A Milwaukee man faces federal charges after he allegedly
purchased two machine guns from undercover agents as part of a plan to attack a
Masonic temple.
Court documents show federal prosecutors charged
23-year-old Samy Mohamed Hamzeh on Tuesday with unlawfully possessing a machine
gun and unlawfully receiving and possessing firearms not registered to him. It
wasn't immediately clear whether he had an attorney.
According to an FBI affidavit, agents were tipped off in
September that Hamzeh planned to travel to Israel in October to attack Israeli
soldiers and citizens in the West Bank. He abandoned those plans due to
"family, financial and logistic reasons," the affidavit said, but
refocused his efforts on a domestic attack.
Hamzeh discussed his plans extensively with two FBI
informants. The affidavit said the FBI started recording his conversations with
the informants in October.
Hamzeh and the two informants traveled to a gun range on
Jan. 19 and practiced with a pistol. Afterward they took a tour of a Masonic
temple in Milwaukee. The affidavit does not name the temple.
Later that day and into the early morning of Jan. 20,
Hamzeh discussed his plans to attack the temple with the informants, telling
them they needed two more machine guns — the group apparently already had one —
and silencers. They planned to station one person at the temple's entrance
while the other two went through the building, killing everyone they saw. They
then planned to walk away from the scene as if nothing had happened.
"I am telling you, if this hit is executed, it will
be known all over the world ... all the Mujahedeen will be talking and they
will be proud of us," Hamzeh said, according to the affidavit. "Such
operations will increase in America, when they hear about it. The people will
be scared and the operations will increase. ... This way we will be igniting
it. I mean we are marching at the front of the war."
Hamzeh added that he hoped to kill 30 people. He also
said his group was Muslims and they were "defending Muslim religion."
"We are here defending Islam, young people together
join to defend Islam, that's it, that is what our intention is," he said.
According to the affidavit, Hamzeh met with two
undercover FBI agents on Monday. They presented him with two automatic machine
guns and a silencer. He paid for the weapons and silencer in cash and put them
in the trunk of his car. The agents then arrested him and recovered the guns
and silencer.
Hamzeh's arrest marks the Milwaukee area's second brush
with a mass shooting in less than four years. A white supremacist named Wade
Michael Page fatally shot six people at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, a Milwaukee
suburb, in 2012. Page shot himself in the head after a police officer wounded
him.A Milwaukee man faces federal charges after he allegedly purchased two
machine guns from undercover agents as part of a plan to attack a Masonic
temple.
Court documents show federal prosecutors charged
23-year-old Samy Mohamed Hamzeh on Tuesday with unlawfully possessing a machine
gun and unlawfully receiving and possessing firearms not registered to him. It
wasn't immediately clear whether he had an attorney.
According to an FBI affidavit, agents were tipped off in
September that Hamzeh planned to travel to Israel in October to attack Israeli
soldiers and citizens in the West Bank. He abandoned those plans due to
"family, financial and logistic reasons," the affidavit said, but
refocused his efforts on a domestic attack.
Hamzeh discussed his plans extensively with two FBI
informants. The affidavit said the FBI started recording his conversations with
the informants in October.
Hamzeh and the two informants traveled to a gun range on
Jan. 19 and practiced with a pistol. Afterward they took a tour of a Masonic
temple in Milwaukee. The affidavit does not name the temple.
Later that day and into the early morning of Jan. 20,
Hamzeh discussed his plans to attack the temple with the informants, telling
them they needed two more machine guns — the group apparently already had one —
and silencers. They planned to station one person at the temple's entrance
while the other two went through the building, killing everyone they saw. They
then planned to walk away from the scene as if nothing had happened.
"I am telling you, if this hit is executed, it will
be known all over the world ... all the Mujahedeen will be talking and they
will be proud of us," Hamzeh said, according to the affidavit. "Such
operations will increase in America, when they hear about it. The people will
be scared and the operations will increase. ... This way we will be igniting
it. I mean we are marching at the front of the war."
Hamzeh added that he hoped to kill 30 people. He also
said his group was Muslims and they were "defending Muslim religion."
"We are here defending Islam, young people together
join to defend Islam, that's it, that is what our intention is," he said.
According to the affidavit, Hamzeh met with two
undercover FBI agents on Monday. They presented him with two automatic machine
guns and a silencer. He paid for the weapons and silencer in cash and put them
in the trunk of his car. The agents then arrested him and recovered the guns
and silencer.
Hamzeh's arrest marks the Milwaukee area's second brush
with a mass shooting in less than four years. A white supremacist named Wade
Michael Page fatally shot six people at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, a Milwaukee
suburb, in 2012. Page shot himself in the head after a police officer wounded
him.
Credit:Fox News
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