Rezwan Ferdaus

Judge: It Doesn't Matter If The Remote Controlled Plane Plot Would Have Worked

Ryan J. Reilly | November 28, 2011, 1:32PM

The plot Rezwan Ferdaus allegedly developed to fly remote controlled planes carrying C-4 explosives into the Pentagon and the dome of the Capitol might have been far-fetched, but a federal judge has ruled he's still a danger to the community and agreed to the government's request to detain him.

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Reed Berry

Michigan Terror Suspect Feeling 'Caged' By Federal Tail Tried To Crash Into FBI Agent's Car

Ryan J. Reilly | October 3, 2011, 2:45PM

Reed S. Berry

A 26-year-old Michigan man the feds suspected of supporting terrorist groups has been ordered held by a federal judge after he crashed into the car of an FBI agent following him around the anniversary of Sept. 11.

Reed S. Berry, 26, of St. Joseph was being tailed by an FBI special agent and a Michigan state police detective on the night of Sept. 9.

Berry, described as "very surveillance-conscious," had spotted an FBI agent earlier in the day and allegedly got out of his car and "ran directly at her parked vehicle while staring directly at her." Around 10:30 p.m., Berry allegedly did the same thing to a Michigan detective who had been trailing him, except he screamed this time.

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John McCain

Report: McCain Inserted Provision To Put Terror Suspects Into Military Custody

Ryan J. Reilly | September 6, 2011, 12:50PM

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) inserted a little-noticed provision into the National Defense Authorization Act that would put all terror suspects into immediate military custody, the National Journal reports.

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Emerson Begolly

Feds: 'Nazi Jihadist' Solicited Extremists To Attack Daycare Centers

Ryan J. Reilly | July 14, 2011, 2:12PM

Federal prosecutors have charged Emerson Begolly, the Nazi uniform wearing Pennsylvania man being held for allegedly biting an FBI agent who tried to question him about his activity on jihadist websites, with inciting violent attacks in the United States.

An indictment announced on Thursday by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia charges that Begolly used an extremist web forum to solicited others to engage in acts of terrorism and disseminated instructions for making different kinds of explosives that could be used in terrorist attacks.

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Peter King

Peter King To Critics: 'Political Correctness' Won't Stop Muslim Radicalization Hearings

Ryan J. Reilly | February 8, 2011, 12:50PM

Rep. Peter King (R-NY)

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Peter King (R-NY) said Tuesday that he plans to move forward with a series of hearings to examine the threat of Islamic radicalization, and said he "will not allow political correctness to obscure a real and dangerous threat to the safety and security of the citizens of the United States."

Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) wrote a letter to King earlier this month asking him to expand the purpose of the hearings into "a broad-based examination of domestic extremist groups regardless of their ideological underpinnings."

But King said that the hearings will serve an important purpose, and that the committee "cannot ignore the fact that al Qaeda is actively attempting to recruit individuals living within the Muslim American community to commit acts of terror."

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Emerson Begolly

Alleged Nazi Jihadist Blamed Pedophile Pastor For Hatred Of America

Ryan J. Reilly and Melissa Jeltsen | January 17, 2011, 8:54AM

TPM Illustration

Instant messaging conversations allegedly written by Emerson Begolly reveal him as anti-Semitic, extreme, armed and dangerous. But they also reveal what he claimed was the genesis of his extremist views: an interaction with a Christian pastor who was a registered sex offender.

Begolly's is a cautionary tale about the threat of homegrown terrorism: the radicalized 21-year-old college student reportedly obsessed over violence and martyrdom and said he was disgusted by a country where "homosexuality... abortion... assisted suicide, whores, and dru(g)s r all legal."

But it's also the strange story of a loner living on a farm in a small Pennsylvania town who had easy access to weapons and vented his frustrations with his family (a father who dressed him up in Nazi regalia and hit him as a child and an estranged mother with reported mental health issues of her own) in jihadist web forums.

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Emerson Begolly

Alleged Jihadist Joked FBI Was 'Drunk' When He Got His AK-47

Ryan J. Reilly | January 14, 2011, 9:46AM

Nobody was more surprised than 21-year-old Emerson Begolly when he cleared an Federal Bureau of Investigation background check and was allowed to purchase an AK-47 assault rifle last year. After all, he'd been a moderator and contributor on Islamic extremist web forums, posted songs praising suicide bombers, discussed his jihad fantasies in the open and even made an appearance in Newsweek under a pseudonym that his grandmother clipped and saved. He knew for a fact "the man" was onto him.

"i honestly think that the day the[y] ended the hold and sold me the gun someone at the FBI showed up to work drunk," Begolly wrote on a jihadist web forum under the name Abu Nancy (the name of his imaginary daughter), according to transcripts filed by the feds yesterday.

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Emerson Begolly

Defense Alleges 'Relationship' Between Alleged Jihadist's Mom And FBI Agent

Ryan J. Reilly | January 13, 2011, 4:36PM

In an attempt to secure the release of Emerson Begolly, the 21-year-old Nazi-dressing alleged jihad enthusiast who allegedly bit two FBI agents, his defense lawyer alleged in court documents Wednesday that one of the agents had a romantic relationship with the suspect's estranged, alcoholic mother.

But Special Agent William J. Crowley of the FBI's Pittsburgh office told TPM that the bureau "categorically denies" any romantic relationship between Special Agent Bradley Orsini and Begolly's mother Joan Kowalski.

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Emerson Begolly

Gov't: Nazi-Dressing Alleged Jihadist Doesn't Need An AK-47

Ryan J. Reilly | January 13, 2011, 10:55AM

The government doesn't want Emerson Begolly, the 21-year-old former Penn State student who allegedly bit two FBI agents in the parking lot of a Burger King when they tried to question him about apparent pro-jihad messages he posted online, released.

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Emerson Begolly

Nazi-Dressing Alleged Jihadist Charged With Biting Two FBI Agents

Ryan J. Reilly | January 10, 2011, 8:52AM

Emerson Begolly, a 21-year-old Penn State student who allegedly expressed pro-jihad and anti-Semitic sentiments, was arrested in the parking lot of a Burger King in Pennsylvania last week after he allegedly went for a gun in his pocket and then bit two FBI agents when they tried to question him about his online activities.

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'Jihad Kathie'

Right Wing Blog: Fox News Didn't Narc On 'Terror Grandma,' We Did!

Ryan J. Reilly | January 4, 2011, 12:40PM

A right-wing blog that tracks networks of Islamic extremists online says it was them, not Fox News, that brought a video of a woman the network later labeled "Terror Grandma" to the attention of authorities.

"Fox did not drop the dime, we did," writes blogger Howie on the Jawa Report. "Given the quick death of the video and its nature, which Ill elaborate on more later, we sent it along through the proper channels. Just to be sure." TPM was unable to independently verify Howie's claims.

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Department of Homeland Security

Janet Napolitano: DHS Report On Right-Wing Extremists Is 'Ancient History'

Ryan J. Reilly | September 17, 2010, 4:42PM

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Friday referred to a controversial report issued by DHS in April 2009 on the potential for an increased in right-wing extremism as "ancient history."

TPMDC asked Napolitano at a lunch hosted by the Christian Science Monitor if she thought the report DHS was criticized for issuing on the potential for a rise in right-wing extremism due to the election of Barack Obama has been vindicated in the year and a half since it came out.

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Airline Security

Poison Pen: Could Family Disputes Game The New Watchlist System?

Justin Elliott | January 13, 2010, 10:35AM

A TSA agent at Newark Airport

As the Obama Administration prepares to loosen terrorist watchlist standards in the wake of the failed Christmas attack, experts say the phenomenon known as "poison pen" warnings could become a greater problem.

The term refers to a false warning about a potential threat, usually given overseas, and sometimes arising from family or other interpersonal disputes.

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