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Go Figure - Mechanic who tampered with jetliner has ties to ISIS: feds
[NY Post] The American Airlines mechanic who disabled a key navigation system on a jetliner leaving Miami ‐ saying he did it over a labor dispute ‐ had grisly ISIS propaganda videos on his cellphone, federal prosecutors said in court on Wednesday.Just culturally appropriate Pron Prosecutor Maria Medetis said that when investigators grilled the mechanic, Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani, after his arrest on Sept. 5, he told them he had an "evil side" and that he "wanted to do something to delay" the plane, which had 150 people onboard, the Miami Herald reported. But a co-worker told investigators that Alani had once said his brother was a member of ISIS, and that he traveled to Iraq in March to visit him. uh huh, and you kept that to yourself? Prosecutors said authorities also discovered a November 2018 article that had been sent to him about one of the Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes, and that the article described issues with the plane's navigation system. "What you did was at minimum highly reckless. It was unconscionable," federal Magistrate Judge Chris McAliley told Alani in court Wednesday. Authorities also said at least one of the ISIS videos was downloaded on Alani's phone and sent to another person with a message that called for Allah to "use all your might and power against the Kafir," or non-believers of Islam. A native Iraqi who is now a US citizen, Alani, 60 was not charged with a terror-related crime. He was denied bond during the proceeding, where the feds said photos on his phone from a trip to Baghdad and Mosul showed him smiling and posing with relatives. He was charged with "willfully damaging, destroying or disabling an aircraft." His arraignment is Friday, and he faces up to 20 years in prison on the sabotage charge. Alani initially said that he sabotaged the Boeing 737 at Miami International Airport because labor negotiations were hurting his chances to snare overtime. "As a terrorist, I am entitled to time and a half! Infidels!" A criminal complaint said Alani admitted to sabotaging the airplane July 17 as it was scheduled to fly from Miami to Nassau, Bahamas.
A co-worker also told government officials that Alani had once said his brother was a member of ISIS  ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute...and that he traveled to Iraq in March to visit him. Alani's roommate, however, told authorities the trip was not to visit his brother, but had been because his brother had been kidnapped, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said photos on his phone from his trip to Baghdad and djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... show him smiling and posing with relatives and said he did not appear to be in distress in any of the images.
Posted by: Frank G 2019-09-19 |
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