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Ohio: Muslim who plotted to attack U.S. Capitol for the Islamic State ruled competent to stand trial

Apr 18, 2016 2:04 pm By Robert Spencer

U.S. law enforcement officials always want to assume that Islamic jihad terrorists are mentally incompetent. It fits in so much better with their worldview than the prospect which for them is too terrible to contemplate, that they may be motivated by Islamic texts and teachings.

christopher_cornell74

“Capitol plot suspect appears competent, using birth name,” by Dan Sewell, Associated Press, April 18, 2016 (thanks to Thomas):

CINCINNATI (AP) — A suburban Cincinnati man, the beard and long hair he had when arrested gone, has been calling himself again by his birth name and appears competent to stand trial on charges that he plotted to attack the U.S. Capitol in support of the Islamic State group, according to testimony Monday.

Defense psychologist Scot Bresler, of the University of Cincinnati, strongly advised that Christopher Lee Cornell, 22, be re-evaluated because his competency is “marginal” and could change before trial. U.S. District Judge Sandra Beckwith said she would move ahead with a trial schedule, at the end of a competency hearing she called after his attorneys raised questions about Cornell’s mental state.

Cornell had used the name Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah and followed some Islamic religious practices while, the FBI said, expressing support for violent jihadists. Bresler said he thought Cornell “self-radicalized” and adopted the identity to make him “feel he was somebody.”

Cornell has been held without bond since his January 2015 arrest near Cincinnati by the FBI. He has pleaded not guilty to four charges, including attempted murder of U.S. officials and employees. His father has said he was misled and coerced by “a snitch.”

Bresler, who has repeatedly examined Cornell since his arrest, said Sunday was the first time he asked him to call him “Chris,” instead of “Raheel” when he met with him at Boone County Jail in northern Kentucky where he was brought recently from a federal facility. Cornell, sitting at the defense table in jail clothes with wrists and ankles shackled, appeared less gaunt than in earlier appearances and nodded and smiled at times, such as when he spotted his family.

His attorneys could still pursue a defense of not guilty by reason of insanity, although Bresler said Cornell has said he would oppose that defense. Bresler said Cornell suffers from schizotypal disorder, which can cause marked social anxiety and odd thinking, and has long had problems with depression.

He said Cornell at times has been overwhelmed by depressed, “dark” feelings, and has repeatedly expressed suicidal thoughts including just days ago. He said he has found him “crying incessantly” and unable to process information well.

He said the youth, living a lower-middle-class existence in his parents’ apartment, was socially withdrawn and spent hours alone on his computer.

“He created this identity to make him feel as if his life made a difference … to make him feel he was somebody,” Bresler said….

Cornell told WXIX-TV of Cincinnati after his arrest that he wanted to shoot President Barack Obama in the head.

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Filed Under: American jihadis, converts to Islam, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Jihad in the U.S. Tagged With: Christopher Lee Cornell, Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah


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Comments

  1. Walter Sieruk says

    Apr 18, 2016 at 2:14 pm

    One of the explanation as to how such totally unconscionable, ruthless, vicious actions and murderous are committed by the Muslim terrorists who compose the brutal and deadly jihad entity ISIS is answer in the following . The jihadists of ISIS are engaging in the Islamic doctrine of “Muruna” which is the dogma of Islam that teaches committing evil for the greater good is a noble part of the jihad for Islam. This is, in essence, the same type of “philosophy” that the communists had gone by in the twentieth century. That it’s a “good thing “ to commit many evils to obtain a “worker’s paradise.” Likewise, during World War II even the Nazis had this line of thinking.” To express, as in to illustrate this idea, even more, is by using a twenty-first century movie. Near the end of this movie, just before the final defeat of the super-arch –villain General Zod , that super villain said “No matter how brutal and deadly I was I did it for the greater good.” That is the common mindset of many villains including those of ISIS.

  2. Angemon says

    Apr 18, 2016 at 2:33 pm

    sitting at the defense table in jail clothes with wrists and ankles shackled, appeared less gaunt than in earlier appearances and nodded and smiled at times, such as when he spotted his family.

    He’s probably been getting some d…ecent meals in jail.

  3. linnte says

    Apr 18, 2016 at 6:18 pm

    Is his family Muslim? Or is he a new convert!?

    • gravenimage says

      Apr 18, 2016 at 9:07 pm

      linnte, given that his birth name is Christopher Lee Cornell, I think it’s safe to say that he is a “revert” to Islam.

    • paul says

      Apr 20, 2016 at 2:27 am

      New convert I think. Lets jail them in North Korea. All muslims jailed can be located there for a small price. Kim Jon says he can help them get their minds right.

  4. gravenimage says

    Apr 18, 2016 at 9:05 pm

    “Capitol plot suspect appears competent, using birth name”
    ………………………..

    *Of course* he’s using his birth name–Christopher Lee Cornell
    sounds a lot less Jihadists than does Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah, which, by the way, means something along the lines of “protected in his journey of Jihad”.

    • Cecilia Ellis says

      Apr 18, 2016 at 10:39 pm

      Graven, if I knew who the prosecutorial team is going to be, I would send them this information. This is very significant! Though I am neither a lawyer nor a psychologist, I would think that this purposeful name choice would diminish Cornell’s chances for an insanity defense.

  5. steve says

    Apr 19, 2016 at 11:50 am

    Yes the Muslim terrorist is incompetent and mentally deficient. I imagine the thousands of volts in the electric chair might improve their integration into leaf mould. A sort of natural electro-selection.

  6. wildibll2u says

    Apr 19, 2016 at 1:19 pm

    It’s terrible that the radical Islamists are preying on our youth via the internet. But they are.

    As long as the media and the politicians refuse to take action to stop it because of the Islamic religion aspect and political correctness, these young folks are going to be victims of their own inadequacies. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean they get off without punishment.

  7. suprnatwarrior says

    Apr 20, 2016 at 11:22 am

    Because socialism, communism, Nazism, Islamism all have the same “spirit groups” controlling them. It’s why they have so much in common. The “art”, if you will, of psychiatry will do nothing to help this. Psychiatry of any kind is totally useless against a world very few know of or even want to believe exist. But it is a very real world and the one we are at war with today.

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