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Last month, the 18-year-old freshman at George Mason University Abdullah Hassandescribed as “tall and thin,” studying information technology, appeared in a federal judge’s courtroom in Virginia.
Charge?
Planning a mass attack on the Jews.
The case began in May when the Fairfax County Police Department forwarded an anonymous tip to the FBI about the X account engaging in “radical and terrorist behavior,” including expressions of support for ISIS and Al Qaeda.
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The FBI followed Hassan who allegedly spoke to an informant about traveling to support ISIS. In October, his thoughts turned closer to home: he began to discuss a terrorist attack in the United States – the recruitment of another person in a scheme to kill Jews.
After allegedly sending the informant “a pro-ISIS video calling for the killing of Jews” in mid-November, Hassan then shared instructions on “how to prepare a martyrdom video” and make a bomb.
George Mason University student Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan faces federal charges in connection with a mass casualty threat in New York.
Hassan called an informant to broadcast the attack live. He was logged on to livestream and wrote, “See you in heaven in the afterlife,” when FBI agents burst through his door and arrested him.
Tracking down and arresting Hassan is part of the phenomenal work done by law enforcement, but the bigger question is: why was it necessary?
Hassan previously faced police in 2022, when he was interviewed by the FBI over statements he made online supporting ISIS and Al Qaeda. That’s worrying enough. But to make matters worse, Hassan, an Egyptian national, is currently in removal proceedings with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This fact receives only one line in the federal affidavit supporting the criminal charge against Hassan.
How was a foreign national who was a known terrorist sympathizer allowed to remain in the country, to the point where he was actively planning an attack to kill American citizens, especially Jews?
Hassan is not the only individual in the country who worked illegally or in deportation proceedings to plan or participate in violence directed against the Jewish community.
Here’s another one: Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, a citizen of Mauritania, is accused of shooting an Orthodox Jew multiple times on October 26 as he walked toward a synagogue in Chicago. According to police, Abdallahi used his cell phone to search for synagogues and Jewish community centers in the area shortly before the attack. His phone also contained more than 100 “anti-Semitic and pro-Hamas” images and videos. He was facing more than a dozen charges, including attempted murder, a hate crime and a crime of terrorism when he committed suicide in his prison cell.
Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi is accused of shooting a Jew who was on his way to a synagogue before dying by suicide in his prison cell. (Cook County Sheriff’s Office)
Law enforcement sources noted that Abdallahi is an illegal immigrant, arrested by the San Diego Border Patrol in March 2023 — but allowed to enter the U.S.
To protect American lives, we must take the threat of foreign nationals with ties to violent extremist groups seriously. There is no excuse for someone to be in this country – whether on a tourist, work or student visa – when they are found to be associated with a foreign terrorist organization.
Across the country, security experts, many of whom are former members of the police force, work to protect Jewish communities. But we shouldn’t do that against a stacked deck. When people who support the programs of foreign terrorist organizations are allowed to enter or remain in our country, something has to change.
The Immigration and Nationality Act provides that “[a]any alien who … supports or supports terrorist activity or persuades others to support or support terrorist activity or supports a terrorist organization” is “ineligible for admission [a] Visa[] and cannot be admitted to the United States.” Moreover, anyone who “knowingly provides material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, or attempts or conspires to do so” commits a federal crime. Courts have ruled that this includes “speaking to, under the direction of or in coordination with foreign groups known by the speaker to be terrorist organizations.” Our First Amendment and other freedoms do not protect those who provide material support to these “especially dangerous and illegal foreign organizations.
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The time has come to take a serious look at the laws and regulations that are in place. If a noncitizen provides material support to a terrorist organization—whether by shouting pro-Hamas slogans on a college campus or planning to kill Jews—he has lost the privilege of being in the United States.
The laws that protect our country are on the books. The new Trump administration must implement them.
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