Chicago Man Pleads Guilty to Planning Travel to Somalia to Join al Shabaab
Terrorist Organization in Jihad Combat
| U.S. Attorney’s Office July 30, 2012 |
CHICAGO—A Chicago man pleaded guilty today to planning to travel to Somalia
in 2010 to engage in jihadist fighting for a foreign terrorist organization. The
defendant, Shaker Masri, pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material
support to al Shabaab, a designated foreign terrorist organization, knowing that
it was engaging in terrorism. The guilty plea resolved charges that have been
pending since Masri was arrested as he was preparing to leave the country in
August 2010.
Masri, 28, a U.S. citizen who lived in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood,
remains in federal custody while awaiting sentencing, which U.S. District Judge
Sharon Johnson Coleman scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on October 16, 2012. Masri’s plea
agreement calls for an agreed sentence of 118 months (nine years, 10 months).
Attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization
carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The guilty plea was announced by Gary S. Shapiro, Acting United States
Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert D. Grant, Special
Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The investigation was conducted by the Chicago FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force,
which consists of FBI special agents; Chicago Police officers; and
representatives from 20 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.
According to the plea agreement, on July 19, 2010, Masri told an associate,
who, unbeknownst to Masri at the time, was a government cooperating source, that
he had decided to travel abroad to engage in a jihadist conflict as a combatant.
Masri told this individual that he had two choices: either travel to Somalia to
aid al Shabaab or to Afghanistan to aid al Qaeda, and Masri indicated that he
had decided to travel to Somalia. Masri assured the cooperating source (CS) that
he was determined to join a jihadist conflict and only needed funds to
facilitate his plan. The CS responded that he had money to fund Masri’s proposed
travel, but only if he could join Masri in traveling to Somalia to join al
Shabaab, and Masri agreed.
Masri admitted that he and the CS met to discuss their proposed travel on
multiple occasions over the following two weeks. They discussed the logistics of
traveling to Somalia, including prospective routes, dates, how to conceal their
departure, the costs of the journey, the necessity of supplies, and the weapons
they would need to acquire in Somalia. Masri warned the CS that they had to be
careful to avoid drawing any attention to their proposed travel, the plea
agreement states.
On July 23 and 28, 2010, Masri and the CS met to discuss their proposed
travel. Masri suggested that, to avoid suspicion, they should avoid traveling
directly towards East Africa. Rather, Masri suggested that they travel to
southern California, where they could cross the U.S. border into Mexico. From
Mexico, Masri explained that they could travel to and through a Latin or South
American country that did not work with United States’ law enforcement before
heading to East Africa. When asked by the CS how they would link up with al
Shabaab once in Somalia, Masri assured the CS that the area of southern Somalia
where they would be traveling was controlled exclusively by al Shabaab. Masri
further assured the CS that, after arriving in Somalia, he expected they would
be placed with a faction of al Shabaab’s militia comprised of foreign
fighters.
Masri admitted in his plea that he knew that al Shabaab was a militant
organization that had engaged in violent terrorist activity. He was also aware
that al Shabaab’s leadership had issued statements advocating terrorism, and he
further knew that the United States had designated al Shabaab as a foreign
terrorist organization. In their July 23 meeting, Masri told the CS that once
they embarked on their journey, they would be “wanted” men.
On July 29, 2010, Masri and the CS met at the CS’s home where they used the
CS’s computer to purchase airline tickets to travel from Chicago to Los Angeles.
Using a debit card provided by the CS, Masri purchased two one-way tickets to
travel from Chicago’s Midway Airport to Los Angeles on August 4, 2010
Masri told the CS that before they left, he needed to discard his laptop and
purchase a new computer. Masri explained that he needed to destroy his computer
because it contained incriminating information, and the CS agreed to help. In
the afternoon of August 3, 2010, Masri and the CS met to finalize preparations
for their impending journey to Somalia. They went to a liquor store where the CS
was to collect a purported debt that could be used to finance their trip. After
purportedly obtaining $18,000 in funds from the liquor store, Masri and the CS
traveled to a retail store where they purchased a new laptop computer. Masri was
arrested as he and the CS exited the store.
The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joel
Hammerman and Nicole Kim, with assistance from the Counterterrorism Section of
the Justice Department’s National Security Division...via FBI
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