When media reports began to break a couple of weeks ago about charges being filed against a citizen of Afghanistan residing in Oklahoma City for conspiring to conduct an Election Day terrorist attack in the United States, it immediately caught my attention.
The attack reportedly was to be on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and a-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign organization.
As many people are now aware, this guy, named Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, conspired and attempted to provide material support to ISIS and obtained firearms and ammunition to conduct a violent attack on U.S. soil in the name of ISIS.
When Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested Tawhedi, they also took into custody a juvenile, who reportedly is his brother-in-law.
Last Thursday, Tawhedi appeared in court for his preliminary hearing.
According to the criminal complaint, on Oct. 7, Tawhedi and the juvenile met with FBI assets at a rural location in the Western District of Oklahoma and purchased, received, and took possession of two AK-47 assault rifles, 10 magazines, and 500 rounds of ammunition.
Upon receipt of the rifles and ammunition, Tawhedi and the juvenile were arrested.
As I continued to read the media reports, I began to get a little worked up about someone allowed in the United States was scheming to pull off an Election Day attack that could have killed and injured hundreds of innocent people.
But the point where I started to really get riled up about it was when I read, “Tawhedi was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to ISIS, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, and receiving a firearm to be used to commit a felony or a federal crime of terrorism, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years, if convicted.”
First let, me say I am proud of our FBI agents who stopped this reported Election Day attack from occurring. Last week we learned from the FBI this guy apparently has a couple of brothers who were arrested in France by authorities who discovered they were planning a similar attack in that country.
What I am really simmering about though is that if convicted on these two charges this guy would spend a total of 35 years in prison. It’s no wonder that terrorists plan and conspire as they do against the United States.
In my opinion, there is no deterrent for these kind of people to prevent them from doing what they want to do. Nothing short of a life sentence when convicted of these types of crimes is what the punishment should be.
I’ve visited with others over the last couple of weeks about this and, even though it may be my opinion, apparently it’s shared by others.
Congress needs to fix this by approving stronger laws that will serve as a deterrent in order to prevent more of these types of crimes from occurring.