Acts of Terrorism megathread

[AnchorClanker]

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/islamic-state-claims-responsibility-deadly-russian-apartment-blast-reports-64189

The blast that destroyed an apartment block in Magnitagorsk was the work of ISIS and not a gas leak. According to Isis at least.

Isis -if it still exists- would claim a car crash if they thought they could get away with it.

It most certainly exists, not as a nation-state wannabe... but as a loose collective with some 'combatants' and others affiliated in some fashion... but yes, they can and will claim acts that they might not have planned or sanctioned ahead of time.

[Syt]

One guy fortunately thwarted before he could strike.

https://www.wptv.com/news/world/christopher-hasson-coast-guardsman-accused-of-plotting-mass-terror-attack

Christopher Hasson: Coast Guardsman accused of plotting mass terror attack

Suspect had hit list of Democrats, TV hosts

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Coast Guard lieutenant who was arrested last week is a "domestic terrorist" who drafted an email discussing biological attacks and had what appeared to be a hit list that included prominent Democrats and media figures, prosecutors said in court papers.

Christopher Paul Hasson of Silver Spring, Maryland, is due to appear Thursday in federal court in Maryland after his arrest on gun and drug offenses, but prosecutors say those charges are the "proverbial tip of the iceberg."

"The defendant is a domestic terrorist, bent on committing acts dangerous to human life that are intended to affect governmental conduct," prosecutors wrote in court papers .

Hasson, who works at the Coast Guard's headquarters in Washington, has espoused extremist views for years, according to prosecutors. Court papers detail a June 2017 draft email in which Hasson wrote that he was "dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth," and pondering how he might be able to acquire anthrax and toxins to create botulism or a deadly influenza.

In the same email, Hasson described an "interesting idea" that included "biological attacks followed by attack on food supply" as well as a bombing and sniper attacks, according to court documents filed by prosecutors.

In September 2017, Hasson sent himself a draft letter that he had written to a neo-Nazi leader and "identified himself as a White Nationalist for over 30 years and advocated for 'focused violence' in order to establish a white homeland," prosecutors wrote.

Hasson routinely read portions of a manifesto written by Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik that prosecutors said instructs would-be assailants to collect firearms, food, disguises and survival tools, court papers said. Breivik, a right-wing extremist, is serving a 21-year sentence for killing 77 people in a 2011 bomb-and-shooting rampage.

Hasson also expressed admiration for Russia. "Looking to Russia with hopeful eyes or any land that despises the west's liberalism," he wrote in the draft email. Prosecutors say during the past two years he had regularly searched online for pro-Russian as well as neo-Nazi literature.

Prosecutors allege that Hasson visited thousands of websites that sold guns and researched military tactical manuals on improvised munitions.

Federal agents found 15 firearms — including several rifles — and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition inside Hasson's basement apartment in Silver Spring, Maryland. They also found a container with more than 30 bottles that were labeled as human growth hormone, court papers said.

Prosecutors wrote that Hasson "began the process of targeting specific victims," including several prominent Democrats in Congress and 2020 presidential candidates. In February 2018, he searched the internet for the "most liberal senators," as well as searching "do senators have ss (secret service) protection" and "are supreme court justices protected," according to the court filing.

Hasson's list of prominent Democrats included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and presidential hopefuls Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris.

The list — created in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet — also included mentions of John Podesta, who was Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, along with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Maxine Waters, former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, MSNBC's Chris Hayes and Joe Scarborough and CNN's Chris Cuomo and Van Jones, according to the court filing.

Hasson appeared to be a chronic user of the opioid painkiller Tramadol and had purchased a flask filled with four ounces of "synthetic urine" online, prosecutors said. Authorities suspect Hasson had purchased fake urine to use in case he was randomly selected for a drug test.

The chief at the federal defender's office in Maryland — which is representing Hasson — declined to comment on the allegations. The Coast Guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Hasson's arrest. No one answered the door Wednesday at the home address for Hasson listed in public records.

Hasson's arrest on Feb. 15 was first noted by Seamus Hughes, the deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.

[derspiess]

Ugh, scary dude.  Glad they caught him.

[AnchorClanker]

Ugh, scary dude.  Glad they caught him.

This is scary, as this should have been caught in the background investigation a long time ago.  Sloppy, sloppy.

[Syt]

NYT has a bit more.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/us/christopher-hasson-coast-guard.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage

Coast Guard Officer Plotted to Kill Democrats and Journalists, Prosecutors Say

A Coast Guard lieutenant and self-described white nationalist who was arrested in Maryland last week was plotting to kill a long list of prominent journalists and Democratic politicians, as well as professors, judges and what he called "leftists in general," federal prosecutors said in a court filing on Tuesday.

Lt. Christopher Paul Hasson, 49, was arrested Friday on gun and drug charges, but prosecutors said in the filing that the charges were just the "proverbial tip of the iceberg."

The filing argued that Lieutenant Hasson should be held until he is tried, describing him as a "domestic terrorist" who intended "to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country."

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Prosecutors quoted a letter that he drafted to friends in 2017 and that the authorities found on his computer. In it, Lieutenant Hasson, who works as an acquisitions officer at Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, wrote: "I am dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth. I think a plague would be most successful but how do I acquire the needed / Spanish flu, botulism, anthrax not sure yet but will find something."

In the last month, prosecutors said, the lieutenant used his work computer to draw up a list of prominent figures he called "traitors" and wanted to kill, including many well-known anchors and hosts on the CNN and MSNBC news networks and a number of Democratic elected officials. The list included, among others, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Maxine Waters, Senator Richard Blumenthal, whom he referred to as "Sen blumen jew," and many of the senators running for president in 2020.

He had recently performed internet searches seeking information about whether senators and Supreme Court justices receive Secret Service protection, the court filing said.

On Thursday, Senator Blumenthal told CNN that the authorities had not warned him that his name appeared on the list. "I found out from the news when I heard about it last night," he said.

In the letter quoted by prosecutors, Lieutenant Hasson wrote about wanting to start a race war, and pondered the best way to do it. "Much blood will have to be spilled to get whitey off the couch," he wrote.

He mused about taking advantage of some already tense issue, like the standoff in 2016 between Oregon protesters and the Bureau of Land Management. "Please send me your violence that I may unleash it onto their heads. Guide my hate to make a lasting impression on this world," he said in the letter.

Lieutenant Hasson served in the Marine Corps from 1988 to 1993, then approximately two years on active duty in the Army National Guard. He has held his current Coast Guard job since 2016, according to court documents.

A Coast Guard spokesman, Lt. Cdr. Scott McBride, confirmed on Wednesday that one of its service members stationed at headquarters in Washington had been arrested on weapons and drug charges, but declined to comment further on the case. "Because this is an open investigation, the Coast Guard has no further details at this time," Commander McBride said.

Federal investigators said in the court filing that Lieutenant Hasson had begun stockpiling weapons in 2017. When federal agents searched his cramped basement apartment in Silver Spring, Md., they said, they found a cache of 15 assault rifles, shotguns and handguns and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition that the lieutenant had amassed.

The Program on Extremism at George Washington University called attention to the court filing in Twitter posts on Wednesday. In the filing, the authorities cited writings found on the lieutenant's computer that point to extreme racist and apocalyptic views.

Shortly after the violence incited by a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, the authorities say, Lieutenant Hasson drafted a letter to a well-known neo-Nazi expressing support for the idea of building a "white homeland" in the Pacific Northwest.

"I never saw a reason for mass protest or wearing uniforms marching around provoking people with swastikas etc.," he wrote. "I was and am a man of action, you cannot change minds protesting like that. However you can make change with a little focused violence."

In a passage of the letter quoted in the court filing, Lieutenant Hasson wrote, "I am a long time White Nationalist, having been a skinhead 30 plus years ago before my time in the military."

The authorities said Lieutenant Hasson had studied the 1,500-page manifesto that the mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, a far-right Norwegian extremist who killed 77 people in 2011, wrote in the hope of inspiring other killers.

Following Mr. Breivik's advice about how to start a race war that would topple liberal governments, Lieutenant Hasson planned to assassinate prominent figures. He performed internet searches for the MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, among others, and for the phrase "civil war if Trump impeached," the authorities said.

Lieutenant Hasson's efforts appeared to intensify in January. The authorities say he searched for a section of Mr. Breivik's manifesto that advises other mass murderers to begin a six-week cycle of steroids once all their preparations for violent acts are complete. Federal agents said they had found a locked box in his apartment containing more than 30 vials of human growth hormone.

In the 2017 letter he drafted to friends, the lieutenant discussed ways that, acting alone, he might cause the most social chaos. "Food/fuel may be the key, if I can disrupt two or three weeks," he wrote. When people started to loot, steal or protest, he wrote, he would "dress as cop and shoot them. Burn down Apt complex, bar the doors first. Thermite on gas station tank."

He also wrote of plans to stockpile food and gear in hidden locations and to "learn basic chemistry" so that he could survive the civil disorder he hoped to cause.

The court filings did not make clear how the authorities had learned about Lieutenant Hasson's plans. The court documents noted, though, that in the last two years "the defendant conducted online searches and made thousands of visits for pro-Russian, neo-fascist, and neo-Nazi literature."

[citizen k]

Ugh, scary dude.  Glad they caught him.

This is scary, as this should have been caught in the background investigation a long time ago.  Sloppy, sloppy.

Unless, he was being groomed. 

[Barrister]

If the guy was a student of Breivik why didn't it occur to him that Breivik utterly failed to do what he set out to do (as indeed have all attempts at provoking a "race war", including Charles Manson).

[AnchorClanker]

If the guy was a student of Breivik why didn't it occur to him that Breivik utterly failed to do what he set out to do (as indeed have all attempts at provoking a "race war", including Charles Manson).

A very good point.

[Syt]

If the guy was a student of Breivik why didn't it occur to him that Breivik utterly failed to do what he set out to do (as indeed have all attempts at provoking a "race war", including Charles Manson).

Because he would have done it right, and learned from Breivik's mistakes?

At least that's what I assume such a guy's mindset would be.

[Valmy]

In the letter quoted by prosecutors, Lieutenant Hasson wrote about wanting to start a race war, and pondered the best way to do it. "Much blood will have to be spilled to get whitey off the couch," he wrote.

Did I just get called "whitey" by a white supremacist? Damn it.

[Razgovory]

Yet another a man who is a "law-abiding gunowner", up until the point where he isn't.

[viper37]

If the guy was a student of Breivik why didn't it occur to him that Breivik utterly failed to do what he set out to do (as indeed have all attempts at provoking a "race war", including Charles Manson).

it's like communism, it wasn't correctly applied?

[Eddie Teach]

Yet another a man who is a "law-abiding gunowner", up until the point where he isn't.

He was arrested on weapons charges.

[FunkMonk]

This news was fucking alarming when I heard about it. I work in DC and I can imagine having lunch somewhere during the week and him storming around throwing grenades through doors and firing three-round bursts into people. Or God forbid my wife is in a yoga studio somewhere and he decides to shoot the place up because yoga advances the liberal progressive agenda or some other crazy fucking shit.

Fuck this guy and put him away forever.

[dps]

I'm fine with putting him in prison for life, but I have no interest in having sex with him first.