He said of non-Muslims: “We will go after every one of them, their kindergartens, their shopping centers, their nightclubs, their police stations, their courthouses and everything until we have an Islamic state the whole world.” Not that this has anything to do with Islam, you greasy Islamophobe.
“Jury finds Sami Osmakac guilty of terrorism,” by Anna M. Phillips, Tampa Bay Times, June 10, 2014:
TAMPA — Sami Osmakac, the Kosovo-born man who threatened to stage a “second 9/11” attack here, was convicted Tuesday of both terrorism-related charges brought against him.
Federal prosecutors had accused Osmakac, a 27-year-old radicalized Muslim American, of plotting to kill hundreds of people by targeting several densely populated areas in Tampa. His plans, which never came to fruition, included bombing a South Tampa pub and then traveling to another location where he would detonate a suicide vest packed with explosives. He was certain he would wake up to a martyr’s breakfast in heaven.
Instead, Osmakac faces the possibility of life in prison and the short-term certainty of breakfast in jail.
After six hours of deliberation, the jury convicted him of possessing an unregistered AK-47 and attempting to use weapons of mass destruction, a reference to the car bomb, six grenades and suicide vest he planned to use. Judge Mary S. Scriven scheduled his sentencing hearing for Oct. 7.
Lee Bentley, acting U.S. attorney for Florida’s Middle District, applauded Osmakac’s conviction on Tuesday, distributing a statement in which he credited “assistance from the Muslim community” with bringing Osmakac to the FBI’s attention.
“The jury’s verdict in this case represents another victory in our fight against terrorism, which remains our top priority,” he said.
Attorneys for Osmakac said they were already working on a motion for a new trial.
“We’re disappointed,” said defense attorney George Tragos, who, in his closing argument, acknowledged that his client faced long odds of an acquittal. “We’re also disappointed that, because it’s a national security case, so much of the evidence was kept secret.”
Arrested in 2012, Osmakac had been under surveillance by the FBI since at least 2010, but the agency began to monitor him more closely after he made a failed attempt to buy guns from people he thought were selling drugs in St. Petersburg. An undercover agent was assigned to test how far Osmakac was willing to go by posing as a dealer willing to sell him weapons.
The Pinellas Park man took the bait, and he did so while being videotaped by the FBI. In what became the government’s chief evidence, Osmakac met several times with the agent and an informer to discuss his plans and the weapons he wanted to purchase. He spoke repeatedly of his desire to avenge the deaths of Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born cleric who became an influential al-Qaida leader.
Osmakac schemed to set off a car bomb outside MacDinton’s, an Irish pub in South Tampa, an area he regarded as the stomping grounds of sinners and homosexuals. From there, he planned to enter the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and take hostages, releasing them once the government agreed to free certain Muslim prisoners. Knowing that his rampage would end with him surrounded by police, he planned to detonate the suicide vest.
In one recording shown to jurors, Osmakac threatened war on non-Muslims, saying, “We will go after every one of them, their kindergartens, their shopping centers, their nightclubs, their police stations, their courthouses and everything until we have an Islamic state the whole world.”….