What could possibly go wrong? Surely he has been disabused of his jihadist sentiments while in prison, no? No. Of course not. To have attempted that would have been “Islamophobic.”
“Victor Alvarez, conspirator in 1993 NYC terror plot, set for release,” by Ben Feuerherd, Jason Beeferman and Bruce Golding, New York Post, July 30, 2020:
A would-be terrorist convicted in a fiendish plot to bomb New York City landmarks was released to a Manhattan homeless shelter on Thursday — after declaring in court that he would stop taking his meds.
“I want to be free from mental health treatment,” Victor Alvarez loudly told his lawyer during an afternoon court appearance.
“I want to be free now.”
Alvarez, 54, was ordered fitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet by a judge who also signed off on a plan for him to move into the Bellevue Men’s Shelter in Kips Bay once the device is attached…..
Alvarez on Thursday finished serving a 30-year prison sentence for conspiring with the late, blind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman to blow up the various Big Apple bridges and tunnels, as well as the United Nations and local FBI headquarters.
His crimes included helping stir diesel fuel and fertilizer for what the feds called a “witches’ brew” that was found inside a makeshift bomb factory in Queens when it was raided in 1993, disrupting the terror scheme….
“Between 1993 and 2013, the defendant received 155 prison disciplinary reports, including for assaulting, spitting on, and threatening officers, possessing a weapon, flooding his cell, and keeping containers of urine and rotten milk in his cell.”…
Sanderson briefly argued against the restrictions sought by prosecutors — which also include a “risk assessment and mental health evaluation,” and mandatory participation in a “deradicalization program” — but was quickly overruled by the judge.
Alvarez was among nine followers of Abdel-Rahman who were found guilty along with him in 1995 following a nine-month trial that included audio and video recordings secretly made with the help of a turncoat bodyguard for the radical Islamic preacher.
In addition to planning a day of attacks as part of a “jihad” or holy war against the US, they were also convicted of conspiring with the terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993.
In court papers filed earlier this month, prosecutors initially sought to have Alvarez sent to a halfway house for his first year of freedom.
But they modified that request on Tuesday, saying he could instead submit a plan for approval by the US Probation Office to live in a “residence, which may include a shelter.”
Under the restrictions approved by Broderick, if Alvarez is kicked out “for failing to abide by shelter rules or for his misbehavior,” he can be ordered into a halfway house for up to a year and only allowed out for “work, healthcare appointments, religious observances or other acceptable reasons as approved by Probation,” court papers say.