FBI had tracked terrorism plans of one of the gunmen in Garland attack as early as 2006Kevin Krause
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Published: May 4, 2015
One of the shooters in the Garland attack on Sunday talked as early as 2007 about fighting with terrorists overseas, federal court records show.
Elton Simpson had been the subject of a terrorism investigation in Arizona where he lived beginning in 2006, court records show. Five years ago he was convicted in that state for lying to federal agents about his plans to travel to Somalia in 2009 to engage in “violent jihad.”
He received three years’ probation, which ended last year. He did not receive a stiffer sentence because the federal judge who heard the case said prosecutors failed to show that Simpson’s planned travel to Somalia was related to international terrorism.
Simpson has apparently been placed on a no-fly list. His defense attorney, Kristina Lyn Sitton, said she last heard from him shortly after his conviction when he called her from an airport and said he was prevented from boarding an airplane. Sitton said he was planning to travel to another state to attend a funeral.
Simpson talked to his associates about “the obligation to fight jihad overseas” in conversations the FBI taped, court records show.
In 2010, when the FBI questioned him at his home in Avondale, AZ, Simpson had a plane ticket to travel to South Africa as well as his passport. He also had a student visa allowing him to enter the country.
Prosecutors said Simpson’s plan was to travel from South Africa to Somalia to fight the U.S.-backed government there. That is considered providing material support to terrorists, a federal crime.
One of those Simpson spoke to about his plans was an FBI informant who was paid $132,000 by the bureau to wear a wire and gather information about Simpson, records show. The informant, a young Sudanese man who attended the same mosque as Simpson, taped 327 days of conversations he had with Simpson.
Also, an FBI surveillance team followed Simpson during the investigation.
Simpson told agents in 2010 that he planned to study Islam at a madrassa in South Africa, records show. He said he would be gone for five years and didn’t have “firm plans” for what he would do after his studies.
But in a 2007 recorded conversation, Simpson spoke about fighting non believers for Allah. He also spoke about Afghanistan and Iraq and “Jewish oppression of Muslims.” And he criticized those who “don’t believe that they should be over there fighting.”
Also, Simpson told someone his planned studies were “just a front” and that he was ready to “bounce” if needed.
Simpson was born in Illinois and later moved to the Phoenix area with this family. He converted to the Muslim religion “at a young age,” court records show. He was living with his family when he was arrested, court records show.
The FBI in Phoenix began investigating Simpson in 2006 because of his association with someone agents suspected of trying to set up a terrorist cell in Arizona. Agents thought Simpson might have been part of that cell.
When the FBI first contacted Simpson in 2007, is was to ask him about the terrorism suspect, Hassan Abu-Jihaad, but Simpson declined to speak with them, an FBI agent said during Simpson’s 2010 trial.
In 2009, agents had Simpson on tape speaking to someone about his plans.
“It’s time to go to Somalia, brother,” he said. “We know plenty of brothers from Somalia…I’m telling you, man. We gonna make it to the battlefield, akee, it’s time to roll.”
Simpson said non believers, known as “kuffar,” are “fighting against us because they don’t want us to establish sharia,” records show. He said he was tired of living under non-Muslims, who he said are fighting against Allah. Simpson said his money and taxes were paying for their weapons.
And he told an associate that the person could sell his car to finance a trip overseas to fight.
“That’s a plane ticket right there. Bye-bye America,” Simpson said.
Simpson told someone that he sent a link about “how they gonna use the car with bombs on it.”
When FBI agents visited Simpson again, in 2010, he asked them about Abu-Jihaad, who was appealing his 2008 federal conviction in Connecticut for providing material support to terrorists.
Abu-Jihaad also was found guilty of “communicating national security information to persons not entitled to receive it,” records show. He was sentenced in 2009 to 10 years in federal prison.
Simpson told agents he was concerned about Abu-Jihaad’s future. Abu-Jihaad was arrested in Phoenix in 2007. It was his case that led agents to Simpson.
Sitton said she was surprised to hear her former client was involved in Sunday’s attack.
“I never had an inkling that he was dangerous at all,” she said. “I can tell you when he was my client he was nothing but respectful. He was very kind and was a very devout Muslim.”
She said he sometimes stopped their meetings so he could go pray during various times of the day.
Sitton called him “just a normal guy.” At the time, Simpson worked as a telemarketer, she said. Simpson, she said, got married during the Arizona criminal case.
Sitton said she doesn’t condone her former client’s actions, but she questioned why the Garland art event was held in the first place.
“I guess I see so much intolerance in religion these days,” she said. “I don’t understand why they were having an event basically mocking the Muslim religion.
“I wonder if everybody’s intolerance has instigated people who would normally not be violent to act” based on what they believed was an attack on their faith, she said.
The FBI’s recordings of Simpson were played during his bench trial. The following are some excerpts:
Simpson told the informant that “Allah loves someone who is ‘out there fighting [non-Muslims]’ and making difficult sacrifices such as living in caves, sleeping on rocks rather than sleeping in comfortable beds and with his wife, children and nice cars.”
Simpson said that the reward is high because “If you get shot, or you get killed, it’s [heaven] straight away…That’s what we here for…so why not take that route?”
“If the house of ‘a brother’ in Palestine is bombed, you should feel like that bomb landed on your house.
“They trying to bring democracy over there man, they’re trying to make them live by man-made laws, not by Allah’s laws. That’s why they get fought. You try to make us become slaves to man? No we slave to Allah, we going to fight you to the death.”
“People fighting and killing your kids, and dropping bombs on people that have nothing to do with nothing. You got to fight back you can’t be just sitting down…smiling at each other.”
http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2015/05/fbi-had-taped-terrorism-plans-of-gunman-in-garland-attack-as-early-as-2007.html/
