{"id":107738,"date":"2020-11-29T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T13:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=107738"},"modified":"2020-11-28T18:45:17","modified_gmt":"2020-11-28T23:45:17","slug":"army-vet-charged-with-supporting-syrian-terrorists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=107738","title":{"rendered":"Army vet charged with supporting Syrian terrorists"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
“Specialized weapons knowledge”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

KoB sends in word on this peach. From Fox News;<\/p>\n

A New Jersey woman who served in the Army has been charged with providing material support to a Syrian terrorist group.<\/p>\n

Maria Bell, 53, was arrested Wednesday at her home in Hopatcong, federal prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Bell is accused of sending money and other information to members of the al-Nusra Front and concealing her actions, according to U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito.<\/p>\n

“Bell used encrypted applications to communicate with and provide advice to fighters based in Syria who were members of the (ANF) … fighting the Assad regime,” the Justice Department said in a press release, citing court documents.<\/p>\n

Bell is accused of communicating directly with and giving money to one member of the terror organization through Western Union in an attempt to hide the source of the money and also “provided him advice on weapons and ammunition,” the release states.<\/p>\n

The Army veteran allegedly used her specialized weapons training to provide weapons assistance to the individual.<\/p>\n

In a communication with the individual, Bell made comments about fighting, including, “Are you ready to fight in front line with other fighters? You are no longer young child like you used to be,” according to court documents.<\/p>\n

She said in another: “It will be frightening. But I am with you.”<\/p>\n

Bell faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. Her attorney has declined to comment on the charges.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Stars and Stripes has some more info;<\/p>\n

Holiday travel can be stressful, especially for a New Jersey woman arrested this week on charges she provided material support to a member of an al-Qaida affiliate in Syria whom she said she loved, but found too controlling.<\/p>\n

FBI agents arrested 53-year-old Army veteran Maria Bell on Wednesday at her home in Hopatcong, N.J., federal prosecutors said. Bell had tickets to travel to Turkey via Egypt the same day, a criminal complaint said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the second time the FBI has interrupted Bell\u2019s plans to travel to Turkey around Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

In 2018, she had plans to fly from New York City to Istanbul on Black Friday, but she was denied boarding after federal agents interviewed her at the airport.<\/p>\n

On that trip, she had planned to meet up with a man who identified himself as a member of Hay\u2019at Tahrir al-Sham, a designated terrorist group run by the founder of al-Nusra Front and made up of al-Qaida veterans, the complaint said, citing encrypted online messages between the two.<\/p>\n

Bell sent the man $3,150 in 18 installments up to the day before Thanksgiving in 2018, using middlemen to conceal the intended recipient, the compliant said.<\/p>\n

But just before Thanksgiving, the two appeared to have a falling out after the militant, believed to be a man named Abdullah Flayes, refused to let her meet his family, a government transcript of their online communiques showed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love you very much but it is hard for me to accept how you direct my life,\u201d Bell wrote. \u201cI am an independent woman in America. If I was not the woman I am, I wouldn\u2019t be able to support you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Authorities say Bell also provided advice to the man on operational security, communications and weapons, and ammunition purchases in thousands of messages on apps and social media since February 2017.<\/p>\n

Bell often cited her military experience, prosecutors said. She served in the National Guard and on active duty in the Army from November 1984 to January 1986, but received an other-than-honorable discharge in lieu of court-martial, a criminal complaint stated.<\/p>\n

Flayes is not named in the document, but is identified in online news videos cited in the court record, one of which in late 2016 showed him wearing a camouflage uniform and body armor, carrying a rifle and fighting Syrian regime forces in Aleppo.<\/p>\n

In that video, he says he is a member of Ahrar al-Sham. At the time it had a military partnership with HTS, a group reportedly run by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, a man believed to have had close ties to the former leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.<\/p>\n

Jolani was arrested and held by U.S. forces at Camp Bucca in Iraq in 2008, and after his release worked alongside Islamic State founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.<\/p>\n

After several messages in which Flayes discussed his commitment to Jolani\u2019s group with Bell, she told him to ensure the HTS leadership blocked American journalists from speaking to the militants, warning that author and terrorism researcher Charles Lister \u201cis not a friend\u201d and was gathering information to be used against them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important in protecting Jolani that trust is kept,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

At one point, Flayes warned that if U.S. warplanes struck militant-controlled targets in support of the Syrian regime, \u201cwe will return to revenge within New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there were ever an attack in New York, all Muslims and helpers like me will be arrested,\u201d Bell responded later, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

If convicted, Bell faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This gal ain’t very bright if she didn’t take the hint in 2018. The feds that prevented her from boarding had to have mentioned that she’s headed down a terrible path. Even if they didn’t, being prevented from meeting your ISIS catfish in person should send a strong signal.<\/p>\n

I love how the MSM sees a failed soldier as a weapons expert. She didn’t even get an honorable discharge. Thankfully, she is not a part of the NDSM brotherhood. The noble eagle of the NDSM has not been besmirched this time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KoB sends in word on this peach. From Fox News; A New Jersey woman who served … Army vet charged with supporting Syrian terrorists<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[209,359,406,307,223],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teh-stoopid","category-army","category-guest-link","category-isis","category-syria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=107738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107740,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107738\/revisions\/107740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=107738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=107738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=107738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}