A George Mason College freshman was arrested by the FBI this week and charged with distributing details about weapons of mass destruction on-line, after prosecutors say he plotted a mass-casualty assault towards individuals on the Israeli consulate in New York.
Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, an 18-year outdated scholar residing in Falls Church, Virginia, operated “several pro-ISIS and Al Qaeda accounts that promoted violence against Jews,” courtroom paperwork mentioned. These paperwork allege Hassan tried to recruit others for a deliberate assault, sharing details about explosives and weapons.
The FBI started investigating Hassan in early Might, after the Fairfax County Police Division shared an nameless tip that Hassan was partaking in “radical and terrorist-leaning behavior” on X.
Hassan, initially from Egypt, created no less than three X accounts and used them to unfold extremist ideology, prosecutors mentioned. His posts included one calling Osama bin Laden his “idolo,” and several other others referring to martyrdom and jihad.
In August, Hassan shared an AI abstract of a type of X accounts.
“Based on our AI agent’s analysis of your tweets, you are a young, radical Islamist extremist who is obsessed with jihad and violence against perceived enemies. Your tweets suggest a deep-seated hatred and intolerance towards those of other faiths, particularly Jews,” the abstract learn, in line with courtroom paperwork.
Hassan posted the abstract with an Arabic phrase which means “praise be to God,” in line with the FBI.
An nameless FBI supply reached out to Hassan, appearing sympathetic to his concepts and finally transferring from social media to Telegram, an encrypted messaging platform.
In these messages, Hassan shared pro-ISIS propaganda, movies that referred to as for the killing of Jews, and movies explaining tips on how to make bombs, prosecutors mentioned. He additionally advocated for assaults on authorities buildings, courtroom paperwork allege.
Hassan spent over a month making an attempt to recruit the FBI supply to assist conduct a mass casualty assault, finally deciding to focus on the Consulate Basic of Israel in New York.
Between Nov. 22 and Dec. 4, Hassan shared particular info and hyperlinks about tips on how to create a bomb, tips on how to escape from the U.S. to a rustic with no extradition legal guidelines after the assault, whether or not to make use of a bomb or a gun, and tips on how to livestream the assault to share footage with the ISIS media division.
All of these actions are violations of U.S. legal guidelines towards distributing info associated to “explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction in furtherance of the commission of a federal crime of violence,” and “first-degree murder of internationally protected persons,” courtroom paperwork say.
The felony criticism towards Hassan was filed on Dec. 16 in Alexandria, Virginia.
“I am writing to update you on a new situation we are managing relative to a student who was recently arrested by the FBI, as it has caused security concerns among some members of the community that I want to address,” the assertion mentioned. “George Mason University continues to take enhanced precautions to maintain a safe and secure university community in light of the recent FBI arrest of one of its students.”
“Although the student did not live on campus, he has been barred from entering university property. As criminal proceedings progress, the university will take appropriate action on student code of conduct violations,” the assertion mentioned.
The assertion assured college students that the college would defend their security, and laid out security measures taken to “form a protective web around the university.”
“Very crazy knowing [the investigation] was conducted by the FBI, which means it was very serious,” mentioned GMU freshman Nahom Bisrat.
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“George Mason University continues to take enhanced precautions to maintain a safe and secure university community in light of the recent FBI arrest of one of its students,” George Mason’s Vice President and Chief Model Officer Paul Allvin mentioned in an announcement. “The arrest, which the university learned of on Tuesday, December 17, so far appears to have no connection to an earlier police action involving two George Mason students whose home was searched in November.”
“Although the student did not live on campus, he has been barred from entering university property. As criminal proceedings progress, the university will take appropriate action on student code of conduct violations.”
“I was really shocked because it’s one of the students and recently there were a couple of other incidents to happen,” mentioned GMU grad scholar Yeswadh Katikapally.
These incidents, those talked about in Allvin’s assertion, concerned two college students allegedly linked to 2 instances of vandalism on campus earlier within the yr. George Mason police, Fairfax County Police and the FBI raided the off-campus residence of these college students.
They allegedly discovered weapons and supplies calling for violence towards People and Jewish individuals.
The college says they’re working with native, state and federal regulation enforcement and a menace evaluation group that meets when wanted.
“I think they’ve done a decent job of letting the students know what’s going on and then also handling the situations,” Bisrat mentioned.
In keeping with courtroom paperwork, authorities are working to ship Hassan again to his residence nation of Egypt.
