Pennsylvania 22-year-old Emerson Begolly pleaded guilty last week to soliciting others to engage in acts of terrorism and to attempting to use a firearm in an assault on FBI agents.
Begolly, the federal officials said, “was an active administrator on the Ansar al-Mujahideen English Forum (AMEF), which is an internationally used Islamic extremist Internet forum. Using the pseudonym of Abu Nancy, Begolly systematically solicited jihadists to use firearms, explosives and propane tanks against targets such as police stations, post offices, Jewish schools and daycare centers, military facilities, train lines, bridges, cell phone towers and water plants.”
He’s scheduled to be sentenced in November.
The guilty plea brings an end to a bizarre case that involved a defendant with Asperger’s syndrome, a penchant for Nazi paraphernalia and a love of Law & Order; an arsenal of weapons; a jihadist pen pal; an alleged relationship between Begolly’s mother and the FBI agent who arrested him; and an allegation of attempted sexual abuse by a pedophile pastor.
Full background on Begolly here.
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