Yesterday we reported on Rondell Henry’s plans to commit a vehicular jihad massacre, and about how he led prayers at the Islamic Society of Germantown, Maryland. Now this report reveals that he is a naturalized American citizen from Trinidad and Tobago. Yet Leftists continue to insist that the immigration crisis has nothing whatsoever to do with national security.
“Maryland man accused of plotting ISIS-inspired terror attack near DC is indicted,” by Melissa Leon, Fox News, August 29, 2019:
The 28-year-old suspect planned to use a stolen U-Haul truck to run down pedestrians, according to police; Doug McKelway reports on how he was caught.
A Maryland man accused of plotting an ISIS-inspired terror attack at a tourist site near Washington, D.C., was indicted Wednesday on a terrorism-related charge, the Justice Department announced.
Rondell Henry, 28, of Germantown was indicted on federal charges of attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State and interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle, the DOJ said.
Henry moved to the U.S. from Trinidad and Tobago 11 years ago and is a naturalized citizen.
He is accused of stealing a U-Haul van in Alexandria, Va., and driving it to Maryland, where he intended to use it as a weapon at the National Harbor complex on the Potomac River, according to previously filed court documents….
somehistory says
When he was “naturalized” they should have noted on his id somewhere that since he was moslim, terror would come “naturally” to him as well as theft to enable his terror actions.
Evil islam produces moslims who perform evil acts, naturally.
Ursula says
It is all quite simple. Believe in sharia law? Sorry, you cannot come into this country.
Lightship Chaplain says
When will these idiot politicians realize that all cultures are not the same, and stop selling out their own peoples in the west? It seems like every time an amount of stability is obtained socially; they have to try and destabilize the tranquility to gain power, like a bunch of Marxists!
Sun says
I am very much concerned that the immigration crisis has definitly to do with national security.
Frightening for me:
A friend studies at an University in Texas. He told me that with the beginning of the academic year in August, three quarters of his international, multicultural team of Ph.D students are muslims.
somehistory says
I lived in a University of Texas city back in the ’90’s. The U and the city were overrun with them then, so it’s no surprise your friend has told you this.
Sun says
Most of them are F-1 visa holders and entered the country just recently.
One can only hope that they went through a propper security background check…
somehistory says
I used to hope that most of them back then would go back from whence they came, but I don’t think many, if any, did,
gravenimage says
Maryland: Mosque prayer leader who plotted jihad massacre is Muslim migrant from Trinidad and Tobago
…………………….
Trinidad and Tobago–a place my mother visited back in the 1950s as an Air Canada employee–has since become an unlikely hotbed of Jihad. Nowhere is safe now.
somehistory says
I worked with a young woman from there and when she took vacations, she went home. On the last trip home, while we still worked together, she brought me back a souvenir (memory) of the islands. I still have it and I wonder if she still goes home for her vacations.
jihad ruins everything, islam ruins all it touches.
CRUSADER says
“ You now have a golden opportunity to do something that many of us here wish we could do right now. You have the ability to terrify the disbelievers in their own homes and make their streets run with their blood. …terrorise the disbelievers and make them feel fear everywhere, even in their own bedrooms. Due to their mere disbelief, their blood by default is lawful to spill. “
https://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/blog/jihad-in-trinidad
….Radicalisation has now acquired a new dimension with the message of IS being disseminated through social media and elsewhere on the Internet, as well as through more direct attempts at recruitment through proxies and allied groups. In this new dynamic, the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen and its affiliates, spin-offs and ideological associates and their networks in Trinidad’s cities, mosques and economically less advantaged urban neighbourhoods, are ideally placed to act as de factofronts for the IS or other Jihadi recruiting efforts in Trinidad. The Waajhatul Islaamiyyah’s leader, Umar Abdullah, has admitted to recruiting youth for IS, though he claims to have since stopped doing so owing to its excessive brutality.
So successful has IS been in recruiting Trinidadians that several of them, including children, were featured in an IS recruiting video made in late 2015. Indeed, in the said video, one identifying himself as Abu Zayd al-Muhajir, had brought his three children to the Ar-Raqqah province in Syria; while another – Abu Khalid, a Christian convert – used the video to proclaim that Muslims in Trinidad were “restricted”. This was echoed by Zayd al-Muhajir and yet another Trinidadian, Abu Abdullah, who went so far as to encourage Muslims in Trinidad to support IS in its ambition of creating an Islamic Caliphate. A recurring theme in the video was that Islam in Trinidad was being “restricted” – a statement without basis in fact, but one which has found unusual resonance, among some elements of the Trinidadian population.
Traditionally, the extremist doctrine found most traction with Afro-Trinidadian converts to Islam, as exemplified by the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen and its affiliates. This may be a consequence of the strong links between Islam and the 1970s Black Power movement in the United States, which found considerable resonance in Trinidad. Yasin Abu Bakr, for example, openly courted the urban Afro-Trinidadian youth in his sermons, with a mix of Islamic doctrine and Black Power rhetoric. While the extent of his success is unclear, though a political party formed by him fared poorly at election time, his influence might be not inconsiderable. However, another disturbing trend, wherein more Indo-Trinidadian Muslims, usually moderate and well-integrated into society are succumbing to such propaganda, has also been observed.
From the Jihadist viewpoint, the Indo-Trinidadian Muslim population, generally better educated and wealthier than the Afro-Trinidadian converts, offers a potentially more attractive source of skilled and motivated manpower. Lured by the Salafist-jihadist doctrine, both through social media, which includes the use of jihadi videos, and through aggressive campaigns in many of Trinidad’s 85 mosques, young Muslims have been targeted for recruitment. The February 2018 raids, for example, focussed in part around the Nur-E-Islam mosque where long-standing members of its congregation have long been aware of increasing radicalization and extremist views held by a vocal minority in the mosque. One of those arrested in February 2018 and released without charge – Tariq Mohammed – is an Indo-Trinidadian Muslim belonging to one of the country’s most prominent, best established and moderate Muslim families and had been previously been detained for 16 months in Saudi Arabia on suspicion of terrorism before being released, again without charge.
While there have been no local studies on the motivation behind the Trinidadian Muslims eagerness to travel to join IS fighters, it is possible that the idea of the Caliphate has captured the imagination of disaffected youth. The leader of the Waajihatul Islaamiyyah, Umar Abdullah, who is constantly monitored by an officer of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service Special Branch, identified some characteristics of the Trinidadians attracted to IS. He noted that those who were recruited by IS, were arrogant, lacked patience, could not live among non-Muslims, had marital problems and firmly believed they were being marginalised as Muslims.
Conclusion
Law-enforcement action against radicals has been handicapped by an inability to sustain charges following arrests, compounding this feeling of marginalization. Shane Crawford, for example, was detained for alleged involvement to assassinate the country’s then Prime Minister. He was released without charge and joined IS shortly thereafter. It is not inconceivable that the February 2018 arrests could lead to a heightened feeling of alienation among some.
The greatest challenge facing Trinidadian officials is the lack of a coherent policy on how to combat this increasing radicalisation, or how to treat those who have already been radicalised. These problems will be compounded with the pending return of former IS fighters for which legislative provisions are now being cobbled together. There have been some efforts at outreach to moderate elements in the Muslim community but to date these have not created an effective counter narrative. In the absence of a coherent and competent joint response from the political executive, law-enforcement authorities and the moderate Muslim community, there is the risk of further radicalization.
CRUSADER says
Had a pal who played rugby with who hailed from Trinidad ??
He wanted me to scuba dive with him. Might be the safest place
in Trinidad, under the sea ! Fish don’t speak Arabic, do they?
https://cis.org/Oped/Terror-Paradise-Trinidad-and-Tobago-Now-Jihad-Hotspot
Trinidad & Tobago is a hotspot fitting the profile. Only about five percent of its population is Muslim, according to the CIA’s World Factbook. But this five percent are causing outsized global security concern.
A hardline Sunni Islamist mosque and its imams have been accused of ginning up all kinds of trouble for decades. In 1990, a Muslim organization known as Jamaat al Muslimeen attempted a coup against the government. More than 40 Islamist insurgents stormed Parliament, taking the prime minister and most of his cabinet hostage for six days. In 2007, members of Jamaat al Muslimeen were tied to a plot to bomb New York’s JFK airport; one of its members was sentenced to life in prison.
The dark cloud has persisted, but U.S. security appears to be on top of the situation.
Earlier this year, troops with the U.S. Army’s Southern Command participated in anti-terror raids helping to capture four “high value targets” allegedly plotting to attack the annual “Carnival” celebrations. In 2017, Southern Command’s Admiral Kurt Tidd said: “Some of the individuals who left Trinidad-Tobago” have shown up “on film engaged in terrorist acts” and have committed murders in Syria. Even the New York Times couldn’t ignore the developing threat from T&T’s jihadists, posting a story in 2017 citing American officials who fear “that Trinidadian fighters could return from the Middle East and attack American diplomatic and oil installations in Trinidad, or even take a three-and-a-half hour flight to Miami.”
Just last month, the U.S. Treasury Department showed that American security agencies remain on heightened alert. The Department listed two citizens of T&T on its terrorism sanctions list. It is now illegal for anyone or any entity to engage in transactions with dual U.S.-Trinidad citizen Emraan Ali and Trinidadian ISIS supporter Eddie Aleong. They join six other Trinidadian individuals or entities on the international sanctions list for terrorism involvement.
The Treasury Department accuses both men of working together to raise and send cash to Trinidadian ISIS fighters in the conflict zone. In 2015, Ali lived for a time at an ISIS guest house in Raqqah, Syria, the fallen ISIS caliphate “capital,” while Aleong is suspected of facilitating money transfers to ISIS as recently as March 2018.
According to local island press reports, the whereabouts of the 51-year-old Ali remain unknown since he and his wife departed to Syria several years ago. Ali married the daughter of an island imam recently interviewed by the Trinidad & Tobago Guardian. “I don’t get no information on them; I don’t know where they are,” said Imam Nazim Mohammed. Aleong is believed to still be in the area.
Islanders who joined ISIS are more of a concern than recruits from other countries, partly because they speak English. T&T nationals did “very well” in ISIS, former U.S. Ambassador John L. Estrada told the Times. “They are high up in the ranks, they are very respected, and they are English-speaking. ISIL have used them for propaganda to spread their message through the Caribbean.”
Issue 15 of the ISIS propaganda magazine Dabiq shows why it might be a problem if and when Trinadadian ISIS fighters come home. The magazine featured an interview with “Abu Sa’d al-Trinidadi,” a convert to Islam who had joined the group in Syria. He described how he and a small group of like-minded island co-religionists, after seeing the light, accumulated weapons, ammunition, and money to eventually “make hijrah” but also to be used in the meantime so that “whenever the disbelievers in Trinidad would kill or harm a Muslim, we would take revenge. … We were successful in many operations.” His wife was arrested at one point, apparently on suspicion of plotting to assassinate the prime minister and cabinet members, “but the police weren’t able to make a case against us.” He and two friends finally left for Syria after a delay to “exact revenge on two kafir criminals we were hunting,” an operation “carried out in the middle of the city in broad daylight and caught on camera.”
The U.S. government in recent years has pushed the island nation to do counterterrorism, according to a newly released U.S. State Department Countries Reports on Terrorism reflecting calendar year 2017.
“The threat from the possible return of foreign terrorist fighters remains a primary concern,” the report states, referring to T&T foreign terrorist fighters.
Also for the first time, in November 2017, the Trinidad and Tobago National Security Council approved a national counterterrorism strategy, and has shared intelligence with the United States.
Fingers crossed.
abad says
Deport him. We don’t want him here.
Angemon says
Just look how “grateful” he is for the better life…