Ex-Marine cites Trump’s Jerusalem decision in planned ISIS attack on Christmas: FBI

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The Islamic State claims pre-Christmas suicide bombing of Pakistan church
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A former U.S. Marine and expert marksman was charged Friday in a foiled ISIS-inspired attack planned for Christmas on San Francisco’s Pier 39, according to federal court documents. 

Everitt Aaron Jameson, a Muslim convert living in Modesto, Calif., cited President Trump’s decision to name Jerusalem the capital of Israel as one of his reasons behind the plot on the famed pier, which the FBI says would have included explosives and guns. 

Jameson first attracted FBI attention after the agency received a tip that he’d been interacting with Facebook posts praising the Islamic State, including one showing an image of Santa Claus in New York and a box of dynamite with the words, “We meet at Christmas in New York…soon,” a federal affidavit states. 

An undercover FBI agent talked with Jameson over the Internet. They eventually met in person and talked about Jameson possibly traveling overseas to fight for ISIS or initiating an attack in the U.S., a criminal complaint states. 

More: U.N. General Assembly repudiates Trump on Jerusalem decision despite his threat of U.S. aid cutoff

More: Backlash, protests continue over Trump’s Jerusalem decision

Court documents show Jameson told the undercover agent he was “well versed” in the Anarchist Cookbook, a book detailing the construction of explosives. 

The agent told him “to go home and think about what he was saying,” the documents say, but Jameson instead said he was ready and wanted to do something similar to recent attacks in New York and San Bernardino, Calif.

Jameson told the agent he wanted to place explosives on Pier 39 and use them to corral people toward a location where he could continue killing. He said Christmas at the tourist attraction “was the perfect day to commit the attack,” according to the federal court documents. 

He said he didn’t need an escape plan because he “was ready to die,” the affidavit states. 

The agent asked, according to the complaint, whether he could help get any supplies for Jameson, to which he replied that he’d need a rifle, ammunition, powder, tubing, nails and remote detonators. 

Two days after their meeting, an FBI employee “mistakenly” called Jameson using a Washington, D.C., phone number but hung up when Jameson answered the phone in Arabic. 

Jameson called back and got the employee’s voicemail, federal court documents show.  

Later that night, according to his arrest report, Jameson told the undercover agent he couldn’t talk and “I also don’t think I can do this after all. I’ve reconsidered.”

Jameson was then arrested and the FBI got search warrants for his home.

Jameson left behind a signed letter citing Trump’s decision to name Jerusalem the capital of Israel as one of his reasons behind the planned attack, court documents state. 

Jameson also wrote, “long live ISIL” and said others will continue to attack because “we have penetrated and infiltrated your disgusting country.” 

Trump’s Jerusalem decision, which led to violence and several deaths across the Middle East, was repudiated by the United Nations Thursday. The U.N. instead called for the future of Jerusalem to be decided through negotiations between Israel and Palestine, which also sees the city as its capital. 

Authorities found three firearms and ammunition in his home, court records show. 

Jameson faces a charge of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. 

Follow Christal Hayes on Twitter: @Journo_Christal

 

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Coroner Releases Causes Of Death For All 58 Victims Of Las Vegas Shooting

The 58 fatalities in October’s mass shooting in Las Vegas all died of gunshot wounds, the county coroner and medical examiner said Thursday. A makeshift memorial on the south end of the Las Vegas Strip a few days after the shooting has photos of some of those who were killed.

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Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

The 58 fatalities in October’s mass shooting in Las Vegas all died of gunshot wounds, the county coroner and medical examiner said Thursday. A makeshift memorial on the south end of the Las Vegas Strip a few days after the shooting has photos of some of those who were killed.

Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

All 58 of the people killed in the mass shooting in Las Vegas on Oct. 1 died of gunshot wounds, the Clark County County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner has determined.

Nearly all of the fatalities were caused by a single gunshot wound, though six victims died from multiple wounds. Most had been shot in the head, chest or back. The deaths were all ruled homicides.

In the chaos of the shooting, in which bullets rained down on a country music festival from a gunman on the 32nd floor of a nearby hotel, it wasn’t immediately clear whether any victims might have died from trampling as the crowds sought to escape the fusillade.

The shooter, Stephen Paddock, died from a gunshot wound to the head that entered through the mouth. His cause of death was a suicide, the coroner’s office said.

Coroner John Fudenberg told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that it has taken more than two months to release the information because his office wanted to be accurate and notify the victims’ families first.

“Because of the impact that this incident had on our community, and the attention that this incident received, it became very important for us to ensure that all of the families had the information prior to us releasing it to the public,” Fudenberg told the newspaper.

More than 500 people were injured during the shooting, and thousands of others who were there at the Route 91 Harvest Festival have been trying to cope in the months since the tragedy.

One woman who was there, Melissa Barham, recently told NPR’s Weekend Edition that since the massacre, she’s been and sad depressed, and wonders whether anything has really changed since the Sandy Hook shooting five years ago.

“I wake up every morning and I journal,” Barham said. “I pick one of the victims and I write down their name and their age and where they’re from and then just details about them. And I just think about them.”

“And this time of year, the holidays, make it really hard.”

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