A New Jersey woman who was already busted for providing material support to ISIS went right back to her evil ways — even as she was supposed to be helping the feds fight the terror group, officials revealed Monday.
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Sinmyah Amera Ceasar, 24, cut a cooperation deal with the feds following her previous arrest for aiding the terror group — but flouted the deal by outing herself as a cooperator and resuming her ISIS rhetoric with potential recruits online, prosecutors said in Brooklyn federal court.
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She now faces up to life in prison.
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“She failed and washed out as a cooperator,” said Assistant US Attorney Josh Hafetz. “She has revealed her cooperation online.”
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Ceasar was charged with providing material support to ISIS in 2016 — which carries a potential sentence of life in prison — but she cut a deal with the feds a year later and was instead let go on supervised release, according to officials.
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But she raised red flags for investigators after posting defiant messages on social media that violated the conditions of her plea deal — and included references to Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen, as well as knife, gun and bomb emoji.
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“I didn’t do anything wrong under Islam but stand up for my din,” she wrote in one post, using the Arabic word for “faith” or “religion.”
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The refusal to accept responsibility while deferring to Islamic law rather than US law raised a “red flag,” according to government witness Dr. Lorenzo Vidino, director of the program of extremism at George Washington University.
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“My assessment is that she retains the mindset of ISIS. She refers to this court, this whole system, as a ‘kafir’ system,” he testified, using the Arabic term for infidel. “She implies the only way to practice Islam is to practice ISIS; which is clearly not the case.”
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She revealed she was cooperating with the feds to at least two people in 2018.
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“[T]he FBI put me under a different name because they wanted my case too be sealed from the country etc,” Ceasar told an unnamed individual using a phony Facebook account that she registered, according to court papers unsealed Monday.
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In one Facebook message, she told a person associated with UK-based ISIS supporters that she “went to prison because some the Muslims were spies :(” and later added “I just got released from prison [smiley face]” — which prosecutors said revealed she was cooperating.
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Ceasar believes Islam is disrespected in the United States and wanted to help “make Islam great again,” said defense witness Daisy Khan, of the Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality, a reference to President Trump’s campaign slogan.
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Khan met with Ceasar six times at the request of defense attorneys and determined her actual knowledge of Islam was limited at best.
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“She doesn’t know what much about her religion,” Khan said.
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In videos posted to YouTube in 2015, Ceasar rants about fellow Muslims who are sexually attracted to infidels, the number of homosexuals in Morocco, witchcraft and genies.
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“Keep Quran to you, because sihr [witchcraft] is real, the jinn [genies] is real, magic is real,” she says in one clip.
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She also invites people to reach out to her on encrypted messaging apps such as Viber.
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“All I have to say is that — the sisters I know I didn’t get in contact with — if you have Viber or messenger y’all can message me on that and we can talk on the phone like that,” she said in one video.
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Prosecutors say Ceasar used phony accounts to spread propaganda and also vetted and avouched for potential recruits.
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“She played two main roles, which I would characterize as a disseminator and a connector,” Vidino testified Monday. “She connects [others] with people who are ISIS members.”
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Ceasar was re-arrested and pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in March, officials said.
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The defense said she was raped as a child, dropped out of school in the 11th grade and suffers from PTSD.
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The hearing is scheduled to continue Tuesday.
Source: New York Post – 24 June 2019
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