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Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago man convicted of helping Islamic State spread violent message, encourage terrorist attacks
Nearly seven years after the feds raided his Northwest Side home, a Chicago IT specialist was convicted Friday of helping the Islamic State terrorist group through a media campaign that encouraged attacks, celebrated beheadings and other gruesome violence and taunted Western culture with memes like a headless Santa delivering a bomb. U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey issued his verdict following a rare bench trial that began last month, convicting Ashraf al Safoo on 11 counts, including providing material support to a terrorist organization, conspiracy to transmit threats in interstate commerce, and computer fraud. Al Safoo faces up to 130 years behind bars when he's sentenced on Oct. 9. In his brief ruling from the bench, Blakey called the evidence at trial 'overwhelming.' The judge did, however, acquit al Safoo on a lone count involving $400 he'd wired to an Islamic State member in 2018, ruling that the evidence was insufficient that al Safoo knew of the recipient's status in the organization, also known as ISIS. Dressed in orange jail clothes, al Safoo, 41, kept his hands clasped behind him and did not react as the judge announced his ruling. Blakey said he will issue a more lengthy written opinion explaining his verdicts at a later date. After the hearing, U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros released a statement saying the case was 'a testament to the vigilance and dedication of our prosecutors and law enforcement partners who stand watch to disrupt and prevent dangerous threats before they materialize.' 'We will vigorously pursue and bring to justice those who provide material support — in whatever form — to terrorist organizations,' Boutros said. Al Safoo's attorney could not immediately be reached. Blakey's verdict turns the page in a long-running case beset by numerous delays as al Safoo changed legal teams and challenged some of the key evidence against him, including the testimony of convicted ISIS member Yasir al Anzi, who was captured in 2019 by U.S. forces in Iraq and is serving a sentence there of 20 years to life. At the time al Safoo was arrested in October 2018 at his home in the Budlong Woods neighborhood, the Islamic State was still considered one of the world's greatest terrorist threats, even though its caliphate had crumbled and the group had lost nearly all the territory it had seized in Iraq and Syria. Thousands of ISIS fighters were killed in the process and thousands more remain in prison. Despite its decline, however, U.S. officials have said the group still has an active core of battle-hardened militants, many operating in sleeper cells, and other terrorists groups remain loyal to the Islamic State's causes and are capable of striking on its behalf. In the charges, prosecutors alleged that although al Safoo was not a sworn ISIS member, he was a leader of a group called Khattab Media Foundation, an internet-based propaganda organization that swore an oath of allegiance to the Islamic State. 'Brothers, roll up your sleeves!' al Safoo allegedly posted in one Khattab-related forum in May 2018. 'Cut video publications into small clips, take still shots, and post the hard work of your brothers in the apostate's pages and sites. Participate in the war, and spread fear.' Authorities said the foundation ran like a well-oiled public relations firm, with writers, editors, tech advisers and audiovisual producers all pushing a central message of fear, violence and death. To accomplish his goals, al Safoo and his co-conspirators hacked legitimate social media accounts to make it seem like the messages were coming from actual users and to make it harder for platforms such as Twitter, now known as X, to take them down. When mistakes were made, employees were reprimanded, according to a criminal complaint unsealed against al Safoo in 2018. At one point, an editor sent out an officewide note about an embarrassing gaffe on a design featuring President Donald Trump that a member had mistranslated from Arabic using a Google app, the complaint stated. 'Instead of writing 'beheading' Trump, he wrote 'kissing and hugging' Trump,' the federal charges quoted the memo as saying. 'The Americans started laughing at the Islamic State. The image has circulated and it became a joke.' The charges alleged the Khattab group regularly promoted ISIS-inspired attacks, including the December 2017 shooting at a church in Egypt that killed nine people. But it also highlighted violence in the U.S. that was not connected to the terrorist group. The day after a gunman opened fire on concertgoers in Las Vegas in October 2017, killing 59, the media group called it a 'blessed operation … executed by one of the soldiers of the Caliphate,' according to the complaint. According to evidence at trial, after al Safoo's arrest, Khattab was responsible for an internet post calling for the beheading of then-Chicago FBI Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Sallett. Al Safoo was not accused of playing a role in that post. In his closing argument to Blakey earlier this month, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Peabody challenged the assertion of al Safoo's attorneys that what he was posting was protected First Amendment speech, saying al Safoo was 'not just repeating Islamic State propaganda' but 'dressing it up, lots of guns and fire and destruction, ready for distribution.' 'Media was the key. It was how the Islamic State grew and gained followers,' Peabody said. 'It's how they recruited fighters, it's how they inspired lone wolf attacks. And it was how they got their message out.' Al Safoo's attorney, James Vanzant, said in his closing remarks that much of the content his client put out was just 'repackaged' material from news reports already online. Other things were just plain silly, he said, pointing to the infographic posted by al Safoo's group depicting a headless Santa Claus delivering a package that contained a bomb and the words 'Our gifts are ready.' 'A lot of this stuff is juvenile…I've seen worse than this on Xbox chats,' Vanzant said. 'I don't know… Can we threaten Santa Claus? I guess we have a war on Christmas. But this is not a real threat…It's tasteless. I don't like looking at it but that doesn't matter. They have a right to say it.' A key portion of the prosecution's evidence focused on the videotaped testimony of al Anzi, a leader in the Islamic State's propaganda operation convicted in Iraqi courts. Al-Anzi sat for a sworn deposition several years ago in a courthouse in Bagdad, where he testified about his communications with Safoo. Dressed in a yellow jail outfit and speaking through an interpreter, al Anzi testified that Safoo, whom he knew as Abu Al-Iraqi, was affiliated with Khattab Media Foundation and that he had online communications with him about conducting a terrorist operation in Illinois, thought he could not remember specifics on the exact target. Al Safoo also sent the $400 to him, al Anzi testified, but he was clear that he wanted it to go to help refugee families who were starving in Syria at the time. Al Anzi said the money was indeed spent on medicine for one family and for food for another. A former web developer and internet technology specialist, al Safoo holds a masters degree in computer sciences and had been living in the U.S for about 10 years before his arrest. He's since been held in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago.
CBS News
a day ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Chicago man convicted of using social media to recruit for ISIS, and try to spread violent jihad
A Chicago man has been convicted of using social media to recruit ISIS operatives and try to spread violent jihad, and encourage people to carry out attacks on behalf of the terrorist group. Following a bench trial in federal court in Chicago, Ashraf Al Safoo, 41, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to transmit threats in interstate commerce, one count of conspiracy to intentionally access a protected computer without authorization, four counts of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization, and four counts of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Al Safoo was arrested in October 2018, following a raid at his home in the Budlong Woods neighborhood. Federal prosecutors said he is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Iraq, and moved to the U.S. in 2008. He was accused of working with ISIS to various social media accounts to spread propaganda supporting violent jihad and recruit operatives to carry out terrorist attacks for the Islamic State. Prosecutors said he is a member of Khattab Media Foundation, an internet group that has sworn allegiance to ISIS, and spread propaganda online promoting violent jihad. Images and videos he created in coordination with ISIS allegedly included include images of violence during Christmas, celebrations of terrorist attacks, and mass shootings in the U.S. In one social media post, Al Safoo allegedly encouraged Khattab members to post pro-ISIS information "to cause confusion and spread terror within the hearts of those who disbelieved." "Work hard, brothers, edit the issue into short clips, take the pictures out of it and publish the efforts of your brothers in the pages of the apostates. Participate in the war, and spread terror, the [Islamic] State does not want you to watch it only, rather, it incites you, and if you are unable to, use it to incite others," Al Safoo allegedly wrote in another post. According to the charges, one video created by Khattab featured a computer-generated image of a family standing around a Christmas tree, with a castle in the background, before cutting to images of explosions, featuring images of dead and injured children. The video then cuts to the words "Now listen you dogs of hell. This is a message and more are going to follow. This is just the beginning. Our gifts are now ready," before showing a Christmas present containing a ticking bomb. The video then cuts to a news clip of a mass shooting; an image of a soldier dressed in black, holding a detonator; then landmarks from various world landmarks; and the soldier detonating a bomb. In November 2017, Al Safoo allegedly used a social media app to encourage people to help ISIS in any way possible. Sentencing for Al Safoo has been scheduled for Oct. 9. He faces up to 130 years in prison.
