Joshua
Ryne Goldberg turns out not to be a convert to Islam at all, but a kid
playing around on the computer who got in over his head. It’s not at all
uncommon for people to pretend to be other people on the Internet. For
Joshua Ryne Goldberg it all probably started out as a game: could he
fool Muslims and non-Muslims alike into believing him to be a serious,
knowledgeable, committed jihadist? He could. But it proved to be a
dangerous game, in which he colluded with and encouraged jihad mass
murderers. And when he posted photos of a supposed pressure cooker bomb
he was claiming to build, the question becomes, was he going to follow
through? Was he going to keep up his jihad act even to the extent of
setting off a bomb? Or had his little game just gotten terribly,
terribly out of hand?
An update on
this story.
“FBI says ‘Australian IS jihadist’ is actually a Jewish American troll
named Joshua Ryne Goldberg,” by Elise Potaka and Luke McMahon,
The Age, September 11, 2015 (thanks to Michael):
A 20-year-old whose online identity was ‘Australi
Witness’ – an ISIS agent apparently living in Perth – has been arrested
at his parents’ place in Florida over plotting a bomb attack at a 9/11
memorial event.
A young Jewish American man has been charged with pretending to be an
Australian-based Islamic State jihadist after a FBI joint investigation
with the Australian Federal Police based on information provided by
Fairfax Media.
Joshua Ryne Goldberg, a 20-year old living at his parents’ house in
US state of Florida, is accused of posing online as “Australi Witness,”
an IS supporter who publicly called for a series of attacks against
individuals and events in western countries.
In recent days Australi Witness has claimed online that he is working
with other jihadists to plan attacks in Australia and the United
States. He distributed pictures of a bomb that he was working on with “2
lbs of explosives inside”.
The device appears to resemble a “pressure cooker bomb”, similar to the type of explosive used in the Boston Marathon attack.
Early on Friday, Australian time, Goldberg, who is non-Muslim and has
no real-world links with extremism, was arrested at his home by Florida
police for “distribution of information relating to explosives,
destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction”.
Australian national security and citizenship laws were strengthened
last year to create a new offence of advocating terrorism, partly to
stop online recruitment of jihadists, and Prime Minister Tony Abbott
earlier this year allocated significant funding to security agencies
because “too many Australians are being brainwashed online by this death
cult”.
However, one of those apparent representatives of Islamic State has
now been revealed as an America-based, non-Muslim online hoaxer.
The Australian Federal Police do not intend to apply for Goldberg’s
extradition, but said in a statement that he faced a 20-year prison term
if convicted.
“Investigations by the AFP in June 2015 established no initial threat
to the Australian community. When investigations determined it was
likely the person responsible for these threats was based in the United
States, the investigation became the jurisdiction of the FBI, with the
AFP in a support role.”
AFP Acting Deputy Commissioner National Security Neil Gaughan alleged
Goldberg had “relied on the internet providing a cloak of anonymity”.
“This operation again highlights how law enforcement can investigate
people in the online space and use our long-established partnerships to
work with overseas agencies to bring people to account for their
actions”.
An affidavit sworn at the time of the arrest says that,
between August 19 and August 28, Mr Goldberg “distributed information
pertaining to the manufacturing of explosives, destructive devices, or
weapons of mass destruction in furtherance of an activity that
constitutes a Federal crime of violence”.
US Attorney Lee Bentley III, said Goldberg instructed a confidential
source how to make a bomb similar to two used in the Boston Marathon
bombings two years ago that killed three people and injured more than
260 others.
He allegedly instructed someone how to fill the bomb with nails, metal and other items dipped in rat poison.
Police base the charge on his communication of five web
links to sites that provided instructions that could be used to make
explosives as part of a plot to explode a bomb on September 13 at a
memorial ceremony in Kansas City, commemorating the 9/11 the terrorist
attacks.
The affidavit, released by Special agent William Berry of US Customs
and Border Protection, says that Goldberg had initially denied to
officers that he had any involvement with distributing information on
how to make a bomb, but then later admitted it.
“Goldberg further admitted that he believed the information would create a genuine bomb,” Agent Berry alleged.
However, Goldberg also claimed that he meant for the person he was
communicating with to either kill himself creating the bomb or, that
Goldberg intended to warn police in time so that he would receive
“credit for stopping the attack”.
In conversations with Fairfax Media, which were also cited in the
affidavit, Mr Goldberg had said he did not expect any jihadist to
actually carry out an attack because: “These guys are pussy keyboard
warriors”.
Fairfax media can also reveal that Goldberg, as Australi Witness, is
suspected of a number of other online hoaxes, including posing online as
prominent Australian lawyer, Josh Bornstein.
Australi Witness’s online actions might have had fatal real-world consequences in May.
In the leadup to an exhibition in Garland, Texas, at which pictures
of the Prophet Mohammed were to be displayed, “Australi Witness” tweeted
the event’s address and reposted a tweet urging people to go there with
“weapons, bombs or with knifes”.
Two Muslim men attempted an attack at the exhibition, and were killed
by police. Australi Witness then praised them online as martyrs.
Read More:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/09/fbi-australian-islamic-state-online-jihadist-actually-a-jewish-american-troll
<a
href='http://www.konga.com/t/brands/qupid?utm_source=affiliates&utm_medium=web&utm_term=qupid&utm_content=08_10_2014&utm_campaign=women-shoes&k_id=donchyme&k_bid=e804189e&a_rid=fd04a75e'
rel='nofollow' target='_top'>Trendy Female Shoe Brand</a>
In a classic case of bush meat catching the hunter, a man alleged
to have raped a lady was about two weeks ago in Lagos relieved of his
raping tool. It was reported that the young man took his girl friend to
his friends house. A few hours after, the lady was said to have rushed
out of the house with blood on her cloths shouting that she had been
raped and calling for help.
