Comments

You have commented 358 times on Rantburg.

Your Name

Your e-mail (optional)

Website (optional)

	My Original Nic Pic-a-Nic Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Foto

Submit your comments on this article

Home Front: WoT

Virginia man charged with planning 'mass casualty' attack at NYC Israeli consulate

2024-12-20

[FoxNews] Abdullah Azz al-Din Taha Muhammad Hassan, an Egyptian citizen, was slated to be deported

An Egyptian man living in Virginia who was slated to be deported has been charged with planning an attack on the Israeli consulate in New York City.

Abdullah Azz al-Din Taha Muhammad Hassan allegedly provided bomb-making instructions and plans on how to attack the Manhattan consulate to an undercover FBI source, according to court documents. He was arrested Tuesday, the FBI told Fox News Digital.

Another vicious idiot whose very bestest BFF turns out to be an FBI informant. Send him home to trouble the Egyptian government.

Hassan is charged with distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction in furtherance of the commission of a federal crime.

"The FBI’s New York Office wants to reassure our Jewish community here in New York that our office — along with our law enforcement partners — remains vigilant in our efforts to identify, investigate and disrupt potential threats to our community, using every tool at our disposal to do so. As always, we urge all community members to report suspicious activity to law enforcement and call 911 in cases of imminent violence or threats to life," the FBI said in a statement.

"We will continue working to ensure our communities remain safe places for all, and we thank the public for their continued trust and partnership."

Hassan caught the FBI's attention after the Fairfax County Police Department informed federal authorities that a tipster alerted police about his social media posts on X. The tipster said the account engaged in "radical and terrorist-leaning behavior."

In several posts, Hassan praised the Islamic State terror group and other radical figures, federal prosecutors said. In August, he began messaging with an FBI confidential source whom he believed he recruited to conduct a "mass casualty attack," authorities said.

Over several weeks, Hassan directed the informant on how to make a bomb, acquire weapons and how to make a "martyrdom video," authorities said. In November, he allegedly selected the Consulate General of Israel as the target of the attack, saying it would be easier to commit an attack using small arms and be "martyred" by the police.

He believed New York would be "a gold mine of targets" for an attack, prosecutors said. As the pair planned the attack, Hassan also allegedly told him to book flights to countries without extradition agreements with the United States. During the attack, Hassan said the source could either murder people at the consulate with an assault rifle or detonate an explosive vest while standing in a group of targets, court documents state.

Hassan also asked for the source to livestream the attack so he could watch it in real time, authorities said.

In a statement, Jonathan Harounoff, the international spokesperson for Israel's Permanent Mission to the United Nations, said the Jewish state "will not cower to terror."

"We will not be silent in the face of hate and violence," he said. "We will not stop in our pursuit of justice and peace. We will continue in our fight to return all 100 of our hostages still being held in Hamas terror tunnels in Gaza."

Ofir Akunis, Israel's consul general in New York, expressed gratitude to authorities for thwarting the alleged attack.

"This attempted attack by terror organizations is an attack on the sovereign soil of the State of Israel in its entirety," he wrote on X. "It's proof that terror knows no boundaries and that we must fight it everywhere and every time. The threat it poses to the western world and its values must be fought together by all western democracies alike. Together we will prevail."

Red State adds:

The FBI "Affidavit in Support of a Criminal Complaint and Arrest Warrant" noted that Hassan is an Egyptian national living in Falls Church, Virginia, and — surprise — is apparently in the country illegally, as the affidavit notes that he is currently in removal proceedings with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The affidavit also described social media posts made by Hassan threatening attacks, "Praying for an ISIS masterclass," and "revering" Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri.

The FBI affidavit that led to Hassan's arrest may be viewed here.

What information is available as of this writing — the affidavit alone contains quite a lot — paints quite a vivid picture of a committed Islamic terrorist, willing and able to carry out terror attacks on American soil and who, by the way, has no business being in the country. What isn't clear is how he came to be here in the first place, although the affidavit mentions a Verizon account belonging to Hassan's father, whose whereabouts are not mentioned.

More from the Times of Israel:

The suspect, Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, an 18-year-old Egyptian national living in Falls Church, Virginia, instructed an FBI informant to carry out the attack, according to a criminal complaint filed on Monday. He was later confirmed by the Washington Post to be a freshman at George Mason University.

Posted by:Skidmark

#6 George Mason Uni Student

Posted by: mossomo 2024-12-20 15:51

#5 Synchronicity!
Nicely done.

Posted by: Skidmark 2024-12-20 11:55

#4 I added location searches of the Rantburg archive to the article.

The result tickled my memory, so I did a deeper search, which revealed that Falls Church contains the Dar al-Hijrah mosque, notorious for Al Qaeda links including hiring Anwar al-Awlaki as their imam. Fred’s auto-translate for him says

... Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, zapped in Yemen, al-Awlaki was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Yemen. He was an Islamic holy man who was a trainer for al-Qaeda and its franchises. His sermons were attended by three of the 9/11 hijackers, by Fort Hood murderer Nidal Malik Hussein, and Undieboomer Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He was the first U.S. citizen ever placed on a CIA target list...

The search results can be seen here.

Posted by: trailing wife 2024-12-20 10:28

#3 Ah, yes, Alexandria.

Posted by: swksvolFF 2024-12-20 09:36

#2 ^ Must be from the middle eastern part of Virginia.

I cannot help but wonder if the instructions and plans that Abudul gave to his "undercover FBI source" came from another undercover FBI friend.

Posted by: SteveS 2024-12-20 09:32

#1 Virginia man ... Abdullah Azz al-Din Taha Muhammad Hassan

Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2024-12-20 01:44

00:00