Feds connect al-Qaida contacts to NAS attack
Federal investigators have determined that the Saudi military trainee who killed three service members during a December shooting at the Pensacola Naval Air Station had been in contact with the al-Qaida terrorist group, Attorney General William Barr said Monday.
Authorities learned of the communications after gaining access to the contents of at least one cellphone used by the shooter, 2nd Lt. Mohammed Alshamrani. Until recently, investigators had been blocked from the information because of the Apple iPhone’s encrypted pass-code features.
It wasn’t immediately clear how the FBI accessed the phone or whether Apple had provided assistance, which the Justice Department had sought earlier this year.
Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray discussed the case at a Monday briefing. The development was first reported by The New York Times.
Alshamrani, officials said, had been working with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula for years developing the attack and spoke with his contacts on the night before the assault, Wray said.
Alshamrani, 21, who was part of a U.S. training program for the Saudi military, was killed in the Dec. 6 attack.
Investigators found that on Sept. 11, 2019, the shooter posted on social media that “the countdown has begun.” He visited the 9/11 Memorial in New York City over Thanksgiving weekend, and he posted “antiAmerican, anti-Israeli and jihadi messages” on social media two hours before the attack, authorities have said.
Days after the attack, the Navy grounded more than 300 Saudi nationals who were training to be pilots. Ultimately 21 Saudi trainees were expelled from the country.
Alshamrani began his three-year course in August 2017 with English, basic aviation and initial pilot training.
He was one of 5,180 foreign students, including 852 Saudi nationals, from 153 countries in the U.S. for military training. Many operate American military hardware that foreign governments buy from the United States.
The investigation revived a longstanding dispute with Apple over law enforcement’s efforts to crack suspects’ iPhones.
Investigators recovered two heavily damaged iPhones from Alshamrani. Investigators rebuilt both phones, but they were unable to crack the passwords.