The FBI has arrested a suspect in connection with the Hamas terrorist outfit’s attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.
In custody is one Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi, whom a federal criminal complaint accused not only of a role in the attack but also of visa fraud to enter the United States during the Biden administration.
Arrested yesterday in Louisiana, he was involved with a communist outfit that joined Hamas for the attack, the complaint alleges.
News outlets falsely identified Al-Muhtadi as a “Louisiana” man.
According to the 45-page complaint:
Al-Muhtadi is an operative for the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s (“DFLP”) military wing, the National Resistance Brigades (“NRB”, also known as the “Martyr Umar al-Qasim Forces”), a Gaza-based paramilitary group that participated in the Hamas-led terrorist attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.
Evidence shows that on the morning of October 7, 2023, Al-Muhtadi learned about the Hamas invasion, armed himself, gathered others, and crossed into Israel with the intention of assisting in Hamas’s terrorist attack. Evidence shows that Al-Muhtadi’s phone utilized a cell tower located near Kibbutz Kfar Aza in Israel, the location of a horrifying massacre by Hamas and its supporters.
Evidence further shows that Al-Muhtadi provided false information in his U.S. Visa application relating to his involvement with a paramilitary organization, connection to Hamas, participation in a terrorist attack, and military training. As a result of that false application, Al-Muhtadi was able to obtain permission to travel to the United States and obtain Legal Permanent Resident status. Al-Muhtadi is currently residing and working in Lafayette, Louisiana.
DFLP “is a Palestinian communist organization” that grew out of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the complaint observes.
Details about Al-Muhtadi’s activities that day and his social media follow that summary.
Photos in the complaint depict him training with firearms and wearing a red headband with the NRB logo around the crown of a ball cap.
Al-Muhtadi exchanged photos of terrorists and their activities on social media, the complaint alleges, including one of a “rocket propelled grenade launcher and grenades and numerous automatic rifles laying on a table.”
As well, “on or about May 11, 2023, Al-Muhtadi sent a message to another social media user describing an NRB attack on a military outpost in Israel, near the Gaza border,” the complaint says:
Al-Muhtadi commented, “I swear by God, we burned them! This battle is different for us. God is the helper! Long live the resistance.”
The complaint also cites phone calls in which Al-Muhtadi was identified as one of the speakers:
Al-Muhtadi had a telephone conversation with an unknown male. During the conversation, Al-Muhtadi asked the unknown male to “go pick up the thing, because I might continue east man.” The unknown male responded, “We are ready man. And if you want me to go east with you, I’m ready.” Al-Muhtadi replied, “Get ready,” and, “The borders are open I swear. They are passing by in the Hilux. Get ready.”
Al-Muhtadi, the complaint alleges, was telling the unknown man that he would join the Hamas attack that day.
Other phone calls further elaborate on Al-Muhtadi’s role in the brutal attack, which killed 1,200 Israelis. The phone calls include those in which he told an unknown conversant that he had “extra ammunitions and things,” and another in which he said he was inside Israel’s border.
Visa Fraud
Al-Muhtadi was required to “swear to the statements in his [visa] application at the time of his interview,” the complaint notes, and that the application “included … representations” that he:
- Had no “specialized skills or training, including firearms, explosives, nuclear, biological, or chemical experience.”
- Was not ever in “a paramilitary unit, vigilante unit, rebel group, guerrilla group, or insurgent organization.”
- Never had and would not “engage in terrorist activities while in the United States.”
- Had never “intended to provide financial assistance or other support to terrorists or terrorist organizations.”
- “Was not a member or representative of a terrorist organization.”
- Had “not committed, ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in extrajudicial killings, political killings, or other acts of violence.”
- ”Spoke and/or read English.”
Thus did Al-Muhtadi swear to “materially false statements” regarding his involvement with the “DFLP, the NRB, and Hamas, his training, and his involvement in the October 7, 2023, attacks.”
That would make him an illegal alien.
In September last year, he landed at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and made his way to Tulsa, Oklahoma. This year, in February, he posted photos of himself on social media holding a Glock 9 mm pistol, the complaint alleges.
In June, FBI agents found him in Lafayette, Louisiana, about an hour southwest of capital Baton Rouge. As of a month ago, he was working at a restaurant there, the complaint says.
The complaint’s charges are visa fraud and providing material support to a terrorist organization.
The 33-year-old terror suspect “appeared in court on Friday morning, flanked by members of the U.S. Marshals Service and wearing a tan T-shirt, faded green pants and slides,” The New York Times reported:
Asked if he had been shown the complaints related to his arrest, Mr. al-Muhtadi responded “no” in English. Magistrate Judge David J. Ayo then began to read, pausing every few words for an interpreter to translate over a virtual call projected into the courtroom. As Mr. al-Muhtadi listened and watched the interpreter on a screen, he would occasionally ask for clarification.
As is their custom, the far-left mainstream media falsely identified Al-Muhtadi as an American.
Headlines in the The New York Times and Fox 8 in New Orleans called him a “Louisiana man,” as did the headline over a story at the CBS affiliate in Austin, Texas.
The Justice Department got it right: “Gaza Man Arrested for Alleged Involvement in October 7, 2023 Terrorist Attacks.”
No “Louisiana man” has ever been named Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi.
