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Jihadis encouraged Texas cartoon jihadi to launch a jihad attack

May 7, 2015 8:50 pm By Robert Spencer

ht_elton_simpson_garland_texas_bug_jc_150504_16x9_992What’s that? Jihadis were encouraging Simpson to launch a jihad attack, and he was looking around for a suitable target? No, this couldn’t be! Everyone knows that Elton Ibrahim Simpson would have been a law-abiding, patriotic American all his life if only Pamela Geller and I hadn’t provoked him with those Muhammad cartoons! “Texas attacker had private conversations with known terrorists,” by Evan Perez, Pamela Brown and Jim Sciutto, CNN, May 7, 2015:

Washington (CNN)Elton Simpson, one of the two men who were foiled in an attempted attack on the Prophet Muhammad exhibit in Garland, Texas, was in private contact with known jihadists overseas who were encouraging Simpson to launch an attempted attack, multiple officials tell CNN.

Simpson and his roommate, Nadir Soofi, were killed Sunday by a guard outside the exhibit after they drove up and opened fire.

The FBI has found private communications between Simpson and some prominent terrorists whom he also had public exchanges with on Twitter including Jenaid Hussein, a British national tied to ISIS and Mohamed Abdullahi Hassan, an American now believed to be in Somalia and part of that country’s al Qaeda affiliate al Shabaab, according to one law enforcement official.

RELATED: Texas attack: What we know about Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi

Another law enforcement official described the communication with Hussein as “non public” while a third government source said the two interacted via secure communication.

U.S. investigators believe Hussein and Hassan encouraged Simpson to carry out an attack, though the sources — who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity — say that Simpson probably chose the venue and plan of attack on his own.

Hussein is described as radicalizing Simpson, pushing him to carry out an attack, officials said in describing the interaction between the two. But such influence did not mean he was giving “operational orders,” such as choosing targets or helping plan the attack, but rather an effort to push Simpson to act on his own.

U.S. investigators say Simpson was being encouraged to act, but this is a murky case carried out between a self-directed lone wolf and one directed by overseas terrorists, officials explained.

Simpson had publicly connected with a Twitter account that investigators believe belongs to ISIS recruiter Jenaid Hussein. Simpson used Hussein’s Twitter name in a tweet alluding to the coming Texas attack.

Several hours before the attack, Hussein tweeted an ominous message to his followers, writing: “the knifes have been sharpened, soon we will come to your streets with death and slaughter.”

And Simpson himself sent a tweet with the hashtag “#texasattack” just before he launched the attack.

There were also public hints of Simpson’s contacts with the American-born Hassan who, according to U.S. court documents, traveled to Somalia in 2008 from Minneapolis to join the terrorist group Al-Shabaab. A few days before the attack, Simpson tweeted a message to Mohamed Abdullahi Hassan.

“How are you doing?” Simpson wrote in a tweet, then followed with another tweet that said “dm me,” meaning to send him a direct message.

Alert to the online activities, the FBI warned police in Garland about Elton Simpson’s general interest in the controversial Prophet Muhammad cartoon event about three hours before Simpson and Soofi launched their attack, FBI Director James Comey said Thursday.

Comey said the FBI had seen his social media comments referencing the event but didn’t know he had traveled from Phoenix to Texas, and had no indication he was planning an attack. Comey made the comments at a meeting with reporters in Washington.

One law enforcement official told CNN that the two drove all night from Phoenix to Garland ahead of the planned attack.

Law enforcement officials said the FBI had a list of suspected extremists who similarly were interested in the event and it had shared those names with local authorities. In Simpson’s case, the FBI shared a photo and possible vehicle license plate. But there’s no indication that information made it to officers on the street, or otherwise played a role in the quick reaction by a local officer to kill Simpson and his roommate.

Comey wouldn’t say whether he believed the attack was directed or inspired by ISIS, because he said the distinction has become irrelevant the way ISIS’s social media influence works.

He said there are hundreds of investigations in the U.S. of possible extremists influenced by known ISIS recruiters.

“I know there are other Elton Simpsons out there,” Comey said….

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Filed Under: American jihadis, Featured, Jihad in the U.S. Tagged With: Elton Simpson, Ibrahim Simpson


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Comments

  1. arish says

    May 7, 2015 at 9:11 pm

    Saudi plan to destroyed you is so perfect no one can beat them. Plan is so simple effective and foolproof. In last 1400 yrs 1.3 billions local fools convert to islam have destroyed own nations ,own race, own national wealth bit by bit . 58 islamic nations now on verge of total destruction and Their age old ,culture totally destroyed . . West will be destroyed none but local convert to Islam and these convert will live free but work for saudis Arab and will destroy the nation as they are promised great sex life after death .

    • dumbledoresarmy says

      May 8, 2015 at 3:31 am

      And why are you saying this?

      Are you simply giving in to despair and defeatism?

      Or are you a Lord Haw Haw or a Tokyo Rose, attempting to *sow* despair and defeatism, to head off the possibility that a thousand, thousands, scores of thousands of people, visiting this blog, are *waking up* and are going to *start fighting back* on every imaginable front, from that of the internet comments stream, all the way to the streets where a traffic cop and his regulation pistol and deadly aim took out two jihadis just. like. that??

      If the only thing you can do here is croak, “Despair! All is lost!” then I suggest to you that you stay away.

      Because I don’t think it is and it won’t be so long as enough people *refuse* to surrender in advance.

      If you’re merely a counter-jihadist having a bad day and a black mood: then I suggest that if religious you recite a prayer according to whatever tradition you belong to (if Catholic, light a candle to St Jude…and St George and St Michael, while you’re at it) and then whether religious or not, put some money in Mr Spencer’s tip jar so he can go on spreading the truth and raising the alarm. And go to ACT for America and put a donation in their war-chest, as well.

  2. mortimer says

    May 7, 2015 at 9:16 pm

    Scholars[In Islamic Fiqh say that] there are absolutely no opinions, no variants, no exceptions…Muhammad ibn Sahnun said that even if a man claims that it is part of his religion to insult the Messenger, and so in his religion it is lawful, THAT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE TO US. If he openly insults our Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, then our religion makes it LAWFUL TO KILL HIM. This surely is the inescapable centre of the current affair. THE ARROGANT KUFFAR HAVE TO LEARN THAT WORLD CONTAINS a two-billion COMMUNITY WHO HAVE A DIFFERENT SET OF LAWS from theirs, and who can never be detached from that Law.

    • Theodoric says

      May 7, 2015 at 9:58 pm

      We are constantly being lectured abut the 1.6 billion Islamites who supposedly are ever so glad to be the slaves of “Allah” – the vast majority of whom became Islamites automatically only because their parents were Islamites, and never had any choice in the matter.

      But no matter – the free human beings still OUTNUMBER by far the Islamite slaves of “Allah” who are told by “Allah” that they need to kill, enslave or subjugate every single one of us.

      Good luck, idiots.

      https://drawthevileprophet.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/preserve-free-speech-draw-the-vile-prophet-400dpi.jpg

  3. Wellington says

    May 7, 2015 at 9:40 pm

    This is a bit off topic and yet it isn’t. It is relevant I believe.

    I just watched a segment on MSNBC (which some, myself included, think could easily stand for “Marxist-Socialist Nothing But Crap”) in which the very liberal (and weeny) host Chris Hayes had two guests on, one Zahra Billoo, a spokeswoman for CAIR, and Michael Moynihan, a columnist for The Daily Beast ( a very liberal publication, of course).

    What was most interesting in the give and take between these three very confused people (though confused for different reasons) was that Hayes and Moynihan, even though they made sure they denounced Pamela Geller numerous times as a bigot, a hater, a very limited person and, oh yes of course, an “Islamophobe,” they still, nonetheless, spoke of an “uncomfortableness” with the fact that two Muslim “enthusiasts” wanted to kill those holding a cartoon contest.

    In other words, these two silly rubes kinda’, sorta’, stumbled into the truth. Of course, the CAIR representative nodded along with these two dimwits only to the extent of not outright disagreeing with them, but the entire “episode” revealed to me that even very limited people like Hayes and Moynihan, though of course they would have to denounce Geller (they also invoked “conservatives” like O’Reilly, Sustern and Ingraham in their cause—–and so thanks again to O’Reilly, Ingraham, et al. for feeding into the Islamic narrative about hate speech and not being stalwart defenders of the First Amendment), one could still discern a distant, vague, muddled, uninformed but still definite concern about anyone who would want to kill those holding a cartoon contest. In short, even underwhelming people like Hayes and Moynihan are, in their own still very limited way, “getting it,” though, to be sure, they would be the first to deride my take on them here (but, of course, they would be wrong on this as on so much else).

    On the larger matter of Pamela Geller and what she stands for, even though she will continue to be denounced ad nauseam by liberal idiots (excuse the redundancy) and those on the Right like O’Reilly and Ingraham (thanks for nothing you two), she is, I submit, actually winning the debate. I hope this reality can serve as a comfort to an exceedingly brave and knowledgeable woman whom all those who prize liberty owe a tremendous debt to.

    From the bottom of my heart, Pamela Geller, thank you for being who you are.

    • weavo2 says

      May 7, 2015 at 10:56 pm

      Very well said Wellington, as usual you hit it right on the mark!

    • Proud Pork Fan says

      May 8, 2015 at 4:16 am

      Great observation Wellington and I hope you are right. I tended to interpret the “the cartoons don’t justify murder, BUT” preface as an obligatory disclaimer of not overtly being a monster that wants Sharia implemented immediately in the USA. Like “I am a card-carrying American but Pam baited the violence and thus is responsible”.

      However I do see your point. The truth is sitting there so blatantly obvious that they can’t directly debate the facts and instead must twist the message. When doing so they must use bastardized logic, and when you have more than a few minutes to fill that will come back and bite you in the ass.

      But the elephant in the room (which I have heard Pam and Robert enunciate several times) is that they (CAIR and leftists) are making the strong insinuation that all or many Muslims sympathize with the violence. They are lumping all Muslims together. They are basically saying “the violence is not justified but the cartoons are so horrible that it pisses off every one of the 1.6 billion Muslims and it is no wonder that a few brothers would want to kill over them”. That totally contradicts their other talking-point ” the terrorists have nothing to do with Islam which is a peaceful religion”. They can’t have it both ways but of course you must if “perpetual victim” is your identity and taqiyya is your playbook.

      The most important differentiating point which seems lost on so many is that the violence is what is important and the violence is what separates Islam from all other religions. Yes, nobody liked the crucifix-in-urine sculpture but there was zero violence committed over it. That is the issue, not that it was offensive. Its the violence, stupid.

      The debate should be about “is it correct to commit violence over something offensive”, period. Another way to state that is “is the violence against cartoonists justified”. Instead they turned it into “did Pam bait the shooters and thus bring it on herself”. This changing of the narrative is a deceptive lateral move. If the answer to the first question is “no, there is no justification for violence against cartoonists”, then the second question is a moot point, and the narrative becomes “the Muslims are phenomenally sensitive and will kill over anything”.

      To the two sides of the issue are 1: things Muslims don’t like and feel offended by, and 2: Muslims hyper-sensitivity and propensity to extreme violence. Of course if you prefer the narrative that Muslims are infantile victims (as CAIR and leftists do) then you will say that Pam made them do it. If you feel that the violence isn’t justified then it is Islam’s fault, as we only see Muslims continually perpetrating this kind of violence.

      It is clear Pam has logic and truth on her side which is the best position to be in in a debate. I think you are right that she is winning it. People are starting to wake-up to the Islamic threat which continues to rage-on and is accelerating rapidly.

      • Jack Diamond says

        May 8, 2015 at 9:32 am

        It is correct to commit violence over an insult to Muhammad or Islam, according to the consensus of scholars. It is Islamic, period. I posted this before but it’s worth repeating:
        http://www.muftisays.com/blog/Seifeddine-M/3016_17-09-2012/ruling-on-one-who-insults-the-prophet-peace-and-blessings-be-upon-him.html

        “The scholars are unanimously agreed that a Muslim who insults the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) becomes a kaafir and an apostate who is to be executed. This consensus was narrated by more than one of the scholars, such as Imaam Ishaaq ibn Raahawayh, Ibn al-Mundhir, al-Qaadi ‘Iyaad, al-Khattaabi and others. Al-Saarim al-Maslool, 2/13-16

        “Abu Dawood (4362) narrated from ‘Ali that a Jewish woman used to insult the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and say bad things about him, so a man strangled her until she died, and the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) ruled that no blood money was due in this case.

        Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah said in al-Saarim al-Maslool (1/162): This hadeeth is jayyid, and there is a corroborating report in the hadeeth of Ibn ‘Abbaas which we will quote below.

        This hadeeth clearly indicates that it was permissible to kill that woman because she used to insult the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).

        {For the Imams going on TV saying Muhammad bore insults and did nothing}:
        “The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) sometimes chose to forgive those who had insulted him, and sometimes he ordered that they should be executed, if that served a greater purpose. But now his forgiveness is impossible because he is dead, so the execution of the one who insults him remains the right of Allaah, His Messenger and the believers, and the one who deserves to be executed cannot be let off, so the punishment must be carried out.

        “Insulting the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) is one of the worst of forbidden actions, and it constitutes kufr and apostasy from Islam, according to scholarly consensus, whether done seriously or in jest. The one who does that is to be executed even if he repents and whether he is a Muslim or a kaafir. ”

        “Whether he is a Muslim or a kaafir”. If you are arguing Muslims believe something different than this you have the burden of proof. Otherwise, you have to admit Islam is inherently violent and assume Muslims will react violently. This leads to other conclusions….

        As to the delicate sensitivities of Muslims and their hurt feelings, a little ironic given the non-stop hate and enmity preached from the mosques and madrassas and on Islamic TV toward the filthy kaffir, evidenced by any perusal of the MEMRI archives, none of which offends them; the vile cartoons and editorials in their press insulting Jews and Christians, none of which offends them. Nor do the non-stop religious murders by their co-religionists seem to much offend them, anymore than the offensive and insulting toward the kaffir suras of the Qur’an bother their otherwise delicate and easily bruised emotional well-being.

        • Proud Pork Fan says

          May 8, 2015 at 9:55 am

          Great points.

      • Wellington says

        May 8, 2015 at 12:55 pm

        Very fine reasoning, Pround Pork Fan.

    • epistemology says

      May 9, 2015 at 9:38 am

      Very well observed Wellington. I heard it on CNN all along, this Motoon contest is Islamophobic translates to evil. They presented Geert Wilders as a right wing politician who he isn’t, hell-bent on destroying Islam. Yes that’s what we want and we got to pursue our goal. One CNN reporter quoted Geert Wilders saying Islam is a backward religion and doesn’t belong in our societies. The reporter added “Would you like anybody to say that about Christianity?” That comparison leaves me speechless.

      I can tell you, part of my family was killed by the Nazis, Islam has got the same ideology as Nazism, same supremacism, same Antisemitism same contempt for everything different. They want to rule the world and we must stop them by all means.

      We’ve really got to get together Wellington, you’re a compatriot of mine. We’re all Westerners, doesn’t matter where we live in Europe, the States, Canada or Australia. As soon as free speech falls the West will collapse. We’ve got to prevent that by all means.

      Hope you’re doing fine my friend and all the best wishes to you and your loved ones.

  4. winoceros says

    May 7, 2015 at 11:13 pm

    Comey wouldn’t say whether he believed the attack was directed or inspired by ISIS, because he said the distinction has become irrelevant the way ISIS’s social media influence works

    This is a ‘cat out of the bag’ moment and an important admission for our education campaign. Think of the leap LEO’s can make in arrest and motive when the silly, direct ‘radicalization’ magic wand is no longer being sought. It’s not the Midas Touch. It’s Islam, stupid.

    • particolor says

      May 8, 2015 at 6:19 am

      Fear of Chocolate Frogs !!

  5. No Fear says

    May 8, 2015 at 2:06 am

    Off topic:

    Miliband in the UK promised to “criminalise Islamophobia”.

    My message to Miliband is :

    1. READ the Quran. Read how you (non-muslim) are ‘untermensch’ and worthy of the fire, and how Mohammed (murderer, rapist, pedo, thief, liar) is a “perfect example” for man.

    2. READ the HADITH. Read how you (non-muslim) are scum and must live as a dhimmi.

    3. After you have read the Quran and the Hadith then tell me that my fear of Islam is a “phobia”.

    Fear of Islam is NOT a phobia. It is LOGICAL and RATIONAL , same as FEAR of NAZISM.

    • Mirren10 says

      May 8, 2015 at 7:31 am

      ”Miliband in the UK promised to “criminalise Islamophobia”.

      The repulsive miliband, and his equally repulsive labour party got creamed ! 🙂

      • particolor says

        May 8, 2015 at 7:47 pm

        That statement received a Great Response I see ! He got the Royal Pork Sausage !! 🙂

  6. Rossbro says

    May 8, 2015 at 10:39 am

    Cede no freedoms to those who do not ‘like’ what we wish to draw, print, or speak. If they can not live in a free society, let them go home to ‘Sandland’ and rule by Theocratic whimsy.

  7. Walter Sieruk says

    May 8, 2015 at 4:33 pm

    That violent and vicious jihad attack by those jihad minded Muslims with much murderous intentions at that Muhammad cartoon contest was not provoked by either Pamela Geller or the A.F.D.I.but by the violent and deadly teachings of Islam.So it was not really the cartoon event but the violent nature of Islam that results in violent action by the followers of this death cult. For this shows that it may just be true in in what they say. Which is that “Evil is always looking for an excuse.” After all. the cruel and murderous Boston bombers also gave an excuse for their planting of those bombs on that Boston street.

  8. Angemon says

    May 9, 2015 at 6:55 am

    Elton Simpson, one of the two men who were foiled in an attempted attack on the Prophet Muhammad exhibit in Garland, Texas, was in private contact with known jihadists overseas who were encouraging Simpson to launch an attempted attack, multiple officials tell CNN.

    CNN owes AFDI an apology for saying that they brought the attack on themselves. Those two dead goat-humpers could very well gone jihadi on a crowded supermarket.

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