Muslim Air Force vet gets 35 years for trying to join the Islamic State
“I am a Mujahid. I am a sword against the oppressor and a shield for the oppressed. I will use the talents and skills given to me by Allah to establish and defend the Islamic State.”
Yet another convert to Islam gets the idea that his new religion commands treason and mass murder. Authorities remain resolutely uninterested in examining, or even acknowledging, this phenomenon.
“In 2001, while working for American Airlines, one of Pugh’s coworkers told the FBI that Pugh ‘sympathized with Osama bin Laden, felt that the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies overseas was justified and expressed anti-American sentiment.'”
And no one at American Airlines would have dared to question him about his sentiments regarding Islam and jihad. That would have been “Islamophobic.”
“US Air Force vet gets 35 years prison for trying to join Islamic State group,” by Lauren del Valle,CNN, June 1, 2017:
(CNN) — A U.S. Air Force veteran convicted for providing material support to the Islamic State group was sentenced to 35 years in prison Wednesday.Tairod Pugh was convicted by a federal jury in 2016 on charges of trying to give material support to the Islamic State group and of obstruction of justice, according to the U.S. Justice Department indictment.“The defendant turned his back on his country, and the military he once served, to attempt to join a brutally violent terrorist organization committed to the slaughter of innocent people throughout the world,” stated Acting United States Attorney Bridget Rohde.Prosecutors allege that investigators discovered a letter on Pugh’s desktop computer saying he wanted to “use the talents and skills given to me by Allah to establish and defend the Islamic States,” and a chart of crossing points between Turkey and Syria, where the Islamic State group controls some territory.Eric Creizman, Pugh’s lawyer, said at the time of Pugh’s conviction that he believed that there was reasonable doubt in the case.“Our client maintained his innocence since day one, so we went to trial and put up the best fight we possibly could,” Creizman said. “It was a well tried case, an interesting case, because the whole thing was what they could glean from his state of mind from things he did, on the Internet and on the computer.”“I think this case is good for the justice system. It’s good for the world to see that in this country, you get a trial by jury,” Creizman said. “In the Islamic State, people accused of crimes don’t get such fair treatment.”Crossing the Middle EastPugh, a convert to Islam, served in the Air Force from 1986 to 1990, according to the Justice Department.Prosecutors presented evidence at the trial that Pugh traveled from Egypt to Turkey in an attempt to cross into Syria to join the Islamic State group for jihad, the news release says.One piece of evidence was a letter Pugh wrote just before leaving for Turkey.“I am a Mujahid. I am a sword against the oppressor and a shield for the oppressed. I will use the talents and skills given to me by Allah to establish and defend the Islamic State. There is only 2 possible outcomes for me. Victory or Martyr,” Pugh wrote in the note, prosecutors say….In 2001, while working for American Airlines, one of Pugh’s coworkers told the FBI that Pugh “sympathized with Osama bin Laden, felt that the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies overseas was justified and expressed anti-American sentiment,” according to his criminal complaint.
Posts
