Sometimes one gets tired of repeating one's self, but it just has to be done, and I've been saying for years about our republic's lax immigration enforcement that there are too many people coming in unscreened, unvetted, that we have very little idea what many of them are here for, where they intend to go, and what they intend to do when they get there. Now, in an illustration of this (although in this case the perp's immigration status is not mentioned), a Jordanian national has been arrested for threatening to carry out explosives attacks on unnamed targets as well as carrying out a destructive attack on an energy facility.
Hashem Younis Hashem Hnaihen, 43, a Jordanian citizen residing in Orlando, Florida, is charged with four counts of threatening to use explosives and one count of destruction of an energy facility. At his detention hearing yesterday, Hnaihen was ordered detained pending trial.
“We allege that the defendant threatened to carry out hate-fueled mass violence in our country, motivated in part by a desire to target businesses for their perceived support of Israel,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Such acts and threats of violence, whether they are targeting the places that Americans frequent every day or our country’s critical infrastructure, are extremely dangerous and will not be tolerated by the Justice Department.”
So, we know this goblin's motivation and what he was threatening to do. What's more, later in the Justice Department's press release, we find that he's been committing crimes and issuing threats for the same reason before the attack on the power plant.
According to court documents, beginning around June 2024, Hnaihen targeted and attacked businesses in the Orlando area for their perceived support for Israel. Wearing a mask, under the cover of night, Hnaihen smashed the glass front doors of businesses and left behind “Warning Letters.”
In his letters, which were addressed to the United States government, Hnaihen laid out a series of political demands, culminating in a threat to “destroy or explode everything here in whole America. Especially the companies and factories that support the racist state of Israel.”
And as far as his attack on the energy facility, it was plainly planned; this was not an impulse crime.
At the end of June, as law enforcement worked to identify the masked attacker, Hnaihen broke into a solar power generation facility in Wedgefield, Florida, and spent hours systematically destroying solar panel arrays. He smashed panels, cut wires, and targeted critical electronic equipment. Hnaihen left behind two more copies of his threatening demand letter. Hnaihen is believed to have caused more than $700,000 in damage.
To "target critical electronic equipment," he must have some idea what he was looking for to destroy, and that implies forethought and research.
So, this guy has a history of this kind of hate. In Florida. He's a citizen of Jordan, not the United States, but somehow, he's still in the Sunshine State. Somehow, he was allowed into the United States, which raises questions as to how much screening was done on this miscreant.
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As should surprise no one, I have some questions.
First: Why in the Sam Hill has this guy not been deported? He has been charged and will now be tried here for the acts of destruction and the attack on the solar energy facility, and if found guilty, he will serve time for it. But why was he here in the first place? Is he on a student visa? A tourist visa? Is he here legally? How did he get here? Why was he allowed in?
Second: Will he be tried under any federal hate crimes rules? I'm not a fan of hate crimes laws, as adding the additional crime of BadThink to an actual, physical crime doesn't make a lot of sense, but if those laws are on the books, it sure seems like they would apply here - or will they not, since the perp is a Muslim and the intended victims were either Jews or people who have sympathy for Jews?
Hnaihen faces 10 years for each threat offense and 20 years for the attempt on the energy facility. If he's convicted. Still, the American people deserve some more answers than this - specifically, we deserve to know how he got here and why he came here in the first place.
It's not just the borders that are a mess - our entire immigration system is broken, in that it allows in people like Hashem Younis Hashem Hnaihen. In this case, we found out too late what he intended to do. Fortunately, no people were hurt or killed. Next time, we may not be quite so lucky.