A Rhode Island Islamic State recruit is going to prison for planning to behead counter-jihad blogger Pamela Geller.
The Rhode Island man reportedly recruited two others to participate in the plot, seen as retribution for Geller’s organization of a Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest in 2015. One of the man’s co-conspirators will enter a plea of not-guilty, and the other was killed in a knife altercation with police in June 2015.
The ISIS recruit’s lawyer told the court he was deeply sorry for his actions, saying he “fell deep into a rabbit hole of extremist ideology.”
All three men likely sought to the continue the efforts of two gunmen who tried to target the cartoon contest in Garland, Texas. The cartoon contest featured a right wing Dutch politician who was on a well-known al-Qaida hit list. The two gunmen tried to breach the perimeter of the cartoon event in 2015, but were killed by police on scene.
Before the attack, one of the gunmen tweeted “May Allah accept us as mujahideen,” and declared his allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. “If there is no check on the freedom of your speech, then let your hearts be open to the freedom of our actions,” one ISIS enthusiast tweeted in the aftermath of the incident.
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