19-year-old Illinois man Mohammed Hamzah Khan has been arrested by the FBI on charges of wanting to join ISIS in Syria, though he never actually joined the group nor did anything else.
The charges center around his purchase of a round-trip ticket to Istanbul, and he confessed to plans to travel from northern Turkey into Syria, where he hoped to “be involved in some type of public service” in ISIS-held territory.
Khan said he was angry that his tax dollars were being used to kill other Muslims overseas, and that he did not want to raise children of his own in an “immoral” Western society.
The charges are “intent” to provide aid to ISIS, and the FBI claimed to have been tipped off to his intent to travel to Turkey by Austrian Airlines. Since Khan confessed to the intention, it doesn’t seem like there’ll be much of a case.
It will be interesting, however, to see exactly how still of a penalty the administration can impose on him for intention. Attempting to provide support to ISIS could carry a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, though it isn’t clear if wanting to is the same thing as attempting to do so.
I want to rob Fort Knox. I have viewed the movie Goldfinger. Am I guilty of intent?
…getting charged with wanting-to-do x seems like the natural consequence of how normal entrapment ('stings') became. Next year, maybe, because of just such democratic progress, we'll see infants charged with having the potential to want to. ('you can see it in that twinkle in his eye') …or maybe that'll have to wait for President Herod.
Hmmm…another PKD creation coming to fruition. I wonder who is playing the precogs in this one?
You had better stop wondering (or even thinking at all) or the Department of Precrime will send a drone to visit.
Democratic stupidity — Greed driven class slavery
Until proven otherwise, we may assume that the youth was a laboring man from the impoverished uneducated lower half of society, surely so upset with the way that democracy is used as a smokescreen to enable the greedy upper half to hoard all the wealth, this being but the beginning of a most violent class war that will cause our Empire to expire in a convulsion.
… three-page, handwritten letter … expressed anger over his U.S. taxes being used to kill his "Muslim brothers and sisters," an apparent reference to a bombing campaign against Islamic State militants.
This last doesn't seem 'apparent' at all. For one, there have been many bombing campaigns that could spur that comment, for another … they missed the 'alleged' when they refer to '…campaign against Islamic State militants.' What have they actually hit?
Well they intended to hit those militants. And clearly that's as good as doing it.
Little minority report action.
At the risk of going against the grain here (as if we all don't do that from time to time!) …
One has to wonder if it would have made any difference if the young man had declared he was going to join the ISIS forces arrayed against Assad (our enemy as well) as opposed to joining the ISIS forces arrayed against Iraq (our ally).
The reality of it is that the entire ISIS organization has been declared as terrorist, when in fact many of its operatives in the civil services may not have even lifted a finger to harm anyone. Just like Hamas in Gaza, not all of the members are dedicated fighters, and most are simply civil functionaries.
This is not to excuse or be construed as an apologetic post for the actions ISIS- not in the least. But just as we can't paint all Christians or Jews- or their various organizations, paramilitary or otherwise- with the same brush, we can't paint all of ISIS with the same brush either.