Bay Area ISIS Supporter Wanted to 'Redefine Terror,' Kill 10,000
Amer Sinan Alhaggagi |
His case represents the 130th ISIS-related arrest in the U.S. since March 2014.
According to the Justice Department, Amer Sinan Alhaggagi opened up social media accounts on behalf of ISIS and was willing to commit a suicide bombing.
Even more disturbing, according to the indictment, Alhaggagi said he wanted to "redefine terror" and kill 10,000 people here in a domestic terror attack.
The indictment also states that Alhaggagi discussed selling poison drugs and attacking a gay club in San Francisco.
"The whole Bay Area is going to be up in flames," he reportedly said.
He had also spent time in Yemen, and had planned to flee the country through Mexico following his attacks.
Alhaggagi was arrested in November 2016 and held on unrelated charges until last week's indictment.
Regarding the case, the Justice Department announced:
ABC News 7 in San Francisco, which has been following the case for months, reported:
The government says this was only one of several violent plans Alhaggagi discussed [...]
In that December 2016 court hearing, prosecutors revealed Alhaggagi talked about plans to sell cocaine laced with rat poison in Bay Area nightclubs. The undercover agent says he was looking for information on the exact mixture of strychnine and cocaine to use in that scheme. He showed the agent an ISIS bomb-making manual he downloaded on a computer and he sent the agent photographs of guns he said he obtained.
"He then told confidential source number one, 'I live close to San Francisco, that's like the gay capital of the world. I'm going to handle them right, LOL,' meaning laughing out loud. 'I'm going to place a bomb in a gay club, Wallah or by God, I'm going to tear up the city.' And I quote, 'The whole Bay Area is going to be up in flames,'" the federal prosecutor explained to Judge Westmore in his argument to have Alhaggagi detained.
He also told the court how Alhaggagi took the undercover agent, posing as an ISIS supporter from Salt Lake City, on a tour of the Bay Area including the Cal Berkeley campus. The feds say he wanted to plant backpack bombs at the dorms and went along with the undercover agent to set up a storage unit where he would store supplies for his plans.
The FBI's investigators say one sign of how serious he was about his support for ISIS came when he showed up at a meeting with the undercover agent at the storage unit with three backpacks to be used to carry bombs.
Alhaggagi's lawyer released a statement Friday saying, "Amer is not anti-American and does not support ISIS or any other terrorist organization. He is completely nonviolent and he took no actions to harm anyone."
U.S. Soldier Arrested for Supporting ISIS... https://t.co/a0YCUSynX8— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) July 11, 2017
Federal prosecutors also presented images of Kang swearing allegiance to ISIS, including kissing the group's flag.
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Patrick Poole (@pspoole) is a national security and terrorism correspondent for PJMedia.
Tags: Bay Area, ISIS Supporter, Wanted to 'Redefine Terror,' Kill 10,000, Patrick Poole, PJMedia To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
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