By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
The technical definition of “treason,” according to the United States Constitution is as follows:
“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.”
On Wednesday, August 02, 2017, Terrence Joseph McNeil, an Ohio resident who admits to being a supporter of ISIS, pled guilty for urging the beheading of American soldiers on several social media sites. He posted names, addresses and pictures of close to 100 members of our military. He will be spending 20 years in prison for confessing to “the solicitation to commit a crime of violence” and five counts of “making threatening interstate communications.” While he had no prior criminal record, he had been removed from Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr due to the violent content of his posts. He also published the name and address of the Navy SEAL who allegedly fired the kill shot that took out Osama bin Laden.
Another post said the following, and displayed the pictures of several members of our armed forces:
“O Brothers in America, know that the jihad against the crusaders is not limited to the lands of the Khilafah, (Caliphate) it is a world-wide jihad and their war is not just a war against the Islamic State, it is a war against Islam…Know that it is wajib (translated to “necessary”) for you to kill these kuffar! (unbelievers) and now we have made it easy for you by giving you addresses, all you need to do is take the final step, so what are you waiting for? Kill them in their own lands, behead them in their own homes, stab them to death as they walk their streets thinking that they are safe…”
It never ceases to amaze me how jihadists are always trying to get everybody else to do the killing!
On Wednesday, August 02, 2017, Acting U.S. Attorney Avida A. Sierleja said, “This defendant was dedicated to attacking members of the military here in the United States. This kind of fanaticism is dangerous and will be aggressively prosecuted.”
But is this actual “aggressive prosecution?” While I am glad that Mr. McNeil was found guilty, on a certain level I don’t think putting a radicalized Islamic ISIS-supporting man in general population is going to make our soldiers any safer. Islam is growing at an alarming rate in our prisons, especially amongst African-American inmates. So now this guy has all the time in the world to make disciples who could “answer the call” years before McNeil himself is eligible for parole. I would not be at all surprised if the reason he pled out in the first place rather than stand trial was to make sure he put himself in a position where he literally had a “captive audience” that could be flipped and recruited to help usher in the Caliphate. It would not be the first time. At the very least I hope he gets put in solitary so he can’t vent his venom at chow time or over gin rummy.
In 1953, the Rosenbergs were executed for espionage because they sold secrets to the Soviets. I think it’s a safe bet that if social media had existed back then and McNeil had “tumbld” and “tweeted” his treason, he would have met the same fate, and probably not many soldiers would have wept. “Trolls” that commit terrorism – who saw that coming?
By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
