“I am not bad. I am not evil. I am a good guy. I say that with my heart.”
Of course. By his lights, he is a very good guy: a warrior for Allah.
“Anaheim man who tried to join ISIS gets 30 years in prison,” by Sean Emery, Orange County Register, September 26, 2016 (thanks to Patrick):
SANTA ANA – An Anaheim man who tried to fly out of the country to join the Islamic State was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison for conspiring to aid the foreign terrorist group.
Nader Salem Elhuzayel, who was also convicted of running a banking scheme to bankroll his planned trip to the Middle East, looked down, stretched and then glanced at his family as U.S. District Judge David O. Carter handed down his sentence at the federal courthouse in Santa Ana.
“There is no remorse,” Carter said of Elhuzayel. “There is just death and destruction.”
The judge particularly noted Elhuzayel’s apparent aim to become a martyr. Even after his prison sentence, the judge ordered that Elhuzayel must remain on supervised release for the rest of his life.
“What is striking to this court is the fact you were willing to die,” Carter said.
Elhuzayel’s family reacted with disbelief to the judge’s decision. His mother, Falak, exclaimed “there is no justice in this country, no justice whatsoever” as she left the courtroom.
“He is a peace-loving human being,” said Nader Elhuzayel’s father, Salem, outside the courtroom. “We experienced a miscarriage of justice.”
Always the victims.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Judith Heinz painted a much darker picture of Elhuzayel’s actions during her comments before the judge.
“The seriousness of these offenses cannot be overstated,” she said of Elhuzayel’s support of the Islamic State. “It is the most lethal, it is the most brutal, it is the most heinous organization on the face of the earth.”
Elhuzayel pushed back against the prosecutor’s allegations.
“I am not bad,” Elhuzayel said to the courtroom. “I am not evil. I am a good guy. I say that with my heart.”
“I love you Mom and Dad,” he added.
In a court brief filed prior to the sentencing, Pal Lengyel-Leahu, Elhuzayel’s attorney, described his client as a lost young man whose family was hit hard by the financial downturn.
“Nader Elhuzayel appears to (be) a man of deep confusion, longing to find an identity for himself,” the defense attorney wrote to Judge Carter. “Nader has always been a rule follower, just looking for someone to show him the way.”
On May 21, 2015, Elhuzayel was stopped at a security counter at Los Angeles International Airport attempting to board a flight bound for Israel. Federal agents, who had conducted surveillance on Elhuzayel for at least a month, believed that he was planning to use a scheduled layover in Turkey to head to Syria and become a fighter for the Islamic State.
FBI investigators were unconvinced by Elhuzayel’s claim that he was traveling to Tel Aviv to marry a Palestinian woman he met online. The agents pointed to social media postings in which Elhuzayel and friend Muhanad Badawi discussed dying as martyrs….

mohamonator says
Congratulations are due to Judge Carter for sentencing this mohammedan monster to 30 years. Let’s hope his cohort Badawi receives a similar sentence. And let’s hope they both serve their sentences IN FULL. Good riddance!
Anne Smith says
Ridiculous sentence – the judge must be mad. Far better to send him on his way to ISIS, where with a bit of luck, Putin and his air force will blast him to the hell he so richly deserves.
Why should the taxpayers finance this man’s easy life in jail where he is bound to convert others to this awful creed?
It would make more sense if he had been sentenced to hard labour, something Muslims actually never seem to be able to master.
Linde Barrera says
Hi to all my anti-jihad commenters, I just called the telephone number of Judge David O. Carter’s Courtroom Deputy, Ms. Debbie (Goltz, I think is her last name) 714-338-4543 and left a message, asking her to thank Judge Carter for me, (I gave my real name, Linde Barrera, with my phone number) on handing down a very appropriate sentence to Nader Salem Eihazayel. I also asked her to hug the judge for me, if that would be acceptable, reasonable and customary to do so in her position! I further stated that I just read about this news on JihadWatch.org, (and I spelled out the letters) a truthful and accurate website that reports on Islamic terrorism, run by Robert Spencer. I hope my message gets to Judge Carter. Proud of myself!
Lynne says
Good for you, Linde.
Linde Barrera says
To Lynne- Thank you Lynne. I can’t do everything, but I can do some things, and do them well. Take care dear.
Godwin says
Why waste tax payers’ money on him for the next 30 years. Just kick him out to Syria on a one-way ticket, after all ISIS is losing on all fronts. If kept in prison, he will radicalize other prisoners.
Champ says
Brava, Linde! I’m proud of you, too!
Linde Barrera says
To Champ- As per your 11:52 pm comment of Sep. 27, 2016 thank you for your support! It is a beautiful thing when a person gets compliments from their colleagues.
Sam says
Good Lets feed the enemy for 30 years in prison with my tax dollars.
I agree with the mom “there is no justice in this country, no justice whatsoever”
They all should be deported to the Islamic Caliphate. I will pay my share for the airfare.
Angemon says
How will that “supervision” prevent, for example, him entering a car and ramming innocent people in the sidewalk? He should be facing charges of treason – if his ID card reads American – or of being a spy/saboteur from a nation at war with the US.
Patrick A Ludwick says
Let him rot in prison and the hell with his disgusting family, they provide nothing to the USA.
Paul Clark says
Elhuzayel is so rotten and evil, he cannot discern the difference. He would of been an ideal jihadist. Kill and rape and then say, “I am not bad.:” You say not? I am on the east coast and I can spell you all the way across this country. Now his parents need to be investigated or deported. There are no moderate Muslims. That is an oxymoron.
JIMJFOX says
To all complaining ‘deport him, send him to ISIS’, whatever- the judge is constrained in the sentences he can use [is ‘hard labor’ an option in USA?] so I for one am delighted with his courage and knowledge of Islam the Evil. If only there were more Judge Carters in the West…