HOUSTON TERROR SUSPECT SET TO FACE JUDGE
SACREMENTO, CA –Authorities said Thursday that two people with ties to the Islamic State have been arrested on terrorism-related charges in California and Texas, including a refugee from Syria who is charged with lying to federal investigators about his travels to the civil war in that country.
The arrests feed a national debate over whether the United States is doing enough to screen refugees from Syria for terrorists from that nation.
Court documents say the men wanted to aid terrorist organizations affiliated with the Islamic State group. However, one man is accused of assisting a group that allied with the Islamic State organization only after he had returned to the United States. He earlier said he wouldn’t join Islamic State group himself because it was killing fellow Muslims.
A criminal complaint unsealed Thursday accuses that man, Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, 23, of Sacramento, of traveling to Syria to fight and lying to investigators about it. U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner said in a statement that while Al-Jayab was potentially dangerous, there is no indication that he planned any attacks in the United States.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney’s Office based in Houston, Texas, said late Thursday that Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, 24, of Houston, was indicted Wednesday on three charges that he tried to provide material support to the extremists.