Refugee from Iraq pleads guilty in U.S.
to attempting to join Islamic State
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[October 18, 2016]
By Alex Dobuzinskis
(Reuters) - An Iraqi-born man who entered
the United States as a refugee pleaded guilty on Monday in Texas to
attempting to volunteer to fight with Islamic State, federal prosecutors
said.
Omar Faraj Saeed Al-Hardan, 24, pleaded guilty in a federal court in
Houston to one count of attempting to provide material support,
specifically himself, to the militant group, the U.S. Attorney's Office
for the southern district of Texas said in a statement.
Al-Hardan, who most recently lived in Houston, faces up to 20 years in
prison when he is sentenced on Jan. 17, prosecutors said.
The case comes during a U.S. presidential race in which the question of
admitting refugees from the Middle East, especially Syria, has become a
point of contention between the two leading candidates.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has called for
increasing the number of Syrian refugees admitted and said the United
States can adequately screen them. Republican nominee Donald Trump has
opposed their entry and called for "extreme vetting" of incoming Muslim
immigrants.
In the Texas case, federal agents began investigating Al-Hardan in 2014
after he communicated with a California man who he believed was
associated with the Syrian Islamist rebel group Al-Nusrah, prosecutors
said in a statement.
Al-Hardan in 2014 and 2015, in discussions with a confidential
informant, said he planned to travel overseas to support Islamic State,
prosecutors said.
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He also said he had taught himself to make remote detonators and
showed off a circuit board he built as a transmitter, prosecutors
said.
Al-Hardan entered the United States as an Iraqi refugee in late
2009, about two years before the start of a civil war in Syria,
after spending time in refugee camps in Jordan and Iraq, prosecutors
said. He was later granted legal permanent residence.
The arrest of Al-Hardan gained national media attention in January,
with Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, a conservative
Republican, citing it as an indication of why Texas was seeking to
block the resettlement of Syrian refugees.
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Islamic State, which controls tracts of land in Iraq and Syria, has
claimed credit for a surge in global attacks this summer, even as it
has been hammered by U.S.-led coalition air strikes. On Monday,
Iraqi forces launched a U.S.-backed offensive to drive Islamic State
from the city of Mosul.
President Barack Obama has said refugees are properly screened and
vetted.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Nick
Macfie)
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