Ex-chemistry student gets 20 years in plot to behead U.S. vet
by SOFREP News Team
CINCINNATI — A former chemistry student was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison for plotting to behead a U.S. military veteran and attack a police station in support of the Islamic State group.
Munir Abdulkader, 22, apologized in court after his attorney emphasized that he had no criminal history and was known in his suburban West Chester Township community as kind and thoughtful — before being influenced by an FBI confidential informant as well as Junaid Hussain, an Islamic State group recruiter who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Syria last year.
“He’s got Hussain in one ear and he’s got the informant in the other,” attorney Richard Smith-Monahan told U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett.
Timothy Mangan, an assistant U.S. attorney, said Abdulkader had pledged allegiance to a terrorist organization known for barbaric acts. Authorities said Hussain helped identify a U.S. military employee for Abdulkader to kidnap at home and behead while making a propaganda video. The plot then called for him to attack a police station with explosives and a gun, Mangan said.
“They were intentionally targeting the people who are trying to protect us,” said Mangan, calling it one of the “most significant” Islamic State group-related plots against the U.S. homeland.
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CINCINNATI — A former chemistry student was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison for plotting to behead a U.S. military veteran and attack a police station in support of the Islamic State group.
Munir Abdulkader, 22, apologized in court after his attorney emphasized that he had no criminal history and was known in his suburban West Chester Township community as kind and thoughtful — before being influenced by an FBI confidential informant as well as Junaid Hussain, an Islamic State group recruiter who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Syria last year.
“He’s got Hussain in one ear and he’s got the informant in the other,” attorney Richard Smith-Monahan told U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett.
Timothy Mangan, an assistant U.S. attorney, said Abdulkader had pledged allegiance to a terrorist organization known for barbaric acts. Authorities said Hussain helped identify a U.S. military employee for Abdulkader to kidnap at home and behead while making a propaganda video. The plot then called for him to attack a police station with explosives and a gun, Mangan said.
“They were intentionally targeting the people who are trying to protect us,” said Mangan, calling it one of the “most significant” Islamic State group-related plots against the U.S. homeland.
The SOFREP News Team is a collective of professional military journalists.
Brandon Tyler Webb is the SOFREP News Team's Editor-in-Chief.
Guy D. McCardle is the SOFREP News Team's Managing Editor.
Brandon and Guy both manage the SOFREP News Team.
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