[MinneapolisStarTribune] A 22-year-old Minneapolis woman who failed in her bid to join al-Qaeda and subsequently tried to set a series of fires at St. Catherine University’s St. Paul campus in 2018 pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal terrorism charges.Tnuza Jamal Hassan admitted to one count of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization at her former school’s campus in St. Paul.
Hassan also faces arson charges in Ramsey County in connection with trying to set fires in six buildings on the campus. Hassan admitted to setting the fires months after she tried to fly to Afghanistan to join al-Qaeda.
According to Hassan’s plea agreement, when she was a freshman at the university she drafted an anonymous recruitment letter that encouraged others to join the terrorist group and delivered it to two other Moslem students.
| A forensic psychologist told the court that she upgraded Hassan’s diagnosis from schizophrenia to a "mood disorder with a psychotic component" after earlier symptoms disappeared under medical observation and despite Hassan declining medication. |
there's more than one way to stuff a chicken...
she was stopped from continuing on to Afghanistan because she was not aware that she needed a visa to enter that country.
Hassan lied to Sherlocks from Customs and Border Protection and the FBI about writing the recruitment letter, but she did tell agents that joining al-Qaeda was the purpose of her attempted trip to Afghanistan. As part of her plea agreement, Hassan acknowledged Wednesday that while she did not plan to be a fighter for the terrorist group, she wanted to lend her support "by other means."
Hassan again left her family’s home on Jan. 8, 2018, without their knowledge, and moved into a St. Catherine University "dorm lounge" without the school’s permission. She stayed there until Jan. 17, when she tried to set fires in six buildings at the school. In her plea agreement, Hassan said the fires were set "as a retaliatory act against the United States for its opposition to [al-Qaeda] in Afghanistan."
Hassan’s attorneys declined to comment on the case on Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz scheduled Hassan’s sentencing for Dec. 17. Her charges carry a possible 20-year maximum federal prison sentence and lifetime supervised release.
Hassan was deemed competent to stand trial earlier this year. At a December 2019 hearing, a forensic psychologist told the court that she upgraded Hassan’s diagnosis from schizophrenia to a "mood disorder with a psychotic component" after earlier symptoms disappeared under medical observation and despite Hassan declining medication.
Hassan was born in the U.S.
When the agents interviewed Hassan, she admitted she wanted to join al-Qaida, saying she thought she would probably get married but wouldn’t fight, prosecutors said. She allegedly told investigators she guessed she would carry out a suicide bombing if she had to do it but that she wouldn’t do anything in the U.S. because she didn’t know who to target.
Related: Alpha News has a really good round-up of links on the story of this Ethiopian-American.