Muhammad Oda Dakhlalla and Jaelyn Delshaun Young
A Mississippi man who
tried to travel to Syria with his fiancee to join the Islamic State group was sentenced Wednesday to
eight years in prison on federal terrorism charges.
U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock sentenced Muhammad Dakhlalla after he pleaded guilty in March to one count of conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization. He was also sentenced to 15 years of probation.
Dakhlalla faced up to 20 years in prison, $250,000 in fines and lifetime probation.His fiancee, Jaelyn Young, was sentenced earlier this month to 12 years in prison and 15 years' probation, including mandatory mental health treatment.Prosecutors have portrayed Young, who converted to Islam while studying at Mississippi State University, as the mastermind who talked Dakhlalla into going along. However, prosecutors said, Dakhlalla ultimately agreed to the plan.
Young and Dakhlalla are among a number of people arrested nationwide for Islamic State sympathies. Like many,
they developed views supporting the Islamic State in part by watching online videos and were arrested after making their own social media posts that attracted the attention of the FBI.The two were arrested in August 2015 before they could board a flight from Columbus, Mississippi, with tickets for Istanbul purchased using Young's mother's credit card without permission. Authorities said
the couple had contacted undercover federal agents posing as IS contacts in May, seeking online help in traveling to Syria. Both have remained jailed in Oxford, Mississippi, since their arrests.
Dakhlalla is
a 2015 psychology graduate of Mississippi State University who grew up in the college town of Starkville. His father, a native of Bethlehem, West Bank, is a prominent figure in the town's Muslim community and an occasional prayer leader at the mosque across the street from the family's house.
His mother, a New Jersey native, ran a restaurant and later sold hummus in local farmers markets.
Dakhlalla is the youngest of three sons and was preparing to start graduate school in psychology at Mississippi State when he was arrested.
Prosecutors say Young, who converted to Islam at Mississippi State, began to view Islamic State fighters as liberators.
They said
Young approvingly cited a video showing militants throwing a man accused of being gay off a roof to his death, and also expressed approval of a gunman's shooting attack on five members of the U.S. military in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 2015.
"Young continually asked Dakhlalla when they were going to join (the Islamic State group) and began to express hatred for the U.S. government and to express support for the implementation of Sharia (sic) law in the United States," prosecutors wrote.
By May 2015, she had begun seeking advice online on how to travel to Syria, eventually making contact with undercover FBI employees, according to prosecutors.Young told the undercover FBI employees that she and Dakhlalla would like to be medics treating the wounded. Dakhlalla, in online contacts, said he was good with computers and media and wanted to contribute to the Islamic State's struggle.
Court papers say
Dakhlalla said online that he wanted to become a soldier, writing "I am willing to fight. I want to be taught what it really means to have that heart in battle!"
At one point, Young said she planned to camouflage the couple's journey as a honeymoon, but later dropped that idea.
The FBI said Dakhlalla and Young both expressed impatience with how long it was taking for them to be issued passports, and the charges say Dakhlalla paid $340 to expedite passport processing on July 1.
Both Young and Dakhlalla left farewell letters telling their families they would never return.At her sentencing, Young broke down in tears, saying she finds what she did "surreal," adding she felt shame over her actions and sorrow for the humiliation she caused her family.
She and her parents told the judge that Young had turned to Islam amid an emotional crisis.
Of course Tokyo Rose was a name applied to all such broadcasters, but it was most associated with Iva Toguri, an American citizen born to Japanese immigrants. The U.S. military detained Toguri for a year before releasing her for lack of evidence after the defeat of Japan, and the Department of Justice agreed that her broadcasts were "innocuous".
Walter Winchell and the American Legion lobbied relentlessly for a trial and finally in 1949 she was tried on eight counts of High Treason and convicted on one count, but In 1974, investigative journalists found that key witnesses claimed that they were forced to lie during her trial. U.S. President Gerald Ford pardoned Toguri in 1977. Evidently lying for the prosecution is acceptable, whereas to lie for the defense is another crime.
[Link]
While I feel like she should have been shot, the reality is that forgiveness is the better part of humanity, and by forgiving we showed that our nation was the superior nation morally. We took the high road, whereas the enemy had always done the worst and for the smallest of offense.
That's what this seems to be, taking the smallest offense and then heaping the worst on top of it. I certainly don't approve of Islam or really any religions, and I certainly don't approve of running off to become a willing pawn in an obviously engineered plot featuring brainless religiously brainwashed imbeciles, but really, we need to realize that this kind of cruelty isn't advancing the cause of freedom one bit, but then again maybe that's the whole idea.
More than a dozen female Japanese broadcasters were dubbed “Tokyo Rose,” but the name is most strongly associated with Iva Toguri, an American citizen born to Japanese immigrants. Toguri broadcast during the 15-20 minute D.J. segment of the 75-minute program The Zero Hour on Radio Tokyo (NHK). The program consisted of propaganda-tinged skits and slanted news reports as well as of popular American music. Using the handle “Orphan Ann,”[1] the smoky-voiced Toguri soon became a legend of the Pacific Theater. By late 1943, thousands of GIs regularly tuned in to “The Zero Hour,” a radio show where she played pop music in between slanted battle reports and put-downs aimed at U.S. troops.[3]
After World War II ended in 1945, the U.S. military detained Toguri for a year before releasing her for lack of evidence. Department of Justice officials agreed that her broadcasts were "innocuous".[7] But when Toguri tried to return to the US, a popular uproar ensued because Walter Winchell (a powerful broadcasting personality) and the American Legion lobbied relentlessly for a trial, prompting the Federal Bureau of Investigation to renew its investigation of Toguri's wartime activities. Her 1949 trial resulted in a conviction on one of eight counts of treason. In 1974, investigative journalists found that key witnesses claimed that they were forced to lie during testimony. U.S. President Gerald Ford pardoned Toguri in 1977.