Kansas: Ex-Army recruit’s espoused jihad, killing US soldiers, FBI says not a threat
Posted on April 2, 2014 by creeping
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via GI Jihadi: Ex-Army recruit’s online terror threats exposed | Fox News.
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John Thomas Booker, 19, of Topeka, Kan. enlisted in the Army in February and was due to report for basic training on April 7. But the FBI interviewed him in March and alerted the Army, which formally discharged him last week. He is now in an undisclosed mental health facility, sources told FoxNews.com.
…on Tuesday, the FBI downplayed the “routine” alert, saying it was not actively searching for Booker. The agency said it did not believe he posed an “imminent threat,” despite the original alert’s invocation of the Fort Hood shooting, where an Army psychologist killed 13 and wounded more than 30 on a Texas military base in 2009.
“We have interviewed this individual,” an FBI spokesman said. “There is not a manhunt and there never was one. There is no imminent threat to public safety, nor should the public be concerned that this threat exists from an individual at large.”
But weeks earlier, even as Booker was being recruited by the Army and preparing to report, a check of his activity on various social media sites might have revealed he was not fit to serve. As far back as five months before enlisting, he was actively posting in support of the murder of U.S. troops overseas.
The Facebook profile believed to have been created by Booker was taken down on Monday night, though FoxNews.com obtained numerous screen shots of his posts and photos. The page, as well as numerous YouTube rants, painted a picture of a troubled radical with bad intentions long before he was recruited by the Army, or interviewed by the FBI’s Kansas City office.
“I wanna be a martyr (shaheed)!!! YA, brothers and sisters,” he said on a YouTube video some seven months ago. “Make a dua for me asking Allah to make me a martyr, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!! My name is above in blue.”
Around the same time, he commented on a video called “American soldiers A day in iraq Part 1,” saying, “I’m am Muslim. Muslims had no business in Iraq.” The video shows, graphically, American troops under fire in Iraq in 2008.
Booker, who attended Topeka West High School, where he was a member of the Junior ROTC program before graduating in 2012, at some point began calling himself Muhammad Abdullah Hassan. According to his now-defunct Facebook profile, Hassan “Studied Protection, Security and Investigation at Flint Hills Job Corps” and lives in Topeka.
On March 9, a month after he enlisted at the Kansas City recruiting station, Booker posted a series of photos of Usama bin Laden holding various weapons. “Allahu Akbar J Sheikh Osama bin Laden and his army..” reads a post by the photo.
On March 15, a post on the Facebook page expressed Booker’s desire to die for his beliefs.
“Oh those of the ummah of the Prophet Muhammad(S)j. I will soon be leaving you forever so goodbye!” it read. “I am going to wage jihad and hopes that i die. I want to be with my lord so bad that I cry but I will miss you guys I am not going to lie. I wish I could give you guys more but I am just a guy who is so very poor. I am telling you I am so broke that my pockets are soreJ I cannot wait to go to the Prophet Muhammad’s(S) door and prank Isa bin Maryan and party so hard that it will rock Jannah to its core. Only Allah knows what the future has in store so that should make you fear Allah much much more.”
“Getting ready to be killed in jihad is a HUGE adrenaline rush! I am so nervous,” read a March 19 post on the Facebook page authorities believe belonged to the subject of the alert. “NOT because I’m scared to die but I am EAGER to meet my lord.”
http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/kansas-ex-army-recruits-espoused-jihad-killing-us-soldiers-fbi-says-not-a-threat/
