ISIS fanatic who plotted to behead Pamela Geller gets 28 years in prison

The right-wing firebrand Pamela Geller was hosting an art exhibit lampooning the Muslim prophet Muhammad, and the Islamic State wanted her dead.

David Wright and two companions volunteered to execute her.

It was spring 2015, and Wright, a 20-something from the Boston suburbs, had spent the better part of a year reading the terrorist group’s propaganda and talking with his uncle and a friend about their desire to kill the “kufar,” or nonbelievers, according to court documents. Geller was at the top of the list.

After communicating with an Islamic State member, the men met on a secluded beach in Rhode Island, where they hatched a plan to behead the conservative blogger, known for her strident criticism of Islam. Wright’s uncle, Usaamah Abdullah Rahim, had purchased three military-style knives, each more than a foot long, and Wright had researched firearms and human tranquilizers online, prosecutors said. The third member of the group, Nicholas Rovinski, had read up on saws and chopping tools.

But the plan never materialized. Rahim, eager for martyrdom, was fatally shot several days later when he drew one of his knives on law enforcement officers in Boston. The FBI had been monitoring him, and an easy trail of evidence led agents back to Wright and Rovinski, who were arrested shortly after.

On Tuesday, a federal judge sentenced Wright to 28 years in prison for his role in the plot to murder Geller, after a jury found him guilty of conspiracy to commit terrorism, conspiracy to support the Islamic State and other charges. Rovinski, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and testified against Wright, is scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday. Prosecutors and defense attorneys have asked for a 15-year sentence.

In the Boston courtroom, Wright, now 28, sobbed as he apologized to Geller and denounced the Islamic State, according to the Associated Press.

“Nothing I can say can fix the hurt I caused,” he said. “I sincerely hope that I can be given the opportunity to help others avoid the mistakes I made.”

Prosecutors had asked for a life sentence. So had Geller, who read a victim impact statement in court that she later posted on her personal website. Wright’s actions, she said, had terrorized her family and forced her to spend tens of thousands of dollars on security at her home and in public appearances.

“It is impossible to overstate the devastation that Daoud Wright has brought to my life and that of members of my family,” Geller wrote, using Wright’s middle name. “Not only did he target me for a brutal, cruel and violent death, but he targeted family members, and this will not even be over with his sentencing.”

Defense attorneys had called the life sentence requested by the government “draconian.” Instead, they proposed a sentence of 16 years with a lifetime of supervised release, saying Wright was committed to redeeming himself.

The court, they wrote, “must consider Mr. Wright not simply as a terrorist, with all the fraught connotations of that term, but rather as the person he was, the person he has become, and the person he might yet be.”

Geller, known for her extreme and invective against Muslims, made a national name for herself in when she spearheaded a movement to block a mosque from being built near Ground Zero in Manhattan. Through her blog, the Geller Report, and other writings, she has warned of what she views as a creeping “Islamization” in America. Some civil rights groups have called her rhetoric hate speech, though she has contended she is merely “anti-jihad.”

In 2015, following a few years in relative obscurity, Geller reemerged in the public eye. That January, Muslim gunmen killed a dozen people at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, an act of revenge for publishing cartoons mocking Muhammed. In response, Geller organized a “Jihad Watch Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest” in Garland, Texas. Depicting Muhammed is considered blasphemous by most Muslims. The award for the winning cartoon was a $10,000 prize.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations told people to disregard the event, held in May 2015, saying “the thing [Geller] hates most is being ignored.”

As the event was coming to an end, two gunmen rolled up in a car and opened fire on a security guard. Police fired back, killing them both. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, though officials said that the duo was inspired, not directed, by the terrorist organization.

It was around that time that the Islamic State called for Geller’s murder, federal prosecutors wrote in court documents in Wright’s case, referring to Geller as “Intended Victim-1.” According to prosecutors, one member of the terrorist organization wrote on Twitter: “2 of our brothers just opened fire at the Prophet Mohammad … art exhibition in texas!” and told followers to “Kill Those That Insult the Prophet.”

At that point, Wright and his co-conspirators had been discussing plans to kill non-believers for months, prosecutors said. Wright had downloaded half-a-dozen issues of Dabiq, the Islamic State’s sleek propaganda magazine, and was drafting documents for a “Martyrdom Operations Cell” in the United States, according to court records. Prosecutors said his Internet search history included the queries, “what is the most flammable chemical,” “which tranquilizer puts humans to sleep instantly,” and “how to start a secret militia in [the] US.”

After Geller’s event in Texas, Rahim, Wright’s uncle, got in touch with an Islamic State member and talked about murdering Geller, according to court documents. Rahim then bought a 15-inch Ontario Spec Plus Marine Raider Bowie fighting knife and two similar weapons on Amazon, along with a knife sharpener.

On May 31, Wright, Rahim and Rovinski talked for more than two hours on a Rhode Island beach about how they intended to behead Geller. The target date was July 4.

Days later, Rahim told the others he couldn’t wait — that he wanted to “go after” the “boys in blue” right away, according to prosecutors. He was gunned down by law enforcement that morning when he brandished one of his knives at police officers and FBI agents in a Boston parking lot.

The FBI had been recording Rahim’s calls and watching his every move, so they were well aware of the group’s plans, according to a federal criminal complaint filed the day after Rahim’s death. Wright and Rovinksi were arrested shortly after. In addition to the terrorism counts, they were charged with obstruction of justice for destroying phone and computer records that shed light on their plot.

Wright said at trial that he was never serious about killing Geller and that he didn’t believe his uncle really wanted to attack police. A jury convicted him on all five of the counts against him.

In Tuesday’s sentencing, U.S. District Judge William G. Young told Wright he was uncomfortable sending him to prison for life, according to the Associated Press.

“You are not a monster,” the judge said, “yet you embraced a monstrous evil.”

Source: Stripes