Isis
- Thread starter Goober
- Start date
Jihadi Jack's parents say he's no terrorist
Author of the article:
Brian Lilley
Publishing date:
Nov 30, 2021 • 9 hours ago • 2 minute read •
25 Comments
John Letts and Sally Lane -- Jihadi Jack's parents -- are pictured in London, England, on Sept. 10, 2018.
John Letts and Sally Lane -- Jihadi Jack's parents -- are pictured in London, England, on Sept. 10, 2018. Photo by Getty Images /Toronto Sun
Article content
The family of a man currently held in a Kurdish prison in northern Syria is disputing the description of him as a terrorist.
Advertisement
Story continues below
Article content
A spokesperson for John and Sally Letts took issue with the term terrorist being applied to Jack Letts, aka Jihadi Jack.
Nikita Bernardi, a public relations consultant helping the family seek political support for Jack’s release, emailed her displeasure at the recent story in the Toronto Sun.
“There are inaccuracies which I would kindly ask you to correct, including your use of the word ‘terrorist’ to describe Jack who has never been charged with anything and no evidence has ever been presented to suggest that Jack has ever taken part in any illegal activity,” Bernardi wrote.
Letts has, however, described himself as a traitor to Britain, an enemy of the country where he was raised, and described how he wanted to be a suicide bomber for ISIS.
Advertisement
Story continues below
Article content
(Undated Facebook image of Jihadi Jack)
(Undated Facebook image of Jihadi Jack)
“I used to want to at one point, believe it or not,” Letts told BBC in a 2019 interview. “Not a vest. I wanted to do it in a car. I said if there’s a chance, I will do it.”
Since his capture in 2017, Letts has been held by Kurdish forces, his family says, without charges or a trial. They are seeking political help in Canada to free him, citing his Canadian citizenship.
While Letts has never lived in Canada, his father John is Canadian and passed on citizenship to his son. In 2019, citing his activities in Syria, the British government stripped Jack of his citizenship.
Next week, John Letts will arrive in Ottawa seeking meetings with people he hopes will speak up for his son.
Bernardi said in an email that it is a busy schedule in Ottawa, but it remains to be seen if he will get a warm reception. The Conservatives have denounced the idea of Letts coming to Canada in the past and the Liberals have been non-committal.
Advertisement
Story continues below
Article content
Despite saying in 2015 that, “A Canadian, is a Canadian, is a Canadian,” when promising to reinstate citizenship that had been stripped from convicted terrorists in this country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has not spoken up in favour of Letts.
“It is a crime to travel internationally with a goal of supporting terrorism or engaging in terrorism. And that is a crime that we will continue to make all attempts to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law,” Trudeau said when asked about the case in 2019.
Bernardi said that the Canadian government needs to fulfil its obligations to Letts, which could include prosecuting him in this country.
“Jack’s parents are not naive, and they strongly believe that if Jack has taken part in anything illegal, then he should be tried and prosecuted in accordance with the crime committed; Canada has all the infrastructure and capability to do this,” Bernardi said.
What the family doesn’t want is for Jack Letts to continue in what they call arbitrary detention.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:
Brian Lilley
Publishing date:
Nov 30, 2021 • 9 hours ago • 2 minute read •
25 Comments
John Letts and Sally Lane -- Jihadi Jack's parents -- are pictured in London, England, on Sept. 10, 2018.
John Letts and Sally Lane -- Jihadi Jack's parents -- are pictured in London, England, on Sept. 10, 2018. Photo by Getty Images /Toronto Sun
Article content
The family of a man currently held in a Kurdish prison in northern Syria is disputing the description of him as a terrorist.
Advertisement
Story continues below
Article content
A spokesperson for John and Sally Letts took issue with the term terrorist being applied to Jack Letts, aka Jihadi Jack.
Nikita Bernardi, a public relations consultant helping the family seek political support for Jack’s release, emailed her displeasure at the recent story in the Toronto Sun.
“There are inaccuracies which I would kindly ask you to correct, including your use of the word ‘terrorist’ to describe Jack who has never been charged with anything and no evidence has ever been presented to suggest that Jack has ever taken part in any illegal activity,” Bernardi wrote.
Letts has, however, described himself as a traitor to Britain, an enemy of the country where he was raised, and described how he wanted to be a suicide bomber for ISIS.
Advertisement
Story continues below
Article content
(Undated Facebook image of Jihadi Jack)
(Undated Facebook image of Jihadi Jack)
“I used to want to at one point, believe it or not,” Letts told BBC in a 2019 interview. “Not a vest. I wanted to do it in a car. I said if there’s a chance, I will do it.”
Since his capture in 2017, Letts has been held by Kurdish forces, his family says, without charges or a trial. They are seeking political help in Canada to free him, citing his Canadian citizenship.
While Letts has never lived in Canada, his father John is Canadian and passed on citizenship to his son. In 2019, citing his activities in Syria, the British government stripped Jack of his citizenship.
Next week, John Letts will arrive in Ottawa seeking meetings with people he hopes will speak up for his son.
Bernardi said in an email that it is a busy schedule in Ottawa, but it remains to be seen if he will get a warm reception. The Conservatives have denounced the idea of Letts coming to Canada in the past and the Liberals have been non-committal.
Advertisement
Story continues below
Article content
Despite saying in 2015 that, “A Canadian, is a Canadian, is a Canadian,” when promising to reinstate citizenship that had been stripped from convicted terrorists in this country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has not spoken up in favour of Letts.
“It is a crime to travel internationally with a goal of supporting terrorism or engaging in terrorism. And that is a crime that we will continue to make all attempts to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law,” Trudeau said when asked about the case in 2019.
Bernardi said that the Canadian government needs to fulfil its obligations to Letts, which could include prosecuting him in this country.
“Jack’s parents are not naive, and they strongly believe that if Jack has taken part in anything illegal, then he should be tried and prosecuted in accordance with the crime committed; Canada has all the infrastructure and capability to do this,” Bernardi said.
What the family doesn’t want is for Jack Letts to continue in what they call arbitrary detention.
Jihadi Jack's parents say he's no terrorist
The family of a man currently held in a Kurdish prison in northern Syria is disputing the description of him as a terrorist.
ISIS fanatic jailed for life in genocidal torture murder of Yazidi girl
His ex-wife was sentenced to 10 years in the slammer for her role
Author of the article:
Brad Hunter
Publishing date:
Nov 30, 2021 • 16 hours ago • 1 minute read •
18 Comments
Iraqi Taha Al-J. hides behind a folder speaking to his lawyers Serkan Alkan (C) und Martin Heising (R) before the judgment is pronounced in the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court on November 30, 2021 in Frankfurt an Main, Germany.
Iraqi Taha Al-J. hides behind a folder speaking to his lawyers Serkan Alkan (C) und Martin Heising (R) before the judgment is pronounced in the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court on November 30, 2021 in Frankfurt an Main, Germany. Photo by POOL /GETTY IMAGES
Article content
An ISIS fanatic sobbed as he was sentenced to life in prison in Germany for chaining a little Yazidi girl in the sun and letting her die of thirst.
Advertisement
Story continues below
Article content
Taha Al-Jumailly, 29, became the first person on the planet to be jailed for genocide.
The Iraqi citizen was arrested in Greece and then extradited to Germany to face justice. In addition, he was convicted of crimes against humanity, war crimes, aiding and abetting war crimes, and bodily harm resulting in death.
The court heard that Al-Jumailly and his former wife — a German woman named Jennifer Wenisch — “purchased” a Yazidi woman and child to be their slaves in ISIS-occupied Mosul in 2015.
After the child peed on her mattress, the fanatic chained the five-year-old outside in temperatures that hit 50C as punishment. The girl died of thirst.
His ex-wife was sentenced to 10 years in the slammer last month for her role in the girl’s death.
Advertisement
Story continues below
Article content
The Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking group who live in northern Iraq. For years they were tortured, murdered and hounded by ISIS, which slaughtered hundreds of them.
Last May, UN investigators determined that there was convincing evidence that ISIS had committed genocide against the Yazidis.
“This is a historical moment for the Yazidi community,” Natia Navrouzov, of NGO Yazda, told AFP. “It is the first time in Yazidi history that a perpetrator stands in a court of law for genocide charges.”
She added: “It doesn’t matter where the crimes were committed and it doesn’t matter where the perpetrators are, thanks to the universal jurisdiction, they can’t hide and will still be put on trial.”
The former ISIS super couple have both moaned that they were being made to pay for all of the terror group’s misdeeds.
Germany has taken an aggressive approach on the ISIS war crimes file, charging a number of German citizens and foreign nationals.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
torontosun.com
His ex-wife was sentenced to 10 years in the slammer for her role
Author of the article:
Brad Hunter
Publishing date:
Nov 30, 2021 • 16 hours ago • 1 minute read •
18 Comments
Iraqi Taha Al-J. hides behind a folder speaking to his lawyers Serkan Alkan (C) und Martin Heising (R) before the judgment is pronounced in the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court on November 30, 2021 in Frankfurt an Main, Germany.
Iraqi Taha Al-J. hides behind a folder speaking to his lawyers Serkan Alkan (C) und Martin Heising (R) before the judgment is pronounced in the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court on November 30, 2021 in Frankfurt an Main, Germany. Photo by POOL /GETTY IMAGES
Article content
An ISIS fanatic sobbed as he was sentenced to life in prison in Germany for chaining a little Yazidi girl in the sun and letting her die of thirst.
Advertisement
Story continues below
Article content
Taha Al-Jumailly, 29, became the first person on the planet to be jailed for genocide.
The Iraqi citizen was arrested in Greece and then extradited to Germany to face justice. In addition, he was convicted of crimes against humanity, war crimes, aiding and abetting war crimes, and bodily harm resulting in death.
The court heard that Al-Jumailly and his former wife — a German woman named Jennifer Wenisch — “purchased” a Yazidi woman and child to be their slaves in ISIS-occupied Mosul in 2015.
After the child peed on her mattress, the fanatic chained the five-year-old outside in temperatures that hit 50C as punishment. The girl died of thirst.
His ex-wife was sentenced to 10 years in the slammer last month for her role in the girl’s death.
Advertisement
Story continues below
Article content
The Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking group who live in northern Iraq. For years they were tortured, murdered and hounded by ISIS, which slaughtered hundreds of them.
Last May, UN investigators determined that there was convincing evidence that ISIS had committed genocide against the Yazidis.
“This is a historical moment for the Yazidi community,” Natia Navrouzov, of NGO Yazda, told AFP. “It is the first time in Yazidi history that a perpetrator stands in a court of law for genocide charges.”
She added: “It doesn’t matter where the crimes were committed and it doesn’t matter where the perpetrators are, thanks to the universal jurisdiction, they can’t hide and will still be put on trial.”
The former ISIS super couple have both moaned that they were being made to pay for all of the terror group’s misdeeds.
Germany has taken an aggressive approach on the ISIS war crimes file, charging a number of German citizens and foreign nationals.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
ISIS fanatic jailed for life in genocidal torture murder of Yazidi girl
His ex-wife was sentenced to 10 years in the slammer for her role
'Tiny Terrorist' faces 50 years in slammer for attack on Canadian woman
The judge said Shoma's rehab prospects were "very poor."
Author of the article:
Brad Hunter
Publishing date:
Dec 06, 2021 • 14 hours ago • 1 minute read •
12 Comments
Momena Shoma.
Momena Shoma. Photo by HANDOUT /AUSTRIALIA POLICE
Article content
An Islamic State fanatic known as the Tiny Terrorist could spend more than 50 years in an Australian prison after she attacked a Canadian woman behind bars.
Advertisement
Story continues below
Sponsored
Windows Users Must Remember To Do This Before Tomorrow
By SecuritySavers
Every PC user must read this in 2021 - Do this now.
See More
Article content
According to the Australian Associated Press (AAP), pint-sized fanatic Momena Shoma, 28, has vowed to strike again.
In the most recent incident, Shoma attacked Kailee Mitz of London, Ont. with garden shears. Mitz is awaiting trial for allegedly smuggling meth into Australia. Shoma’s intentions were clear: She wanted to kill Mitz to garner worldwide headlines, police say she admitted.
But Mitz spotted the internet-indoctrinated young Bengali woman coming towards her and used her hands to deflect the slashing. She required several stitches in her thumb.
In 2018, just days after arriving in Melbourne, Shoma stabbed her host in the neck as he slept beside his young daughter.
According to the AAP, Justice Jane Dixon sentenced Shoma to 12 years for her most recent attack at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre. She will now have to serve at least 36 years of her 48-year sentence and will be eligible for release in 2054.
Advertisement
Story continues below
Sponsored
Windows Users Must Remember To Do This Before Tomorrow
By SecuritySavers
Every PC user must read this in 2021 - Do this now.
See More
Article content
The judge noted that a prison deradicalization program only made the death cult devotee more fanatical. And when she’s free, Shoma told cops she’ll be ready to kill for Islamic State.
“If I get released I’ll do it again to let Allah know I’m strict,” she said following the attack she had planned for eight months.
In her cell, she proudly flies the ISIS flag and even her lawyer said her client was not remorseful. In fact, Shoma was proud of the attack. However, he said she could still be rehabilitated.
The judge dismissed that notion and said Shoma’s rehab prospects were “very poor.”
“I consider that the extent of your fanaticism … does not bode well for your long-term prospects of rehabilitation,” Dixon said. “However, I accept that you are still relatively young and that it remains feasible that your views may change over the years ahead.”
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
torontosun.com
The judge said Shoma's rehab prospects were "very poor."
Author of the article:
Brad Hunter
Publishing date:
Dec 06, 2021 • 14 hours ago • 1 minute read •
12 Comments
Momena Shoma.
Momena Shoma. Photo by HANDOUT /AUSTRIALIA POLICE
Article content
An Islamic State fanatic known as the Tiny Terrorist could spend more than 50 years in an Australian prison after she attacked a Canadian woman behind bars.
Advertisement
Story continues below
Sponsored
Windows Users Must Remember To Do This Before Tomorrow
By SecuritySavers
Every PC user must read this in 2021 - Do this now.
See More
Article content
According to the Australian Associated Press (AAP), pint-sized fanatic Momena Shoma, 28, has vowed to strike again.
In the most recent incident, Shoma attacked Kailee Mitz of London, Ont. with garden shears. Mitz is awaiting trial for allegedly smuggling meth into Australia. Shoma’s intentions were clear: She wanted to kill Mitz to garner worldwide headlines, police say she admitted.
But Mitz spotted the internet-indoctrinated young Bengali woman coming towards her and used her hands to deflect the slashing. She required several stitches in her thumb.
In 2018, just days after arriving in Melbourne, Shoma stabbed her host in the neck as he slept beside his young daughter.
According to the AAP, Justice Jane Dixon sentenced Shoma to 12 years for her most recent attack at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre. She will now have to serve at least 36 years of her 48-year sentence and will be eligible for release in 2054.
Advertisement
Story continues below
Sponsored
Windows Users Must Remember To Do This Before Tomorrow
By SecuritySavers
Every PC user must read this in 2021 - Do this now.
See More
Article content
The judge noted that a prison deradicalization program only made the death cult devotee more fanatical. And when she’s free, Shoma told cops she’ll be ready to kill for Islamic State.
“If I get released I’ll do it again to let Allah know I’m strict,” she said following the attack she had planned for eight months.
In her cell, she proudly flies the ISIS flag and even her lawyer said her client was not remorseful. In fact, Shoma was proud of the attack. However, he said she could still be rehabilitated.
The judge dismissed that notion and said Shoma’s rehab prospects were “very poor.”
“I consider that the extent of your fanaticism … does not bode well for your long-term prospects of rehabilitation,” Dixon said. “However, I accept that you are still relatively young and that it remains feasible that your views may change over the years ahead.”
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
'Tiny Terrorist' faces 50 years in slammer for attack on Canadian woman
The judge said Shoma's rehab prospects were "very poor."
Montreal man who tried to join ISIL to be released from penitentiary soon
In 2017, Ismaël Habib was convicted of attempting to travel abroad to commit a terrorist act and giving false information to obtain a passport.
Author of the article
aul Cherry • Montreal Gazette
Publishing date:Feb 25, 2022 • 11 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
Ismaël Habib spent three months in Syria before travelling to Turkey in 2012, where his passport was revoked and he was returned to Canada.
Ismaël Habib spent three months in Syria before travelling to Turkey in 2012, where his passport was revoked and he was returned to Canada. PHOTO BY FACEBOOK
Article content
A Montreal man who was found guilty of attempting to leave Canada to join the terrorist group ISIL in Syria will be released to a halfway house or a psychiatric institution soon, even though the Parole Board of Canada still has concerns about him.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
Cann raises nearly $35 million as it launches in Canada
Trackerdslogo
In 2017, Ismaël Habib, 34, was sentenced at the Montreal courthouse to a nine-year prison term after he was found guilty of attempting to join ISIL to fight with the group in Syria and of using false documents in an attempt to obtain a passport.
When the time he had already served behind bars was factored into the sentence, he was left with a prison term of a little more than 6 1/2 years.
Habib refused to have a parole hearing last year and will soon reach his statutory release date, the two-thirds mark of his sentence. Offenders who reach the two-thirds mark of their sentence without having been previously granted parole automatically qualify for a release. In such cases, the Parole Board of Canada is limited to deciding whether conditions should be imposed on the release.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
In Habib’s case, the board ordered that he reside at a “community residential facility or a (psychiatric) institution approved by Correctional Service of Canada until the expiration of” his sentence.
“The board believes that the sound management of the risk that you present requires prudence,” the board noted in its decision.
Habib is also required to supply his financial information to his parole officer and report any relationships he has with women.
Habib was born in Montreal to a Catholic mother from Quebec and a Muslim father from Afghanistan. He had been in Syria for a period of three months, but in November 2012 he left for Turkey to find his wife and two children, with the intention of bringing them to Syria. When he arrived in Turkey, he was informed that his Canadian passport had been revoked and Turkish authorities returned him to Canada.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
While he was back in Canada, Habib was targeted in a so-called Mr. Big operation, an RCMP undercover sting investigation, and was led to believe he was gradually becoming part of a criminal organization willing to help him leave Canada, either with a fake passport or through clandestine means such as hiding in a shipping container.
According to the summary of a decision the board made on Wednesday, Habib appeared to have “shown some motivation toward a better understanding” of his crimes, but “a deterioration was noted during the last year. The link with your parole officer was broken and you have ceased the various followups. Your more rigid attitude reappeared and your case management team (the people who prepare an offender for a release) noticed that you seem to be back in the same frame of mind as during the period” when Habib tried to join ISIL.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
“You wanted to join the ranks of the Islamic State in order to defend your ideologies. This involved associating with people adhering to this movement known for violence and its dangerousness,” the parole board wrote. “So, in order to help you make pro-social choices about the people you associate with, you will be prohibited from associating with or communicating with anyone who you know or have reason to believe is involved in any criminal and/or terrorist activity. The board reminds you that this condition includes your first wife, who joined the ranks of the Islamic State.”
pcherry@postmedia.com
torontosun.com
In 2017, Ismaël Habib was convicted of attempting to travel abroad to commit a terrorist act and giving false information to obtain a passport.
Author of the article
aul Cherry • Montreal GazettePublishing date:Feb 25, 2022 • 11 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
Ismaël Habib spent three months in Syria before travelling to Turkey in 2012, where his passport was revoked and he was returned to Canada.
Ismaël Habib spent three months in Syria before travelling to Turkey in 2012, where his passport was revoked and he was returned to Canada. PHOTO BY FACEBOOK
Article content
A Montreal man who was found guilty of attempting to leave Canada to join the terrorist group ISIL in Syria will be released to a halfway house or a psychiatric institution soon, even though the Parole Board of Canada still has concerns about him.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
Cann raises nearly $35 million as it launches in Canada
Trackerdslogo
In 2017, Ismaël Habib, 34, was sentenced at the Montreal courthouse to a nine-year prison term after he was found guilty of attempting to join ISIL to fight with the group in Syria and of using false documents in an attempt to obtain a passport.
When the time he had already served behind bars was factored into the sentence, he was left with a prison term of a little more than 6 1/2 years.
Habib refused to have a parole hearing last year and will soon reach his statutory release date, the two-thirds mark of his sentence. Offenders who reach the two-thirds mark of their sentence without having been previously granted parole automatically qualify for a release. In such cases, the Parole Board of Canada is limited to deciding whether conditions should be imposed on the release.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
In Habib’s case, the board ordered that he reside at a “community residential facility or a (psychiatric) institution approved by Correctional Service of Canada until the expiration of” his sentence.
“The board believes that the sound management of the risk that you present requires prudence,” the board noted in its decision.
Habib is also required to supply his financial information to his parole officer and report any relationships he has with women.
Habib was born in Montreal to a Catholic mother from Quebec and a Muslim father from Afghanistan. He had been in Syria for a period of three months, but in November 2012 he left for Turkey to find his wife and two children, with the intention of bringing them to Syria. When he arrived in Turkey, he was informed that his Canadian passport had been revoked and Turkish authorities returned him to Canada.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
While he was back in Canada, Habib was targeted in a so-called Mr. Big operation, an RCMP undercover sting investigation, and was led to believe he was gradually becoming part of a criminal organization willing to help him leave Canada, either with a fake passport or through clandestine means such as hiding in a shipping container.
According to the summary of a decision the board made on Wednesday, Habib appeared to have “shown some motivation toward a better understanding” of his crimes, but “a deterioration was noted during the last year. The link with your parole officer was broken and you have ceased the various followups. Your more rigid attitude reappeared and your case management team (the people who prepare an offender for a release) noticed that you seem to be back in the same frame of mind as during the period” when Habib tried to join ISIL.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
“You wanted to join the ranks of the Islamic State in order to defend your ideologies. This involved associating with people adhering to this movement known for violence and its dangerousness,” the parole board wrote. “So, in order to help you make pro-social choices about the people you associate with, you will be prohibited from associating with or communicating with anyone who you know or have reason to believe is involved in any criminal and/or terrorist activity. The board reminds you that this condition includes your first wife, who joined the ranks of the Islamic State.”
pcherry@postmedia.com
Montreal man who tried to join ISIL to be released from penitentiary soon
In 2017, Ismaël Habib was convicted of attempting to travel abroad to commit a terrorist act and giving false information to obtain a passport.
ISIS wackos cheer Ukraine invasion as 'divine punishment' for West
Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Publishing date:Mar 09, 2022 • 17 hours ago • 1 minute read • 62 Comments
The head of Interpol fears returning ISIS fighters and those sprung from jail will cause more bloodshed and havoc in the West.
The head of Interpol fears returning ISIS fighters and those sprung from jail will cause more bloodshed and havoc in the West.
Article content
Remember when ISIS were the rock stars of the terror world?
Advertisement 2
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
Now, they’re trotting themselves out for pronouncements like old jocks at all-star games and testimonial dinners.
According to the death cult icons, the war in Ukraine is a good and “divine punishment” for the West. The fun-loving fanatics hope the war will “destroy the enemies of Islam.”
In a full-page article in its al-Naba newsletter, ISIS called the bitter contest “crusaders against crusaders,” warning that Muslims should not take sides in the war that is threatening to expand beyond Ukraine’s borders.
The editorial said: “What is happening today, the direct bloody war between the Orthodox crusaders – Russia and Ukraine – is but one example of God’s punishment for them, as described in the Qu’ran.
A handout photograph released by the U.K. Parliament shows Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaking to Britain’s MPs by live video-link in the House of Commons, in London, Tuesday, March 8, 2022. ISIS doesn’t like him because he’s Jewish.
A handout photograph released by the U.K. Parliament shows Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaking to Britain’s MPs by live video-link in the House of Commons, in London, Tuesday, March 8, 2022. ISIS doesn’t like him because he’s Jewish. PHOTO BY JESSICA TAYLOR / U.K. PARLIAMENT /AFP via Getty Images
“Whether long or short, this Russian-Ukrainian war is but the beginning of the next wars between the Crusader countries, and the images of destruction and death we see are but a small scene of the situation in which the great wars begin.”
Advertisement 3
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
Then, the piece takes a stab at being geopolitical, calling the war “not surprising” and a result of an escalating conflict between the United States and Russia for influence in Eastern Europe.
Of course, ISIS was quick to point out that they hate both sides of the conflict.
Russia’s on the outs because of its history in Afghanistan and more recently propping up Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad against ISIS. As for Ukraine, well, heroic president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish.
In its heart of hearts, ISIS said they want both sides to destroy the other as an “amusing punishment… upon them for their disbelief in God Almighty.”
Oh, any Muslim fighting for Russia are part of “apostate militias.”
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Publishing date:Mar 09, 2022 • 17 hours ago • 1 minute read • 62 Comments
The head of Interpol fears returning ISIS fighters and those sprung from jail will cause more bloodshed and havoc in the West.
The head of Interpol fears returning ISIS fighters and those sprung from jail will cause more bloodshed and havoc in the West.
Article content
Remember when ISIS were the rock stars of the terror world?
Advertisement 2
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
Now, they’re trotting themselves out for pronouncements like old jocks at all-star games and testimonial dinners.
According to the death cult icons, the war in Ukraine is a good and “divine punishment” for the West. The fun-loving fanatics hope the war will “destroy the enemies of Islam.”
In a full-page article in its al-Naba newsletter, ISIS called the bitter contest “crusaders against crusaders,” warning that Muslims should not take sides in the war that is threatening to expand beyond Ukraine’s borders.
The editorial said: “What is happening today, the direct bloody war between the Orthodox crusaders – Russia and Ukraine – is but one example of God’s punishment for them, as described in the Qu’ran.
A handout photograph released by the U.K. Parliament shows Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaking to Britain’s MPs by live video-link in the House of Commons, in London, Tuesday, March 8, 2022. ISIS doesn’t like him because he’s Jewish.
A handout photograph released by the U.K. Parliament shows Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaking to Britain’s MPs by live video-link in the House of Commons, in London, Tuesday, March 8, 2022. ISIS doesn’t like him because he’s Jewish. PHOTO BY JESSICA TAYLOR / U.K. PARLIAMENT /AFP via Getty Images
“Whether long or short, this Russian-Ukrainian war is but the beginning of the next wars between the Crusader countries, and the images of destruction and death we see are but a small scene of the situation in which the great wars begin.”
Advertisement 3
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
Then, the piece takes a stab at being geopolitical, calling the war “not surprising” and a result of an escalating conflict between the United States and Russia for influence in Eastern Europe.
Of course, ISIS was quick to point out that they hate both sides of the conflict.
Russia’s on the outs because of its history in Afghanistan and more recently propping up Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad against ISIS. As for Ukraine, well, heroic president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish.
In its heart of hearts, ISIS said they want both sides to destroy the other as an “amusing punishment… upon them for their disbelief in God Almighty.”
Oh, any Muslim fighting for Russia are part of “apostate militias.”
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
ISIS wackos cheer Ukraine invasion as 'divine punishment' for West
Remember when ISIS were the rock stars of the terror world?
U.S. trial begins for member of Islamic State 'Beatles' cell
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Jan Wolfe
Publishing date:Mar 29, 2022 • 23 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
This file photo combination of pictures created on February 11, 2018 from two handout images shows captured British Islamic State (IS) group fighters El Shafee el-Sheikh (left) and Alexanda Kotey.
This file photo combination of pictures created on February 11, 2018 from two handout images shows captured British Islamic State (IS) group fighters El Shafee el-Sheikh (left) and Alexanda Kotey. PHOTO BY HANDOUT/SYRIAN DEMOCRATIC FORCES /AFP via Getty Images
Article content
WASHINGTON — An alleged member of a group of Islamic State militants that beheaded American hostages in Iraq and Syria, nicknamed “The Beatles” for their British accents, faces a U.S. criminal trial beginning on Tuesday.
Advertisement 2
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, will stand trial in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington, on charges including lethal hostage-taking and conspiracy to commit murder.
Elsheikh was one of four ISIS militants belonging to the four-member Islamic State cell. The cell garnered international attention after releasing videos of the murders of U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig, among other victims.
Two of the cell’s four members, Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, were held in Iraq by the U.S. military before being flown to the United States to face trial.
Mohammed Emwazi, a British citizen who oversaw the executions, died in a drone strike in 2015. Aine Lesley Davis, the fourth member of the group, was convicted in Turkey on terrorism charges and jailed.
Advertisement 3
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
Kotey pleaded guilty in September 2021 to the murders of Foley, Sotloff, Mueller and Kassig. He will be sentenced next month.
Kotey was a citizen of the United Kingdom, but the British government withdrew his citizenship.
The charges against Elsheikh, a UK citizen, carry a potential death sentence, but U.S. prosecutors have advised British officials that they will not seek the death penalty against Elsheikh or Kotey.
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis will oversee the trial, and is expected to spend Tuesday questioning potential jurors to ensure a fair trial.
Elsheikh’s lawyers have said the killings were planned and carried out by Emwazi at the behest of Islamic State leadership.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Jan Wolfe
Publishing date:Mar 29, 2022 • 23 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
This file photo combination of pictures created on February 11, 2018 from two handout images shows captured British Islamic State (IS) group fighters El Shafee el-Sheikh (left) and Alexanda Kotey.
This file photo combination of pictures created on February 11, 2018 from two handout images shows captured British Islamic State (IS) group fighters El Shafee el-Sheikh (left) and Alexanda Kotey. PHOTO BY HANDOUT/SYRIAN DEMOCRATIC FORCES /AFP via Getty Images
Article content
WASHINGTON — An alleged member of a group of Islamic State militants that beheaded American hostages in Iraq and Syria, nicknamed “The Beatles” for their British accents, faces a U.S. criminal trial beginning on Tuesday.
Advertisement 2
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, will stand trial in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington, on charges including lethal hostage-taking and conspiracy to commit murder.
Elsheikh was one of four ISIS militants belonging to the four-member Islamic State cell. The cell garnered international attention after releasing videos of the murders of U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig, among other victims.
Two of the cell’s four members, Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, were held in Iraq by the U.S. military before being flown to the United States to face trial.
Mohammed Emwazi, a British citizen who oversaw the executions, died in a drone strike in 2015. Aine Lesley Davis, the fourth member of the group, was convicted in Turkey on terrorism charges and jailed.
Advertisement 3
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
Kotey pleaded guilty in September 2021 to the murders of Foley, Sotloff, Mueller and Kassig. He will be sentenced next month.
Kotey was a citizen of the United Kingdom, but the British government withdrew his citizenship.
The charges against Elsheikh, a UK citizen, carry a potential death sentence, but U.S. prosecutors have advised British officials that they will not seek the death penalty against Elsheikh or Kotey.
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis will oversee the trial, and is expected to spend Tuesday questioning potential jurors to ensure a fair trial.
Elsheikh’s lawyers have said the killings were planned and carried out by Emwazi at the behest of Islamic State leadership.
U.S. trial begins for member of Islamic State 'Beatles' cell
WASHINGTON — An alleged member of a group of Islamic State militants that beheaded American hostages in Iraq and Syria, nicknamed “The Beatles” for their British ac…
Islamic State 'Beatles' cell member convicted of beheading hostages
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Jan Wolfe
Publishing date:Apr 14, 2022 • 15 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
This file handout photo taken on February 10, 2018, and provided by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), shows captured Islamic State (IS) group fighter El Shafee el-Sheikh.
This file handout photo taken on February 10, 2018, and provided by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), shows captured Islamic State (IS) group fighter El Shafee el-Sheikh. PHOTO BY HANDOUT/SYRIAN DEMOCRATIC FORCES /AFP via Getty Images
Article content
WASHINGTON — A U.S. jury on Thursday convicted a former British citizen for his role in a notorious Islamic State hostage-taking plot that led to the beheading of American journalists and aid workers.
Advertisement 2
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
After a six-week trial and four hours of deliberations, a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, found El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, guilty on charges including lethal hostage-taking and conspiracy to commit murder.
In convicting Elsheikh, the jury concluded that he was part of an Islamic State terrorist cell, nicknamed “The Beatles” for their British accents, that beheaded American hostages in Iraq and Syria.
Some former hostages, released by the “Beatles” after protracted negotiations, testified during the trial about the torture they endured. Family members of the deceased victims also testified.
The charges against Elsheikh, whose British citizenship was withdrawn in 2018, carry a potential death sentence, but U.S. prosecutors have advised British officials that they will not seek the death penalty.
Advertisement 3
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
Elsheikh, who was born in Sudan and raised in London, was accused of conspiring to kill four American hostages: James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. Foley and Sotloff, both journalists, and Kassig, an aid worker, were killed in videotaped beheadings. Mueller was raped repeatedly by the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, before her death in Syria, U.S. officials have said.
Another of the cell’s members, Alexanda Kotey, was held in Iraq by the U.S. military before being flown to the United States to face trial. Kotey pleaded guilty last September to the murders of Foley, Sotloff, Mueller and Kassig.
During opening arguments in the U.S. trial, Elsheikh’s lawyer Ed MacMahon called him a “simple ISIS fighter” and tried to cast doubt on whether he was one of the “Beatles.” The captors wore masks and had similar accents, making it difficult for hostages to identify them, he said.
“It was horrific and senseless. None of that is in dispute,” MacMahon said. “What is in dispute — and what you must decide — is whether Mr. Elsheikh bears any legal responsibility.”
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Jan Wolfe
Publishing date:Apr 14, 2022 • 15 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
This file handout photo taken on February 10, 2018, and provided by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), shows captured Islamic State (IS) group fighter El Shafee el-Sheikh.
This file handout photo taken on February 10, 2018, and provided by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), shows captured Islamic State (IS) group fighter El Shafee el-Sheikh. PHOTO BY HANDOUT/SYRIAN DEMOCRATIC FORCES /AFP via Getty Images
Article content
WASHINGTON — A U.S. jury on Thursday convicted a former British citizen for his role in a notorious Islamic State hostage-taking plot that led to the beheading of American journalists and aid workers.
Advertisement 2
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
After a six-week trial and four hours of deliberations, a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, found El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, guilty on charges including lethal hostage-taking and conspiracy to commit murder.
In convicting Elsheikh, the jury concluded that he was part of an Islamic State terrorist cell, nicknamed “The Beatles” for their British accents, that beheaded American hostages in Iraq and Syria.
Some former hostages, released by the “Beatles” after protracted negotiations, testified during the trial about the torture they endured. Family members of the deceased victims also testified.
The charges against Elsheikh, whose British citizenship was withdrawn in 2018, carry a potential death sentence, but U.S. prosecutors have advised British officials that they will not seek the death penalty.
Advertisement 3
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
Elsheikh, who was born in Sudan and raised in London, was accused of conspiring to kill four American hostages: James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. Foley and Sotloff, both journalists, and Kassig, an aid worker, were killed in videotaped beheadings. Mueller was raped repeatedly by the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, before her death in Syria, U.S. officials have said.
Another of the cell’s members, Alexanda Kotey, was held in Iraq by the U.S. military before being flown to the United States to face trial. Kotey pleaded guilty last September to the murders of Foley, Sotloff, Mueller and Kassig.
During opening arguments in the U.S. trial, Elsheikh’s lawyer Ed MacMahon called him a “simple ISIS fighter” and tried to cast doubt on whether he was one of the “Beatles.” The captors wore masks and had similar accents, making it difficult for hostages to identify them, he said.
“It was horrific and senseless. None of that is in dispute,” MacMahon said. “What is in dispute — and what you must decide — is whether Mr. Elsheikh bears any legal responsibility.”
Islamic State 'Beatles' cell member convicted of beheading hostages
WASHINGTON — A U.S. jury on Thursday convicted a former British citizen for his role in a notorious Islamic State hostage-taking plot that led to the beheading of A…
HUNTER: Canadian woman attacked by jailed terrorist sues Australia
Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Publishing date:May 06, 2022 • 15 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
Kailee Mitz is suing Australia after she was attacked in prison by an ISIS fanatic.
Kailee Mitz is suing Australia after she was attacked in prison by an ISIS fanatic. PHOTO BY COURTESY /FACEBOOK
Article content
Kailee Mitz made some bad choices, sure — she admits it.
The single mom of three from London, Ont., probably should not have flown with her boyfriend into Australia with a payload of enough methamphetamines to stupify Darwin.
But Mitz was like a lot of drug mules. Broke, in debt, and without hope — until a trip to Australia seemed to be the answer to all her woes. She and her then-boyfriend would pull in $40,000 each for smuggling the drugs, which she thought were steroids.
In October 2020, Mitz was in the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Melbourne awaiting sentencing for her role in the dope smuggling plot when death nearly came calling.
Wielding a pair of gardening shears, a fellow inmate named Momena Shoma attacked Mitz. At the time, Shoma was serving a 42-year sentence for a terror-related stabbing.
Shoma is one of the Islamic State death cult’s true believers. Corrections already knew she was a violent psychopath and yet she somehow got her hands on the shears and proceeded to try and murder Mitz.
Momena Shoma: ISIS fanatic. AuS. FED POLICE
Momena Shoma: ISIS fanatic. AuS. FED POLICE
There was no beef. No prior interactions beyond hello.
At her trial, Shoma proudly boasted she had been planning to murder the petite Canadian for months.
“We weren’t overly friendly with each other … but I was kind to her, when she got let out, I would say good morning and ask her how she’s doing,” Mitz, 28, told the ABC through her lawyers.
Bizarrely, Shoma was transferred to the same open low-security wing of the prison where Mitz was kept.
On the day of the attack, the Canadian was reading a novel when Shoma walked in with the shears.
“I asked her what she was doing,” Mitz said.
“Then she started swinging them around and then she raised them… she was looking at me in my eyes … and she brought them down and tried to stab me. Her eyes were just black and she was just staring at me and she looked like she was just possessed.”
THE WEAPON. Australia Federal Police
THE WEAPON. Australia Federal Police
Mitz then flipped over the back of the couch as Shoma kept stabbing, striking the Canadian in the hands. Finally, another inmate pinned the fanatic until guards arrived.
The Islamic State fangirl, 29, told investigators she wanted to make headlines around the planet. And when she was charged with terror offences, she said Allah would be pleased.
Now, 18-months later, Mitz is suing the state of Victoria for damages.
Her lawyers are asking why a blood-thirsty maniac would be in low security? And how did she get the shears?
In Mitz’s statement of claim, she charges that prison poohbahs breached their duty and were negligent, blowing off the risk Shoma posed.
But in these politically correct times, Mitz isn’t seen as the victim. Shoma is. Officials begged her to keep quiet and so allegedly did the Canadian high commissioner.
“They just kept asking me why I called (the High Commissioner) and that’s when I brought up the fact that I felt that they were negligent and that they should have monitored (Shoma) better.
“Their response to me was that we can’t just keep her in a cell and throw away the key, which is kind of contradictory because that is what they are doing to her now, and, unfortunately, it took her trying to kill me for that to happen.”
And Shoma remains unrepentant, telling cops: “I would have killed her, stabbed her to death, that was my intention. If I get released, then I’ll do it again.”
Her victim is more sensible.
“Even though people who are in prison have done something wrong, it doesn’t make them a bad person,” Mitz told ABC News.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
abc.net.au
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Publishing date:May 06, 2022 • 15 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
Kailee Mitz is suing Australia after she was attacked in prison by an ISIS fanatic.
Kailee Mitz is suing Australia after she was attacked in prison by an ISIS fanatic. PHOTO BY COURTESY /FACEBOOK
Article content
Kailee Mitz made some bad choices, sure — she admits it.
The single mom of three from London, Ont., probably should not have flown with her boyfriend into Australia with a payload of enough methamphetamines to stupify Darwin.
But Mitz was like a lot of drug mules. Broke, in debt, and without hope — until a trip to Australia seemed to be the answer to all her woes. She and her then-boyfriend would pull in $40,000 each for smuggling the drugs, which she thought were steroids.
In October 2020, Mitz was in the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Melbourne awaiting sentencing for her role in the dope smuggling plot when death nearly came calling.
Wielding a pair of gardening shears, a fellow inmate named Momena Shoma attacked Mitz. At the time, Shoma was serving a 42-year sentence for a terror-related stabbing.
Shoma is one of the Islamic State death cult’s true believers. Corrections already knew she was a violent psychopath and yet she somehow got her hands on the shears and proceeded to try and murder Mitz.
Momena Shoma: ISIS fanatic. AuS. FED POLICE
Momena Shoma: ISIS fanatic. AuS. FED POLICE
There was no beef. No prior interactions beyond hello.
At her trial, Shoma proudly boasted she had been planning to murder the petite Canadian for months.
“We weren’t overly friendly with each other … but I was kind to her, when she got let out, I would say good morning and ask her how she’s doing,” Mitz, 28, told the ABC through her lawyers.
Bizarrely, Shoma was transferred to the same open low-security wing of the prison where Mitz was kept.
On the day of the attack, the Canadian was reading a novel when Shoma walked in with the shears.
“I asked her what she was doing,” Mitz said.
“Then she started swinging them around and then she raised them… she was looking at me in my eyes … and she brought them down and tried to stab me. Her eyes were just black and she was just staring at me and she looked like she was just possessed.”
THE WEAPON. Australia Federal Police
THE WEAPON. Australia Federal Police
Mitz then flipped over the back of the couch as Shoma kept stabbing, striking the Canadian in the hands. Finally, another inmate pinned the fanatic until guards arrived.
The Islamic State fangirl, 29, told investigators she wanted to make headlines around the planet. And when she was charged with terror offences, she said Allah would be pleased.
Now, 18-months later, Mitz is suing the state of Victoria for damages.
Her lawyers are asking why a blood-thirsty maniac would be in low security? And how did she get the shears?
In Mitz’s statement of claim, she charges that prison poohbahs breached their duty and were negligent, blowing off the risk Shoma posed.
But in these politically correct times, Mitz isn’t seen as the victim. Shoma is. Officials begged her to keep quiet and so allegedly did the Canadian high commissioner.
“They just kept asking me why I called (the High Commissioner) and that’s when I brought up the fact that I felt that they were negligent and that they should have monitored (Shoma) better.
“Their response to me was that we can’t just keep her in a cell and throw away the key, which is kind of contradictory because that is what they are doing to her now, and, unfortunately, it took her trying to kill me for that to happen.”
And Shoma remains unrepentant, telling cops: “I would have killed her, stabbed her to death, that was my intention. If I get released, then I’ll do it again.”
Her victim is more sensible.
“Even though people who are in prison have done something wrong, it doesn’t make them a bad person,” Mitz told ABC News.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
Kailee Mitz was prepared to do her time in prison. It was the last place she expected to be the victim of a terror attack
A Canadian woman serving a sentence in a Melbourne jail has launched a lawsuit against the Victorian government over a 2020 attack by another inmate, alleging prison officials failed to supervise her attacker.
abc.net.au
HUNTER: Canadian woman attacked by jailed terrorist sues Australia
Kailee Mitz made some bad choices, sure -- she admits it.
shes lucky that she just got stabbed in the hands.HUNTER: Canadian woman attacked by jailed terrorist sues Australia
Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Publishing date:May 06, 2022 • 15 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
Kailee Mitz is suing Australia after she was attacked in prison by an ISIS fanatic.
Kailee Mitz is suing Australia after she was attacked in prison by an ISIS fanatic. PHOTO BY COURTESY /FACEBOOK
Article content
Kailee Mitz made some bad choices, sure — she admits it.
The single mom of three from London, Ont., probably should not have flown with her boyfriend into Australia with a payload of enough methamphetamines to stupify Darwin.
But Mitz was like a lot of drug mules. Broke, in debt, and without hope — until a trip to Australia seemed to be the answer to all her woes. She and her then-boyfriend would pull in $40,000 each for smuggling the drugs, which she thought were steroids.
In October 2020, Mitz was in the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Melbourne awaiting sentencing for her role in the dope smuggling plot when death nearly came calling.
Wielding a pair of gardening shears, a fellow inmate named Momena Shoma attacked Mitz. At the time, Shoma was serving a 42-year sentence for a terror-related stabbing.
Shoma is one of the Islamic State death cult’s true believers. Corrections already knew she was a violent psychopath and yet she somehow got her hands on the shears and proceeded to try and murder Mitz.
Momena Shoma: ISIS fanatic. AuS. FED POLICE
Momena Shoma: ISIS fanatic. AuS. FED POLICE
There was no beef. No prior interactions beyond hello.
At her trial, Shoma proudly boasted she had been planning to murder the petite Canadian for months.
“We weren’t overly friendly with each other … but I was kind to her, when she got let out, I would say good morning and ask her how she’s doing,” Mitz, 28, told the ABC through her lawyers.
Bizarrely, Shoma was transferred to the same open low-security wing of the prison where Mitz was kept.
On the day of the attack, the Canadian was reading a novel when Shoma walked in with the shears.
“I asked her what she was doing,” Mitz said.
“Then she started swinging them around and then she raised them… she was looking at me in my eyes … and she brought them down and tried to stab me. Her eyes were just black and she was just staring at me and she looked like she was just possessed.”
THE WEAPON. Australia Federal Police
THE WEAPON. Australia Federal Police
Mitz then flipped over the back of the couch as Shoma kept stabbing, striking the Canadian in the hands. Finally, another inmate pinned the fanatic until guards arrived.
The Islamic State fangirl, 29, told investigators she wanted to make headlines around the planet. And when she was charged with terror offences, she said Allah would be pleased.
Now, 18-months later, Mitz is suing the state of Victoria for damages.
Her lawyers are asking why a blood-thirsty maniac would be in low security? And how did she get the shears?
In Mitz’s statement of claim, she charges that prison poohbahs breached their duty and were negligent, blowing off the risk Shoma posed.
But in these politically correct times, Mitz isn’t seen as the victim. Shoma is. Officials begged her to keep quiet and so allegedly did the Canadian high commissioner.
“They just kept asking me why I called (the High Commissioner) and that’s when I brought up the fact that I felt that they were negligent and that they should have monitored (Shoma) better.
“Their response to me was that we can’t just keep her in a cell and throw away the key, which is kind of contradictory because that is what they are doing to her now, and, unfortunately, it took her trying to kill me for that to happen.”
And Shoma remains unrepentant, telling cops: “I would have killed her, stabbed her to death, that was my intention. If I get released, then I’ll do it again.”
Her victim is more sensible.
“Even though people who are in prison have done something wrong, it doesn’t make them a bad person,” Mitz told ABC News.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
View attachment 13617View attachment 13618View attachment 13619
Kailee Mitz was prepared to do her time in prison. It was the last place she expected to be the victim of a terror attack
A Canadian woman serving a sentence in a Melbourne jail has launched a lawsuit against the Victorian government over a 2020 attack by another inmate, alleging prison officials failed to supervise her attacker.HUNTER: Canadian woman attacked by jailed terrorist sues Australia
Kailee Mitz made some bad choices, sure -- she admits it.
Iraqi plot in the U.S. to assassinate Bush reportedly uncovered
Author of the articleostmedia News
Publishing date:May 25, 2022 • 13 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
A plot to kill former President George W. Bush by an Iraqi man living in Ohio has been uncovered by U.S. officials, according to the New York Post.
Court records say Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab, 52, planned on using four ISIS-linked assassins smuggled over the border from Mexico to kill Bush.
Shihab, who is facing up to 20 years in prison for the attempted murder of a former U.S. official and another 10 years on each charge of bringing someone into the country illegally, blamed the former president for launching the Iraq War in 2003 and “breaking apart the entire country.”
He was arrested Tuesday.
The records show he claimed to be working with a group in Qatar called “Al Raed” to bring in the killers, all of whom are Iraq citizens but were allegedly described as intelligence officers.
Once they’ve done the hit, if they survived, the men, described as “very experienced in attacks and assassinations,” were to be smuggled back across the border into Mexico said the records that Forbes first reported on.
“Shihab stated that these individuals do not care if they die during the mission or make it out of the U.S.,” read an affidavit.
The Department of Justice said in a news release said the accused was residing in Columbus and Indianapolis mainly working in restaurants after he applied for asylum in the U.S. last March.
The department said he’d come to the country legally on a visitor visa in 2020 but he later claimed the visa came via a corrupt Iraqi-American contractor at the U.S. Embassy.
The records say Shihab even went to Dallas in February to watch Bush’s home and the George W. Bush Institute.
The department said he’d previously accepted part of a $40,000 fee to help smuggle a man into the U.S. who he thought was a fellow Iraqi but was actually part of the FBI probe.
torontosun.com
Author of the article
ostmedia NewsPublishing date:May 25, 2022 • 13 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
A plot to kill former President George W. Bush by an Iraqi man living in Ohio has been uncovered by U.S. officials, according to the New York Post.
Court records say Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab, 52, planned on using four ISIS-linked assassins smuggled over the border from Mexico to kill Bush.
Shihab, who is facing up to 20 years in prison for the attempted murder of a former U.S. official and another 10 years on each charge of bringing someone into the country illegally, blamed the former president for launching the Iraq War in 2003 and “breaking apart the entire country.”
He was arrested Tuesday.
The records show he claimed to be working with a group in Qatar called “Al Raed” to bring in the killers, all of whom are Iraq citizens but were allegedly described as intelligence officers.
Once they’ve done the hit, if they survived, the men, described as “very experienced in attacks and assassinations,” were to be smuggled back across the border into Mexico said the records that Forbes first reported on.
“Shihab stated that these individuals do not care if they die during the mission or make it out of the U.S.,” read an affidavit.
The Department of Justice said in a news release said the accused was residing in Columbus and Indianapolis mainly working in restaurants after he applied for asylum in the U.S. last March.
The department said he’d come to the country legally on a visitor visa in 2020 but he later claimed the visa came via a corrupt Iraqi-American contractor at the U.S. Embassy.
The records say Shihab even went to Dallas in February to watch Bush’s home and the George W. Bush Institute.
The department said he’d previously accepted part of a $40,000 fee to help smuggle a man into the U.S. who he thought was a fellow Iraqi but was actually part of the FBI probe.
Iraqi plot in the U.S. to assassinate Bush reportedly uncovered
A plot to kill former President George W. Bush by an Iraqi man living in Ohio has reportedly been uncovered by U.S. officials.
Calgary man who admitted to participating in terrorism activity to be sentenced
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Publishing date:May 26, 2022 • 1 day ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
Hussein Borhot is seen in a courtroom sketch in Calgary on Thursday, April 28, 2022. Borhot, who pleaded guilty to terrorism-related acts with the militant group Islamic State, is to be sentenced today.
Hussein Borhot is seen in a courtroom sketch in Calgary on Thursday, April 28, 2022. Borhot, who pleaded guilty to terrorism-related acts with the militant group Islamic State, is to be sentenced today. PHOTO BY MARY HAASDYK /The Canadian Press
CALGARY — A man who admitted to terrorism-related acts with the militant group Islamic State is to be sentenced today in a Calgary courtroom.
Hussein Borhot, who is 36, has pleaded guilty to one count of participating in terrorism group activity between May 9, 2013, and June 7, 2014, as well as to kidnapping for a terrorist group while in Syria.
RCMP arrested him in July 2020 after a seven-year investigation.
An agreed statement of facts read in court last month said Borhot travelled to Syria through Turkey to join the Islamic State.
The statement said he signed up as a fighter, received substantial training and excelled as a sniper, but did not tell his wife or father before the trip.
Court heard that Borhot revealed much of the information to an undercover officer after he returned to Canada.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Publishing date:May 26, 2022 • 1 day ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
Hussein Borhot is seen in a courtroom sketch in Calgary on Thursday, April 28, 2022. Borhot, who pleaded guilty to terrorism-related acts with the militant group Islamic State, is to be sentenced today.
Hussein Borhot is seen in a courtroom sketch in Calgary on Thursday, April 28, 2022. Borhot, who pleaded guilty to terrorism-related acts with the militant group Islamic State, is to be sentenced today. PHOTO BY MARY HAASDYK /The Canadian Press
CALGARY — A man who admitted to terrorism-related acts with the militant group Islamic State is to be sentenced today in a Calgary courtroom.
Hussein Borhot, who is 36, has pleaded guilty to one count of participating in terrorism group activity between May 9, 2013, and June 7, 2014, as well as to kidnapping for a terrorist group while in Syria.
RCMP arrested him in July 2020 after a seven-year investigation.
An agreed statement of facts read in court last month said Borhot travelled to Syria through Turkey to join the Islamic State.
The statement said he signed up as a fighter, received substantial training and excelled as a sniper, but did not tell his wife or father before the trip.
Court heard that Borhot revealed much of the information to an undercover officer after he returned to Canada.
Calgary man who admitted to participating in terrorism activity to be sentenced
CALGARY — A man who admitted to terrorism-related acts with the militant group Islamic State is to be sentenced today in a Calgary courtroom.
U.S. woman pleads guilty to leading Islamic State battalion
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Eric Tucker
Publishing date:Jun 07, 2022 • 18 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — An American woman who prosecutors say led an all-female battalion of Islamic State militants in Syria pleaded guilty on Tuesday in a case that a prosecutor called a first of its kind in the United States.
Allison Fluke-Ekren broke down sobbing after admitting in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, a charge that carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence.
The guilty plea resolves a criminal case that came to light in January after Fluke-Ekren, 42, who once lived in Kansas, was brought to the U.S. to face accusations that she led an Islamic State unit of women and young girls in the Syrian city of Raqqa and trained them in the use of automatic rifles, grenades and suicide belts.
It is the first prosecution in the U.S. of a female Islamic State battalion leader, said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh, who told a judge that some of the more than 100 women and girls who received training may wish to speak at Fluke-Ekren’s sentencing hearing.
“Some of them may wish an opportunity to address the court because we would argue that there is lifelong trauma and pain that has been inflicted on them,” Parekh said.
Charging documents in the case trace Fluke-Ekren’s travels and activities in the Middle East over the last decade, though they don’t shed light on what inspired her alleged allegiance to foreign militant groups.
She had been in Syria since late 2012 or early 2013, where according to one witness cited in court documents, she spoke openly about her desire to conduct an attack in the U.S., including by parking car loaded with explosives in an underground garage of a shopping mall. Another witness said Fluke-Ekren spoke about a desire to bomb a college campus.
Prosecutors say that after Fluke-Ekren’s second husband, identified in court papers as a member of the militant group Ansar al-Sharia, was killed in an air strike in Syria in February 2016, she led a center that offered medical services and child care — but also advanced weapons training — to dozens of women and young girls.
Her all-female battalion, known as Khatiba Nusaybah, began operations in 2017, with a goal of teaching female Islamic State members how to defend themselves against the group’s enemies, prosecutors say.
According to court documents, she continued her affiliation with the Islamic State until the spring of 2019, when she was smuggled out of IS territory. Fluke-Ekren has said she tried to turn herself in at a local police station last summer because she wanted to leave Syria, and that about two weeks later, she was taken into custody at her home and later held in prison.
A criminal complaint against Fluke-Ekren was filed under seal in the U.S. in 2019 but not made public until she was brought to Virginia in January to face charges.
Fluke-Ekren, who said in court that she had a master’s degree in the U.S. in teaching, moved to Egypt with her second husband in 2008 and lived in Benghazi, Libya in the fall of 2012, when a n attack on U.S. government facilities resulted in the deaths of four Americans. Fluke-Ekren is not alleged to have played any part in that attack, but prosecutors say she helped her second husband review and summarize documents that he said were stolen from the U.S. compound there.
Fluke-Ekren admitted to the gist of the government’s allegations against her, though at one point she suggested that one of the witnesses quoted in court documents was young at the time they were speaking and may have had a different understanding of their conversations. She also suggested that she had not intentionally trained young girls.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Eric Tucker
Publishing date:Jun 07, 2022 • 18 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — An American woman who prosecutors say led an all-female battalion of Islamic State militants in Syria pleaded guilty on Tuesday in a case that a prosecutor called a first of its kind in the United States.
Allison Fluke-Ekren broke down sobbing after admitting in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, a charge that carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence.
The guilty plea resolves a criminal case that came to light in January after Fluke-Ekren, 42, who once lived in Kansas, was brought to the U.S. to face accusations that she led an Islamic State unit of women and young girls in the Syrian city of Raqqa and trained them in the use of automatic rifles, grenades and suicide belts.
It is the first prosecution in the U.S. of a female Islamic State battalion leader, said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh, who told a judge that some of the more than 100 women and girls who received training may wish to speak at Fluke-Ekren’s sentencing hearing.
“Some of them may wish an opportunity to address the court because we would argue that there is lifelong trauma and pain that has been inflicted on them,” Parekh said.
Charging documents in the case trace Fluke-Ekren’s travels and activities in the Middle East over the last decade, though they don’t shed light on what inspired her alleged allegiance to foreign militant groups.
She had been in Syria since late 2012 or early 2013, where according to one witness cited in court documents, she spoke openly about her desire to conduct an attack in the U.S., including by parking car loaded with explosives in an underground garage of a shopping mall. Another witness said Fluke-Ekren spoke about a desire to bomb a college campus.
Prosecutors say that after Fluke-Ekren’s second husband, identified in court papers as a member of the militant group Ansar al-Sharia, was killed in an air strike in Syria in February 2016, she led a center that offered medical services and child care — but also advanced weapons training — to dozens of women and young girls.
Her all-female battalion, known as Khatiba Nusaybah, began operations in 2017, with a goal of teaching female Islamic State members how to defend themselves against the group’s enemies, prosecutors say.
According to court documents, she continued her affiliation with the Islamic State until the spring of 2019, when she was smuggled out of IS territory. Fluke-Ekren has said she tried to turn herself in at a local police station last summer because she wanted to leave Syria, and that about two weeks later, she was taken into custody at her home and later held in prison.
A criminal complaint against Fluke-Ekren was filed under seal in the U.S. in 2019 but not made public until she was brought to Virginia in January to face charges.
Fluke-Ekren, who said in court that she had a master’s degree in the U.S. in teaching, moved to Egypt with her second husband in 2008 and lived in Benghazi, Libya in the fall of 2012, when a n attack on U.S. government facilities resulted in the deaths of four Americans. Fluke-Ekren is not alleged to have played any part in that attack, but prosecutors say she helped her second husband review and summarize documents that he said were stolen from the U.S. compound there.
Fluke-Ekren admitted to the gist of the government’s allegations against her, though at one point she suggested that one of the witnesses quoted in court documents was young at the time they were speaking and may have had a different understanding of their conversations. She also suggested that she had not intentionally trained young girls.
U.S. woman pleads guilty to leading Islamic State battalion
An American woman who prosecutors say led an all-female battalion of Islamic State militants in Syria pleaded guilty on Tuesday.
U.S. woman who joined ISIS guilty of training death cult's girls how to kill
Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Publishing date:Jun 08, 2022 • 1 day ago • 1 minute read • 32 Comments
ISIS fan girl Allison Fluke-Ekren has been convicted of training girls as young as 10 to kill the death cult’s enemies.
The 42-year-old Kansas woman pleaded guilty to playing den mother and organizing Islamic State’s all-female battalion.
She faces 20 years in prison for her crimes.
According to federal prosecutors, Fluke-Ekren provided the deadly training to more than 100 women and girls in the crushed Islamic caliphate in Syria.
She reportedly left the United States for Egypt in 2008 on her girl’s own adventure in the wake of her second husband Volkan Ekren leaving with their four children. Fluke-Ekren then made her way to Libya.
From the start, she was an ISIS fanatic, reviewing and summarizing documents that her husband snatched from the U.S. Special Mission after a terror attack that targeted the compound, the feds said.
Next, the nomadic nutbar travelled with her husband to Turkey, Syria, and finally. There, she organized a women’s centre in Raqqa on behalf ISIS where daycare, medical services, and brainwashing were on the menu.
Fluke-Ekren hit the big time in 2017 when she was named commander of the Khatiba Nusaybah — the all-female ISIS battalion.
As the diva of death, she taught her young students how to use an AK-47 assault rifle, throw grenades and use a suicide belt, the DOJ said.
According to the New York Post, Fluke-Ekren also trained the women in “martial arts, medical training, VBIED driving courses, ISIS religious classes, and how to pack and prep a ‘go bag’ with rifles and other military supplies.”
She was returned to the U.S. in January to face charges in the 2019 criminal complaint.
Fluke-Ekren pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Publishing date:Jun 08, 2022 • 1 day ago • 1 minute read • 32 Comments
ISIS fan girl Allison Fluke-Ekren has been convicted of training girls as young as 10 to kill the death cult’s enemies.
The 42-year-old Kansas woman pleaded guilty to playing den mother and organizing Islamic State’s all-female battalion.
She faces 20 years in prison for her crimes.
According to federal prosecutors, Fluke-Ekren provided the deadly training to more than 100 women and girls in the crushed Islamic caliphate in Syria.
She reportedly left the United States for Egypt in 2008 on her girl’s own adventure in the wake of her second husband Volkan Ekren leaving with their four children. Fluke-Ekren then made her way to Libya.
From the start, she was an ISIS fanatic, reviewing and summarizing documents that her husband snatched from the U.S. Special Mission after a terror attack that targeted the compound, the feds said.
Next, the nomadic nutbar travelled with her husband to Turkey, Syria, and finally. There, she organized a women’s centre in Raqqa on behalf ISIS where daycare, medical services, and brainwashing were on the menu.
Fluke-Ekren hit the big time in 2017 when she was named commander of the Khatiba Nusaybah — the all-female ISIS battalion.
As the diva of death, she taught her young students how to use an AK-47 assault rifle, throw grenades and use a suicide belt, the DOJ said.
According to the New York Post, Fluke-Ekren also trained the women in “martial arts, medical training, VBIED driving courses, ISIS religious classes, and how to pack and prep a ‘go bag’ with rifles and other military supplies.”
She was returned to the U.S. in January to face charges in the 2019 criminal complaint.
Fluke-Ekren pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
U.S. woman who joined ISIS guilty of training death cult's girls how to kill
ISIS fan girl Allison Fluke-Ekren has been convicted of training girls as young as 10 to kill the death cult's enemies.
Nigeria suspects Islamic State of killing 40 in Catholic church
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:Jun 09, 2022 • 1 day ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
A view of St. Francis Catholic Church where worshippers were attacked by gunmen during Sunday mass, is pictured in Owo, Ondo, Nigeria June 6, 2022.
A view of St. Francis Catholic Church where worshippers were attacked by gunmen during Sunday mass, is pictured in Owo, Ondo, Nigeria June 6, 2022. PHOTO BY TEMILADE ADELAJA /REUTERS
ABUJA — The Nigerian authorities suspect the insurgent group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) of carrying out a massacre in a Catholic church on Sunday in which 40 people were killed, Interior Minister Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola said on Thursday.
Assailants wielding AK-47 rifles and explosives attacked the congregation at St Francis Catholic Church in Owo, in southwestern Ondo State, during Pentecost mass on Sunday.
“We have been able to see the footprint of ISWAP in the horrendous attack in Owo and we are after them. Our security agencies are on their trail and we will bring them to justice,” Aregbesola told reporters in the capital Abuja.
The authorities had not previously voiced any suspicions about the identity or motive of the killers.
ISWAP, predominantly active in northeastern Nigeria and neighbouring Chad, is one of two major Islamist insurgencies that have been fighting each other and the Nigerian military for years. Hundreds of thousands have died and millions have been displaced.
Ondo State is far from ISWAP’s usual area of operations.
The state governor, Arakunrin Akeredolu, gave new casualty figures on Thursday. He said a total of 127 people had been affected by the attack in the church, of whom 40 had died, 61 were still in hospital and 26 had been discharged.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:Jun 09, 2022 • 1 day ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
A view of St. Francis Catholic Church where worshippers were attacked by gunmen during Sunday mass, is pictured in Owo, Ondo, Nigeria June 6, 2022.
A view of St. Francis Catholic Church where worshippers were attacked by gunmen during Sunday mass, is pictured in Owo, Ondo, Nigeria June 6, 2022. PHOTO BY TEMILADE ADELAJA /REUTERS
ABUJA — The Nigerian authorities suspect the insurgent group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) of carrying out a massacre in a Catholic church on Sunday in which 40 people were killed, Interior Minister Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola said on Thursday.
Assailants wielding AK-47 rifles and explosives attacked the congregation at St Francis Catholic Church in Owo, in southwestern Ondo State, during Pentecost mass on Sunday.
“We have been able to see the footprint of ISWAP in the horrendous attack in Owo and we are after them. Our security agencies are on their trail and we will bring them to justice,” Aregbesola told reporters in the capital Abuja.
The authorities had not previously voiced any suspicions about the identity or motive of the killers.
ISWAP, predominantly active in northeastern Nigeria and neighbouring Chad, is one of two major Islamist insurgencies that have been fighting each other and the Nigerian military for years. Hundreds of thousands have died and millions have been displaced.
Ondo State is far from ISWAP’s usual area of operations.
The state governor, Arakunrin Akeredolu, gave new casualty figures on Thursday. He said a total of 127 people had been affected by the attack in the church, of whom 40 had died, 61 were still in hospital and 26 had been discharged.
Nigeria suspects Islamic State of killing 40 in Catholic church
ABUJA — The Nigerian authorities suspect the insurgent group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) of carrying out a massacre in a Catholic church on Sunday in…
U.S. judge gives Canadian man life in prison for aiding Islamic State
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:Jul 29, 2022 • 13 hours ago • 1 minute read • 38 Comments
WASHINGTON — A U.S. judge on Friday sentenced a Saudi-born Canadian man to life in prison after he pleaded guilty in December to aiding Islamic State by working with propagandists who publicized the group’s beheading of hostages including American journalist James Foley.
Mohammed Khalifa, 39, who grew up in Toronto and left Canada in 2013 for Syria, killed two Syrian soldiers on the group’s behalf before his capture by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement on his sentence.
He was transferred to Federal Bureau of Investigation custody in October last year and pleaded guilty on Dec. 10 to providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, resulting in death, the department said.
His life sentence was ordered by Senior U.S. District Judge T. S. Ellis of the Eastern District of Virginia, where his court proceedings took place.
Islamic State gained global notoriety after releasing videos in 2014 of the beheading of U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and of British aid workers Alan Henning and David Haines.
Khalifa worked in the unit that publicized the videos, U.S. prosecutors said.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:Jul 29, 2022 • 13 hours ago • 1 minute read • 38 Comments
WASHINGTON — A U.S. judge on Friday sentenced a Saudi-born Canadian man to life in prison after he pleaded guilty in December to aiding Islamic State by working with propagandists who publicized the group’s beheading of hostages including American journalist James Foley.
Mohammed Khalifa, 39, who grew up in Toronto and left Canada in 2013 for Syria, killed two Syrian soldiers on the group’s behalf before his capture by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement on his sentence.
He was transferred to Federal Bureau of Investigation custody in October last year and pleaded guilty on Dec. 10 to providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, resulting in death, the department said.
His life sentence was ordered by Senior U.S. District Judge T. S. Ellis of the Eastern District of Virginia, where his court proceedings took place.
Islamic State gained global notoriety after releasing videos in 2014 of the beheading of U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and of British aid workers Alan Henning and David Haines.
Khalifa worked in the unit that publicized the videos, U.S. prosecutors said.
U.S. judge gives Canadian man life in prison for aiding Islamic State
A U.S. judge on Friday sentenced a Saudi-born Canadian man to life in prison after he pleaded guilty in December to aiding Islamic State.
Islamic State cell member sentenced to life in prison in U.S. for beheadings
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Kanishka Singh
Publishing date:Aug 19, 2022 • 20 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation
A handout file photo provided by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on February 10, 2018 shows captured British Islamic State (IS) group fighter El Shafee Elsheikh, posing for a mugshot in an undisclosed location. - Elsheikh, 34, a member of the notorious IS kidnap-and-murder cell known as the "Beatles" was sentenced to life in prison by a US court on August 19, 2022, for the deaths of four US hostages in Syria. E
A handout file photo provided by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on February 10, 2018 shows captured British Islamic State (IS) group fighter El Shafee Elsheikh, posing for a mugshot in an undisclosed location. - Elsheikh, 34, a member of the notorious IS kidnap-and-murder cell known as the "Beatles" was sentenced to life in prison by a US court on August 19, 2022, for the deaths of four US hostages in Syria. E PHOTO BY - /Syrian Democratic Forces/AFP via
ALEXANDRIA — A member of an Islamic State cell involved in a hostage-taking plot that led to the beheadings of American journalists and aid workers was sentenced to life in prison by a U.S. federal court on Friday.
U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis sentenced El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, during a hearing in a federal courtroom in Alexandria, Virginia, in a ruling the families and friends of his victims said provided “a bit of justice.”
Four months ago a jury found the former British citizen guilty of charges that included lethal hostage-taking and conspiracy to commit murder. He was found guilty in April.
After a six-week trial in April and hours of deliberation, the jury concluded that Elsheikh was part of an Islamic State cell, nicknamed “The Beatles” for their English accents, that beheaded American hostages in Iraq and Syria.
“The behavior of this defendant can only be described as horrific, barbaric, brutal and of course criminal”, Ellis said.
Elsheikh, who was born in Sudan and raised in London, was accused of conspiring to kill four American hostages: James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
Foley and Sotloff, both journalists, and Kassig, an aid worker, were killed in videotaped beheadings. Mueller was raped repeatedly by the group’s leader at the time, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, before her death in Syria, U.S. officials have said.
The deaths of Foley, Sotloff and Kassig were confirmed in 2014; Mueller’s death was confirmed in early 2015.
Speaking with reporters following the sentencing, Foley’s mother, Diane, said: “Let this sentencing make clear to all who dare to kidnap, torture or kill any American citizen abroad that U.S. justice will find you wherever you are, and that our government will hold you accountable for your crimes against our citizens.”
The charges against Elsheikh, whose British citizenship was withdrawn in 2018, carried a potential death sentence, but U.S. prosecutors had previously advised British officials that they would not seek the death penalty.
Prosecutors argued that a life sentence was needed to prevent Elsheikh from causing future harm and to set a precedent that such crimes will get strict punishment.
Another cell member, Alexanda Kotey, was sentenced to life in prison by a U.S. judge earlier this year. Kotey was held in Iraq by the U.S. military before being flown to the United States to face trial. He pleaded guilty last September to the murders of Foley, Sotloff, Kassig and Mueller.
A third member of the group, Mohammed Emwazi, died in a U.S.-British missile strike in Syria in 2015.
Some former hostages, released by the cell after protracted negotiations, testified during trials about the torture they endured. Family members of those killed also testified.
At the peak of its power from 2014-2017, Islamic State ruled over millions of people and claimed responsibility for or inspired attacks in dozens of cities around the world.
Its leader, al-Baghdadi, declared a caliphate over a quarter of Iraq and Syria in 2014, before he was killed in a raid by U.S. special forces in Syria in 2019 as the group’s rule collapsed.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Kanishka Singh
Publishing date:Aug 19, 2022 • 20 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation
A handout file photo provided by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on February 10, 2018 shows captured British Islamic State (IS) group fighter El Shafee Elsheikh, posing for a mugshot in an undisclosed location. - Elsheikh, 34, a member of the notorious IS kidnap-and-murder cell known as the "Beatles" was sentenced to life in prison by a US court on August 19, 2022, for the deaths of four US hostages in Syria. E
A handout file photo provided by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on February 10, 2018 shows captured British Islamic State (IS) group fighter El Shafee Elsheikh, posing for a mugshot in an undisclosed location. - Elsheikh, 34, a member of the notorious IS kidnap-and-murder cell known as the "Beatles" was sentenced to life in prison by a US court on August 19, 2022, for the deaths of four US hostages in Syria. E PHOTO BY - /Syrian Democratic Forces/AFP via
ALEXANDRIA — A member of an Islamic State cell involved in a hostage-taking plot that led to the beheadings of American journalists and aid workers was sentenced to life in prison by a U.S. federal court on Friday.
U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis sentenced El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, during a hearing in a federal courtroom in Alexandria, Virginia, in a ruling the families and friends of his victims said provided “a bit of justice.”
Four months ago a jury found the former British citizen guilty of charges that included lethal hostage-taking and conspiracy to commit murder. He was found guilty in April.
After a six-week trial in April and hours of deliberation, the jury concluded that Elsheikh was part of an Islamic State cell, nicknamed “The Beatles” for their English accents, that beheaded American hostages in Iraq and Syria.
“The behavior of this defendant can only be described as horrific, barbaric, brutal and of course criminal”, Ellis said.
Elsheikh, who was born in Sudan and raised in London, was accused of conspiring to kill four American hostages: James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
Foley and Sotloff, both journalists, and Kassig, an aid worker, were killed in videotaped beheadings. Mueller was raped repeatedly by the group’s leader at the time, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, before her death in Syria, U.S. officials have said.
The deaths of Foley, Sotloff and Kassig were confirmed in 2014; Mueller’s death was confirmed in early 2015.
Speaking with reporters following the sentencing, Foley’s mother, Diane, said: “Let this sentencing make clear to all who dare to kidnap, torture or kill any American citizen abroad that U.S. justice will find you wherever you are, and that our government will hold you accountable for your crimes against our citizens.”
The charges against Elsheikh, whose British citizenship was withdrawn in 2018, carried a potential death sentence, but U.S. prosecutors had previously advised British officials that they would not seek the death penalty.
Prosecutors argued that a life sentence was needed to prevent Elsheikh from causing future harm and to set a precedent that such crimes will get strict punishment.
Another cell member, Alexanda Kotey, was sentenced to life in prison by a U.S. judge earlier this year. Kotey was held in Iraq by the U.S. military before being flown to the United States to face trial. He pleaded guilty last September to the murders of Foley, Sotloff, Kassig and Mueller.
A third member of the group, Mohammed Emwazi, died in a U.S.-British missile strike in Syria in 2015.
Some former hostages, released by the cell after protracted negotiations, testified during trials about the torture they endured. Family members of those killed also testified.
At the peak of its power from 2014-2017, Islamic State ruled over millions of people and claimed responsibility for or inspired attacks in dozens of cities around the world.
Its leader, al-Baghdadi, declared a caliphate over a quarter of Iraq and Syria in 2014, before he was killed in a raid by U.S. special forces in Syria in 2019 as the group’s rule collapsed.
Islamic State cell member sentenced to life in prison in U.S. for beheadings
ALEXANDRIA — A member of an Islamic State cell involved in a hostage-taking plot that led to the beheadings of American journalists and aid workers was sentenced to…