US man gets 20 years in jail for providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba

Agencies
September 17, 2019

Washington, Sept 17: A US court on Monday sentenced a North Texas man to 20 years of imprisonment for providing material support to terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba. US District Judge Reed O'Connor sentenced Michael Kyle Sewell, 18, who was arrested in February and pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge in May.

During the sentencing, federal prosecutors introduced evidence that Sewell's offense was consistent with a long pattern of online statements supporting violent extremism.

He had posted numerous messages threatening to attack individuals and gatherings of people who he believed were opponents of his radical beliefs. Sewell also conducted internet searches suggesting that he was investigating ways to carry out such attacks.

During a search of Sewell's home after his arrest, agents found an AR-15 style rifle, multiple magazines and a number of knives in Sewell's bedroom.

Sewell conspired with another individual to provide material support to LeT and assisted his co-conspirator with his plans to travel overseas to join the terrorist organization, Assistant Attorney General of National Security John C. Demers said.

This case demonstrates how an American citizen can be radicalized by a violent ideology based upon hate and how the actions of the FBI and our partners on the Joint Terrorism Task Force worked tirelessly to prevent violence here, and abroad. We cannot thank them enough for what they do to protect our community, US Attorney Nealy Cox said.

According to the court documents, Sewell admitted to encouraging an individual identified in the documents as cc1 to join LeT.

Sewell provided the co-conspirator, who he spoke to on social media, with contact information for an individual he believed could facilitate the co-conspirator's travel to Pakistan to join LeT.

Unbeknownst to Sewell and the co-conspirator, the facilitator was an undercover FBI employee. After providing the facilitator's contact information to the co-conspirator, Sewell coached him about how to present himself to the facilitator.

Sewell then contacted the facilitator to vouch for the co-conspirator's intentions and promised that he would kill the co-conspirator if he turned out to be a spy.

He also told the facilitator that he would recruit additional fighters to join LeT. The co-conspirator continued to communicate with the facilitator and made arrangements to travel to Pakistan to join LeT.

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News Network
November 12,2024

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The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement says its fighters have killed at least 20 Israeli soldiers in northern parts of the besieged Gaza Strip in just two days, in retaliation for the occupying regime’s genocidal war on the Palestinian territory.

In a statement on Monday evening, Hamas said that fighters of its military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, “killed at least five occupation soldiers” in northern parts of the coastal territory earlier in the day.

It added that Hamas fighters also killed 15 Israeli soldiers in the war-ravaged region on Sunday.

The resistance movement’s “qualitative operation … confirms once again the failure of the criminal Zionist entity to suppress and eradicate the Palestinian resistance, which continues to direct qualitative strikes against its terrorist soldiers,” Hamas further said on its Telegram channel.

Palestinians have increased their resistance operations in the face of intensified Israeli aggression in northern Gaza that has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 over the past weeks.

“Our valiant resistance is waging a war of attrition with the criminal enemy, inflicting daily losses on its soldiers and vehicles, and all of [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s bets and dreams of achieving any of his goals are failing,” the Gaza-based resistance movement added.

Hamas also vowed that Israel’s ongoing crimes and aggression against Gaza would be met with increased resistance and painful strikes, which will continue until the aggression against Palestinians ends and the regime fully withdraws from the blockaded territory.

As the war in Gaza enters its 14th month, the Health Ministry reports that Israeli attacks have killed at least 43,603 Palestinians and wounded 102,929 others.

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News Network
November 4,2024

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Hundreds of Israeli settlers conducted a brutal attack in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

The settlers set fire to numerous homes and vehicles of Palestinians and then moved to the main road connecting Ramallah to other cities, targeting Palestinian cars passing by.

They stormed the city of al-Bireh, near Ramallah, and burned Palestinian property and vehicles.

A woman sustained injuries after the settlers hurled stones at her vehicle, according to Palestinian news outlets.

Tension has been running high across the West Bank because of Israel’s genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, which has killed at least 43,341 people, mostly women and children, since last year’s October.

The Monday settler attack came as the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas warned of Israel’s plans to annex the West Bank and drive Palestinians out.

“We warn of the grave danger posed by the plans led by the extremist occupation regime and illegal settler groups to displace the residents of Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank,” Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said.

Israel's far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the full annexation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip last week.

Smotrich asserted that Israel should unequivocally declare there would be no Palestinian state.

He repeated his proposal of expanding Israeli settlements within the West Bank and other occupied territories.

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News Network
November 15,2024

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Union minister Amit Shah on Friday, November 15, said PM Narendra Modi will amend the Waqf Act despite opposition from leaders like Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar.

"Modi ji wants to change the Waqf Board law, but Uddhav ji, Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule are opposing it," Shah said, addressing a rally at Umarkhed in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district.

"Uddhav ji, listen carefully, you all can protest as much as you want, but Modi ji will amend the Waqf Act," he said. Shah said there are two camps in the November 20 Maharashtra assembly polls, one of 'Pandavas' represented by the BJP-led Mahayuti and the other of 'Kauravas' represented by Maha Vikas Aghadi.

"Uddhav Thackeray claims that his Shiv Sena is the real one. Can the real Shiv Sena go against renaming Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar? Can the real Shiv Sena go against renaming Ahmednagar to Ahilyanagar? The real Shiv Sena stands with the BJP," Shah said.

"Rahul Baba used to say that his government would credit money in the accounts of the people instantly. You were unable to fulfil your promises in Himachal, Karnataka, and Telangana," he said.

Shah said the Mahayuti alliance has promised that women will get Rs 2,100 per month under the Ladki Bahin Yojana. "Kashmir is an integral part of India and no power in the world can snatch it away from us," Shah said.

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