A New York man accused of making plans to join the Islamic State group in Syria wants the charges against him dropped.
Arafat Nagi’s (NAH’-geez) lawyer has filed a motion to dismiss an indictment charging the Lackawanna (lak-ah-WAH’-nah) man with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
A federal court hearing is scheduled for Thursday in Buffalo.
Authorities say Nagi was planning his third trip to Turkey, with plans to continue to Syria to join the fighters, at the time of his arrest last summer. They say he’d bought a machete, night goggles and body armor, and pledged allegiance online to the Islamic State group.
Defense lawyer Jeremy Schwartz says charging Nagi for allegedly trying to join a particular group violates his constitutional rights, including freedom of speech.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
If this man wants to join a terrorist group then he waives his constitutional rights and becomes an enemy of the states. Good luck with that defense. The rights of the people are US citizens who believe in our way of life. People have lost track of why they come to the United States. We welcome immigrants as this country was built from immigrants. But true immigrants conform to our society not bring they’re flag here and try to change the country to fit there’s. If you were born here and choose to leave then that is your right to. But don’t plan to attack us because you believe in someone else’s cause. Go be with those people and open yourself up to be charged for crimes against this country. Yes he has freedom of speech and the freedom to do as he pleases, until he decides to bring terror to the Country.
The following is from a speech given by then President Theodore Roosevelt and pretty much sums up the source of most of this nations problems. If there was a magic wand that could eliminate hyphenated Americanism most of the social unrest and divisiveness that we currently experience would vanish.
“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all.”
“This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.”
“But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.”
“The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English- Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian- Americans, or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality than with the other citizens of the American Republic.”
“The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Address to the Knights of Columbus
New York City- October 12th, 1915
Well said. I agree.
It’s called being a traitor
yes just like killery and they both should be sent to getmo for the rest of their lives as he is surely a threat to our way of life and so is killery
And thats exactly what he is. He is all ready s terrorist. He just got caught before he was able to kill us.
They should have let this traitor leave the country and then targeted him with a drone once he got to Syria. They might could have tracked him and destroyed a whole group of ISIS members/supporters.
Drones are expensive. one $.79 bullet will do the trick.
It’s better to get many, then just one. The cost would be worth it!
What right does he have the right to DEMAND anything!!!
He is our sworn enemy now and has been shown to be a traitor.
Why should he be allowed to walk around free and plan terrorist acts?
I agree.
He forfeited his constitutional rights by pledging his allegiance to the enemy of the nation and people.
This guy is the one that should be dropped. Out of the back of a c131 Starlifter in the middle of the ocean.
As far as I’m concerned SEND THIS SUCKER BACK TO THE MIDDLE EAST FOR GOOD. Another pathetic piece of human waste on earth. Let our American Air Force take care of him and the other terrorist scumbags during one of their bombing sorties.
Give him a one way ticket and paint a yellow streak down his back with tattoo ink so he can never get rid of it then sernd him packing with no return ever.