Former NJ Resident Charged With Conspiracy And Providing Support To Terror Group

[The Bobster]

New Jersey Man Charged With Supporting Islamic State

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2015/06/18/new-jersey-man-charged-with-supporting-islamic-state/

New Jersey Man Charged With Supporting Islamic State
June 18, 2015 4:20 PM

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey man has been charged with conspiring with three other men to provide material support to the Islamic State terror group

Samuel Rahamin Topaz, of Fort Lee, was charged on Thursday with conspiring to travel overseas to join the terror group.

Prosecutors say the 21-year-old was arrested at his home and made an initial court appearance in front of a federal judge in Newark. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney.

Prosecutors say that one of the co-conspirators was a 20-year-old man arrested this week in New York, while another traveled oversees to join the terror group in May. The third co-conspirator wasn’t identified but was described as a New Jersey resident.

The charge against Topaz carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

 

[The Bobster]

New Jersey Man Charged With Plotting To Support Militants

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/20...n-charged-with-plotting-to-support-militants/

New Jersey Man Charged With Plotting To Support Militants
June 29, 2015 1:04 PM

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — FBI agents have arrested another New Jersey man who is accused of plotting to support the Islamic State group.

Authorities on Monday charged 23-year-old Alaa Saadeh of West New York with conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic militant organization and witness tampering. They say he tried to persuade a witness to lie to the FBI.

Saadeh is scheduled to go before a judge Monday afternoon. It isn’t immediately clear if he has an attorney.

The FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force have been investigating several people in New York and New Jersey. Samuel Rahamin Topaz of Fort Lee was charged earlier this month with conspiring to join the Islamic State group.

And a Rutherford man who authorities say traveled to the Middle East in May to join the group was arrested in Jordan.

 

[The Bobster]

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/20...piracy-and-providing-support-to-terror-group/

Former NJ Resident Charged With Conspiracy And Providing Support To Terror Group
August 10, 2015 11:34 AM

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Federal officials have arrested a former New Jersey man who is accused of plotting to support terror groups.

Twenty-year-old Nader Saadeh was charged Monday with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a designated foreign terrorist organization. The former Rutherford resident was due to appear later Monday in U.S. District Court in Newark, and it wasn’t known if he’s retained an attorney.

Saadeh’s arrest comes just weeks after authorities arrested his 23-year-old brother, Alaa, and another man on similar charges. The arrests stem from an ongoing FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation of several people in New York and New Jersey who have allegedly conspired to provide material support to the terror groups.

Authorities have said Nader Saadeh traveled to the Middle East in May to join the Islamic State. He could face several decades in prison if convicted.

 

[The Bobster]

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news...deh-Support-FBI-CIA-Syria-Iraq-321263241.html

Man Tried to Organize 'Small Army' of ISIS Fights in NY, NJ: Feds
By Jonathan Dienst and Joe Valiquette
Published at 11:32 AM EDT on Aug 10, 2015

A 20-year-old New Jersey man has been charged on terror-related counts for allegedly trying to help organize a "small army" of ISIS fighters in New York and the Garden State and for traveling overseas with the intent to join the terror group, federal prosecutors said Monday.

Nader Saadeh, who lived in Rutherford until he left the country May 5, allegedly to join ISIS, was arrested Monday on charges of conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the terrorist organization, federal officials said. He was previously taken into custody in Jordan.

Saadeh's brother, Alaa, along with at least three others in New York and New Jersey, were arrested in recent months in connection with the alleged ISIS cell.

The FBI said Nader Saadeh posted anti-American messages online beginning in 2012 and repeatedly viewed ISIS videos. The agency said he praised the burning alive of a captured Jordanian pilot by ISIS fighters and said that, as well as the murders of several staff members of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris earlier this year were justified.

Investigators said Saadeh began rallying friends to join the terror group in the last two years. An informant helped the FBI in the investigation.

According to the informant, Saadeh had become a radicalized ISIS supporter by April and planned to travel overseas to join them. He flew out of John F. Kennedy International Airport on May 5, allegedly for that purpose. Emails sent to him from his family members overseas, including his mother, pleaded with him not to join ISIS, according to federal officials.

Saadeh's brother, who was arrested in late June, told authorities an alleged conspirator from Queens gave Saadeh an ISIS contact near the Turkey/Syria border who could facilitate his travel once overseas, federal officials said.

Officials said there was no specific plot, although some suspects arrested earlier this year were allegedly scouting New York City landmarks as possible targets, including the George Washington Bridge.

Saadeh was ordered to be held without bail during a hearing in federal court in Newark Monday afternoon. Each of the charges carries up to 20 years in prison.

An attorney for the man declined to comment to NBC 4 New York, saying he needed to meet with his client.

Officials said the parents of the Nader Saadeh were deported more than a decade ago in connection with an alleged credit card fraud case. The Saadeh children were allowed to stay with custodians in New Jersey because they were US citizens, officials said.

 

[The Bobster]

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news...-Jersey-Alaa-Saadeh-Small-Army-338407152.html

Man Tried to Organize 'Small Army' of ISIS Fights in NY, NJ: Feds
By Jonathan Dienst and Erin Petenko
Published at 2:13 PM EDT on Oct 29, 2015

A 24 year-old New Jersey man who tried to help organize a "small army" of ISIS fighters in the Garden State and New York pleaded guilty Thursday to terror-related charges.

Alaa Saadeh was part of a group of men who were trying to support the ISIS terror group. Saadeh admitted he gave money and credit cards to other members of the group to try to help them travel to Syria. He and others in the group watched ISIS propaganda including beheadings and other killings by the terror group. His brother, Nader Saadeh, was among the group charged in the scheme.

Saadeh pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to ISIS in Newark federal court before Judge Sarah Wigenton.

He is set to be sentenced Feb. 16 and could face up to 15 years in prison.

His defense attorney said Saadeh does not plan to cooperate with prosecutors as part of his plea deal.

Saadeh is the second man to plead guilty in connection with this New Jersey cell. In September, Samuel Topaz admitted he wanted to join ISIS. His lawyer said if members of the group had failed to get to Syria or Iraq on their own, they had discussed an alternate plan of buying guns inside the US and targeting the White House and other landmarks for an attack.

In the past year, the FBI has arrested 7 men in all from New York and New Jersey for their alleged ties to this homegrown, ISIS-inspired terror cell. Officials have said the investigation is ongoing.

Officials have said the parents of Alaa and Nader Saadeh were deported more than a decade ago in connection with an alleged credit card fraud case. The Saadeh children were allowed to stay with custodians in New Jersey because they were US citizens, officials said.

 

[The Bobster]

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news...rter-Guilty-Plea-Nader-Saadeh--361470571.html

New Jersey ISIS Supporter Admits Terror Cell Talked About Attacking Times Square, 1 World Trade Center
By Jonathan Dienst and Erin Petenko
Published at 3:54 PM EST on Dec 10, 2015

FILE: This courtroom sketch shows Nader Saadeh from an earlier court appearance.


A New Jersey ISIS supporter pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring with others to help ISIS, admitting that members of his terror cell discussed attacking Times Square and 1 World Trade Center with “homemade bombs.”

Nader Saadeh, 20, said his brother and others shared diagrams of how to build bombs as part of their meetings earlier this year in New Jersey and on Staten Island.

“Did they discuss the following possible targets for the bombing attack: 1 World Trade Center … Times Square … Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology?” Judge Sarah Wigenton asked during the hearing.

“Yes,” Saadeh said.

Saadeh was part of a group of six homegrown ISIS supporters arrested by the FBI this summer in New York and New Jersey before they could acquire any weapons. Several of the suspects had said their first goal was to travel overseas to join with ISIS fighters.

Thursday’s plea hearing was the first time prosecutors detailed some of the specific targets in the New York area that were being scouted for an attack.

In September, Samuel Topaz also pleaded guilty. His lawyer at that time said the group had discussed buying guns and trying to travel to Washington D.C. to try to shoot tourists taking pictures outside the White House.

Vaughn Aeronautical College near LaGuardia Airport was also talked about as a possible target, apparently because accused co-conspirator Munther Omar Saleh was a one-time student there.

The FBI said all of the the suspects watched ISIS videos. Before his capture, Saadeh did fly overseas to try to join with ISIS fighters in Syria. He tried to travel through Turkey to join the group.

When Wigenton asked Saadeh if he was aware ISIS had been designated a terror organization, Saadeh said, "Yes." He also said he understood any attack would be carried out in the group's name.

Saadeh faces about 15 years when he is sentenced in March.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2016/05/10/ex-staples-manager-gets-15-years-for-assisting-isis/

Ex-Staples manager gets 15 years for assisting ISIS
By Associated Press
May 10, 2016 | 4:51pm

Alaa Saadeh
Photo: AP


NEWARK, N.J. — A former office-supply store supervisor who pleaded guilty to conspiracy for helping his brother travel to the Middle East to join the Islamic State group was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison by a judge who denied his attorney’s request for a lighter sentence.

Alaa Saadeh was charged last year and pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to aid a U.S.-designated terrorist group.

The 24-year-old West New York resident, a former supervisor at a Staples store, planned to travel overseas to join the Islamic State group and allowed his brother to buy a plane ticket with Saadeh’s credit card to fly there to join the organization, federal prosecutors said. The government also alleged Saadeh sought to erase evidence of his brother’s trip by tampering with a cellphone, and counseled an associate to lie to the FBI if questioned.

The 15-year sentence was the maximum allowable under Saadeh’s plea agreement.

In a brief statement to the court Tuesday, Saadeh apologized and said he “felt horrible” about his actions. He said he regretted not exerting more influence over his younger brother, whom prosecutors said was the more militant of the two.

“I feel I could have taken so many different routes concerning this situation,” said Saadeh, shackled and clad in a prison jumpsuit. “I could have done more for my brother. It saddens me that I had any part in even a little of this.”

U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton viewed Saadeh’s apology with skepticism, saying that while Saadeh is a “very intelligent young man,” it was disconcerting that he took no action to stop the plan while it was in progress.

Assistant U.S. Attorney L. Judson Welle told Wigenton that as the oldest person in the group of alleged conspirators, Saadeh had “the responsibility to be the adult in the room. The defendant let his apartment be used as a hotbed of radicalization. That’s where the conspiracy really took root.”

The brother, Nader Saadeh, and another conspirator, Samuel Rahamin Topaz, pleaded guilty and are scheduled to be sentenced in the fall. Two other co-defendants are awaiting trial.

At Nader Saadeh’s plea hearing in December, he acknowledged a co-defendant showed him diagrams for making bombs and discussed plans to use them in Times Square, the World Trade Center and Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in Queens.

 

[The Bobster]

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/new...-Planning-NYC-Terrorist-Attack-481290011.html

New Jersey Man Gets 10 Years for Terror Plot Involving Older Brother
By David Porter
Published 6 hours ago

A man who admitted discussing plans to explode bombs in Times Square and other New York locations received a 10-year prison sentence Monday for conspiring with others, including his older brother, to support a terrorist organization.

Nader Saadeh had faced a maximum of 15 years but received a lighter sentence because his cooperation helped the government prosecute four other men, including his older brother, Alaa.

One of the others, former New York resident Munther Omar Saleh, was making plans to detonate bombs in Times Square and at the World Trade Center and the Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in Queens, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis Carletta said in court Monday.

Alaaaaaaaa Saadeh, a resident of Fort Lee in northern New Jersey, worked as a supervisor at a Staples office supply store. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in 2016.

At Nader Saadeh's plea hearing in 2015, he acknowledged looking at diagrams for making the bombs and discussing plans to use them at the New York locations.

At the time of his 2015 arrest, prosecutors said the former Rutherford resident had recently traveled to the Middle East to join the Islamic State group but was detained in Jordan and held there before being returned to the U.S.

Nader Saadeh, then 19, "was the guinea pig" of the group who went to the Middle East at the urging of the others, his attorney, Frank Arleo, told U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton on Monday.

"I don't know if the other guys were ever going to go," Arleo said. "They sent Nader to be the test case."

Citing Nader Saadeh's cooperation, prosecutors had sought a sentence of 10 to 12 years. Arleo had sought a sentence of about seven years.

Another defendant, Samuel Rahamin Topaz, also of Fort Lee, pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday.

From 2012 to 2013, Nader Saadeh expressed his hatred for the United States and his wish to form a small army, prosecutors said. After the Islamic State group's leader declared an Islamic caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq in July 2014, authorities said, Saadeh posted images of the group's flags on Facebook.

Prosecutors alleged the Saadeh brothers had numerous meetings and exchanged text messages and phone calls with Topaz and Saleh, who was a college student in New York at the time.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/05/02/aspiring-singer-gets-prison-for-plot-to-join-isis/

Aspiring singer gets prison for plot to join ISIS
By Lia Eustachewich
May 2, 2018 | 10:37am

Samuel Topaz. Reuters


An aspiring New Jersey musician’s twisted desire to join ISIS cost him his freedom this week.

Samuel Topaz — raised in middle class Fort Lee by a Catholic mother and Orthodox Jewish father — was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in federal prison for plotting with four friends to travel to Syria and join the terror group, according to NJ.com.

The 24-year-old was convinced into converting to Islam by Nader Saadeh, his classmate at Fort Lee High School-turned-co-defendant.

A talented singer, Topaz went from posting videos of himself on YouTube covering John Legend’s “Ordinary People” and playing varsity football in high school to fasting and praying “day and night,” according to the criminal complaint.

He distanced himself from old friends and refused to go to college because “he does not see a future for himself in the United States,” the complaint said.

Concerned he might go overseas and “do something stupid,” his mother took away her son’s passport and alerted authorities.

Topaz was arrested in 2015. He never made it out of the country.

In an interview with federal agents in July of that year, he admitted his plans to travel abroad to join ISIS and said he watched videos of beheadings.

Topaz was originally facing up to 20 years behind bars – but copped a plea deal with prosecutors in exchange for pleading guilty to conspiring with others to provide material support to ISIS and cooperating against his co-defendants.

“As a believer in God, I’ve shamed myself,” Topaz told New Jersey federal Judge Susan Wigenton Tuesday. “I’ve not only hurt myself, but I’ve also hurt my family, my friends and my country. For that I truly apologize.”

His mother, Ruth Topaz, was also in court and told the judge she only tried to help her son by ratting him out.

“When I see all the things that was happening, I see him dead,” she said. “I don’t want to expose my children to anything.”

Also arrested were Saadeh’s brother Alaa, Queens resident Munther Omar Saleh, who plotted attacks in New York, and Staten Island resident Fareed Mumuni.

Saleh was sentenced to 18 years. Mumuni was sentenced last week to 17.

Saadeh is serving a 10-year term after cooperating with authorities and his brother Alaa got 15 years in 2016.