“This is a young guy who was immature and said some stupid things.”
Of course. Come on, you greasy Islamophobe, fess up. How many times have you boasted to an undercover agent about your plans to commit mass murder on a grand scale? It happens all the time. Only a hate-filled bigot would think there was anything amiss here, right?
“Bay Area Man Pleads Guilty to Aiding Terrorists,” by Nicholas Iovino, Courthouse News Service, July 18, 2018 (thanks to Patrick):
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – A 23-year-old man who bragged about plotting terror attacks in the Bay Area pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges Wednesday.
In conversations with undercover FBI agents, Oakland resident Amer Sinan Alhaggagi boasted of plans to bomb gay nightclubs, set fire to hills near Berkeley, give homeless people backpacks full of explosives, and distribute rat poison-laced cocaine.
But his lawyer said those were merely the words of a naive young man who never intended to follow through.
“This is a young guy who was immature and said some stupid things,” attorney Mary McNamara told reporters outside the federal courthouse after her client entered his guilty plea.
Alhaggagi pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and three identity theft charges.
Dozens of friends and members of Oakland’s Yemeni community attended the court hearing Wednesday. Alhaggagi, a U.S. native whose parents immigrated from Yemen, appeared in a red Alameda County Jail jumpsuit sporting a thin goatee and dark hair down to his biceps. He answered the judge’s questions respectfully and in a soft-spoken manner.
One family friend, Abdul Mohammed, of Oakland, said he doesn’t believe Alhaggagi was ever serious about causing harm to others and that the government “just wanted to make an example” of him.
Alhaggagi ‘s lawyer argued that her client deserves a lighter sentence because the only actions he took involved opening a few social media accounts for an ISIS sympathizer.
Federal prosecutor S. Waqar Hasib said Alhaggagi was communicating with a “full-fledged member” of ISIS, not a mere sympathizer….