Judge considers releasing man in Masonic center plot
Defense says Hamzeh was all talk, no walk in plan to defend Islam from Masons
To his lawyers, Samy Mohammed Hamzeh was nothing more than a “Palestinian Walter Mitty” who was all talk but no walk regarding plans to shoot Israeli soldiers in the Middle East and guests at a Milwaukee Masonic center and should be released with conditions pending his trial next year.
But prosecutors told a federal magistrate judge Wednesday that Hamzeh was a detail-oriented planner and leader of a planned mass shooting meant to “defend Islam,” and a continued threat to community safety who should remain in jail.
Hamzeh, 25, was arrested in January 2016 after he took possession of two machine guns and a silencer he bought for $570 from undercover agents in a deal set up by FBI informants who had been secretly recording conversations with Hamzeh for months.
He appeared in court Wednesday wearing an orange jail outfit, wearing glasses with his hair grown out and pulled back into a small bun. Several family members and friends were in the gallery. After his arrest, his mother claimed her son was set up by the FBI.
The purchase came days after Hamzeh and the informants toured the Humphrey Scottish Rite Masonic Center, 790 N. Van Buren St., and discussed detailed plans to return there and kill as many as 30 people. From YouTube videos and the informants, Hamzeh had come to believe that Masons secretly support the Islamic State, which through its terrorism was discrediting all Muslims.
Last month, Hamzeh’s attorneys filed a motion seeking his release on bond pending his trial, now set for February. They claimed that thousands of hours of the talks, in Arabic, eventually translated and transcribed, showed the informants steered him to the ultimate plot, which Hamzeh then angrily canceled after consulting with two imams.
“That the defendant needed two imams to tell him mass murder is wrong shows he is dangerous,” U.S. Attorney Greg Haanstad argued.
They noted Hamzeh, a U.S. citizen with no criminal record, would have been in jail for two years by the time of his trial, about the average sentence for someone convicted of the charges he faces.
In a response filed Monday, and in court Wednesday, federal prosecutors accused the defense of cherry-picking a few quotes from the thousands of
hours of talks and emphasized that in his own lengthy post-arrest statement, Hamzeh said he had the greater influence over the FBI informants, not vice versa.
Craig Albee, one of Hamzeh’s federal public defenders, said “the loudest
person is not always the leader,” and reiterated to U.S. Magistrate Judge David Jones that Hamzeh was prone to bravado and seeking attention.
Haanstad threw doubt on the efficacy of an entrapment defense, citing Hamzeh’s repeated talk of shooting soldiers in Israel and his touring of the Masonic center as evidence of his “predisposition” to commit a crime with machine guns.
He agreed that Hamzeh was “a classic lone wolf,” with no evident ties to or interest in any organized terrorist or hate groups, but said his claimed plans and the fact he accepted the machine guns weigh in favor of his continued detention.
Albee argued that Hamzeh only ever really wanted a handgun for self-defense because a fellow delivery driver had been carjacked. He said informant “Steve” kept emphasizing machine guns and then arranged the purchase of them.
Albee said Hamzeh could have legally purchased a weapon any time before his arrest and that now he has neither the desire nor the means to have one.
Jones, who initially ordered Hamzeh detained, said his primary concern is whether he remains a threat to community safety. The government must show by clear and convincing evidence that there are no conditions under which Hamzeh could be safely released.
Jones told both sides to submit which portions of Hamzeh’s recorded statement they want to emphasize but said he would probably watch the entire three-hour interview before issuing a written decision within about a week.
Haanstad said if Jones decides Hamzeh should be released pending trial, the government will ask U.S. District Court Judge Pamela Pepper to review that decision. Jones said if that’s his conclusion, he would stay its application to allow prosecutors time for that review.