Virginia College Student Accused of Plotting a Bombing Attack in New York City

12/20/2024 02:42 PM

Abdullah Hassan, 18, is charged with distributing information on using 'weapons of mass destruction' to attack the Israeli Consulate

Federal prosecutors have charged a Virginia college student with plotting to attack the Israeli Consulate building in New York.

Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, an 18-year-old freshman at George Mason University originally from Egypt, was arrested on Tuesday and faces charges related to distributing information relating to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction, as part of an alleged plot to blow up the consular office, per a criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District of Virginia.

X accounts believed to belong to Hassan had been posting of admiration for Al Qaeda and ISIS and hating Jews when an undercover federal informant reached out, according to an affidavit signed by FBI Special Agent Tyler Ellefson.

After the informant allegedly shared a pro-ISIS video calling for the killing of Jews, prosecutors say he "pledged allegiance" to ISIS and called Hassan his "emir," adding that he was "waiting on Hassan's direction."

Hassan and the informant allegedly hatched plans for a "mass casualty attack." Hassan instructed the informant on how to bypass Google safeguards to find bomb-making instructions, before eventually sending him a video directly, per the affidavit.

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Hassan would later learn the informant was in New York, which he allegedly described as a "goldmine of targets," and suggested he attack the Israeli Consulate General, near the United Nations in Manhattan, because it represented the Jewish people, reads the affidavit.

Hassan would allegedly send the informant links for purchasing firearms and ball bearings for bombs, instructing him to pay in cryptocurrency. Prosecutors say Hassan also gave instructions on surveilling the target and recording a "martyrdom" video before the attack to explain his actions .

He also allegedly instructed him to have flight tickets ready to a country that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the United States.

"The State of Israel deeply appreciates the swift action and cooperation of the American security services in thwarting the recent attempted attack on our consulate," said Ofir Akunis, the Israeli Consul General in New York, in a statement. "This attempted attack by terror organizations is an attack on the sovereign soil of the State of Israel in its entirety."

A message to Hassan's lawyer with the Federal Defenders was not immediately returned.

Hassan has been banned from George Mason's campus, although disciplinary action has not yet been taken, university president Gregory Washington said in a letter to students.