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New Jersey man inspired by Hamas attacks tried to join Somali terror group, prosecutors say

(JTA) — A New Jersey man inspired by the Oct. 7 attack on Israel attempted to join the al-Shabab terror group to harm the United States, a federal court in New York announced on Friday.
Karrem Nasr, a U.S. citizen from Lawrenceville, New Jersey, traveled from Egypt to Kenya in an attempt to join and train with al-Shabab, the U.S. Southern District of New York said in a statement. Al-Shabab is a Somali jihadist group designated as a terrorist organization by the United States.
Nasr, 23, was taken into custody in Nairobi on Dec. 14 and transported to the United States on Thursday. He will appear in federal court later Friday, the statement said.
He was charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, which has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The defendant “devoted himself to waging violent jihad against America and its allies” in order to “execute his jihadist mission of death and destruction,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
“Nasr was prepared to kill and be killed to support the jihadist cause, and in his own words, he described America as ‘evil,’” Williams said.
Al-Shabab has used assassinations, improvised explosives, suicide bombings, rockets and more to target the Somali government, civilians and foreigners, including those from the United States and United Nations organizations. The group has targeted U.S. citizens at home and abroad since the State Department designated the organization as a terror group in 2008.
Nasr said he had been inspired by the Hamas attacks on southern Israel, which killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
“After the October 7th events, I felt that something has changed. To the better I mean. I felt that pride and dignity came back to the Muslims,” he told a confidential FBI source, according to a criminal complaint.
He said he had been thinking about joining a jihadist group “for a long time” but was not able to until Oct. 7, referring to the attack as “Flood the Aqsa,” a reference to Hamas’ term for the invasion: “Operation al-Aqsa Flood.” The Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, sits atop Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, the holiest site for Jews. The Old City holy site is a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a touchstone for religious Muslims.
“When the operation, Flood the Aqsa started, I felt something has changed in the world,” Nasr told the F.B.I source, who was posing as a facilitator for terror groups. “I saw the video of the Zionist bombing the hospital al-Ahli in Gaza. I know that they brought this bomb from America.”
Initial reports on Oct. 17 said Israel had bombed the Gaza hospital, but later investigations and evidence from the Israel Defense Forces indicated that the medical center had been hit by a misfired Palestinian rocket.
Nasr was born in the United States to an Egyptian family and moved to Egypt to study Arabic in July. He contacted the FBI source using an encrypted messaging app on Nov. 14, expressing his desire to join al-Shabab for military training.
Using an alias, Nasr also posted on social media after Oct. 7 that jihad was “coming soon to a US location,” with emojis depicting a plane, a bomb and a flame.
Kenyan authorities took him into custody shortly after he arrived in the country.
The case was investigated by the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task force, which includes FBI agents and New York Police Department detectives.
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The post New Jersey man inspired by Hamas attacks tried to join Somali terror group, prosecutors say appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters

Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) filed a lawsuit challenging as unconstitutional the Trump administration’s actions to deport international students and scholars who protest or express support for Palestinian rights.
The lawsuit, filed on Saturday in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York, seeks a nationwide temporary restraining order to block enforcement of two executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump in the first month of his term.
The lawsuit comes after the detention of a Columbia University student, Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old permanent US resident of Palestinian descent, whose arrest sparked protests this month.
Justice Department lawyers have argued that the US government is seeking Khalil’s removal because Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reasonable grounds to believe his activities or presence in the country could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” Rubio on Friday said the United States will likely revoke visas of more students in the coming days.
Trump vowed to deport activists who took part in protests on US college campuses against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza following the October 2023 attack by the Palestinian terrorists.
The ADC lawsuit was filed on behalf of two graduate students and a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who say their activism and support of the Palestinian people “has put them at serious risk of political persecution.”
“This lawsuit is a necessary step to preserve our most fundamental constitutional protections. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of speech and expression to all persons within the United States, without exception,” said Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the ADC.
Chris Godshall-Bennett, the group’s legal director, said the litigation seeks immediate and long-term relief “to protect international students from any unconstitutional overreach that stifles free expression and deters them from fully engaging in academic and public discourse.”
The lawsuit centers on three Cornell University plaintiffs: a British-Gambian national and PhD student with a student visa; a US citizen PhD student working on plant science; and a US citizen novelist, poet, and professor in the Department of Literatures in English.
The post Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week

Israel’s Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar speaks at Reichman University in Herzliya on Sunday, September 11, 2022. Photo: Screenshot
i24 News – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security agency, that he will bring a vote before his government to dismiss him next week.
The post Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes

Newly recruited fighters who joined a Houthi military force intended to be sent to fight in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, march during a parade in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 2, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
i24 News – The Houthis claimed on Sunday that they targeted the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and other vessels in the northern Red Sea with 18 ballistic and cruise missiles and a drone. Military spokesperson Yahya Saree said that the US-led attacks against the Houthis on Saturday comprised of more than 47 airstrikes on seven governorates, with the death toll expected to rise.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target all American warships in the Red Sea and in the Arabian Sea in retaliation to the aggression against our country,” Saree said, vowing the Houthis “will continue to impose a naval blockade on the Israeli enemy and ban its ships in the declared zone of operations until aid and basic needs are delivered to the Gaza Strip.”
The post Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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