One man from Florida has been arrested for posing as an ISIS supporter online and having links with a plot to bomb a 9/11 memorial.
Joshua Ryne Goldberg was charged by police on Thursday for his part in the bomb plot in Kansas City, with official charges being for having ‘information relating to destructive devices, explosives, and weapons of mass destruction’.
The 20 year old lives in Orange Park, a suburb of Jacksonville, with his parents, and reportedly posed online as a Lebanese man who had emigrated to Australia and was fascinated by ISIS and their extremist views.
Even more bizarrely, the young man, who is a non-Muslim without any previous ties to Jihadist movements, claimed to be based in Australia, and according to Australian and US Federal authorities, used the Twitter handle ‘Australi Witness’.
The FBI initially became aware of Goldberg when an online presence using the name ‘AusWitness’ claimed responsibility for a shooting in Garland, Texas, that killed two men – and was an anti-Islamic event.
The post read:
You might know me for inspiring the attacks in Garland.
Where two mujahideen entered an event mocking the Prophet Muhammad . . . with intent to slaughter. The Jews are the worst enemies of Allah. When Islam conquers Australia, every single Jew will be slaughtered like the filthy cockroaches that they are.
After further investigation, Federal investigators posed online and chatted with Goldberg, with the Australi Witness IP address then traced back to his house – after advising the agent he was chatting to online how to make a bomb, suggesting a pressure cooker one, with metal nails and to ‘dip the screws and other shrapnel in rat poison before putting them in.’
He claimed he intended the instructions to make a real bomb – but that he wanted the maker to die creating it – or be able to warn police in time for the attack and take credit.
Should he be convicted, he faces 20 years in prison.
