Has that “company based in the United Kingdom” been shut down? Or has Theresa May given it an award for fostering “community cohesion”?
“Md. man who tried to plot ISIS attack on U.S. soil sentenced to 20 years,” by Lynh Bui, Washington Post, March 30, 2018:
A Maryland man who collected cash payments from a foreign company to plot an ISIS attack in the United States and help the group develop weaponized drones was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison.
Mohamed Elshinawy, 33, of Edgewood, pleaded guilty to supporting ISIS, terrorism financing and making false statements in connection with a terrorism matter, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland.
Between February and December of 2015, Elshinawy conspired with others to support ISIS and provide the terrorist group with financial services, material support and other resources, the government said.
“In various other conversations, Elshinawy pledged his allegiance to ISIS, described himself as its soldier, committed to making violent jihad, and asked that others convey his message of loyalty to ISIS leadership,” the statement from federal prosecutors said.
A company based in the United Kingdom also transmitted about $8,700 to Elshinawy to pay for a terrorist attack on U.S. soil, according to his plea agreement.
The owner of the company was a person from Bangladesh who went to Syria to help ISIS develop weaponized drone technology, according to Elshinawy’s plea agreement. The company also sent money to Elshinawy to buy drone technology and parts to ship to ISIS members in Turkey and Syria, he admitted in his plea….
Elshinawy, a U.S. national of Egyptian descent, had also tried to recruit his brother to join ISIS, his plea agreement stated. Elshinawy deleted his social media messages with the U.K. business owner and with his brother. He also told his brother to warn the business owner that he had been “revealed and uncovered.”…
Rouge1 says
A company? Who wrote this crap? Oh yea the anonymous source king the Washington compost.
John Armitage says
Name the comany. If you can’t, because you don’t know who it is, then don’t report about it!
Jack Diamond says
The charges were brought in U.S. District Court. You think he was convicted because there was no evidence? Anyway, let me put an end to your nonsense and that of Mr. Rouge.
The government chose, for whatever reason, to seal the identity of the company in question and the names of the individuals. This is from the U.S. District Court Memorandum Opinion (don’t worry I will show you the name):
“Between March and June 2015, defendant received approximately $8,700 from his ISIS coconspirators, “to be used to conduct a terrorist attack in the United States.” Id. at 10; see also ECF 230. Most of the monies were received through transfers from an online financial account associated with an organization referred to in the Plea Agreement as the “UK Company,” which was based in Wales, United Kingdom, and Dhaka, Bangladesh. ECF 120 at 10. The UK Company was “made up of a number of related entities,” and its primary business” consisted of the provision of IT products and services. Id. (In other submissions, the UK Company is referred to as “IBACS”).
“The owner of the UK company, identified as “Individual #2, was a national of Bangladesh who traveled to Syria in 2014 to join ISIS and to “assist in its development of weaponized drone technology.” ECF 120 at 10. He was killed on December 10, 2015, while fighting with ISIS. Id.
Defendant agreed that Individual #2 relied on “Individual #3,” a Director of the UK Company, as well as on “Individual #4,” an employee of the UK Company, to use financial and business accounts associated with the UK Company to send monies to defendant. Id. They also purchased drone technology for ISIS. Id.”
—————https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/3656.pdf
The Wall Street Journal later named the ISIS connection:
“The affidavit alleges that Elshinawy was part of an ISIS funding network that stretched from the UK to Bangladesh, where arrests have also been made. It also alleges that the network was directed by a now-dead senior ISIS leader in Syria named Siful Sujan.
“Sujan was the former director of computer operations for ISIS, the affidavit said, and was killed by a US drone strike in 2015. It appears that he was in the process of setting up another branch of the British technology company he founded and used to operate the network in Turkey at the time of his death.”
And now for the rest of the story: (Siful Sultan,El-Khodary, IBACSTEL ELECTRONICS LIMITED
“Elshinawy’s story begins with a budding tech entrepreneur: Siful Sujan, the founder of a Cardiff-based computer equipment company named Ibacstel Electronics Limited, who used his company to initiate transactions to fund attacks in the West. Sujan had renounced his ties to the Western world to live in Islamic State-held territory in Syria, where he became the “Director of the Islamic State’s computer operations.” The position, which was previously held by the late Islamic State attack-planning guru and hacker Junaid Hussain, afforded him enormous latitude within the Islamic State to engage with would-be recruits. Sujan would ultimately be described by the Department of Defense as an “external operations planner” for the group.
He used the business to buy drones and “bug sweeping equipment” which he shipped to Sanliurfa, Turkey, a mere 20 miles from territory held by the Islamic State in Syria during that time. Sujan utilized his expertise with computers and years of experience running an online ordering firm to ensure the equipment reached its intended destination. While he primarily purchased equipment to track aircraft—Hussain, his predecessor, had been killed by a coalition strike—he also used his company to direct attacks in the United States.
It was through Sujan, Ibacstel, and Elshinawy’s childhood friend Tamer El-Khodary that Elshinawy received $8,447.23 to commit a terrorist attack in the United States. A specific May 2015 Western Union money transfer of $1,000 from Egypt to a convenience store in Maryland set things in motion: Law enforcement followed the money trail, which led them directly to Elshinawy.
Eventually they unraveled the financial network: Sujan used his employee in England to send money to Elshinawy in Baltimore so that Elshinawy could carry out a terror attack. Five payments, each through PayPal, made their way from Sujan’s shell companies in Bangladesh, Turkey and the U.K through an intermediary in Egypt to Elshinawy. The young man used the payments to buy a laptop, a cellphone and a virtual private network for communications, which allowed the co-conspirators to speak with one another incognito.
Investigators found that Elshinawy reached Sujan through his childhood friend El-Khodary, a supporter of both the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic State. El-Khodary been arrested in Egypt, released and fled to the Islamic State. Upon arrival, he reconnected with Elshinawy and introduced him to other Islamic State members, including those who could assist Elshinawy in U.S. operations—namely, Sujan, who had become a key English-speaking “virtual planner” for the Islamic State after the death of Junaid Hussain.
Elshinawy used encrypted applications such as Surespot and Telegram to communicate with Islamic State operatives. According to prosecutors, they talked “every day, for several months.” The Islamic State initially gave Elshinawy three choices: carrying out a suicide bombing, planning and executing a terrorist attack, or traveling to Syria. Elshinawy chose the attack.
For the attack, they directed him to assassinate a specific person (left unnamed during the hearings) who lived in United States. When it became clear that Elshinawy lacked the ability to do so, they shifted their direction to a mass casualty attack. The Islamic State instructed him to create a Dropbox account where, according to the Justice Department and Elshinawy’s own admissions, he received “16-17 videos with step by step instructions … on how to make a peroxide bomb.”
All that is publicly known is that he searched the internet for federal buildings in Baltimore.”
—–https://lawfareblog.com/only-islamic-state-funded-plot-us-curious-case-mohamed-elshinawy
James Wills says
The problem is there is no town city or place in the UK called Edgewood, google it. there are schools, & vet practices but no place. May be he fed the US authorities a bullshit story. A few clicks on a computer tells you some thing is wrong.
Jack Diamond says
No, but there is a place called Edgewood, Maryland, USA.
James Wills says
I have reread the article & seen I made a mistake. The company was dissolved on 22nd March 2016. Source Companies House London That’s where companies are registered. They haven’t filed accounts since 2013.They were registered to an address in Cardiff, Wales.
gravenimage says
Thanks for that information, Jack.
J D S says
Well it sure looks like Jack diamond is better informed than the Washington compost pile of…. or is it that they are afraid they just might rub some Muslims and others, the wrong way??
Joe says
Very good reporting. We need to know how they stitch these things together.
John Beargrass says
Will the world ever wake to the fact that the goal of Muslims is complete domination of the world and death to all Christians. In case you do not understand, the heathens want you dead!
David says
And people of all other religions!
gravenimage says
Yes–*all* Infidels are threatened.
Morey Ladini says
Edgewood is also the location of a major Army Proving Ground, and is the county’s crime epicenter.. The neighboring town not long ago hosted an African immigrant student who cannibalized a classmate. Dieversity enriches us all.
Arthur says
Now now, that’s offensive language.
Instead say, “the African immigrant student had his classmate over for dinner.”
gravenimage says
Maryland: Muslim received $8,700 from UK company to plot jihad massacre in the US
Has that “company based in the United Kingdom” been shut down?
……………………………..
There should be a round of arrests of Jihadists in the UK over this–but there probably won’t be.
sidney penny says
“Has that “company based in the United Kingdom” been shut down? Or has Theresa May given it an award for fostering “community cohesion”?”
You mean “international community cohesion”.
After all the USA and UK have a very long and close relationship.
IanB says
Don’t worry. MI5 has everything under control (sarc. off).