NY Pizza Shop Owner Wanted to Recruit for ISIS, But Did He?

Unclear From Documents If He Ever Contacted Real ISIS Figures

Having pled guilty to charges of trying to recruit a pair of men for ISIS, NY pizzeria owner Mufid Elfgeeh definitely wanted to help ISIS with its growth in the Middle East. It is an open question, however, if he actually did so.

Elfgeeh’s charges center heavily around his contact with FBI informants who he was trying to recruit to fight for ISIS. Totally unclear from the documents, however, is if the commander he thought he was talking to was any more real than the would-be recruits.

Rather, the documents merely suggest that he communicated with people he “believed” were rebel leaders, meaning it’s entirely possible that this side of the scheme was also simply him talking with federal agents too.

This has been a recurring theme in many of the record number of arrest cases involving “ISIS recruiters” and the like, and raises significant doubts about how big the real ISIS presence within the US actually is, and how much is simply a series of FBI fronts meant to serve as a pretext for arrests.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.