Florida convert to Islam gets 20 years — made videos on how to build “homemade weapons of mass destruction”

Yet another convert to Islam misunderstands his new religion as somehow obliging him to commit treason and strive to kill and destroy. Where are the programs in U.S. mosques to teach against this sort of thing? “Video shows ‘would-be’ Jacksonville terrorist making bombs,” by Travis Gibson, First Coast News, January 14, 2015:

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville man who made video tutorials on how to construct homemade bombs and attempted to join extremist groups in Yemen was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for supporting terrorists Wednesday.

Shelton Thomas Bell, 21, will also receive a lifetime of supervision following his conviction for conspiring and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. Bell pleaded guilty on March 19, 2014.

The State Attorney’s Office released a series of videos and photos that it obtained as part of its investigation. In the videos, Bell, a former student at Englewood High School can been seen making bombs, burning an American flag, and firing guns during target practice in the Florida woods…all with the goal of recruiting others to fight with him in the Middle East.

“This is bomb making 101. Homemade weapons of mass destruction,” Bell says in a video where he constructs a small pipe-bomb.

According to court documents, Bell conspired to train and prepare as a combatant for overseas violent jihad for two months in 2012. He then planned to travel from Jacksonville to the Middle East to provide skills to terrorists. Once overseas, the plan included receiving further training and deadly weapons from Ansar al-Sharia.

More from the State Attorney’s Office:

In May 2012, Bell recruited a juvenile for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad and inspired him with the teachings of an Al Qaida spokesperson, Anwar al-Awlaki. Bell suggested traveling to Yemen to fight because of al-Awlaki’s teachings – that all young people should travel to Yemen to “take up the fight.” Bell and the juvenile subsequently agreed to travel to Israel and then make Hajj. As part of the plan, the conspirators told others, including their parents, that they were traveling overseas to make Hajj, to study, and to get an education. By July 2012, the conspirators began taking actions to train for their unlawful activities by conducting mental training that included watching al-Awlaki videos and looking at images of dead Muslims.

Bell also conducted a late-night “jihadi training mission” that involved the destruction of religious statues cemetery located in Jacksonville, according to the State Attorney. He also recorded himself at shooting at an homemade firing range and impromptu battlefield lessons intended for recording and uploading to the Internet, to be used in the recruitment of others in the “the actions of jihad.”

Ultimately, Bell and the juvenile were deported from Jordan to the United States in 2012 after they flew from Jacksonville in an attempt to join Ansar al-Sharia, an Islamist militia group that advocates implementing strict Sharia law, in Yemen. The group has taken responsibility for attacks on Yemen forces, including a suicide bombing during a parade in May 2012. That attack killed more than 100 Yemen soldiers….

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