Ali Shukri Amin
As federal authorities began to close in, the Northern Virginia teenagers set off to Dulles International Airport in hopes of launching a dangerous mission: get one of them to Syria to fight with the Islamic State.
The January ride was the culmination of months of planning. Ali Shukri Amin — a suburban high school student who secretly ran a popular pro-Islamic State Twitter account — had forged connections with supporters of the terrorist group overseas, and now he was putting them to use. Reza Niknejad, his 18-year-old friend, was set to fly to Turkey, meet up with Amin’s contacts and, eventually, make his way into Syria.
On Thursday, Amin, 17, pleaded guilty in federal court as an adult to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. His friend, according to court records, is now believed to be a member of the Islamic State in Syria. In a call to his mother not long after he left the United States, Niknejad said that he would “fight against these people who oppress the Muslims” and that he would see her in the afterlife, the FBI alleged.
Federal authorities said the case is a chilling reminder of the Islamic State’s pervasive online presence and ability to woo American youths. U.S. Attorney Dana Boente, whose prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia handled the case, said that the Islamic State’s social media use is “unprecedented” and that federal authorities were investing significant resources into bringing to justice those who use the Internet to provide real help to terrorists.
“They’re just kind of flooding the airwaves, so to speak,” he said.
So far, Boente said, federal prosecutors across the country have charged nearly 50 people with helping or trying to help the Islamic State.
Amin’s and Niknejad’s cases are, in ways, emblematic of the phenomenon, and, in other ways, unique. Both were born abroad — Amin, according to his attorney, in Sudan, and Niknejad, according to court records, in Iran — but both were naturalized citizens who came to the United States early in their youth. Both, for a time, were students at Prince William County’s Osbourn Park High School, though Amin withdrew in February and Niknejad graduated last June.
Both, federal authorities said, would eventually become radical supporters of the Islamic State.
“Make no mistake,” said Andrew McCabe, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office. “This case is a tragedy.”
The teens’ views were not always obvious. Those who knew Amin — who was arrested earlier this year — have said he seemed like a typical teenager. His attorney said he was once an honor student at Osbourn Park, did volunteer work and had been accepted to college before he withdrew.
But according to his plea, Amin had a secret online identity: He was behind the controversial and prolific @AmreekiWitness Twitter handle, an unabashedly pro-Islamic State account whose manager drew news coverage for sparring with the State Department, postulating how digital currency might be used to fund the Islamic State and opining on the unrest in Ferguson, Mo.
Amin tweeted more than 7,000 times from the account, broadcasting his controversial views to more than 4,000 followers, according to his plea.
Joseph Flood, Amin’s attorney, said in an interview and in a statement that Amin’s support for the Islamic State was largely born from his anger at the regime in Syria and his perception that the United States had tacitly supported it. Flood said Amin is a Muslim, and his actions “are a reflection of his deeply held religious beliefs, but also his immaturity, social isolation and frustration at the ineffectiveness of nonviolent means for opposing a criminal regime.”
No comments:
Post a Comment