Prosecutors fear ISIS attacks on jurors in Air Force vet’s trial

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2015/11/25/prosec...air-force-vet-accused-of-trying-to-join-isis/

Prosecutors fear ISIS attacks on jurors in Air Force vet’s trial
By Selim Algar
November 25, 2015 | 7:17pm

Tairod Pugh Photo: Facebook

Photo: Facebook


Lawyers for an Air Force vet charged with trying to join ISIS are fighting a push by prosecutors for an anonymous jury, claiming that the measure would be unfairly prejudicial.

Arguing that ISIS sympathizers could target jurors in Tairod Pugh’s Brooklyn federal court proceeding, the feds have asked libtard Judge Nicholas Garaufis to keep their identities confidential.

“The possibility that a terrorist organization, the defendant, his associates, or their sympathizers, will target members of the jury in this case is a valid concern for potential members of the jury pool…,” a government submission states.

Prosecutors added that jurors need to be shielded from the press as much as from threats, papers state.

“Juror anonymity is an effective remedial measure to prevent possible prejudice and inappropriate contact by the press,” officials wrote.

Pugh was charged in March with attempting to travel to Syria to offer ISIS his aircraft repair skills. Prosecutors said he blabbed online about his support for the group and desire to wage jihad.

The mechanic, who once lived in Neptune, NJ, served in the U.S. Air Force from 1986 to 1990.

After being laid off from a mechanic job in Kuwait, the feds said Pugh traveled to Turkey and hoped to cross into Syria before his arrest.

“There is not a scintilla of evidence in the discovery that even remotely suggests that Pugh is dangerous or has committed violence in any way,” wrote his attorney, Eric Creizman, in objecting to an anonymous jury.

“Even in a trial involving terrorism, there must be something more than the mere invocation of ISIS or al-Qaeda to justify encroaching on the defendant’s right to a fair trial and an impartial trier of fact,” he wrote. “In Pugh’s case, there is nothing more.”

Anonymous juries are normally objected to by defense attorneys and eventually approved by jurists.

Garaufis will rule on the matter at a later date.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2016/01/12/lawyers-for-isis-loving-air-force-vet-want-to-bar-allegiance-letter/

Lawyers for ISIS-loving Air Force vet want to bar allegiance letter
By Selim Algar
January 12, 2016 | 5:24pm

Tairod Pugh
Photo: Facebook


Lawyers for a former Air Force serviceman charged with trying to join the Islamic State terror group want to bar federal prosecutors from introducing at trial a letter he wrote to his wife professing his allegiance to jihad, court papers state.

Tairod Pugh, who faces life in prison if convicted of trying to offer his aircraft expertise to ISIS, composed a missive to his spouse, Misha, that exposed his jihadi leanings, prosecutors said.

“I am a Mujahid,” the letter reads. “I am a sword against the oppressor and a shield for the oppressed. I will use the talents and skills given to me by Allah to establish and defend the Islamic States.”

But Pugh’s attorney Eric Creizman claims that the letter is protected by “marital communications privilege” and should not be presented to jurors at his trial next month.

“The purpose of the marital communications privilege is to foster unfettered communications between spouses,” Creizman argues.

“The letter was plainly intended to be a confidential communication to Pugh’s wife, and so long as the letter remained on his laptop computer, Pugh had a reasonable expectation of privacy with respect to the letter.”

The feds argue that the correspondence — seized by Egyptian authorities who intercepted Pugh’s bid to travel to Syria to join ISIS — prove his terror allegiance.

Pugh, who has rejected a plea deal, told his wife to brace herself for his admission to ISIS.

“I will send for you when it is safe,” he said. “You will have a nice home around believers. If I am made a martyr we will have a mansion of indescribable beauty on a magnificent lot of land.”

Creizman also wants violent videos found on Pugh’s electronic items to be barred from presentation at trial because they would be unduly prejudicial.

After serving in the Air Force for four years, Pugh toiled as an aircraft mechanic in the Middle East before radicalizing, prosecutors said. He was arrested last January.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2016/03/03/isis-wannabe-told-undercover-agent-how-to-dress-inconspicuously/

ISIS-wannabe told undercover agent how to dress inconspicuously
By Jennifer Bain and Emily Saul
March 3, 2016 | 1:48am

Tairod Pugh seen at JFK Airport.


A former Air Force mechanic and alleged ISIS wannabe offered fashion pointers to an undercover agent — thoughtfully doling out advice on how not to set off red flags.

Tairod Pugh, on trial in Brooklyn federal court for allegedly attempting to offer his military experience to Islamic State in Syria, told the agent to “shave,” adding, “Blend in. Black backpack, nah! Get something with some color, look like a hiker.”

Jurors heard the comments on an undercover tape Wednesday.

Pugh, 48, spoke to the agent at Kennedy Airport as Pugh was headed home to New Jersey after a failed attempt to enter Syria.

The agent testified that he was assigned to “bump” into Pugh and confirm his allegiance to ISIS, and that they really hit it off after Pugh saw a picture of the ISIS flag on the agent’s fake Facebook page.

“I’ll tell you how I got stopped, I was wearing a jalabiya [a traditional Islamic robe],” Pugh says on the tape.

“So, inshallah [God willing], next time I travel as a tourist in the area, I’m going to have a New York Yankees baseball cap.”

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2016/03/09/isis-loving-air-force-vet-needs-to-be-held-responsible-prosecutors/

ISIS-loving Air Force vet needs to be held responsible: prosecutors
By Selim Algar
March 9, 2016 | 1:42am

A former Air Force veteran betrayed his country and uniform by embracing violent jihad and plotting to join ISIS, Brooklyn federal prosecutors said in closing statements at his trial Tuesday.

Hoping to secure the first conviction of an American for scheming to join the terror group, prosecutor Tiana Demas told jurors that Tairod Pugh immersed himself in terrorist propaganda and ultimately hoped to wage war.

“Now is the time for the defendant to be held responsible for his crimes,” she said in front of a packed courtroom.

Pugh, 48, of Neptune, New Jersey, spent four years in the Air Force before working as an airplane mechanic across the Middle East, prosecutors said.

He slowly developed an affinity for ISIS and posted sympathetic messages on Facebook before finally opting to join their ranks, prosecutors said.

“This case is about the the defendant, Tairod Pugh, who answered ISIS’s call to arms to come to Syria and join them,” Demas said. “The evidence will show that the defendant did just that. He immersed himself in pro-ISIS literature in the months before he bought a one-way ticket to Istanbul – the first leg of what was supposed to be a trip to Syria to join ISIS.”

After being fired from an aviation repair job in Kuwait, Pugh penned a letter to his wife stating his intention to become a martyr and traveled to Turkey in January 2015.

Prosecutors said he planned to cross over the border into Syria to join ISIS but was stopped by Turkish authorities there. He had prepared for his trek by researching maps of the volatile region, Demas said.

“He downloaded more than 70 ISIS videos – videos that made clear exactly what ISIS is – a violent terrorist organization that kills innocent people and whoever stands in their way,” Demas said.

At one point, the prosecutor presented a Facebook message from Pugh that espoused religious violence. Sitting in the gallery, his elderly father leaned over to his wife and asked if their son had written the message.
Modal TriggerPugh in a courtroom sketch from February 24, 2016.
When Pugh’s mother said yes, the heartbroken dad shook his head in disbelief.

Demas added that Pugh also tried to destroy thumb drives after becoming spooked that investigators were on his tail.

“He took papers showing his airplane mechanic credentials because he knew his skills as an airplane mechanic would be useful to ISIS,” she said.

“He packed a certificate showing he embraced Islam showing that he officially converted to the Muslim faith because ISIS has declared war against those it considered unbelievers.”

In his closing, Pugh’s attorney, Eric Creizman, acknowledged that his client held misguided admiration for the terror group but never had any true intention to go fight for them.

He said he had only gone to Turkey to look for work, clear his head, and perhaps visit a bathhouse.

Jurors will continue their deliberations Wednesday morning.

Pugh faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terror group and obstruction of justice.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/05/31/isis-loving-air-force-vet-gets-35-years-at-weepy-sentencing/

ISIS-loving Air Force vet gets 35 years at weepy sentencing
By Emily Saul
May 31, 2017 | 9:30pm | Updated

A US Air Force vet who became the first American ever to be convicted of attempting to join ISIS prattled on, sometimes tearfully, for nearly 40 minutes Wednesday before a Brooklyn federal judge interrupted him to say he wasn’t the militant’s “psychiatrist” and sentenced him to 35 years behind bars.

“This isn’t about whether you’re Muslim or Christian or Jewish,” US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis told Tairod Pugh before handing down his decision. “This is about whether you’re going to stand up for your country, which has done so much for you, or betray your country.

“You made your choice,” the jurist growled. “I have no sympathy.”

Pugh, who did not testify during his trial, spoke at length Wednesday in a tangential, sometimes incoherent rant in which he attempted to explain away terrorist propaganda found in his possession, as well as maps of the border crossings from Turkey into Syria.

“I am a black man, I am a military man, I am a Muslim man,” Pugh said before dissolving into tears.

“I protected this country and the Constitution,” he choked. “And my service was repaid by stripping me of my career, shaming my wife, shaming my parents, shaming my children.”

As he spoke to the judge, the Neptune, NJ, man — who left his bride and children behind in Cairo when he made what he called “a one-way trip” to Turkey — asked Garaufis to leaf through photos of him, mostly posing alongside various aircraft he’d worked on across the world.

The 49-year-old was convicted last March of plotting to join ISIS and obstructing a government proceeding. Upon his capture in Istanbul in 2015, he had attempted to destroy evidence of his plot.

Pugh served as an airplane mechanic for four years in the US military before he was honorably discharged and began working around the Middle East.

Defense attorney Susan Kellman likened her client’s interest in the Islamic State to a kind of “voyeurism” but noted that there had been no evidence of any form of communication between Pugh and the group.

“This is all in his head,” she said. “We also have to remember we’re talking about someone who is mentally ill.”

While Pugh’s medical conditions have not been revealed, he’s known to have suffered from acute depression as a teenager.

On Wednesday, Pugh swung between tears and anger as he spoke.

“Am I a militant? Hell, yeah, I’m a militant, I grew up in the military,” Pugh said at one point, before devolving into recollections of cavity searches while incarcerated and other humiliations.

“Me, a man, who protected this country, has been forced to wear another man’s underwear,” he blubbered.

The judge finally interrupted Pugh after the defendant started singing: “I’m a soldier in the army of the lord.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t listen to this all day,” Garaufis interjected. “While I’m listening patiently, you’re everywhere in your statement.”

“I’m not your psychiatrist, I’m the judge,” he said, softening the hard edge in his voice. “And I’m limited in what I can do.”

“It’s a very sad thing that you have done.”