related Charges


One of the arrested, Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, a Palestinian born in Iraq, traveled to Syria to fight with terrorist organizations in the area.

Why am I not surprised?
(Fox News) Two men born in Iraq who came to the U.S. as refugees were set to appear in court Friday on terror-related charges in California and Texas, as investigators say one of the men wrote that he wanted to travel to Syria because he was "eager to see blood."

A criminal complaint unsealed Thursday accused 23-year-old Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, of Sacramento, Calif., of traveling to Syria to fight alongside terrorist organizations and lying to government investigators about it.

Almost simultaneously in Houston, federal authorities announced the arrest of Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, 24, on charges of attempting to provide material support to ISIS, procurement of citizenship or naturalization unlawfully and making false statements to investigators. He was the 80th person charged under Federal law in an ISIS-related case since April 2013, and the first in 2016.

In addition to writing that he was "eager to see blood," Al-Jayab also claimed that he wanted to learn "long range shooting," and that "God has facilitated" his travels, court documents show.

The documents did not indicate whether the two cases were connected. However, the affidavit says Al-Jayab communicated with an unnamed individual living in Texas in April 2013 to see if he could receive training in various weapons.

Authorities say Al-Jayab, who came to the U.S. from Syria in October 2012, discussed plans to return to Syria and fight alongside terror groups with several other individuals on social media. The complaint says Al-Jayab was living in Wisconsin and Arizona during this period.

Social media and other accounts say that as soon as he arrived in the United States, he began saying he wanted to return to Syria to "work," which the FBI says is believed to be a reference "to assisting in and supporting violent jihad."

Al-Jayab criticized ISIS in several messages for killing Muslims, saying "If it weren't for the State's bloodletting, I would have been the first one to join it", according to the FBI, although he later described fighting alongside the group.

In one communication with the Texas contact, dubbed "Individual I", Al-Jayab described, during earlier fighting, emptying seven ammunition magazines from his assault rifle during a battle and executing three Syrian government soldiers.

According to the complaint, Al-Jayab traveled to Syria from Chicago via Turkey in November 2013. He remained in Syria until the following January and fought alongside several terror groups, including Ansar al-Islam, which merged with ISIS in 2014 after Al-Jayab had returned to the United States. He settled in Sacramento following his return to the U.S.

The complaint alleges that Al-Jayab lied about his travel and ties to terror groups in October 2014 when he was interviewed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. At one point, Al-Jayab allegedly claimed that he had traveled to Turkey to visit his grandmother.

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