It was all for love: “The FBI affidavit alleged that Bell regularly used encrypted apps to communicate with a Nusra member with whom she had an online relationship.”
“American woman charged with transferring money to Syria-based terrorists,” Reuters, November 25, 2020:
U.S. federal prosecutors have charged a New Jersey woman with concealing multiple efforts to transfer money to Islamist militants in Syria connected to the Nusra Front, a onetime al Qaeda affiliate based in Syria’s Idlib province.
Maria Bell, 53, of Hopatcong, New Jersey, was accused in a criminal complaint of knowingly concealing her involvement in providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, namely al-Nusra….
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Newark alleges in court filings that starting around February 2017, Bell used mobile phone apps to communicate with, advise and facilitate money transfers, to al-Nusra, also known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
An affidavit signed by FBI agent Matthew Hohmann says Bell also used encrypted apps to provide information to al-Nusra which could “support acts of terrorism.” This included advice on operational security, communications and gun purchases….
The FBI affidavit alleged that Bell regularly used encrypted apps to communicate with a Nusra member with whom she had an online relationship. It said she allegedly exchanged “thousands of encrypted communications” with the alleged Nusra member.
The FBI said that she planned to meet him in Turkey and sent at least 18 payments totaling $3,150 to his associates via wire transfer.
Jayell says
In times past, UK newspapers occasionally featured ‘romantic’ stories about British teenage girls (usually the not-particularly-attractive ones) who went to Turkey on holiday with their families and ended up in ‘relationships’ with waiters at the hotels they were staying in. The ‘waiters’ in question would then sometimes strangely end up in the UK, having impregnated and then possibly married the girl, but what happened after that we never seemed to know apart from the obvious fact that the UK population had acquired two extra members, one of which would probably be on the local unemployment register. One particular ‘happy young bride’ proudly presented herself to the cameras in full islamic gear, no doubt blissfully unaware that she’d probably find herself as part of a harem/muslim production line in a short space of time. But, before the time of the Twin Towers and Manchester Arena events, this was just Mills & Boon romantic novel stuff on a par (sort of?) with ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, no one knew about things like Jihad. and everyone thought that islam was just like going to church with added spices. The difference between that sort of thing and Ms Bell’s adventure here is that everyone, including Ms. Bell, should now be well aware of the not-so-hidden underlying agenda in countries where the Prophet Mohammed is venerated; and our heroine isn’t quite what you’d call a ‘gullible teenage girl’ who perhaps should have known a little better anyway?
Brenrod says
The whole narrative appears fishy: a total of $3150 divided by 18 transfers is about 170$ per transfer, hardly plot numbers. Sounds like a typical romance scam. It’s hard to imagine she had any “advice” to give terrorists. Also, what’s the big deal with using “encrypted apps, isn’t “WhatsApp” encrypted and used by billions? I would have thought the fbi had bigger “plots” to follow, but then they also pushed the fake trump Russia plot.
OLD GUY says
Poor woman falls in love on-line with a terrorist from Syria. Warning signs she missed. He’s from Syria, he’s muslim, he follows Islam, he asked her to send money and to try to send the money so it couldn’t be traced. DUMB
nossuk says
But the wealthy criminals continue to skate