Man accused of recruiting for ISIS used code words: feds

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/01/11/man-accused-of-recruiting-for-isis-used-code-words-feds/

Man accused of recruiting for ISIS used code words: feds
By Kaja Whitehouse
January 11, 2017 | 12:55am

A mural depicting the emblem of the Islamic State (IS) group in Al-Alam village, northeast of the multi-ethnic Iraqi city of Tikrit, on March 9, 2015, Getty Images


A man accused of acting as a recruiter for ISIS used code words to hide his illicit activities, including calling the terror group “the company” and referring to terrorist training as an “internship,” Manhattan federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Ahmed Mohammed el Gam*mal used code words and encrypted messages when talking to a Baruch College student who wanted to join ISIS because the defendant knew what he was doing was illegal, prosecutors said in opening statements.

El Gammal is accused of aiding and abetting ISIS by helping 24-year-old Baruch student Samy El-Goarany travel to Syria through Turkey, and introducing the student to people who could help him join ISIS.

El Gammal met El-Goarany online when El-Goarany was still a teenager. Years later, he gave El-Goarany the name of a friend in Turkey who could help the student travel to Syria, prosecutors said.

Lawyers for el Gammal sought to paint their client as an all-American guy who is being scapegoated.

El Gammal loves Marlboro cigarettes, Jimmy Carter and Red Bull, said his lawyer, Annalisa Miron, who said people call him “Jimmy.”

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NYC: Man accused of recruiting for ISIS used code words: feds

A man accused of acting as a recruiter for ISIS used code words to hide his illicit activities, including calling the terror group “the company” and referring to terrorist training as an “internship,” Manhattan federal prosecutors said Tuesday. Ahmed Mohammed el Gam*mal used code words and encrypted messages when talking to a Baruch College student who wanted to join ISIS because the defendant knew what he was doing was illegal, prosecutors said in opening statements. El Gammal is accused of aiding and abetting ISIS by helping 24-year-old Baruch student Samy El-Goarany travel to Syria through Turkey, and introducing the student to people who could help him join ISIS.

• Ahmed Mohammed el-Gammal update: Trial starts for Arizonan accused of helping New Yorker join ISIS

 

[The Bobster]

Man faces jail time for alleged ISIS recruitment

http://nypost.com/2017/01/12/man-faces-jail-time-for-alleged-isis-recruitment/

Man faces jail time for alleged ISIS recruitment
By Kaja Whitehouse
January 12, 2017 | 8:55pm

He wanted to “live in a tent” with ISIS — but is facing federal lockup instead.

An Arizona man accused of acting as a recruiter for ISIS told friends he wanted to live in squalor with the terrorists — and praised them for “forcibly” taking over cities in Iraq, it emerged at his Manhattan federal trial Thursday.

“Allah is great. Mosul falls by the hands of the state,” Ahem Mohammed el Gammal said after ISIS took over the Iraqi city in 2014.

“No caliphate came by deliberation. All by the sword. It has to be taken like this,” el Gammal told a pal on Facebook. “We will take it forcibly. Not peacefully.”

Then el Gammal blasted his comfy life as the owner of a small business that imported machines used to fix vehicles.

“I am willing to live in a tent under an Islamic state instead of all luxuries under an infidel state,” el Gammal, 44, wrote in the post.

Prosecutors introduced the Facebook posts in an effort to prove to the jury overseeing the trial that el Gammal saw himself as a supporter of ISIS.

He stands accused of illegally supporting the terrorist organization by helping a Baruch College student travel to Syria through Turkey in 2015.

“I’m in contact with someone from the company. Directly inside the company,” the student, Samy El-Goarany told el Gammal after he arrived in Turkey in 2015.

“The sooner I can start the internship the better,” El-Goarany said.

The government has said “company” was code for ISIS and “internship” was code for military training. They also said el Gammal deleted the bulk of his posts with El-Goarany after the kid made it to Syria.

El Gammal’s lawyers have argued that their client did not even know about El-Goarany’s ISIS ambitions, much less help him with them.

They have painted their client as a Red Bull-drinking, Marlboro-smoking, fan of ex-President Jimmy Carter — who often said things to push people’s buttons.

The Manhattan federal court trial continues Friday.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/01/17/brother-didnt-rat-out-isis-recruit-as-big-f-k-you-to-family/

Brother didn’t rat out ISIS recruit as ‘big f–k you’ to family
By Kaja Whitehouse and Reuven Fenton
January 17, 2017 | 7:26pm

Samy El-Goarany BQuigley


A former Queens College student said he helped cover up his older brother’s plans to join ISIS as a “big f–k you” to his family, who saw him as “stupid and complacent.”

Tarek El-Goarany told a Manhattan federal jury that he kept his brother Samy El-Goarany’s whereabouts hidden from his parents after Samy fled to Syria in 2015 — and then lied to the FBI when they came knocking — because he believed Samy had a right to be happy, “just like everybody does.”

Tarek, 24, also did it as an act of rebellion against his family, according to online messages introduced at the trial of Ahmed el Gammal, who stands accused of helping Samy join ISIS.

“Just deny that either of us knows anything and just say a big F–K YOU to the rest of the family,” Tarek had written to his cousin.

In another exchange, he complained that they saw him as “stupid and complacent.”

The feds have accused el Gammal, a small business owner from Arizona, of putting Samy in touch with someone in Turkey who helped him cross into Syria.

Samy died in late 2015, less than a year later, the feds have said.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/01/19/shame-made-father-lie-about-son-ditching-college-to-join-isis/

Shame made father lie about son ditching college to join ISIS
By Kaja Whitehouse
January 19, 2017 | 4:31pm

Samy el-Goarany, in a photo shown in federal court, poses with a weapon and the Islamic State group flag. AP


The father of a Baruch College student who joined ISIS told a Manhattan federal jury that shame led him to lie about his son’s whereabouts — including telling people that the son had died in a car accident in Canada — because he didn’t want him to be “a terrorist man.”

Mohamed El-Goarany, of upstate Goshen, said he first learned his son Samy had gone rogue when he flew to Turkey — behind the FBI’s back — on a lone mission to find his child and bring him back to the US.

The family was working with the FBI at the time, but El-Goarany kept his May 2015 trip secret to protect his son, he said.

“I don’t want them to arrest Samy. If I bring him back with me they don’t arrest him,” he said at the trial of Ahemd el Gammal, who stands accused of helping Samy get to Syria through a friend in Turkey.

El-Goarany said he tracked his son down through el Gammal’s friend in Turkey, a journalist who confirmed at dinner that “Samy is now in Syria fighting” for ISIS, he said.

When El-Goarany returned to New York without Samy, federal agents were waiting for him at the door of his plane at Kennedy Airport, he said.

The real estate broker confessed to the feds his son was in Syria — but he denied it was because of ISIS.

“I didn’t want him to be arrested as a terrorist man,” he told the jury.

Later, after the family learned Samy died in Syria, he told people he perished in a car accident in Canada. “We say that to keep my son’s image as good,” said El Goarany.

At one point, he balled on the witness stand when talking about the first time he learned his son was missing, in Jan. 2015.

“I lost my son, what can I do?” he said. “Who’s going to bring my son back?”