BOSTON (AP) — Two men were charged Friday with conspiring to help the Islamic State group by plotting with a Boston terror suspect to kill U.S. citizens to support the objectives of the terrorist organization.
Nicholas Rovinski, 24, of Warwick, Rhode Island, was arrested Thursday. David Wright, 25, of Everett, Massachusetts, was arrested last week. Both men are charged with conspiring with Usaama Rahim, 26, of Boston, who was killed last week by terror investigators who had him under 24-hour surveillance. Authorities say Rahim lunged at police with a military-style knife, but his family has questioned that account, noting that a knife is not seen in a grainy surveillance video cited by authorities.
Rovinski and Wright, Rahim’s nephew, were charged Friday with conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State group. Wright told the FBI he met Rovinski about a year ago through Facebook, and they began communicating, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court.
The affidavit says the men initially planned to behead a political activist whom law enforcement officials have identified as blogger Pamela Geller. Rovinski’s lawyer, William Fick, declined to comment on the allegations. Rovinski is scheduled to make an initial appearance in U.S. District Court on Friday afternoon.
Two days later, Rahim called Wright and told him in a recorded conversation that he had “changed plans” and no longer planned to kill Geller but instead planned to attack “those boys in blue,” referring to police officers, either that day or the following day, the affidavit states.
Wright is accused of encouraging Rahim to “be steadfast in his intentions” and to destroy his phone and wipe his laptop computer to prevent law enforcement from searching them. “In the course of this conversation, Rahim made several statements including his awareness that he might die during the attack,” the affidavit states.
About two hours after that conversation, Rahim was approached in a parking lot by Boston police officers and FBI agents. Authorities say he was shot and killed after he pulled out a knife and refused commands to drop the weapon, responding, “you drop yours,” the affidavit says.
The complaint says the men targeted Geller after she organized a conference in Texas in May featuring cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims generally believe any physical depiction of the Prophet Muhammad is blasphemous. Two men showed up with assault rifles and began firing, and a police officer shot them to death.
Days later, the Islamic State group publicly condemned Geller and called for her “slaughter.” The Islamic State group, using social media, has called for attacks against residents of countries participating in the U.S.-led coalition against it and has also distributed beheading videos.
The affidavit states that for the last six months, Rovinski has been posting comments on YouTube and Twitter supporting the Islamic State group. It says that for at least two months, he has viewed videos about making weapons and uploaded them to his YouTube account.
Authorities said Rovinski indicated on social media that he believed that Americans should die. According to the affidavit, on May 13, shortly after an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia — killing eight people — Rovinski commented on the video of the crash: “Whoever crashed the train deserves a medal!”
The FBI also said in the affidavit that Wright and Rovinski complained about the law prohibiting material support to foreign terror organizations — a crime they are now charged with. “They made it so general now where they can manipulate and get you … on material support just for speaking … positively about (the Islamic State group),” Wright said, according to the affidavit.
During an interview with the FBI after Rahim was killed, Rovisnki told agents he converted to Islam two years ago and was drawn to the teachings of the Islamic State group “because they represent the more pure and honest form of the religion.”
That is a profoundly disturbing aspect of this incident: the police can now accost someone in the street who, by all accounts, was doing nothing wrong at that moment, kill him, and then just scream “ISIS” and “Terrorist” and “beheading” enough times and no real questions will be asked.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/10/major-questions-remain-unanswered-killing-alleged-boston-isis-beheading-plotter/
“Authorities say he was shot and killed after he pulled out a knife and refused commands to drop the weapon, responding, “you drop yours,” the affidavit says.”
Yeah, THAT’S credible.
Given the number of people (most were UNARMED) murdered by the pigs so far this year (over 500 as of this week), it would have to take an INCREDIBLY stupid (or drunk/stoned) person to even pull out/display a KNIFE when confronted by proven killers with GUNS, let alone threaten them with it, or NOT drop it when ordered to do so.
What a load of CR@P!!!
That is one stupid looking mo fo