An Iraqi man bragged about his experience fighting in Syria and the skills he developed as a teenage insurgent as he urged a fellow Iraqi refugee in the US to join him in what both hoped would be martyrdom, according to documents filed in US federal court.
Aws Mohammed Younis al-Jayab, 23, of Sacramento, described his experience fighting against Syrian government soldiers in heroic terms and in 2013 promised he would train Omar Faraj Saeed al-Hardan, of Houston, in how to use weapons and sneak into Syria to join the fight, according to an FBI affidavit unsealed in federal court in Sacramento.
The two Iraqi-born Palestinians used social media to discuss their plans, federal authorities said.
The communications provided the link that led to terrorism-related charges against the men this week.
Al-Jayab faces up to eight years in prison on charges of traveling to Syria to fight in late 2013 and early 2014 and lying to US authorities about his travels. Al-Hardan faces up to 25 years in prison and is charged with attempting to provide material support for terrorists.
Al-Jayab’s attorney on Friday criticized US politicians who he said “have grossly mischaracterized the nature and scope of this case” to tie it to the debate over whether the US is doing enough to screen refugees.
“There is no threat that this man poses or no indication that he’s engaged in any activity since his return two years ago. The only activities that were interrupted were his studies and his work,” defense attorney Ben Galloway said outside the courtroom.
US Magistrate Judge Carolyn Delaney ordered al-Jayab to be held without bail.
It was not clear how al-Jayab and al-Hardan met online, although the FBI affidavit describes at least one apparently mutual acquaintance.
The criminal complaint against al-Jayab recounts a series of communications with different people, none of whom were identified.
One called “Individual I” is al-Hardan, said Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for the US attorney in Sacramento.
Federal authorities say al-Jayab emigrated from Syria to the US as a refugee in October 2012, living in Tucson, Arizona, and Milwaukee until November 2013, when he went back overseas to fight.
He returned to the US in January 2014 and lived in Sacramento. He has been a computer science major at a Sacramento community college since last fall.
Al-Jayab and al-Hardan communicated in April 2013, and al-Hardan expressed interest in fighting in Syria.
Al-Jayab said he had already fought in Syria, starting when he turned 16, according to messages between the two men quoted in court documents.
He promised to provide weapons training to al-Hardan and advised him on how he would be assigned to the battlefield once he arrived in Syria.
Authorities say al-Jayab fought twice in Syria, including with a group later affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS) between November 2013 and January 2014.
He told authorities he had traveled to Turkey to visit his grandmother, which prosecutors say was a lie that could send him to prison.
Al-Hardan, 24, appeared in a Houston federal court on Friday. Prosecutors charged him with attempting to support the Islamic State and accused him of providing resources to the group beginning in about May 2014.
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