Credible terrorist alert on Disneyland: Feds convict two men from Anaheim of conspiring to form a local ISIS sleeper cell

Another day, another credible terrorist threat to Disney is revealed to the public
Updated on June 28, 2016

The day after the FBI dismissed a new ISIS video as being "not a credible threat"—containing cell phone footage from the Golden Gate Bridge, part of the Las Vegas strip, and buildings in San Francisco's Financial District—which calls on new terrorist attacks in Las Vegas and San Francisco, we found out again, the hard way from world events, just how credible ISIS is.

Another brazen coordinated attack by ISIS, on a major European international
airport in the EU, shows that ISIS threats should never be dismissed as being
'not a credible threat'
Earlier today, three suicide bombers, armed with automatic machine guns and explosive vests, attacked Turkey's largest international airport in Istanbul, killing 41 people and injuring more than 239 others in a coordinated attack, eerily reminiscent of the recent ISIS attacks on Paris and Belgium.

The question we have to ask is: What is it about ISIS that our law enforcement agencies doesn't take seriously?

After 911, San Bernardino, and Orlando, it's very clear to anyone that any threats that jihadi extremists make, whether it is a coordinated attack from Middle East terrorists or ones inspired locally by radicalization over the internet, should be taken dead serious and not poo-pooed by well meaning fat-heads who don't want to alarm the public.


Clearly, more needs to be done to beef-up security at home, especially in soft targets such as the Disney theme parks, as another terrorist attack on home turf is imminently coming very soon.


While it appears Europeans are getting used to the increasing number of terrorists attacks as a part of their daily lives and routines, we in America must decide now whether this very disturbing and more frequent phenomena is also something we can just accept as part of our daily lives or if it is something we need to take a stand against to send a clear message to those who wish to do us harm.



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Federal prosecutors convicted two men from Anaheim of conspiring to aid, abet, and provide material support to a foreign terrorist group today in a Santa Ana federal courthouse.

Home-grown jihadist Nader Elhuzayel of Anaheim
was convicted today of terrorism-related charges
Nader Salem Elhuzayel and Muhanad Badawi, both 25 and from Anaheim, were arrested on May 15, 2015 after the two extensively communicated with each other on social media, discussing their plans on creating a local Anaheim sleeper cell of ISIS, which we call An-IS, the Anaheim Islamic State, which apparently created a big stink among federal investigators.

It's unclear how the two ended up on the radar screens of federal counter terrorism investigators; however, the FBI did appear to obtain some kind of tip-off from the internet to start conducting a wider surveillance on the An-IS conspirators for at least a month prior to their actual arrests.

Some experts believe the federal government uses some form of clandestine surveillance program called PRISM, which monitors the internet and national telecommunications systems to red-flag key words and phrases said on any private electronic communications in the U.S., through sophisticated software monitoring programs; however, those suspicions of such a widespread and very secretive spying program watching over everybody's private communications have yet to be confirmed to have led to the arrests of these two home-grown terrorists in this case.

Both defendants sought to travel to Syria in order to train, fight, and commit terrorist acts in the name of ISIS. They even expressed their desires to die as martyrs on behalf of the radical jihadi terrorist group. 


This is one of two very disturbing story lines we've heard many times before about Americans being radicalized to jihadi terrorist causes—the other method being self-radicalized lone wolf terrorists.

Courtroom sketches of Nadar Elhuzayel (center) and Muhanad Badawi (right)
in the Santa Ana federal courthouse today
The two first met on the campus of Cypress College in Orange County in 2012 and attended the same mosque, soon after, at the West Coast Islamic Society in Anaheim. 

They apparently developed a friendship and spent countless hours online on social media, discussing current topics in radical Islam and their mutual interests in helping out the ISIS cause.

Prosecutors said Elhuzayel was arrested at LAX just as he was about to board a plane headed for Tel Aviv, Israel with a layover in Istanbul, Turkey.

Prosecutors say Elhuzayel actually planned on disembarking in Istanbul, unannounced, and traveling by land to join ISIS in Syria. Elhuzayel was, therefore, convicted of an additional charge of providing material support to a terrorist group by trying to board the plane.


Badawi was arrested that same day as Elhuzayel, on his way to take a college exam. He had indicated that he planned on following Elhuzayel, traveling to the Middle East to join ISIS at a later date.

Much like the notorious South Central L.A., Anaheim has been
gaining a tough gangland reputation for crime and street violence,
which is why many O.C. residents refer to it as 'North Central O.C.'
Both defendants, however, claimed that Elhuzayel was only traveling to Tel Aviv to marry a Palestinian woman he had met online, but the FBI didn't believe the story as they gathered numerous social media postings of the pair, discussing their allegiance to the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The men discussed "how it would be a blessing to fight for the cause of Allah, and to die in the battlefield," according to a secret recorded conversation made of the two by FBI special agents.

Badawi even made a video of Elhuzayel, which was later deleted, pledging his allegiance to the leader of ISIS and declaring his plans to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS.

On May 7, Badawi allowed Elhuzayel to use his debit card, tied to his federal financial aid for education, to purchase a one-way plane ticket from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv, Israel, with a stop over in Istanbul, Turkey, the Department of Justice said.


During his arrest at LAX, Elhuzayel confessed he planned on disembarking in Istanbul to join ISIS without any intent to continue his travels to Israel.

Muhanad Badawi shown above being questioned by authorities
about his involvement with terrorist-related activities
Attorneys for both men described their online chatter as just a lot of hot air and false bravado. They argued that Badawi and Elhuzayel had no formal training in terrorism, did not speak Arabic, and had no direct ties to ISIS overseas.

Kate Corrigan, Badawi’s attorney of record, told the Orange County Register that both men's plans amounted to just "a lot of talk."

"I don’t think these guys went to a gym, let alone a shooting range or a gun store," Corrigan went on to tell the Register. "And they talk about getting martyrdom? Give me a break. These two? They are no holy warriors."

However, Assistant U.S. Attorney Deirdre Eliot saw it differently. "A call went out from Baghdad," said Eliot. "The defendants heard that call. Badawi facilitated; Elhuzayel was to join the fight."

The conclusion of trial comes on the heels of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, where a different kind terrorist—a home-grown, self-radicalized ISIS jihadi terrorist, Omar Mateen—shot and killed 49 people and wound 53 others in what is considered the single worst mass-shooting incident in U.S. history.


It took just little over an hour for the jury to deliberate before handing down guilty verdicts for both Elhuzayel and Badawi.

Nadar Elhuzayel at the time of his arrest at LAX on May 21, 2015
Badawi faces up to 35 years in prison, while Elhuzayel faces decades more time behind bars in federal prison for his crimes.

Both defendants are expected to be sentenced in the fall one week apart, starting on September 26.

In addition to the terrorism-related counts, Elhuzayel was found guilty of 26 counts of bank fraud, while Badawi was found guilty on an additional count of federal financial aid fraud.

Prosecutors contend that, in the days leading up to the flight, Elhuzayel schemed to defraud three different banks by depositing numerous stolen checks into his bank account before withdrawing cash from those accounts at local branch offices and ATMs to help finance his trip to the Middle East.

The banks quickly got wise to this scam and quickly shut down all of Elhuzayel's accounts, thwarting his attempts to purchase a plane ticket with the fraudulently obtained funds.

It's here that federal prosecutors claim Badawi decided to help out Elhuzayel by using funds from his debit card tied to his federal education financial aid to help buy a plane ticket for Elhuzayel online.

Both men were charged with and convicted of additional counts of fraud related to these dubious financial transaction activities.


It is unknown what Elhuzayal and Badawi would have done had they survived their journeys to Syria and decided come back home to Anaheim after being trained by ISIS, but from the look of things, it doesn't sound good.
  

No doubt, the pair could have set up shop later on at home as an ISIS terrorist sleeper cell in Anaheim with the Disneyland Resort as a very likely soft target to attack sometime in the future.

The ANIS terrorist are not the only credible terrorist
threats to Disneyland. This past May, the Ana-Bomber,
Donald Busteed, set off two pipe bombs within a period
of six months near the Disneyland Resort.
This would not have been the first credible terrorist threat to Disneyland. Just this past May, a mad pipe-bomber known as the "Ana-Bomber", Donald Busteed of Anaheim, was arrested close to "The Happiest Place on Earth" after he successfully detonated two different pipe bombs in a span of only six months.

Busteed was arrested for both pipe-bomb blasts, but was inexplicably released on probation after being convicted of the first blast back in January. He was later tied to a total of four pipe bombs found at various locations around the Anaheim area, which is rapidly gaining a tough criminal reputation on the streets as being called "North Central O.C.," near what is supposed to be advertised as "The Happiest Place on Earth."

Another Orange County local, Adam Dandach, was arrested at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana in July 2014, trying to board a flight to Turkey in a similar manner as Elhuzayel. He pled guilty to providing material support to ISIS and currently awaits sentencing as well.

Before that, a Garden Grove resident, Sinh Vinh Nguyen, also admitted to trying to help another terrorist group, al-Qaida, by attempting to hook-up with them in Pakistan using a phony passport and traveling via a circuitous route through Mexico in order to train with them in 2013.


Nguyen had already travelled numerous time from Garden Grove to Syria and even boasted about a confirmed kill there, according to his Facebook account. He too pled guilty to federal terrorism-related charges and is currently serving a 13-year sentence.


All these domestic jihadi recruits going overseas and training with foreign terrorist organizations are raising a particular concern among counterterrorism officials that they might bring their jihadi causes back with them when they return home.


Chalk this one up as another close call for the Empire of Mouse. The only question on our minds is: How many more terrorists and dormant sleeper cells are out there that law enforcement agencies don't yet know about?

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