Islamic State recruiter advised NYC resident on foiled terror plots: DOJ

Junaid Hussain, an Islamic State operative considered one of the terror group’s top recruiters prior to being killed in an August 2015 airstrike, sent bomb-making instructions three months earlier to a New York City man who said he wanted to attack Times Square or the Statue of Liberty, federal prosecutors claimed in a recent court filing.

Hussain allegedly provided the instructions to Munther Omar Saleh, a 21-year-old Queens resident who faces sentencing next month for charges including attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue wrote in a filing entered last week in the government’s case against Saleh and his co-defendant, 22-year-old Fareed Mumuni of Staten Island.

“On May 7, 2015, Saleh emailed himself information regarding the construction of a pressure cooker bomb, like that used in the Boston Marathon terrorist attack in 2013. Saleh had received these instructions from Syria-based ISIS attack facilitator Junaid Hussain. These instructions included lists of components that could be used to construct a pressure cooker bomb,” the prosecutor wrote.

“During the post-arrest interview, Saleh further stated he was talking to individuals at the highest levels of ISIS,” Mr. Donoghue wrote for the Justice Department in a Jan. 12 filing first reported by Newsweek on Tuesday. “Hussain provided Saleh with a document with instructions for making a pressure cooker bomb. Saleh remarked that the instructions seemed ’pretty doable’ to him, and that as long as he had a remote detonator and fireworks, he could assemble a pressure cooker bomb ’instantly.’”

Mr. Saleh considered building a bomb to target either of two of New York City’s biggest landmarks, according to messages recovered from his cellphone cited in the government’s court filing.

“i was considering that The statue of liberty has a very weak point in its lower back and its tilting forward, if i can get a few pressure cooker bombs to hit the weak point, i think it will fall face down, along with the mushrikeen [those who worship one other than Allah] visiting it,” he wrote Hussain on May 7, 2015, the government alleged.

“Or we can hit times square which would be easier, but if i can get more akhs [brothers], we can preform simultaneous attacks all around NYC.”

Most of Hussain’s responses were deleted before the conversation could be accessed by authorities, according to the government.

Mr. Saleh and Mr. Mumuni were arrested before they could strike, and each faces up to 56 years in prison when they’re sentenced February 8 in connection with previously entered guilty pleas.

Hussain was raised in Birmingham, England, and he first gained notoriety as a teenage member of TeaMp0isoN, a hacking group credited with several high-profile cybersecurity incidents that occurred in 2011, including breaches suffered by the likes of far-right English Defence League, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, among others. He ultimately served several months behind bars in 2012 for a hacking-related conviction prior to traveling to Syria the following year and joining ISIS. He subsequently conducted social media operations and recruitment efforts for the terror group prior to being killed in 2015, roughly three months after his conversations with Mr. Saleh. He was 21.

The Justice Department has previously implicated Hussain in ISIS-inspired terror attacks, including the 2015 shooting that targeted an anti-Islamic cartoon contest in Garland, Texas.