Yes, ISIS doesn’t hold large swaths of territory. Yes, we’ve pummeled them into the ground under the Trump administration. We can take a victory lap over that, but this war is far from over. This is the long war, our long war against radical Islamic terrorism. It’s fought on many fronts. It’s fought in the streets, on the Internet, and even in our backyard. In New York City, a nineteen-year-old suspect has been arrested for plotting a terror attack for ISIS. He was caught after texting undercover federal agents (via NBC News):
FBI agents on Thursday arrested a 19-year-old New York City man who had been texting an undercover federal agent about his alleged plans to carry out an attack in the name of the terror group ISIS, according to multiple senior law enforcement officials.
The suspect, who lives in the borough of Queens, is expected to face charges of material support of terrorism on Friday.
In text messages with the undercover agent, the suspect allegedly claimed he wanted to perpetrate a knife attack in Queens. He also posted in an online chatroom about plans to commit an attack, according to a senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.
The suspect, who has not yet been publicly identified, allegedly ordered a knife via the undercover agent. When he went to pick up the knife, he was arrested by law enforcement, the senior law enforcement official said.
This isn’t the first time we’ve had ISIS trying to start something over here. In 2015, a pizza parlor owner in Rochester, NY admitted to being part of a recruiting scheme for the terrorist organization (via The Hill):
The man, 31-year-old Mufid Elfgeeh, used the Internet to find potential supporters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), send them propaganda and support their efforts to join the extremist group in Syria, officials alleged.
To spread his message, Elfgeeh used a combination of three Twitter accounts, 23 Facebook accounts and one WhatsApp account, which he used to seek out funding and support radical fighters, according to details in his plea agreement.
From late 2013 to early 2014, Elfgeeh. a naturalized U.S. citizen from Yemen, began communicating with two people who appeared willing to travel to Syria and join the jihadist fight.
In 2016, Omar Mateen shot and killed over 40 people at Pulse, a gay nightclub, in Orlando, Florida. Mateen reportedly did this in the name of ISIS and to avenge the bombing campaign that the U.S. was conducting against its forces in the region.
In the meantime, the fight goes on.
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