Bomb suspect’s Russia views
Social media accounts shared Kremlin views, photos of apparently Russian friends.
Social media accounts linked to Cesar Sayoc Jr. echoed some Kremlin positions.
WASHINGTON — A Facebook account apparently belonging to the man charged with sending pipe bombs to prominent Democrats and others last week included references to Russian associates and propaganda links that echo Kremlin views on the Syrian civil war.
Cesar Sayoc Jr., 56, a vocal supporter of President Trump who was arrested in Florida on Friday and charged with multiple federal crimes, apparently spoke of his “Russian brothers” several times on a Facebook page in 2015. It’s not clear what those references mean or how Sayoc came to view and share propaganda sympathetic to Russian actions in Syria.
Facebook removed the account from public view after news of Sayoc’s arrest. But the Washing ton Post obtained hundreds of posts from 2015 and 2016 from Columbia University social media researcher Jonathan Albright, who downloaded them Friday before Facebook removed them.
The Facebook account reviewed by the Post carried the name “Cesar Altieri,” Sayoc’s first and middle names, and includes copious news links. The posts include many selfies and other pictures featuring him at various locations in Florida.
Similar themes emerged from a Twitter account that appears to have been his, under the name “hardrockintlent,” which uses a variation on Sayoc’s name and a business affiliated with him, as well as his picture. Information from the account, now suspended by Twitter, was also obtained by Albright. It is distinct from the Twitter account listed in the criminal complaint.
The “hardrockintlent” account — which lists “Julus Cesar Milan” as the owner — posted in July 2016 about “my brothers in from Russia the great leader Puttins relatives visiting us today” at a Hard Rock Cafe in Florida. “Puttins” appears to be a misspelled reference to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
A person familiar with the inquiry said the FBI was examining all of Sayoc’s social media posts. Facebook and Twitter declined to comment on any accounts but said they were working with law enforcement.
Sayoc appeared to maintain several Facebook accounts, which were all disabled Friday. An account with the name “Cesar Altieri Randazzo” had personal photos of Sayoc, plus videos he took of himself at a 2016 Trump rally. The account showed Sayoc had more than 2,700 Facebook friends.
The “Cesar Altieri” Facebook account included pictures of Sayoc as far back as September 2014, which would be extremely difficult to fake. The posts also included detailed references to people in his life, email addresses and phone numbers.
On at least five occasions in 2015, the Facebook account included posts referring to his “Russian Brothers” and picturing a smiling Sayoc wearing a suit and posing alongside what appear to be friends. The posts list specific places, people’s nicknames and communities, such as Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach, with large Russian populations.
The Facebook references to Russian associates are rambling and hard to understand. Before his arrest, Sayoc lived in an area outside Miami with a large Russian community, so the Russians described on the Facebook page may have been simply friends of that nationality. Elsewhere on Facebook Sayoc speaks of his “Italian Brothers.”
A post on Oct. 21, 2015, included five pictures of Sayoc with different groups of people, mostly men, and the words: “Here to my Russian Brother in Moscow, Sunny Isle Bch Fla, Brighten Bch Brooklyn NY Brain, Shashana Borus, Eric Jeweler , Macaloff USSR big Red Machine Russian hockey team best in World Big John GM our nightly place 7 star food Kitchen 305 love ya all my brother Force 4 life no group better Hard Rock Sammy enforcers, My Russian, Italian, Native, etc anyone I may left out 4 life.”
A Facebook post on May 29, 2015, does not mention Russian associates but references the country in what reads like a conspiracy theory: “Unground city Bahamas US government preparing for end fact. Tons pipe water lines going under Bahamas 900 dirty bombs disappear from Russia planted on US soil ready for end.”
On June 18, 2015, the Facebook account expressed enthusiasm for Trump, who had announced his candidacy for president two days earlier: “Donald Trump the nxt great president all native red man tribes support and Billion followers.”
The posts showed fixations on subjects including Miami sports teams, youth soccer, Native American themes and businesses Sayoc was seeking to promote. But in April 2016, after several months of not posting on Facebook, the account abruptly changed subjects to link to videos celebrating Syria’s fight against Islamic State, widely known as ISIS.
“He just pops up four months later and just relentlessly shares stories about ISIS and terrorists,” Albright said. “The turn is just remarkable.”
The posts fit with Kremlin propaganda, portraying Russia and Syrian government forces favorably as they battled “terrorists” in what U.S. officials have portrayed as a legitimate uprising against the authoritarian government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Many of the video links in the Facebook posts from April 2016 come from the English-language service of Iranian state-owned broadcaster Al-Alam. Iran has supported Assad in Syria’s civil war, as has Russia.
Also among the posts are criticisms of then-President Obama, who sent troops to support those fighting against Assad. Several posts show Russian-made jets in what’s portrayed as a battle against mainly Islamic State, as opposed to the broader uprising typically described in Western accounts of the civil war.
“In a fresh round of joint combat flights, the Syrian fighter jets backed by the Russian air force have targeted the ISIS concentration centers and gatherings in the Eastern part of Aleppo province, inflicting a heavy death toll on the militants,” read the caption for one video.
Though most of the posts on this subject don’t include personal comments, they echo Sayoc’s posts on his other alleged Facebook and Twitter accounts about Islamic State and terrorism.
In September 2016, as the campaign between Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton was moving into its final phase, the Facebook page linked to a BBC story related to a bombing in the Chelsea section of New York City that injured 29 people.
The poster added, “Hilary Clinton worst on terrorism. Her and Obama have made America weak on open to world for terror attacks. We can’t afford to put Americans in harms way, as her Obama has done. There has never been so many terrorist attack on American soil than Obama, Clinton administration.”