@ home 1: Issue 3

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US Citizen Working for ISIS in Syria Sentenced

Emraan Ali, a U.S. citizen, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison followed by 20 years of supervised release for conspiring to provide material support to ISIS.
In 2015, Ali took his family from Trinidad and Tobago to Brazil and then to Turkey and Syria with the intention of joining ISIS. To finance his trip and provide ongoing support to ISIS, Ali established a financial system to receive funds and collected $15,000 in cash, and melted gold to convert to jewelry to take with him.
Ali underwent religious and military training in Syria, including the operation of various automatic weapons.
Ali provided material support to ISIS by working in construction, buying and selling livestock, cars, weapons and phones, and providing money remittance services to other Trinidadian ISIS fighters in Syria. Read More

Virginia ISIS Supporter Sentenced for Meeting “American Taliban”

Virginia man Ali Shukri Amin, previously convicted of providing support to ISIS in 2015, was sentenced to serve an additional year in prison for breaking release conditions.
Amin broke his conditions by meeting with John Walker Lindh, the so-called “American Taliban,” several times, communicating with him and others on an unmonitored device and sharing ISIS propaganda online.
A file stored on Amin’s device contained an ISIS propaganda video showing mass beheadings and attack instructions, according to prosecutors.
Amin was sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release in addition to the one-year prison sentence. Read More

Al Jazeera Flouts DOJ Directive With Anti-American/Anti-Israel Propaganda

A recent report by the Zachor Legal Institute investigated Al Jazeera’s American-based social media arm, AJ+, and revealed that it violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) directive issued by the U.S. Department of Justice in September 2020, which required it to register under FARA within 30 days.
AJ+ serves as a platform for Islamic terror groups, including Al Qaeda and Hamas, and has given a weekly program to a Muslim Brotherhood leader who called for terror attacks on U.S. soldiers, praised the Holocaust as “divine punishment” upon Jews, and encouraged the murder of Israeli civilians.
AJ+ has focused its propaganda efforts on influencing young Americans via its social media platforms, with a disproportionate amount of videos devoted to coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, portraying Israel negatively and using tenuous analogies between American racial strife and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Read More

PSU Opens Program in Conjunction With Chinese University Tied to Military

Portland State University (PSU) closed its Confucius Institute (CI) in 2021 due to financial, staffing and operational reasons and has opened a new institute named the Portland Institute in collaboration with China’s Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications (NJUPT).
CI is a Chinese government-backed initiative to project soft power and influence abroad. Despite the threat posed by CIs to American standing, PSU closed its CI but retained or forged new ties with China, raising concerns.
PSU’s partnership with NJUPT, which is one of the top defense-related universities in China, is particularly concerning since 16 percent of its graduates from 2018 entered the Chinese defense sector, and the college works with China’s People’s Liberation Army on projects related to signals intelligence and cyberwarfare. Read More

New Research on Reintegrating Families of ISIS Terrorists

The National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education (NCITE) Center, in partnership with the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, has published new research outlining best practices for reintegrating the families of foreign fighters who left the U.S. to fight for the Islamic State.
An estimated 53,000 individuals from 80 countries traveled to support Islamic State activities between 2013 and 2019, including hundreds from the U.S., many bringing their families with them.
Following the collapse of the caliphate, many of these people, including women and minors, are now held in inhumane and dangerous conditions in detainee camps overseas, and the U.S. has adopted a policy of repatriation for many of these families.
For children and adults not convicted in the criminal justice system, the work of social reintegration, aiming to foster inclusiveness and reduce the risk of engagement or recidivism into violent extremism, is underway. Read More

Virginia Man Charged for Sending Money to ISIS Women

Mohammed Azharuddin Chhipa from Fairfax County, Va., has been charged with providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization after allegedly wiring thousands of dollars to Islamic State women overseas.
Chhipa purchased $172,000 in virtual currency and collected $15,000 in digital funds from others, with more than $18,000 allegedly going to wallets used by ISIS women in Syria.
Chhipa communicated frequently with a British-born woman and member of the Islamic State living in Syria, with the two discussing moving money overseas in a way that might avoid detection.
Chhipa had been using social media to fundraise for women in the al-Hol refugee camp since 2019, claiming the money was for shelter.
Chhipa faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted and is being held in jail pending trial. Read More

Former Neo-Nazi Pleads Guilty to Murdering Roommates After They Disrespected Islam

Tampa man Devon Arthurs pleaded guilty to killing his roommates six years ago, reducing the first-degree murder charges to second-degree.
Arthurs will serve a total of 45 years in prison and 15 years of probation when released, and undergo a psychological evaluation after serving his prison time.
Arthurs told police he and his roommates were neo-Nazi believers, but he converted to the Muslim faith and turned on his roommates after they disrespected his new religion.
Arthurs’ attorneys plan to use the insanity defense, stating he knew what he was doing, but didn’t know it was wrong because he suffered from a mental disease. Read More