A freshman at George Mason University was arrested by the FBI after he allegedly plotted a “mass casualty attack” on the Israeli consulate in New York, reports CNN.
The student, Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, “faces a slew of federal charges tied to distributing information related to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction and the intent to murder internationally protected persons.” He is a freshman majoring in information technology,
The president of George Mason University said that the student “has been barred from entering university property,” and will face code-of-conduct charges. He says the arrested student “appears to have no connection to an earlier police action involving two George Mason students whose home was searched in November.”
During that police search last month, cops found guns, ammunition, and a “death to Jews” sign in the home of Jena and Noor Chanaa, sisters who were leaders in GMUs Students for Justice in Palestine group.
The FBI started investigating Hassan after getting a tip about his “radical and terrorist-leaning behavior” on the social-media platform X.
Hassan was posting messages “revering” terrorist leaders like Osama bin Laden and “promoting violence against Jews,” according to a document filed in federal court in Alexandria.
Later, in an exchange with an undercover FBI agent, Hassan was plotting an attack on the Israeli consulate in New York:
An undercover FBI informant posing as an extremist later began communicating with Hassan, who allegedly “recruited” the informant “to conduct a mass casualty attack” and over the course of several days in mid-November sent the informant information, including the address of the Consulate General of Israel in New York, bomb-making instructions and links to purchase cartridges and a rifle to carry out the attack, according to the affidavit.
Last month, he sent a pro-ISIS video calling for “the killing of Jews” to the undercover FBI agent, and told him to “aim for government buildings, use a Zastava rifle.”
Earlier in 2024, a student at Cornell University was given a 21-month prison sentence for threatening to kill Jewish students.
At George Mason University, located in Fairfax, Virginia, students tore down posters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. The school stated in response that it had “been advised by the Commonwealth’s Attorney that the conduct does not appear to be criminal in nature,” but that it would address the incident in accordance with its code of conduct.
The Commonwealth’s Attorney who refused to prosecute vandals who tore down posters of Israeli hostages is Fairfax County prosecutor Steve Descano. He is a left-wing Democrat. Descano defeated a mainstream liberal Democrat, Ray Morrogh, in the Democratic primary. The Washington Post reported that Descano received hundreds of thousands of dollars from a George Soros-funded group, enabling him to massively outspend Morrogh, the mainstream liberal incumbent.
Colleges like GMU have allowed masked pro-Hamas rallies even in states like Virginia, which has a law banning public mask-wearing except for Halloween and health reasons, even though colleges would never tolerate mask-wearing right-wing protesters. This ideological favoritism based on the viewpoint of protesters violates Supreme Court rulings such as Police Department v. Mosley (1972), which said pro-union protesters couldn’t be allowed to picket if other groups weren’t allowed to picket. The Virginia Court of Appeals has upheld Virginia’s mask ban, but left-wing prosecutors like Steve Descano won’t enforce it against pro-Hamas protesters. Even though Code of Virginia § 18.2-422 clearly states, “It shall be unlawful for any person over 16 years of age to, with the intent to conceal his identity, wear any mask, hood or other device whereby a substantial portion of the face is hidden or covered so as to conceal the identity of the wearer, to be or appear in any public place…However, the provisions of this section shall not apply to persons (i) wearing traditional holiday costumes….”
