Activist applauds conviction of her would-be jihadi beheader
The New York political activist targeted by an ISIS terror cell for beheading had a simple message for the 28-year-old mastermind jihadi convicted for supporting the foreign terror group.
“I wish he was rotting in hell, but he’ll be rotting in jail for the rest of his life and that works for me,” Pamela Geller told the Herald yesterday shortly after David Daoud Wright, the man federal agents called a “fullfledged soldier of ISIS,” was convicted on a slate of federal charges.
“I’m very happy with the verdict and especially surprised that the jury saw through his pathetic and insulting excuses,” Geller said.
In swift deliberations over two half-days, a federal jury in Boston found Wright guilty of conspiring to support ISIS, conspiring to commit acts of terrorism and obstructing justice by wiping his and his uncle’s computers of evidence.
Wright faces life in prison when he’s sentenced Dec. 16.
Prosecutors said Wright, an Everett resident, in February 2015 hatched a “martyrdom operation cell” in Massachusetts with his uncle, Usaamah Abdullah Rahim, 26, and Nicholas Rovinski, 26, and masterminded a plan to carry out an ISIS-inspired beheading of Geller and police officers.
Rahim was shot dead by Boston police and federal agents when he confronted them with a knife two years ago at Wright’s urging. Rovinski pleaded guilty in September 2016 to conspiring to assist ISIS and plot acts of terrorism.
Acting U.S. Attorney William D. Weinreb called Wright’s conviction a “victory in the fight against ISIS and all terror organizations targeting the United States.”
“Wright is a terrorist, an ISIS supporter and recruiter who intended to wage war against the U.S. by beheading people and killing Americans,” Weinreb said. “Together Wright and his uncle planned to murder Americans, and those plans were as real as the long knives Wright’s uncle bought to carry them out.”
Peter Kowenhoven of the Boston FBI used the conviction to warn the public about the insidious threat of radicalization and call for help in spotting people at risk of joining a terror group before they are too far gone.
“The details of this investigation are upsetting, and indicative of the threat we are facing: Individuals in their own homes ingesting a steady diet of online terrorist training propaganda and information leading to radicalization,” Kowenhoven said.
He said the FBI wants people to call them if they notice a co-worker, friend or family member have a “sudden change in behavior.”
“Most homegrown terrorists aren’t completely unknown before they act,” Kowenhoven said. “In the majority of situations, a family member or friend knows about the individual radicalizing and sees that transformation.”