United States v. Velentzas
| Decision Date | 16 July 2019 |
| Docket Number | 15-CR-213 (SJ) |
| Parties | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, v. NOELLE VELENTZAS and ASIA SIDDIQUI, Also known as "Najma Samaa" And "Murdiyyah," Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York |
RICHARD P. DONOGUE
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY
271 Cadman Plaza East
Brooklyn, NY 11201
By: Jennifer Sasso
Douglas Pravda
Craig Heeren
Michael Keilty
Attorneys for the government
LAW OFFICE OF SEAN M. MAHER, PLLC
233 Broadway
Suite 820
New York, NY 10279
By: Sean Maher
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW CENTER FOR
MUSLIMS IN AMERICA
833 East Arapaho Road
Suite 102
Richardson, TX 75081
By: Charles D. Swift
Attorney for Asia Siddiqui
LINDA GAIL MORENO
P.O. Box 10985
Tampa, FL 33679
On April 30, 2015, defendants Noelle Velentzas ("Velentzas") and Asia Siddiqui ("Siddiqui") were charged in a three-count Indictment. Both Velentzas and Siddiqui (collectively "Defendants") are charged in Count One (Conspiracy to Use a Weapon of Mass Destruction in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2332a(a)(2)) and Count Two (Teaching and Distributing Information Pertaining to the Making and Use of an Explosive, Destructive Device, and Weapon of Mass Destruction, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 842(p)(2)(A), 844(a)(2)). Count Three of the Indictment charges Siddiqui with making a material false statement to the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(2). Presently before the Court are Defendants' motion to dismiss Counts One and Two of the Indictment as both vague and overbroad and Siddiqui's motion to suppress the statements underlying Count Three. Based on the submissions of the parties, oral argument held on September 27, 2018, a suppression hearing held on February 5, 2019, and for the reasons stated below, the motions are denied.
The facts and circumstances are drawn from the criminal complaint as well as the testimony presented at the February 5, 2019 hearing on Siddiqui's motion to suppress and on other judicial opinions, of which this Court has taken judicial notice.
Defendants were the subjects of an investigation conducted by the FBI's New York Joint Terrorism Task Force ("JTTF"). Through this investigation, the government learned that Defendants, both United States citizens and residents of Queens, held beliefs consistent with what has colloquially become referred to as "jihadist."1 Specifically, in approximately 2006, Siddiqui became friends with Samir Khan ("Khan"). Khan was a United States citizen who published a blog and a magazine that promoted a terrorist agenda. Khan is alleged to have been a prominent figure in Al Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula ("AQAP"). Siddiqui is alleged to have grown close to him in 2006 and to have submitted her terrorism-inspired poetry to him for publication in Jihad Recollections, a jihadist English-language publication.Siddiqui's poem was entitled "Take Me to the Lands Where the Eyes Are Cooled." The poem referred to bombs and stated that Siddiqui would "hit cloud nine with the smell of turpentine, nations wiped clean of filthy shrines." It went on to state that Siddiqui "tastes the Truth through fists and slit throats" and that "there is no excuse to sit back and wait - for the skies rain martyrdom." (Id. (internal citations omitted).)2
Siddiqui also penned letters to incarcerated persons either awaiting disposition of terrorism-related offenses or convicted of them. Mohamed Mohamud ("Mohamud"), a United States citizen residing in Oregon, was arrested in 2010 for plotting to detonate a bomb at a Portland Christmas Tree lighting ceremony.3 On or around September 2011, while Mohamud was incarcerated, but prior to his conviction, Siddiqui wrote a letter to Mohamud expressing her support of him. The letter to Mohamud's facility was signed by "Murdiyyah," but bore the return address of "Najma Samaa, 9420 Guy R. Benson Blvd, Jamaica, NY, 11451." Evidence, including a Facebook-related IP address, indicates that both "Murdiyyah" and "Najma Samaa" are names associated with Siddiqui, and that 9420 Guy R. BensonBoulevard, Jamaica, NY 11451 is an address uncannily similar to that of York College, a school Siddiqui attended.4
Siddiqui also communicated her sympathy for Tarek Mehanna ("Mehanna") by corresponding with him by mail on several occasions.5 In 2004, Mehanna traveled to the United Arab Emirates and Yemen in search of a terrorist training camp, translated terrorist-sympathetic documents from Arabic to English and published them online. Finally, Siddiqui communicated by mail with Aafia Siddiqui (no known relation to Asia Siddiqui), who is also an incarcerated United States citizen. Aafia Siddiqui is serving an 86-year term of incarceration for a variety of terrorism-related charges, including taking the M-4 rifle of a United States serviceman in Afghanistan, attempting to fire the weapon, and stating, during the struggle, inter alia, as well as "death to America" and "I will kill all you motherfuckers."6
On July 10, 2014, Siddiqui boarded WestJet flight number 1210 leaving Toronto Pearson International Airport for LaGuardia Airport. Upon arrival, she was met by FBI Special Agent Mustafa Shalabi ("Shalabi") and either two or four FBI or Customs and Border Protection ("CBP") officers. Shalibi testified at the February 5,2019 hearing before this Court. At LaGuardia, Siddiqui was taken into a conference room and asked at least 19 questions over a thirty-minute period. Firearms were neither displayed nor drawn. In the room were Shalabi and the other two to four officers. According to Siddiqui, the CBP officers stood by the door and the FBI agents sat at a conference table with her.
Siddiqui had been in Canada for a year and was asked why. She stated that she was studying publishing at Ryerson University and was returning to New York to look for a job. She was then asked several questions about her potential ties to terrorists or terrorist organizations. In response to the agents' questions, Siddiqui denied being in contact with any individuals seeking to harm the United States, any terrorist groups, and denied supporting radical Islamic ideologies. She specifically denied publishing any materials in any Islamic magazines or knowing Khan. Siddiqui admitted using the name "Murdiyyah" on the Islamic Awakening website and admitted to sending communications to Mehanna and Aafia Siddiqui. She indicated that she was going home from the airport via taxi but left the interview and was picked up by an individual who, unbeknownst to Siddiqui at the time, was an undercover officer ("UC").
Siddiqui told the UC about the interview and said she thought she would be arrested "soon." She told the UC that the agents asked about her poetry and "everything [she] thought they would," including whether she knew anyone from Al Qaeda. She admitted to the UC that some of the answers she gave were not truthful.
By this time, Velentzas, had already been communicating and meeting with the UC for approximately one year. Velentzas, too, was unaware of the identity of the UC and participated in many recorded conversations with the UC.
In conversations with the UC, Velentzas praised the September 11, 2001 attacks, the principle of martyrdom via terrorism, stated that she considered Osama Bin Laden ("Bin Laden") and Abdullah Azzam (his mentor) to be her heroes, displayed a photograph of Bin Laden on her cellular telephone that she used as her digital wallpaper, and interpreted the text of Qur'an in a manner that supported her beliefs. Both Velentzas and Siddiqui informed the UC that they were impressed with Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's (the "Boston Marathon bombers") use of pressure cookers to carry out their attack, and frequently talked about pressure cookers and the items (such as ropes or an axe) that could be placed inside of them prior to detonation. Further, Defendants discussed the "science" of bomb-making, the risks of harming themselves in the process of making a bomb, and the ways in which they ought to be careful to evade law enforcement (such as by avoiding YouTube instructional videos, not purchasing large quantities of bleach, removing sim cards from their cellular telephones for fear of the government "tapping into their phones" and being wary of the possibility of the government placing recording devices in "Muslim places"). Additionally, Velentzas expressed a preference for government targets over civilian targets, criticizing the Boston Marathon bombersfor attacking civilians. She preferred attacking "the head, the neck, the shoulders" of the
Defendants studied chemistry using library books and The Anarchist Cookbook, which was provided to Velenztas by the UC. Velentzas obtained a prepaid cellular phone and used it to view videos about soldering and circuitry, which she then began to practice. While she professed to hold martyrdom in the highest esteem, her preferred method was to construct a device detonated from afar. She also prepared to defend herself if she were to be pursued by law enforcement, in one instance, pulling a knife out of her bra and demonstrating to the UC how she would stab someone, adding, "Why can't we be some real bad bitches?" She also stated that people who read chemistry books over breakfast are people who "make history." Siddiqui shared passages from library books on chemistry that she borrowed.
Velentzas continued to collect items she intended to use to make an explosive device, including, inter alia, potassium gluconate, copper wires, pipes, sodium chloride, paint containers labeled "combustible," and manure, noting that Timothy McVeigh (the "Oklahoma City bomber") used manure in the 1995 explosion that he caused. On her prepaid cellular telephone, Velenztas researched other materials, including racing...
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