By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
BBC-Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN NY Mag
EDNY COURTHOUSE, May 4 – New York City is full of terrorism trials these days. In SDNY the jury is deliberating in the Hezbollah case of US v. Alexei Saab, while other SDNY judge processing the cases of Ethan Phelan Melzer and Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, who run over people on the West Side Highway and now wants a clock radio in the MDC in Brooklyn.
In the EDNY in Brooklyn on May 4, this was the opening statement in US v. Mirsad Kandic:
AUSA HAFETZ: "I work for the Islamic state." Those are the words of that man, the defendant Mirsad Kandic, admitting that he worked for the Islamic state. Admitting that he worked for ISIS, a barbaric terrorist organization. And the defendant meant what he said. In 2013, after living in this country for a decade, he left New York behind to join and work relentlessly to help ISIS achieve its goals of extremist violence, and he was good at it.
He helped smuggle weapons, equipment, and money to ISIS. He spread its gruesome recruitment propaganda, and most importantly, he trafficked fighters into ISIS-controlled territory so they could join and kill for the group.
The defendant did all of this, all of this work for ISIS, knowing exactly what it is. A group of brutal terrorists responsible for murdering and torturing innocent civilians, including Americans. The defendant's years of work on behalf of ISIS, his career, as an ISIS supporter and smuggler is why we're here today. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Josh Hafetz, and together with my colleagues, we represent the United States.
And it's our duty to present you with the evidence in this case. Let me tell you what that evidence will show. Throughout the four years that the defendant dedicated himself to the Islamic state, it was the deadliest terrorist organization in the world, responsible for slaughtering thousands of people.
ISIS had a very clear goal, dominate the world including the United States, by establishing and expanding an Islamic state, what it called a caliphate, and then violently forcing its extremist rules on everybody living under it.
By 2014, the Islamic state had conquered large areas of territory in Syria and Iraq and was aggressively fighting to expand further, killing whoever got in its way. Now, to do all this, ISIS needed things. It needed fighters to kill for it, and it needed weapons, equipment, and money for those fighters. And it needed to spread its violent propaganda to recruit more fighters. ISIS relied on men and woman traveling from western countries into Syria and Iraq and other ISIS-controlled territory to fight and kill for it, either in direct combat or in the countless suicide missions the group called for, organized, and directed. This is where the defendant came in.
You'll hear that in 2013 he left New York and traveled to Turkey, the main gateway for ISIS supporters to cross the border into Syria. And for the next several years operating from Syria, Turkey, and Bosnia, the defendant worked to help ISIS achieve its bloody goals in every way that he could.
One service he provided was helping to smuggle weapons of war and other equipment into ISIS territory. He ran an online market for guns and other military equipment. The market's only customers were ISIS fighters in ISIS territory. The defendant also helped by getting money to the group's fighters inside Syria and by making hundreds of false identity documents for ISIS and its fighters and supporters.
Most importantly, the defendant worked relentlessly to recruit and smuggle fighters into and out of ISIS territory in Syria and Iraq from around the world, including from the United States, Europe, and Australia. These people wanted to join, fight, and kill for a terrorist organization. They needed help to do it. The defendant provided that help. How? He vetted new recruits. He told them what ISIS required. He told them what to pack in their bags, how to dress, how to look to avoid being stopped by the authorities. He instructed them to conceal their actions by using encrypted communication just as he himself did to evade law enforcement.
And time and again, the defendant told people who wanted to join ISIS, to get to Turkey, where he, the defendant, would connect them to other ISIS smugglers who would physically transport them to the Syrian border and into ISIS territory. And you're going to hear, ladies and gentlemen, that the defendant's actions and his assistants were straight out of the ISIS's official playbook. One of these fighters was a man named Ruslan Asainov, the defendant's associate from New York who became a sniper for ISIS inside Syria. The defendant tried to help the sniper, someone who shoots and kills people from long distances, to get money and equipment, including a night vision scope.
Another fighter the defendant helped recruit and smuggle into ISIS territory was an 18-year-old Australian named Jake Bilardi who shared the defendant's extremist beliefs. Jake Bilardi went on to commit an ISIS-directed suicide attack inside Iraq. Just days before that attack, the defendant wrote to Bilardi about his plans to blow himself up in a suicide bombing. The defendant told Bilardi, quote, may Allah make their inner organs implode. Then just days after Bilardi's suicide bombing, the defendant glorified the attack online as a victory for their common cause: ISIS. The same terrorists that the defendant repeatedly admitted that he worked for. The defendant was finally stopped in 2017 when he was arrested while living in Bosnia in eastern Europe where he was still providing support to ISIS. U.S. authorities then flew him back to New York City to be held accountable for his crimes.
For his actions on behalf of ISIS, the defendant is charged with six counts of conspiring, providing, and attempting to provide material support to ISIS. Two of these counts charge the defendant with providing material support that resulted in death. Here's how the government is going to prove that the defendant is guilty of each of these charges beyond a reasonable doubt. You'll see witness testimony, physical evidence, documents, and the defendant's own words. And you're going to see all this despite the extensive effort the defendant took to hide his activity through encrypted communications, coded language, and false names.
You will hear testimony from several former ISIS members who will give you a rare look inside the terrorist group's inner workings and their firsthand knowledge of the defendant's actions in service of ISIS. One of these former members lived with the defendant in Turkey and Bosnia. She'll describe the work she and the defendant did day after day to help ISIS, including funneling money to its fighters and making false documents. She has pleaded guilty to her role in acting in support of ISIS, and she will testify here pursuant to an agreement with the government. You'll also hear from individuals who talked with the defendant online, where using encrypted communications to avoid detection, he proudly admitted that he worked on behalf of the terrorist group. You'll also hear from an expert in terrorism who will explain ISIS's goals, the horrific violence it committed, and how important it was for the group to recruit fighters and get them inside ISIS territory. You'll see some of the types of deadly weapons the defendant worked to get into the hands of those fighters, as well as the bank cards he used to send them money and the fake identification documents he used to avoid detection.
You're also going to see some of the vast collection of ISIS propaganda that the defendant kept on his cell phone, which he posted on the more than 100 ISIS-related Twitter accounts that he operated. You're going to see that he used those accounts to spread ISIS's recruitment messages and to glorify and encourage the terrorist group's extreme violence, including suicide bombings, beheadings, and mass executions. You're going to see that he called one of the official ISIS recruitment videos that he posted online, quote, the best thing ever seen on screen. That video ends with ISIS fighters forcing prisoners to dig their own graves, shooting them in the back of the head, and declaring war on the United States. You're also going to see the defendant used his ISIS Twitter accounts to recruit people for the group and then shifted their conversations into more private messages.
There, in those messages, ISIS supporters repeatedly sought out the defendant's help to join the group. Help, the defendant then provided. And finally, you will hear the defendant's own voice recordings recovered from his cell phone, and in these recordings you'll hear him admit with pride, how he repeatedly helped transport fighters into ISIS territory. You'll hear one recording in which he states that he sends people everywhere and that he sent people to ISIS territory using the word Sham, another name for Syria.
You'll hear him in his own voice, describing routes to Syria and brokering weapon sales. You'll hear another recording of him laughing just three weeks before his arrest, because for three years he had not been caught. And finally, you'll hear him praise as good, good, two suicide bombers who killed more than 90 people. At the end of this case, after you have seen and heard all of the evidence, the government will ask you to return the only verdict consistent with that evidence, guilty on all counts. Thank you.
Inner City Press will continue to cover these and other EDNY cases.
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