American Teen Pleads Guilty to Aiding Islamic State
A woman from Colorado pleaded guilty on Wednesday to providing material support to the Islamic State — months after she told the FBI she wanted to be a terrorist.
Shannon Maureen Conley, who is 19 and a certified nurse’s aid, was accused of providing material support to at least one person who is allegedly a member of the Islamic State.
Now the teenager from Arvada faces up to five years in prison and a potential $250,000 fine, though she won’t be sentenced until Jan. 23.
In the meantime, The Denver Post reports Conley has agreed to provide information about her conspirators. U.S. District Judge Raymond Moore has ordered her to undergo a personality and psychological exam.
Conley had planned to move to Syria and marry a 32-year-old Islamic State fighter from Tunisia who told her that he was battling with the Islamic State and that the extremist group needed nurses.
But the FBI had kept close tabs on her ever since Conley started to spend time wandering around a local church, taking notes on everything but the sermons. The pastor notified the FBI, who told Conley her intentions were illegal.
Conley was displeased with the church interrupting her plotting; she told the FBI that “if they think I’m a terrorist, I’ll give them something to think I am.”
The FBI kept tabs on Conley, who had converted to Islam, and arrested her in April before she could get on a flight to Germany en route to Turkey’s Syrian border.
Upon searching her home, agents found video lectures given by Islamist radicals as well as bullets and targets that showed she had spent time improving her accuracy with a gun.
Here are the full details of Conley’s plea agreement:
Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/09/10/american-teen-guilty-aiding-islamic-state/
Leave a Reply