Self-styled ‘Islamic State recruiter’ in Texas faces 15 years
for threatening real bombing during ‘Zoom-bombing’
8 Sep, 2020
A Texas man has been charged with making terror threats after allegedly ‘Zoom-bombing’ a University of Houston lecture to threaten the school on behalf of the Islamic State terror group. He insists it was just a joke.
Ibraheem Ahmed Al Bayati faces up to 15 years in prison after federal authorities charged him with making bomb threats against the University of Houston, the Justice Department revealed on Tuesday. He allegedly boasted of his Islamic State ties before ‘Zoom-bombing’ the class with threats of a real bombing.
Al Bayati drew gasps from his newfound classmates by interjecting in the discussion, “What does any of this have to do with the fact that UH is about to get bombed in a few days?” He then uttered an Arabic IS slogan that translates to “Islamic State will remain,” complete with a pointing-skyward gesture popular with Islamic fundamentalists dubbed the “tawheed finger,” according to an FBI agent’s affidavit supporting the charges.
While Al Bayati had used the false name Abu Qital al Jihadi al Mansur on the Zoom call, the FBI quickly apprehended the 19-year-old at a relative’s home on Friday, tracking him by his IP address. While he admitted delivering the “threats,” he insisted it was just a joke, showing the agents text messages with a friend who’d texted him the link to the class – then supposedly goaded him to “say some Arabic s**t and leave lmaooooo.”
However, further probing of Al Bayati’s phone revealed he had discussed recruiting IS supporters over social media with another friend and mentioned getting someone to “pledge allegiance to Islamic State,” the indictment claims. He later reminded his friend “he was ‘literally known’ as an ISIS recruiter.”
Al Bayati is due in Houston federal court on Tuesday to answer to charges of conveying false information to destroy by means of fire or explosives and making a threat over interstate commerce. In addition to a potential 15-year prison sentence, he may also be fined.
Tens of thousands in Pakistan protest Charlie Hebdo’s reprint
of Prophet Mohammed cartoon
8 Sep, 2020
Mass protests, involving tens of thousands of people, have continued in Pakistan after French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to mark the start of a trial over the deadly 2015 attack.
This is how easy it is to mobilize tens of thousands of devout Muslims.
The protests in the country kicked off last Thursday, attracting large crowds of devoted Muslims to condemn the cartoon parody, the satirical weekly and even France as a whole. On Monday, a massive rally was organized by Jamiat Ulma-e-Islam in Peshawar, when the Islamist party gathered for a congress in the city.
Tens of thousands of its supporters took to the streets venting their anger over the controversial cartoons. Drone footage of the event, taken both during the day and night, shows a massive crowd of people flooding the city.
“If non-Muslim people use Islamic symbols and they commit blasphemic acts, the reaction from our people must not be declared unjustified,” the party’s leader, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, stated.
The magazine’s decision also triggered an angry reaction in other Muslim countries. On Tuesday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei branded the re-emergence of the offensive imagery an “unforgivable sin,” adding that it clearly shows “hostility and malicious grudge” against Islam harbored in the West.
Charlie Hebdo reprinted the controversial cartoons last week, marking the beginning of the trial of 14 suspects, linked to the 2015 attacks on the satirical weekly's office and the kosher supermarket Hyper Cacher that left 17 people dead.
Iran building production hall for uranium-enriching centrifuges
‘in the mountains’ near Natanz facility
8 Sep, 2020
Iran’s nuclear chief has revealed the country is building a new production hall for advanced centrifuges for uranium enrichment. The site is concealed “in the heart of mountains” near the Natanz nuclear facility.
Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting on national security on Tuesday, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said construction work is already underway.
“It was decided to establish a more modern, wider and more comprehensive hall in all dimensions in the heart of the mountains near Natanz. Of course, the work has begun,” the official said.
The facility will produce “advanced centrifuges” meant for uranium enrichment and is expected to be highly-secure. The AEOI took into account “the vicious and subversive action” it faced, Salehi noted, referring to an incident at the Natanz site early in July.
Back then, the facility suffered a blast and subsequent fire that badly damaged its central centrifuge assembly workshop. In late August, the AEOI said it established the incident was the result of sabotage, yet did not name those behind it.
Iranian energy, nuclear and other strategically important sites, have been plagued by a string of mysterious incidents this summer, including explosions and fires, triggering allegations that the mishaps might have been the result of sabotage or cyber attacks from abroad, yet no evidence to back up this theory has emerged yet.
Iran’s arch-enemy, Israel, which Tehran usually points the finger at over such incidents, has released carefully worded statements on the matter. "Not every incident that happens in Iran necessarily has something to do with us," Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said after the Natanz fire.
Of course, Saudi Arabia and several Gulf States are also arch-enemies of Iran, although Iran has never threatened to annihilate them over and over again.
Suicide car bomb kills Somali special forces, injures 1 U.S. officer
By Jean Lotus
Sept. 7 (UPI) -- A car bombing and mortar attack in southern Somalia on Monday killed at least three Somali special forces soldiers and wounded a U.S. officer in the state of Jubaland, officials said.
The al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group claimed responsibility and claimed that 20 Somali soldiers were dead, Al Jazeera reported.
Ismail Mukhtar Oronjo, a Somali government spokesman, told Anadolu news agency a suicide car bomb exploded outside the special forces base.
"A [suicide] car bomb blast targeted a military base in Janay Abdalla earlier on Monday," Oronjo said. "One U.S. service member was injured in an attack by al-Shabab this morning," Col. Chris Karns, the director of public affairs for the United States Africa Command, said in a statement.
"U.S. and Somali forces were conducting an advise, assist and accompany mission when al-Shabab attacked using a vehicle employed as an improvised explosive device and mortar fire."
Karns said the wounded U.S. soldier was in stable condition after being airlifted to Kismayo along with several wounded Somali troops.
The attack occurred at a military outpost in the Jana Abdalle area in the Lower Juba region of southern Somalia, the New York Times reported. Somali forces, with American military support, had just reclaimed the area, the Times said.
"After their defeat, we were expecting attacks like this," Mohamed Ahmed Sabrie, the director of communications at the office of the regional president of Jubaland, told the Times. "But nothing will stop us from freeing more areas from the Shabab and ensuring the safety of our people. We will do all we can."
The Somali government in Mogadishu has been fighting al-Shabab forces since 2008.
Al-Shabab militants attacked a Mogadishu beachfront hotel in August, killing at least 16 people, including at least one police officer. That attack occurred after a violent jailbreak in Mogadishu by Al-Shabab insurgency prisoners in which 19 guards and inmates were killed.
In January, three U.S. soldiers were killed during an Al-Shabab gun battle attack on a U.S. surveillance aircraft at a Kenya military base airport.
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