An Egyptian citizen who was living in Virginia was arrested this week and charged with plotting a “mass casualty attack” against the Israeli consulate in New York City.
According to Fox News, Abdullah Azz al-Din Taha Muhammad Hassan, who was scheduled for deportation, was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly sharing bomb-making instructions and plans to attack the Israeli consulate in Manhattan with an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informant.
Hassan has been charged with the distribution of information pertaining to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction to advance the commission of a federal crime.
“The FBI’s New York Office wants to reassure our Jewish community here in New York that our office — along with our law enforcement partners — remains vigilant in our efforts to identify, investigate and disrupt potential threats to our community, using every tool at our disposal to do so,” the FBI said in a statement obtained by Fox News. “As always, we urge all community members to report suspicious activity to law enforcement and call 911 in cases of imminent violence or threats to life.”
According to Fox News, the Fairfax County Police Department informed federal law enforcement officials that a tipster had alerted the local police to Hassan’s social media posts, claiming that the Virginia man had demonstrated “radical and terrorist-leaning behavior.” Federal prosecutors indicated that Hassan shared multiple posts in favor of the ISIS terrorist organization.
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Officials told Fox News that Hassan messaged an undercover FBI source in August who pretended to be recruited by Hassan to carry out a “mass casualty attack.” Law enforcement officials claimed that Hassan told the FBI informant how to acquire weapons, construct a bomb, and record a “martyrdom video.” Hassan also reportedly planned for the FBI informant to target the Consulate General of Israel in Manhattan.
Court documents claim Hassan told the FBI informant that he should say, “Your governments have been complicit in and utterly responsible for the deaths of millions of men women and children across al-Sham, Iraq, and our beloved Al Quds. Now has come for revenge. As you weaponize yourselves with your tanks and missiles and jets, we weaponize ourselves with the Wrath of Allah AZWJL upon you. However, you may try to find and kill us, Allah AZWJL will replace our fallen with more muwahidden, bent on eradicating the corruption that you have brought forth …” as part of the martyrdom video.
Following reports of Hassan’s arrest, Ofir Akunis, Israel’s consul general in New York, said, “This attempted attack by terror organizations is an attack on the sovereign soil of the State of Israel in its entirety. It’s proof that terror knows no boundaries and that we must fight it everywhere and every time.”
