Officials have announced the arrest of Emanuel Lutchman, a 25-year-old from Rochester, New York who was talking with an FBI informant he thought was an ISIS member about the possibility of attacking a Rochester bar on New Years Eve “for ISIS.”
Lutchman initially contacted the informant with an eye toward going abroad, but the FBI informant convinced him he needed to carry out an attack inside the US “to prove himself.” Lutchman apparently had no weapons, and no money to get any, so he got the informant to go with him to Walmart to buy knives and ski masks for a potential attack.
Officials say they believe Lutchman, who describes himself as a “Muslim convert,” became radicalized in Attica prison, where he served five years for second-degree robbery. As with so many other FBI arrests, there is no sign Lutchman ever was in contact with anyone in ISIS, nor that if left to his own devices, he even could’ve gotten his own knives at Walmart.
Lutchman is facing charges of providing “material support” for terrorism, and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Since he couldn’t even buy his own knife, the fine seems highly unlikely to be collected.
The question is not whether if left to his own devices he would have purchased weapons to carry out a terrorist attack. He believed he was in contact with ISIS. As a devout muslim he believes it is his duty, and happily coinciding with his hate for America, also his pleasure, to kill as many Americans as he possibly could with the possibility to escape and then join ISIS in Syria.
It is unwise to confuse a healthy inability to comprehend this mindset with the inability of others possessing it.
It seems you didn't read the article.
He had no interest in doing anything to Americans until the FBI, through their informant — persuaded him to do so. This is yet another stupid, indigent, (probably a black man, I'm guessing here, but we shall see) roped into a phony "terrorist act" by FBI fraudsters too lazy to do the work necessary to track down genuine threats ,… if there are any.
And beyond not understanding what the article says, you also don't know what you're talking about.
"As a devout muslim he believes it is his duty …to kill as many Americans as he possibly could…"
Total American narcissistic self-absorption — it's always about us — topped up with anti-Muslim Kool-Aid. Devout Muslims are not all jihadis, not even most. That's your ignorance and prejudice on display. Most Muslims, "devout" and otherwise, don't give a damn about America or Americans. It may come as a shock to you, but they are regular people with regular lives who have regular responsibilities. They do not get up in the morning thinking "Americans must die! The evil non-believers must be killed! Today I must murder Americans!"
That's just your hate-filled projection, and you should seek help for that.
Also, the article doesn't say — but as this case progresses we will likely find out — how much money he was offered by his FBI "ISIS representative" to carry out his "terror attack". Anyone care to guess? We could start a pool.
Also, a knife fight in a New York bar on New Years??? A person could get himself hurt trying to carry out that plan. Why not a gun? Couldn't the informant help him get a gun? Just askin'.