Tag: fbi

Colorado teenager is charged with trying to join ISIS when he was 16: Boy was arrested trying to board a flight in Denver after undercover FBI agents found him posting on social media

A Colorado teen has been charged with providing support to ISIS after allegedly planning to fly and join the terrorist organization from when he was just 16 years old. 

Humzah Mashkoor, who is now 18, was arrested on Monday at Denver Airport, where he was trying to fly to the UAE en route to Afghanistan, prosecutors said.

He has since been charged with knowingly providing or attempting or conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

His arrest is the culmination of a two-year investigation after the FBI first became aware of Mashkoor expressing support for the terrorist group on social media in 2021 and even sharing videos of executions. 

Mashkoor was born in the US but spent time in Afghanistan and allegedly desperately wanted to return to fight for the Islamic State. 

In September 2022, he began talking to an undercover FBI employee online who was posing as a ISIS supporter. 

The complaint says he ‘repeatedly expressed his intent to travel in order to join ISIS as a fighter, to provide money to ISIS to support their efforts, and to recruit others to also support ISIS through travel and/or financial contributions.’ 

He also ‘expressed frustration that he was unable to travel to join ISIS or provide money to ISIS to support their efforts because he was not yet 18.’ 

In one of the most serious incidents, he allegedly ‘indicated, using coded language, that an ISIS contact suggested to Mashkoor that he (Mashkoor) conduct an attack in the United States.’ 

At one point, he told the agent: ‘I am prepared to do anything which they require me to do … I just want to be used as soon as possible, gun attacks.

‘I have no training, I used to have some practice with guns with I was younger. But that is it.’ 

As his 18th birthday in November approached, he allegedly started making concrete plans to travel to join ISIS and discussed a plan to get married. 

According to the complaint, he told one undercover agent: ‘Once we go there’s no turning back… We leave behind everything… Our family’s… Our homes… Our friends… For the sake of Allah swt… And pleasing him…

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Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against FBI Over Access to D.B. Cooper’s Necktie

A Federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a D.B. Cooper researcher who hoped to force the FBI to hand over a necktie that had been left behind by the famed skyjacker. The legal challenge was brought back in March by Eric Ulis, who discovered that the piece of evidence featured an adjustable spindle that had allegedly been overlooked by investigators. The researcher argued that, if Cooper had used the mechanism, then there was a possibility that the skyjacker’s DNA could be extracted from the attachment. Ulis ultimately wound up suing the FBI in the hopes that they would be legally compelled to provide the piece to him so that the tantalizing theory could be put to the test.

Alas, the Cooper hunter had his proverbial day in court on Monday and it reportedly did not go well as a judge ruled in favor of the federal government’s request that the case be dismissed. In explaining her decision, Judge Jia M. Cobb observed that “regardless of the intrigue and mystery that shrouds the case of D.B. Cooper,” the necktie at the center of the lawsuit falls outside of the purview of the Freedom of Information Act, which Ulis cited in reasoning for why he should receive the piece. She explained that the FOIA “only compels production on ‘records,’ not tangible objects.” She went on to posit that the necktie could not be considered a ‘record’ because it “is incapable of replication or copying.”

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CATFISHED BY COPS

HOW’S THE BACKYARD, Jason? Is there somewhere we can talk?”

It was May 20, 2020, at the height of the pandemic, and an FBI SWAT team had raided the house Jason Fong shared with his parents in Orange County, California. Fong, a 24-year-old Chinese American who, until recently, had been a U.S. Marine Corps reservist, sat handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser outside.

“Just a couple of chairs at the back table,” he told the Irvine police detective and FBI agent questioning him.

Fong led the two lawmen to the backyard, where all three sat at a table near the pool. A body camera worn by FBI Special Agent Thuan Ngo recorded the conversation. Fong, still handcuffed, wore a blue button-down shirt and a white face mask. The family dog wandered around, happily wagging its tail.

“How long have you had this dog?” the detective, Michael Moore, asked.

“Since I was 16,” Fong answered.

Moore read Fong his Miranda rights; Ngo advised him that making a false statement to a federal agent is a felony.

“Let’s back up a little bit,” Moore said. “What are some big changes that have occurred in your life? You converted to Islam?”

“Yeah,” Fong answered.

The detective asked Fong how he became a Muslim, how many guns he owned, and how he used social media.

“I followed a couple of pages that were just mainly Muslim, like, shitposting, kinda just like —”

“Muslim what?” Ngo interrupted, apparently stumped by the word “shitposting.” “I’m sorry?”

“Kind of just, like, meme pages,” Fong answered. “A lot of them make jokes about stupid stuff, like extremism and all that stuff — things I do not condone. … They make memes about extremism in a joking manner.”

Fong described how he communicated with like-minded people on the internet, mostly in the joking or ironic ways of the extremely online. “It’s just satire,” he said, adding that he tried to dissuade anyone who appeared to take a genuine interest in extremist ideologies and groups.

But the federal agent kept pushing. He asked if anyone Fong knew via the chat group claimed to support terrorists. He asked for usernames.

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Republican Majority Rewarded FBI-DOJ for Breaking the Law – Approved FISA Process Through Next Election Cycle

Former Defense Department Chief of Staff Kash Patel joined Maria Bartiromo this morning along with Attorney Alan Dershowitz to discuss political hitman Jack Smith and his political maneuvers to take down Donald Trump.

During their conversation Kash Patel reminded the FOX News audience that Republicans just voted to reauthorize the FISA Program through the 2024 election that was used to spy on President Trump by the FBI in 2016 and beyond.

It is well known today that the FBI knowingly and willfully lied to the FISA Court to spy on the Trump Campaign in 2016 and later on his administration and even family members.

Kash Patel: Yeah, it’s great to be with you, Maria. Look, the biggest concern I have going forward is the politicization and weaponization and creation of a two tier system of justice as a result. Back when Devin Nunes and I ran the Russia gate investigation and exposed the FISA corruption, we recommended a slew of fixes. So it never happened again. Unfortunately, Congress chose to allow 702 FISA to basically be reauthorized.

What does that mean? What is 702? It’s fancy for foreign intelligence surveillance. It means me, as a former national security prosecutor and intelligence operative, would go overseas and manhunt terrorists. That’s what it’s for. But the FISA court, in April of 2022, publicized an opinion that said the FBI used it illegally 275,000 times domestically against Americans, 16 different occasions against those affiliated with, January 6, 19,000 times domestically against donors to a congressional campaign, and, wait for it, 24,000 separate times against Americans and groups in and around January 6.

That FISA process has been turned on its head, redirected inwards. And anyone who says, oh, that’s just a Republican conspiracy speak, that’s the FISA court that rescinded Rod Rosenstein’s illegal surveillance of Donald Trump twice based on our investigation. And now they do it again, and they prove the FBI and DOJ have weaponized justice. And the Republican leadership in Congress allowed it to be reauthorized, essentially through the next election cycle…

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Ex-FBI Intel Chief Who ‘Investigated’ Trump-Russia Collusion Gets 4 Years In Prison For Colluding With Russia

A former top FBI official who led the agency’s New York counterintelligence division, and played a key role in the Trump-Russia collusion probe, has been sentenced to 4 years in prison for colluding with Russia – and he may face an even longer sentence under a second indictment for hiding $225,000 in payments from a former Albanian intelligence officer.

Charles McGonigal, 55, was arrested in January and slapped with two separate indictments – one in New York and one in Washington, with the New York case related to taking nearly $200,000 in bribes from Russian oligarch Oleg V. Deripaska to investigate a rival oligarch, and the Washington case concerning the Albanian money.

Mr. McGonigal made at least $25,000 as an investigator for the law firm before directly working for Mr. Deripaska. He received an initial payment of $51,000 and then payments of $41,790 each month for three months from August 2021 to November 2021, the indictment said.

Prosecutors said Mr. McGonigal concealed his ties to the Russian oligarch by telling friends he was working for a “rich Russian guy” and stressed that his work was legal. In conversations about Mr. Deripaska, he would try to keep his employer’s identity a secret by referring to him as “the big guy” and “you know whom.” -Washington Times

McGonigal pleaded guilty in August after being hit with four initial corruption charges – including conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions, money laundering, conspiring to commit money laundering and conspiring to violate federal law against doing business with sanctioned individuals. Each count carried a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

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The Georgia State Farm Center Election Night Report Is Proof that Chris Wray’s FBI Was in on the Election Fraud Cover-Up and More

As reported on Monday – Chris Wray’s FBI, along with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office, released a report in June 2023 where they announced that they “did not uncover any violations” during their investigation of the late-night ballot counting at The State Farm Center in Atlanta, Georgia on Election Day November 3, 2020.

According to the report, “Teams of investigators from the FBI, GBI, and Georgia SOS conducted independent and simultaneous interviews of Fulton County elections workers who were involved in the processing and scanning of absentee ballots at State Farm Arena on Election Night on November 3, 2020. Investigators from the three law enforcement agencies also reviewed the entire unedited security video footage of the events in question at State Farm Arena. SOS investigators independently interviewed party observers who were present at State Farm Arena that evening.”

They say they did not uncover any violations or evidence of wrongdoing. That’s because they hid it from their report.

The interviews for this investigation took place back in December 2020 following the November 2020 election.

According to the FBI-GBI report, the “bulk of the investigation appears to have been conducted in December 2020 and January 2021, but both the State Election Board and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office was backed up reviewing claims.”

Again, the report was just released in June 2023 by Chris Wray’s FBI and the GBI in Georgia – along with Georgia SOS Brad Raffensperger. It appears that there was no new information in the report other than what was known in December 2020, so it begs the question – Why did it take three years for Chris Wray’s FBI to release the report?

Several election officials went back to the State Farm Arena and they began counting ballots late at night without observers present. According to the Georgia Republican Party at the time, this was unlawful activity.

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Congress Prepares To Reauthorize a Warrantless Domestic Spying Program the FBI Abused

Congress is gearing up for a potential showdown over the expected reauthorization of a warrantless domestic spying program that’s been misused by the FBI and widely criticized by civil libertarians.

That surveillance program—authorized by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)—was created after 9/11 with the intention of tracking foreign spies and potential terrorists. But it has predictably morphed into a way for law enforcement agencies to get a warrantless peek at Americans’ phone records, emails, and other electronic communications—the FBI ran more than 3.3 million queries through the Section 702 database in 2021, according to an annual transparency report.

With the program set to expire at the end of this year, Congress has a rare opportunity to reform Section 702 by, at the very least, prohibiting law enforcement from using it to snoop on Americans. So far, that doesn’t seem to be happening.

The Senate voted Thursday to advance the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and the 3,000-page bill contains a “clean” reauthorization of Section 702, according to Sen. Mike Lee (R–Utah), a longtime critic of the surveillance program.

“After all we’ve learned about the FBI in recent years, the fact that some members of Congress are still willing to reauthorize FISA 702 without reforms—not even a warrant requirement for “backdoor” surveillance of Americans—makes me wonder if they’re illiterate,” Lee posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday.

Lee says he intends to vote against the NDAA when it comes to the Senate floor for a final vote. He likely won’t be the only Republican to do so, but rolling the Section 702 reauthorization into the larger military spending bill means it will be difficult to prevent its passage.

Instead, the fight will be over the language that gets added to the NDAA. While the Senate is moving forward will full reauthorization, there are competing proposals drafted in the House.

The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill on Wednesday to reauthorize Section 702 with the added requirement that the FBI and other intelligence agencies obtain a warrant before using the program to obtain information about Americans.

“The overwhelming, bipartisan vote in favor of this legislation confirms a mutual interest in protecting our Fourth Amendment privacy rights from rogue intelligence actors,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R–Ariz.), chairman of the House subcommittee on federal surveillance issues, said in a statement. “Any effort to stall consideration or pass a clean extension of the current FISA authorities is a punishment of the American people.”

However, the House Intelligence Committee passed its own version of a Section 702 reauthorization on Thursday. That bill would only require that the FBI establish probable cause before searching the Section 702 database for information about Americans, Roll Call reported.

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Medical Marijuana Growers And Caregivers Can Own Guns, But Patients Can’t, FBI Says In Little-Noticed Memo

Being a state-registered medical marijuana caregiver or grower doesn’t automatically disqualify a person from owning a firearm, the FBI says. But merely possessing a medical cannabis card as a patient does render a person ineligible.

Amid the growing tension between federal gun policies and the ever-expanding state marijuana legalization movement, a little-noticed FBI memo from 2019 offers a lens into the byzantine legal interpretations surrounding cannabis and firearms—an issue that’s recently been raised in multiple federal court cases.

The government has several different ways it assesses firearm eligibility in the context of cannabis, according to the memo from FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division, which was briefly noted in a report from The New York Times last week. In some cases, that involves affirmatively restricting gun rights based on activities or documentation that doesn’t necessarily mean a person is an active marijuana consumer.

At their core, the federal rules say that being an “unlawful user” of a controlled substance, including marijuana, means a person cannot buy or possess a gun. Would-be gun purchasers are required to disclose such use as part of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) form before making a purchase, and lying on that form is a felony offense.

The statute behind that prohibition has been challenged in a number of federal courts over the past couple of years, with more than one judicial body determining that the restriction is unconstitutional. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has steadfastly defended the ban, however, contending that medical marijuana patients and everyday consumers pose unique dangers to society that justify withholding Second Amendment rights.

But the federal government’s interpretation of the policy is apparently more nuanced, as evidenced by the memo from CJIS’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System Section that’s gone largely unscrutinized since being published more than four years ago.

A person’s firearm eligibility is partly determined by whether their use of a controlled substance is deemed “current.” FBI says that’s “not limited to the use of drugs on a particular day, or within a matter of days or weeks before, but rather that the unlawful use has occurred recently enough to indicate the individual is actively engaged in such conduct.”

“ATF has determined that the present time is represented by the time frame of within the past 12 months,” the memo says.

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Wieambilla shooting: Arizona man arrested in the United States over ambush that killed two cops and a neighbour is identified as religious conspiracy theorist

A religious conspiracy theorist has been arrested in the US in relation to the tragic shooting a year ago of two Queensland police officers and a Good Samaritan neighbour.

The man has been identified as Donald Day, of Arizona, who had connected online with the ‘doomsday’ trio who planned the chilling pre-mediated attack at Wieambilla in western Queensland last December 12.

He is mentioned by name in a creepy final video talking about ‘devils’ and demons’ made by Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train. 

In the 41-second clip, Gareth Train says, ‘We’ll see you when we get home, Don’.

The three shot dead Constable Matthew Arnold, 26, and Constable Rachel McCrow, 29, shortly after the officers arrived at their Wieambilla property in the state’s Western Downs to inquire about Nathaniel’s whereabouts as part of a missing person’s report.

Neighbour Alan Dare was also killed in the siege before Nathan, Gareth and Stacey were all shot dead by police hours later.

In the video which sent a message to ‘Don’, Gareth Train says ‘they came to kill us, and we killed them. If you don’t defend yourself against these devils and demons, you’re a coward.’

A police investigation later found that the two slain constables were fatally ambushed by the Trains who had links to the sovereign citizen movement and subscribed to a Christian fundamentalist belief system known as premillennialism.

FBI agents on Wednesday arrested Day, 58, near Heber Overgaard, north-east of Phoenix in Arizona following an extensive investigation in partnership with Queensland Police.

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Former U.S. diplomat arrested in FBI spying probe

Former Ambassador and diplomat Manuel Rocha was arrested in Miami after a long-running counterintelligence investigation.

According to the Associated Press, Rocha is being accused of working as an agent of Cuba’s government.

While more details are expected in court on Monday, those who spoke to reporters said that Rocha was working with the Cuban government to promote its interests within the United States.

Over the past several years, the Justice Department has cracked down on individuals who have neglected to register as a foreign agent, as required by law.

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