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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Colorado woman set to plead guilty in terror case
September 10, 2014 - 2:05 AM
By SADIE GURMAN, Associated Press
DENVER (AP) — A 19-year-old suburban Denver woman who federal authorities
say intended to wage jihad despite their repeated attempts to stop her was
expected to plead guilty Wednesday to trying to help the Islamic State
militant group in Syria.
Shannon Conley was arrested in April while trying to board a flight at
Denver International Airport that she hoped would ultimately get her to
Syria, authorities said. She was charged with trying to help a terrorist
organization and could face up to five years in federal prison and a $250,
000 fine.
Details of her plea agreement have not been made public, and her public
defender declined to comment.
The trained nurse's aide from Arvada, Colorado, told agents from the FBI's
Joint Terrorism Task Force that if she couldn't fight with the Islamic State
group, she hoped to use her nursing skills to help the extremists,
according to court documents.
In several meetings over eight months, FBI agents repeatedly tried to
discourage Conley, suggesting she explore humanitarian work instead.
But Conley, a Muslim convert whose traditional headscarf stood out in her
suburban neighborhood, told them she planned to marry a suitor she met
online, a man she believed was Tunisian and fought with the Islamic State
group, which controls parts of Syria and Iraq.
FBI agents encouraged Conley's parents to talk to her about finding more
moderate beliefs. Her father refused to let her marry her suitor and then
discovered a one-way airline ticket to Turkey with her name on it.
Authorities have said they are still investigating the suitor, identified in
court documents only as Y.M.
During a visit to the Denver field office in August, FBI Director James
Comey said stopping homegrown terrorists who radicalize through the Internet
is a top priority for the agency. He called Syria a safe haven and training
ground for Westerners, who emerge with "the worst kind of relationships and
the worst kind of training."
A Minnesota man recruited to fight for the Islamic State group was killed in
Syria last month, five years after his high school friend died fighting for
the terror group al-Shabab in Somalia.
It is unclear how Conley became interested in jihad, or holy war. But FBI
agents became aware of her growing interest in extremism in November after
she alarmed employees of a suburban Denver church by wandering around and
taking notes on the layout of the campus, court documents say. The church,
Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada, was the scene of a 2007 shooting in which a
man killed two missionary workers.
After her arrest, authorities say they found CDs by U.S.-born radical cleric
Anwar al-Awlaki among her belongings. |
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