Is there something in the water in Colorado?
A Colorado teenager has been charged with providing material support to ISIS, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
As usual, when it comes to Islamic terrorism, “Colorado teenager” needs to be in air quotes the size of cumulus clouds.
Acting on a tip from a social media company, the FBI encountered Humzah Mashkoor when he was 16 years old, and just under a year later, they arrested him for allegedly attempting to board a flight in Denver to join ISIS, the Justice Department said in its criminal complaint.
Undercover FBI agents soon began communicating with Mashkoor, who used the social media name “Humzah Afghan,” the complaint said.
“Mashkoor frequently expressed support for ISIS,” the complaint reads. In one instance, he shared videos online of people getting executed, the department claimed in the court filing.
Like all normal Colorado teens.
He allegedly told the undercover officer he was born in the United States, went to Afghanistan and then came back to the U.S. after his family had to leave.
“He indicated a desire to return to Afghanistan, where he has family in Nangarhar and other areas under Taliban control.”
So we’re really talking about Afghans who birthed their kid here, moved back to Afghanistan, and then got out when the going was good.
“I am prepared to do anything which they require me to do . . . I just want to be used as soon as possible, gun attcks … I have no training, I used to have some practice with guns with I was younger. But that is it,” Mashkoor allegedly said.
Colorado welcomed in 2,000 Afghan refugees after the U.S. withdrawal. There have been massive programs and a lot of nonprofit cash squandered on them. And the end result is the least surprising thing in the world.
Mashkoor came from Westminister, Colorado, which has a population of over 100,000 and a Muslim community.
And when it’s not Afghans living in Colorado trying to join ISIS, it’s Sudanese and Somalis.
The American girl of Sudanese descent also kept quiet about her two girlfriends, Americans of Somali descent, who were flying with her to Turkey by way of Germany.
German authorities intercepted the trio, ages 15, 16 and 17, at Frankfurt airport and put them on a plane back to the United States, where they were greeted by FBI agents.
The three girls were questioned and released. Two U.S. officials say they had planned to join militants with ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
More “Colorado teens”.
And then there was an actual Colorado teen who converted to Islam and decided to, you guessed it, join ISIS.
According to the FBI, Shannon Maureen Conley told FBI agents that “she wanted to use her American military training from the U.S. Army Explorers to start a holy war overseas,” The Associated Press reports.
“Her ‘legitimate targets of attack’ included military facilities, government employees and public officials,” according to the AP.
Conley, a Muslim convert who reportedly struck up an online relationship with a Tunisian man who claimed to be fighting with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, was arrested at Denver International Airport on April 8.
According to the criminal complaint, authorities began investigating Conley in November after she reportedly was found wandering around the grounds at Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada, Col., taking notes. She aroused suspicion because the church had been the scene of a multiple homicide in 2007.
“Conley made spontaneous statements to church staff to the effect of, ‘Why is the church worried about a terrorist attack?’ and that terrorists are ‘ … not allowed to kill aging adults and little children,’ the complaint said.
And after all that, Colorado decided to sign up for more.