ISIS terror suspect was plotting to behead 'Draw Muhammad' activist suspect Pamela Geller before he was shot dead by cops
- Usaamah Abdullah Rahim, 26, was said to be targeting the activist
- He was gunned down by authorities while wielding a knife on Tuesday
- Geller was threatened by the Islamic State at the beginning of May
- Came after Draw Mohammed event she organized in Garland, Texas
- Rahim and suspect David Wright 'laughed' about decapitating a cop
The
Boston terror suspect shot dead by a cop was planning to behead
controversial anti-Muslim blogger Pamela Geller, a report suggests.
Usaamah Abdullah Rahim, 26, who was gunned down by law enforcement while wielding a knife on Tuesday, wanted to decapitate the president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, according to CNN.
It
was allegedly part of a scheme where he and David Wright, who had
previously laughed about ISIS beheadings, wanted to murder a police
officer as part of an imitation killing.
Geller,
a conservative activist, was threatened by the Islamic State after
organizing a Prophet Mohammed cartoon event in Garland, Texas, where two
extremists were shot dead while trying to carry out an attack.
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Usaamah Abdullah Rahim, 26, who was
gunned down by law enforcement while wielding a knife on Tuesday,
reportedly wanted to decapitate Pamela Geller, reports have suggested
David Wright appeared in U.S. District
Court in Boston at 3.30pm on Tuesday charged with conspiring to destroy
fellow terror suspect, Usaamah Abdullah Rahim's cell phone
Wright (pictured left) was arrested at
his home on suburban Everett, Massachusetts late on Tuesday in
connection with a terrorism investigation. He was allegedly conspiring
to behead a police officer
Geller,
who is believed to have had an 'army of security' since becoming a
target, told CNN's Erin Burnett: 'They targeted me for violating Sharia
blasphemy laws. They mean to kill everyone who doesn't do their bidding
and abide by their law voluntarily.
'This is a showdown for American freedom. Will we stand against this savagery or bow down to them and silence ourselves?'
ISIS
quickly moved to claim the attack in Texas as its own, while calling
for the death of Geller, and suggesting they have 71 'trained soldiers'
operating within America.
On
Wednesday it was revealed the suspects laughed about extremist
beheadings as they plotted to carry out an imitation killing with a
local police officer as victim, according to a sworn FBI affidavit.
Chilling
details from the counter-terrorism investigation into Rahim, a CVS
security guard, and David Wright were revealed on Wednesday as Wright,
26, appeared in federal court in Boston.
Wright
was ordered held Wednesday on a charge of conspiracy with intent to
obstruct a federal investigation after allegedly conspiring to destroy
Rahim's smart phone.
Investigators
feared the suspects were about to make an imminent move on a local
police officer after monitoring them for around three weeks.
Law enforcement officials lift a knife
that was believed to be held by Usaamah Rahim, who police shot on
Tuesday in Boston after he reportedly lunged at them. An FBI sworn
statement revealed Rahim had purchased three knives on Amazon in the
past week amid conversations with a fellow suspect about beheading a
police officer
Rahim,
who law enforcement officers shot to death after he allegedly
confronted them with a large knife, had told Wright 'I'm just going to,
ah, go after them, those boys in blue,' an FBI agent involved in the
investigation said in an affidavit.
According
to the FBI report, Rahim had purchased Marine fighting knives and joked
about beheadings carried out by extremist groups, such as ISIS.
During
a recorded phone call on May 26, 'Rahim told Wright ''I just got myself
a nice little tool. You know it's good for carving wood and like, you
know, carving sculptures...''
'Later in the conversation, Wright told Rahim something was ''like thinking with your head on your chest.'''
FBI
Special Agent Joseph Galietta said both men burst out laughing on the
call and described the reference used as 'to the practice of some
foreign terrorist organizations to behead targets and place their heads
on their chests in propaganda videos'.
The
Islamic State group, based in Syria and Iraq, over the past year has
released multiple videos depicting the apparent beheadings of captives,
including several foreign journalists.
Rahim's family are contradicting the
authorities' claims and said he was on the phone to his father when he
was shot three times in the back on Tuesday.
Wright,
who was arrested late on Tuesday in the Boston suburb of Everett,
advised Rahim to destroy his computer and smartphone to ensure there was
no record of the plot, the affidavit said.
Wright,
who stands 6'7' tall and was dressed in a black T-shirt, sat quietly in
court on Wednesday as Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelley informed him he
had been charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, which carries a
possible five-year prison sentence.
Wright did not enter a plea.
Kelley ordered Wright into the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service ahead of a June 19 detention and probable cause hearing.
Rahim had been under 24-hour surveillance by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, officials said.
The
FBI report said Rahim purchased a Marine fighting knife with a ten-inch
blade from Amazon.com and a knife sharpener tool on May 25. Two days
later, he bought a second Marine fighting knife and another knife with
an eight-inch blade from Amazon.
Surveillance teams watched the knives being delivered to Rahim's home in Roslindale, Massachusetts.
On
Sunday, Rahim and Wright met with a third unidentified person on a
Rhode Island beach where the three discussed a plan to behead a victim
in another state, according to the FBI affidavit.
A screen grab from the surveillance
footage of the police shooting of Rahim was shown to community leaders
by Boston police on Wednesday
Rahim had planned to travel out of state with an unnamed partner for his attack
However,
in the early hours of June 2, Rahim called Wright and said there was a
change of plan - the attack was now intended to be in Massachusetts.
According to the affidavit: 'He [Rahim] said that he was going to ''go after'' the ''boys in blue''. '
The
FBI interpreted this to be a reference to police officers along with
repeated use of 'a vacation', which was taken to mean 'committing
violent jihad'.
The counter-terrorism task force is investigating others linked to the two suspects.
A police officer stands near a
multi-storied home on Tuesday in Everett, Massachusetts, being searched
by authorities in connection with a man shot and killed earlier in the
day in Boston. David Wright was taken into custody at the home late on
Tuesday
Boston
Police Commissioner William Evans told reporters that when police
officers and FBI agents approached Rahim in a parking lot near his job
on Tuesday morning to question him, Rahim pulled out a large knife and
advanced on them.
When officers told him to drop the weapon, Rahim replied, 'you drop yours,' according to the affidavit.
Evans,
local FBI officials and prosecutors met on Wednesday with leaders from
Boston's African-American and Muslim communities to show them video of
the incident.
'The
individual was not shot in the back and the information that was
reported by others that this was the case is inaccurate,' said Darnell
Williams, chief executive of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts,
after the meeting.
The video was not released publicly.
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Community members and police officials
at Boston Police Headquarters prepare to see video on Wednesday of a
fatal police shooting on Tuesday. Leaders from Boston's African-American
and Muslim communities said afterwards the video made clear the
suspect, Usaamah Abdullah Rahim, 'was not shot in the back'
Commissioner
Evans said task force members fired their guns, hitting Rahim once in
the torso and once in the abdomen. Rahim, 26, was taken to a hospital
but died.
The
officer and the agent involved in the shooting were not injured but
were evaluated at a hospital for 'stress', the police commissioner said.
Authorities also searched a home in Warwick, Rhode Island, but would not confirm that was linked to the Boston shooting.
Evans
earlier said authorities had been watching Rahim 'for quite a time,'
but 'a level of alarm' prompted them to try to question him on Tuesday.
Usaama Rahim,
under surveillance by terrorism investigators in Boston, was shot and
killed on Tuesday morning after he allegedly lunged at a cop and an FBI
agent with a knife outside a CVS pharmacy
'I can't breathe': Usaama Rahim's
elder brother Ibrahim wrote in a Facebook post that his brother was
waiting at a bus stop to go to work on Tuesday morning when he was
confronted
He
said authorities knew Rahim 'had some extremism as far as his views,'
but he would not confirm media reports that Rahim had been radicalized
by online propaganda by the Islamic State group.
Evans
said the officers didn't have their guns drawn when they approached
Rahim. He said the video shows Rahim 'coming at officers' while they
were backing away.
That
description differs from one given by Rahim's brother Ibrahim Rahim,
who posted on Facebook that his youngest brother was killed while
waiting at a bus stop to go to his job.
'He was confronted by three Boston Police officers and subsequently shot in the back three times,' he wrote.
'He was on his cellphone with my dear father during the confrontation needing a witness.'
Ibrahim Rahim, the terror suspect's
brother, contradicted the police version of events and said the victim
was on his way to work when he was shot in the back
Ibrahim Rahim, a former assistant imam at a Boston mosque, could not be reached for more comment on Tuesday.
In an email, he said he was traveling to Boston to bury his brother.
The
Suffolk district attorney's office and the FBI said they will
investigate Rahim's shooting, a routine procedure for shootings
involving police.
The Council of American-Islamic Relations will monitor the investigation, spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said.
'We
have a number of questions,' Hooper said. 'Why exactly was he being
followed? What was the probable cause for this particular stop?
'Were
there any video cameras or body cameras of the incident? How do you
reconcile the two versions of the story, the family version being that
he was on his normal commute to work at a bus stop?'
Boston voter registration records for Usaama Rahim list him as a student.
Records
indicate that as recently as two years ago he was licensed as a
security officer in Miami, but they don't specify in what capacity.
Yusufi
Vali, executive director of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural
Center, said the center's security firm hired Rahim as a security guard
for a month in mid-2013.
Vali said Rahim did not regularly pray at the center and did not volunteer there or serve in any leadership positions.
Vincent
Lisi, special agent in charge of the Boston FBI office, said
authorities 'don't think there's any concern for public safety out there
right now'.
Police work inside a gated community on
Tuesday in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston, where a residence was
being searched by authorities in connection with a man shot and killed
earlier in the day
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