Plot foiled as Isis leader surfaces
White supremacist rally targeted as ‘revenge for Christchurch’
AUS Army veteran who allegedly planned to bomb a Los Angeles-area white supremacist rally has been arrested and his plot foiled. Officials identified the man as Mark Steven Domingo, 26, a recent convert to Islam who, they said, was seeking revenge for the March massacres at two Christchurch mosques that killed 50 people.
The FBI had been tracking the California resident for weeks, law enforcement said, and he had spoken to a confidential informant about other possible attacks against Jews, police officers, churches and the Santa Monica Pier, a local landmark and tourist destination.
“The criminal case outlines a chilling terrorism plot that developed over the past two months and targeted innocent Americans,” said Nicola Hanna, US Attorney for the Central District of California.
By mid-April, Domingo had homed in on a pair of white supremacist rallies scheduled to take place last weekend in Long Beach and Huntington Beach. Domingo settled on the Long Beach event, allegedly telling the FBI informant
— whom he believed to be his co-conspirator — that it’s where they could kill more
people. “If we do this, LA is going to be locked down,” Domingo said.
After considering a drive-by shooting or throwing a grenade, Domingo decided to use an improvised explosive device, authorities said. The informant connected Domingo with a man who he said would make a bomb, but was instead an undercover FBI agent.
The announcement came amid raised terror fears after the Christchurch attacks, aimed at Muslims, and Isis-linked Sri Lankan attacks, which struck at Christians and tourists. Just days ago a man attacked a synagogue near San Diego, fatally shooting one person and injuring three during services.
Yesterday the leader of Isis (Islamic State), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, appeared in a video for the first time in five years, indicating that he has survived the territorial defeat of the caliphate he proclaimed.
Seated on a flowered mattress in a bare white room, he spoke about the group’s losses in the recent battle of Baghouz, vowed that the fight is not over and congratulated the perpetrators of the Easter Sunday suicide bombing attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka.
His beard has greyed since his only other video appearance — at the alNuri Mosque in Mosul, northern Iraq, in July 2014 — when he first announced Isis’ intention to re-create the Islamic caliphate. But Baghdadi looked to be in good health and showed no obvious sign of injury, despite numerous reports in recent years that he had been wounded.
The timing of the video, which was released by Isis’ Furqan channel, seemed to confirm the widespread belief that he survived the group’s final stand in eastern Syria last month. He is thought to be hiding out in the desert in either Syria or Iraq, but the video gave no apparent clues as to his current whereabouts.
Rita Katz, director of the Site Intelligence Group, said the video illustrates the “serious danger” that Baghdadi still poses as the leader of the group.
His appearance demonstrates not only the fact that Baghdadi is still alive, “but also that he is able to re-emerge to his supporters and reaffirm the group’s us-vsthe-world message after all the progress made against the
group,” she tweeted.