A New York man has been charged with actively supporting the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.
Mufid Elfgeeh, 30, is a Yemeni born man who had been living in New York City. Elfgeeh ran a halal food market in the city and used the profits to help fund terrorism activities for the group. He also was arranging for the purchase and shipment of weapons.
Reports say that Elfgeeh attempted to buy guns from undercover FBI agents and worked with another undercover agents to help them travel to Syria to take the weapons to ISIS. He even accompanied an undercover agent to Buffalo, New York to pick up a passport for the trip to Syria.
Most disturbing was plans to murder members of the U.S. military.
“Elfgeeh also plotted to shoot and kill members of the United States military who had returned from Iraq,” prosecutors state. “As part of the plan to kill soldiers, Elfgeeh purchased two handguns equipped with firearm silencers and ammunition from a confidential source.”
Attorney General Eric Holder said this is just one of many operations currently underway.
“We will remain aggressive in identifying and disrupting those who seek to provide support to ISIL and other terrorist groups that are bent on inflicting harm upon Americans,” stated Attorney General Eric Holder, according to USA Today. “We are focused on breaking up these activities on the front end, before supporters of ISIL can make good on plans to travel to the region or recruit sympathizers to this cause.”
Syria has suddenly revealed on the eve of potential airstrikes in its country against ISIS that it has another chemical weapons laboratory.
The lab was built specifically to produce the deadly chemical ricin for chemical weapons.
Three sources told Reuters that the Syrian government admitted the location of three new facilities to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The revelation of the plants backs up claims from world leaders that Syria was not completely honest with OPCW and the UN regarding their chemical weapons stash and abilities.
Damascus had agreed last year to eliminate its chemical weapons program following world condemnation for an attack on Ghouta where hundreds were killed by sarin gas.
The OPCW described the incident as a “discrepancy” in the initial declaration by Syria to the organization. Syria claims that they could never let inspectors in because of fighting between rebels and government troops.
Syria had blamed sarin attacks on rebel forces and said they never had the capability to produce the rockets needed for the weapons.
“Syria will argue that the facilities were not revealed earlier because they were in a rush when they first had to report them,” said one diplomatic source. “They had said the ricin was for medical purposes, but we don’t believe that’s true.”
The OPCW is also investigating a report that Syrian government troops have dropped chlorine “barrel” bombs this year.
A Colorado teenager is facing up to five years in prison after she admitted she was attempting to reach Syria so she could help the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.
Shannon Conley, 19, had been turned into police last fall after attending Faith Bible Church in Arvada, Colorado. The attendees at the church felt something troubling concerning the young woman. Police then investigated her on several occasions.
According to reports, the young woman met a man online identified as 32-year-old ISIS terrorist Yousr Mouelhi and the two began a courtship through the video chat service Skype. She asked her father if she could marry Mouelhi and he refused so she made plans to head to Syria without her family’s knowledge.
The father called police when he discovered his daughter had a plane ticket to Turkey. She was taken into custody at Denver International Airport.
Conley had trained as a nurse’s aide and admitted to investigators she was going to work at a jihadist camp as a nurse. She also said she wanted to wage jihad against the United States.
The sentencing for Conley was scheduled for January while she undergoes psychological evaluation.
ISIS is reportedly much larger than many world leaders had previously believed when decisions were being made to create an international coalition.
The CIA has released a new study showing that ISIS could have as many as 31,000 terrorist fighters, three times higher than previously thoughts by intelligence agencies.
“This new total reflects an increase in members because of stronger recruitment since June following battlefield successes and the declaration of a caliphate, greater battlefield activity, and additional intelligence,” CIA spokesman Ryan Trapani told the BBC.
The announcement comes on a day that 10 Arab countries formalized their pledges to help the U.S. stop the Islamic terrorist group. Ministers from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates all pledged military support and humanitarian aid.
“The region recognizes the danger that has been unleashed and they are full-throatedly ready to deal with that and that is why they committed today to take the actions they have committed to,” Secretary of State Kerry said to reporters.
While the world is focusing on the Islamic terrorist group ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the terror unit is quietly working to help another extremist group set up their own “caliphate” in Nigeria.
The Nigeria Security Network has found connections between Boko Haram and ISIS that indicates the major terror network is helping the Nigerian outfit with military tactics, supplies and “spiritual” guidance.
“Unless swift action is taken, Nigeria could be facing a rapid takeover of a large area of its territory reminiscent of ISIS’s lightning advances in Iraq,” the NSN said.
The Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans is calling on President Obama to look beyond ISIS to the terror groups that are receiving their assistance as he builds a world coalition against terrorism.
“As the US President Barack Obama is articulating a strategy to degrade and destroy ISIS, we urge him not to forget Boko Haram as well. Every moment we leave Boko Haram alone empowers the terrorists to become even more devious and devilish,” CANA Executive Director Pastor Laolu Akande said in a statement.
Boko Haram followed in the footsteps of ISIS in declaring an Islamic Caliphate in northern Nigeria. Some local leaders are now calling Boko Haram the “Islamic State Nigeria Branch”.
The Islamic extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has posted a video online showing the brutal beheading of an American journalist.
James Foley, a reporter working for Agence France-Presse and Boston media company GlobalPost, was taken captive while reporting in Syria November 2012. He was passing through a zone that had been a focal point of Sunni rebel forces when four terrorists stopped his car.
The death of Foley is the first American to have been killed as a result of the Syrian conflict that began in March 2011.
A British man who had joined the terrorist group who spoke in the video using English conducted the killing. The group showed video of a second captured American journalist and said they would kill him if the U.S. continued to make airstrikes against their forces in Iraq.
Foley’s family released a statement saying they were proud of him.
“He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people,” said the statement, which was attributed to Foley’s mother, Diane Foley. She implored the militants to spare the lives of other hostages. “Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world.”
A documentary released by VICE News shows Islamic terrorists training children to be homicide bombers and killers.
“What do you want to be? A jihadist or to execute a martyrdom operation?” Abdullah Al-Belgian of Belgium asks his young son Abdullah. “A jihadist,” he answers.
“Who do you fight with?” filmmaker Medyan Dairieh asks another child featured in the documentary. “The Islamic State,” the boy answers. “Where are you going after Ramadan?” Dairieh inquires. “To the camp … to have training,” the child replies. “What are you going to do after?” Dairieh asks. “Fight the Russians [and] Americans. The infidels.”
The video has interviews with various terrorist operatives that say children under 15 are sent to what is called “Sharia camp” to be brainwashed with the creeds of the terrorists and extreme Islam. When they turn 16, they are sent to the military camp.
Children taken to the city of Raqqa, Syria are shown dancing and singing for the caliphate celebration after terrorists obtained control of the city.
The Islamic terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has destroyed the tomb of the Prophet Jonah.
The terrorists gleefully went into the tomb with sledgehammers and took turns destroying the resting place of the Old Testament prophet. The terrorists filmed their efforts and posted them online saying it was the will of Allah for the tombs to be destroyed.
The members of the terrorist group say it is against the teachings of Islam to give special attention to tombs and it doesn’t matter if the tomb is for another faith. If the tomb is within their land, the group says they have the right to destroy it.
The tomb of the prophet Seth was also destroyed by the terrorists but no video of that destruction was posted online.
Iraqi authorities also announced the discovery of 53 bodies south of Baghdad who appear to have been executed by Islamic terrorists. An investigation is underway to determine who ordered the killings.
The Islamic extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has declared that the land they have taken from the Syrian and Iraqi government is now their own country ruled by Islamist law.
In an audio released for the first day of Ramadan, the group says the new nation runs from Aleppo in northwest Syria through Diyala province in northeast Iraq. The group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was named the “imam and khalifah for Muslims everywhere.”
The group said that all Muslim groups around the world should pledge allegiance to them.
Experts in the region say the declaration by ISIS could have a backfiring impact on their goal for an Islamic state.
“Now the insurgents in Iraq have no excuse for working with ISIS if they were hoping to share power with ISIS,” analyst Aymenn al-Tamimi, told The Associated Press. “The prospect of infighting in Iraq is increased for sure.”
Other middle east observers believe this is a tipping point in the power struggles among Islamic extremists groups worldwide, as the ISIS is now positioning itself to replace al-Qaeda. The two groups have a contentious relationship after al-Qaeda denounced al-Baghdadi in February.
A new CNN report shows that Islamic extremists are teaching kidnapped boys how to behead others “for the sake of God.”
CNN spoke to a young man who was able to escape his kidnappers from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the same group that is attempting to overthrow the governments of Syria, Iraq and Jordan.
The young man, called Mohammed, said that he was taken from his school when the terrorists stormed the building. The first thing they did was remove the female students from the room, saying it was forbidden for the young men to be in the same room with them. The terrorists then forced the boys into a truck and drove them into the desert.
“We were all so scared. On the way back, we were celebrating that we had finished our tests. We were excited to go home and see our families. We didn’t know why they took us,” Mohammed told CNN.
The terrorists then forced the children to watch videos of beheadings and were given instructions on how to kill prisoners by cutting off their heads. They were also trained in other methods of urban combat as if they were being prepared for the Iraq insurgency.
Mohammed escaped with other boys when classmates created a diversion.
“I was so happy when I got home. My mother had no idea that I had escaped. I was so excited to see her,” Mohammed said.
ISIS terrorists have told residents of the area there is now a bounty on Mohammed’s head.
