The US Attorney's Office said on Thursday that Joshua Ryne Goldberg was detained in Orange Park, Florida, on charges of plotting terrorist acts in the US and Australia, including attacks on the Oceanian country's mosques, MailOnline, the website of Britain's Daily Mail tabloid, reported on Friday.
The Australian Federal Police also confirmed the arrest of the 20-year-old man, saying they collaborated with the FBI Task Force operation during preliminary investigations that led to Goldberg's detention.
"The man was arrested for distributing information relating to explosives and destructive devices to facilitate a possible terrorist act in the United States. He faces a 20-year prison term if convicted," read the statement issued by the Australian Federal Police, adding, "It will also be alleged that this person provided information over the internet in an attempt to facilitate and encourage terrorist acts in Australia."
According to reports, the arrested individual was monitored by the FBI for the past two months when he unknowingly provided an FBI undercover agent with instructions on how to build explosive devices in a bid to target the Kansas City Stair Climb, a memorial ceremony for 9/11 terrorist attacks due to be held in Missouri on Sunday.
"We could make pipe bombs and detonate them at a large public event," Goldberg told the informant during an online conversation, noting that the Stair Climb was "the perfect place" for carrying out a terror raid because of the high number of possible fatalities."Don't buy all the materials at once... Buy them at different stores," he instructed the FBI agent, adding, "If you can, dip the screws and other shrapnel in rat poison before putting them in. That way,... [those] who get hit by them will be more likely to die."
Reports added that the Daesh militant rejected the allegations while in police custody this week, claiming he had just tried to incite a terrorist attack so that he could inform authorities before any such raid and thus be hailed as a national hero.
Goldberg was active under various names in online social networks including AustraliWitness, a putative Daesh affiliate, on twitter.
According to reports, he had also tried to provoke attacks against synagogues in Australia through his twitter account, posting, "I know lots of weapons dealers in Australia who can hook you up with any kind of gun or bomb you want."
The DaeshTakfiri terrorist group, with members from several western countries, has been active in Iraq, Syria and Libya over the past years, notorious for its acts of terror and atrocities against people of different religious and ethnic communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians and others.
The United Nations says some 25,000 terrorists from more than 100 countries have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join Takfiri terrorist groups.
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Unmasking Deadly ISIS Juhadi's - FBI says 'Australian IS jihadist' is actually a Genocidal J-wish American Terrorist named Joshua Ryne Goldberg [Link] [Link]
"A young J-wish 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".
Joshua Goldberg is not Muslim, and he's not Australian. He is a 20-year-old nerd of J-wish background who until yesterday lived with his parents and sister in a suburban house in Florida.
But under the online alias "Australi Witness", Goldberg managed to convince even Islamic State jihadists that he was an Australian IS mujahid who once worked for Amnesty International. [...]
[H]e has liaised with IS supporters and called for terrorist attacks against the West. Police who arrested him on Friday morning Australian time said he had recently instructed a confidential source on how to make a bomb. [...]
Since July he has fed out a series of bomb threats against various targets, including a synagogue in Melbourne and another in Perth. Most recently, he said he was working with others to direct a "pressure cooker bombing" in the United States.
But Fairfax Media can reveal that Goldberg's trolling also goes well beyond pretending to be an IS terror wannabe. When Melbourne lawyer, Joshua Bornstein, woke to find a violent anti-Palestinian blog in his own name in the Times of Israel in May, he was subject to global outrage.
That hoax, too, was the work of Goldberg, and he laughed when the finger of blame was mistakenly pointed at white supremacists.
Goldberg has set up a fake account in the name of Australian Muslim preacher Junaid Thorne, and promoted an illusory friendship between Australi Witness and anti-Islamophobia campaigner Mariam Veiszadeh - the intention both times being to smear them.
He has masqueraded as a neo-Nazi blogger called "Michael Slay" on the site Daily Stormer, and as a fictional Australian left-wing anti-free speech activist called "Tanya Cohen". He's caused significant harm to anti-sexploitation campaigner Caitlin Roper by setting up a fake account in her name and then defaming transsexuals. [...]
In an act repeated with his other hoaxes, Goldberg lured journalists into his deception. He'd already shopped around screengrabs of these conversations with the "jihadis" who followed "Thorne" to at least one reporter, and the West Australian published an article in April describing how the fake Junaid Thorne account had fooled wanna-be jihadis.
In fact, in the hall of mirrors created by Goldberg, it was him doing the fooling. Not only had he created the fake Junaid Thorne account, he was also playing the part of the "wanna-be jihadis" in the conversations. [...]
The elaborate Australi Witness persona was established by Goldberg with a similar aim. His online profile described him as a "soldier of IS" who had "worked for Amnesty before joining the mujhahideen".
Tweets from this account were incendiary. In the lead up to an exhibition in Garland, Texas, where pictures of the Prophet Mohammed were to be displayed, Australi Witness tweeted the event's address and called on individuals to carry out an attack. Two Muslim men showed up in body armour and carrying assault rifles and shot one security guard in the leg before a police officer on duty shot and killed both.
Australi Witness then tweeted his prayer that the dead men be granted a seat next to the Prophet in heaven. [...]
Over the months, the Australi Witness twitter account and related blogs attracted significant media attention. Journalists in Australia reported on it without verifying the real identity of the user.
Terrorism analyst and director and co-founder of the SITE Intelligence group Rita Katz was quoted as saying Australi Witness held a "prestige" position in online jihadi circles and was "part of the hard core of a group of individuals who constantly look for targets for other people to attack", and actively seek recruits for IS. [...]
Once Goldberg's identity was confirmed, Fairfax Media handed its information over to Federal Police, who then notified US authorities. On Friday, Australian time, that information led to his arrest.
It appears the Federal Bureau of Investigation was able to establish more than just fantasy behaviour. A police affidavit sworn after his arrest says that, between August 19 and August 28, 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 an estimated 264 others. He sent 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.
[...] Before his arrest, Goldberg explained why he had such an obsession with Australia. It was, he said, the most "anti-freedom of speech country in the English speaking world". Australia's left was "unspeakably stupid".
He pointed to the controversy over the Abbott government's failed attempts to amend Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, and the "massive outrage" that occurred when Attorney-General George Brandis said, "People do have a right to be bigots, you know". In the US, where freedom of speech is sacrosanct, nobody would have been as outraged, he said.
Before becoming the US's latest terror suspect, all that anyone knew of Goldberg was that he'd been active online for six or seven years, and banned from several forums for trolling and anti-social behavior." [...]
"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A 20-year-old Clay County man has been arrested on federal charges surrounding a bomb plot targeting upcoming 9/11 memorial ceremonies in Kansas City, Mo., according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Joshua Ryne Goldberg, 20, of Orange Park, is charged with distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction, according to a criminal complaint.
He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Reached at home, Goldberg's father, Frank, told First Coast News he was "shocked" by the allegations against his son, but declined to make any further comments.
"We have no information to give you," he said. "I don't mind talking to you at a later time about what happened."
Between July and September, Goldberg had been in contact online with an individual, who -- unbeknownst to Goldberg -- was actually an informant. Goldberg had allegedly provided the individual with details on how to construct a bomb and instructed him to fashion a pressure cooker bomb and fill it with nails, metal and other shrapnel dipped in rat poison.
According to the complaint, Goldberg directed the individual to carry out a bombing at a memorial in Kansas City, Mo. commemorating the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Goldberg surfaced on the FBI's radar after he took credit for inspiring the May 3 attack in Garland, Texas on the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest. That's where two gunmen -- later identified as Elton Simpson and Nadir Hamid Soofi -- wearing body armor and carrying rifles opened fire on a police officer and security officer before they were shot and killed by police.
Ahead of that attack, Goldberg's Twitter account -- Australi Witness -- posted tweets calling for an attack on the art show, posting a map of the Curtis Culwell Center where the show was staged and urging anyone nearby to attack "with your weapons, bombs and knives," the complaint said.
The day of the attack, Twitter user @AusWitness 3 tweeted, "I'M BACK KUFFAR! DIE IN YOUR RAGE!" On the morning of the attack, Simpson's account -- Shariah is Light -- retweeted that message.
The FBI in July told an informant to contact the social media user calling himself "Australi Witness" and "AusWitness," who had posted messages on pro-Islamic State websites, purporting to be a Lebanese refugee living in Australia. The user turned out to be Goldberg, who was actually living with his parents at their home on Pine Road in Orange Park, the complaint said.
In a conversation Aug. 17, Goldberg told the informant, "Hopefully there will be some jihad on the anniversary of 9/11." Days later, when the source volunteered to take part in an attack, Goldberg allegedly provided him with detailed plans to manufacture explosives, specifically pipe bombs and a pressure cooker bomb.
The instructions, the FBI reports, were "accurate."
On Aug. 20, Goldberg elaborated. "Have you decided what kind of attack you want to carry out on 9/11, akhi? I was thinking a bombing. ... We could make pipe bombs and detonate them at a large public event... It needs to be big," he's quoted as saying in the indictment.
Later, Goldberg lobbied instead for the informant to manufacture a bomb out of a pressure cooker, akin to the device used in the Boston Marathon bombing, the complaint said. He allegedly suggested his contact fill the device with shrapnel and poison to inflict maximum damage, saying his contact should use "shards of metal and nails. ... Broken glass would probably work too. Just put as much sharp stuff as you can in there."
"If you can, dip the screws and other shrapnel in rat poison before putting them in. That way, the kuffar who get hit by them will be more likely to die," Goldberg told the informant.
He also picked out a location to stage the attack, a stair climbing event on Sept. 13 in Kansas City in which firefighters and first responders mourn and honor those who died in the Sept. 11 attacks, calling it "the perfect place," according to the complaint. He selected the event because it would attract the largest number of people on the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attack; even though the event was set for two days later.
At some point in the discussion, Goldberg allegedly told his contact, "...Get FAR away from the bomb, brother. There's going to be chaos when it goes off. Shrapnel, blood, and panicking Kuffar will be everywhere."
Agents raided Goldberg's home Wednesday. While speaking with investigators, he allegedly acknowledged using social media to call for attacks in Garland, Texas and providing an associate with instructions on how to produce a pressure cooker bomb.
A preliminary and detention hearing is scheduled for Goldberg on Sep. 15 at 2:00 p.m. at the Federal court building in downtown Jacksonville, according to a court motion. Goldberg will be in the custody of U.S. Marshals at the time of his hearing.
First Coast News is reviewing the 30-page indictment. We'll update this developing story as we learn more.
Read the indictment: [Link]
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Australian Twitter user encouraged Islamic (J-wish) State fighters to attack prophet Mohammad cartoon contest in Texas: report [Link]
(ISIS-"Islamic State" P.R. representative, Judaic terror merchant, self-proclaimed 'terror expert' of exceedingly questionable background, motives and claims) "Rita Katz, said the tweeter known as Australi Witness, reportedly from Melbourne, had a "prestige" position in online jihadi circles and was, "part of the hard core of a group of individuals who constantly look for targets for other people to attack" and actively seeks recruits for the Islamic (J-wish) State.
"They (J-ws) are working non-stop to incite other attacks," she said.... "This is a whole totally new war and it is being fought on Twitter.
"There are thousands of new accounts being created every day." [..]
"Australi Witness" posts as a "Soldier of #IS and advocate of #Sharia4Australia" (Judaic Halakah) and was one of several social media accounts to call for an attack on the Texas community centre hosting an exhibition of cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.
The tweeter posted a map of the community centre where the shooting happened and shared calls for Islamic (J-wish) State fighters and supporters to attack "with your weapons, bombs or with knifes", The Australian has reported. It said Australi Witness was from Melbourne.
An image provided by Site Intelligence Group linking one of the Garland gunman to an Australian Twitter account.
In turn some of his posts were shared by an American man identified on his Twitter feed as "Sharia is Light", who claimed credit for the attack before it happened, describing himself and an accomplice as "mujahideen".
Soon after the attack, Australi Witness tweeted:
May Allah (SWT) reward the #Garland mujahideen with a seat right next to the Prophet (PBUH) in Jannah.
— Australi Witness (@AusWitnessAU) May 4, 2015
And fours after that, posted:
May Allah (SWT) exterminate all those who insult the Prophet (PBUH) & give Jannah to all those who defend the Prophet's (PBUH) honour.
— Australi Witness (@AusWitnessAU) May 4, 2015"
"A young Israeli Jew suspected of planning to join the Islamic State has been found in Turkey and returned to Israel..."
[Link]