Karrem Nasr, a New Jersey native who traveled to Kenya to join al Shabaab pleaded guilty on Monday and faces up to 20 years in prison after being apprehended by Kenyan law enforcement in December 2023. This is according to a press release from the United States Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York on Monday.
The 24-year-old man reportedly hatched a plan to join the terrorism cell in December 2023 with the mission of targeting what he described as 'evil America'.
Motivated by the Hamas attack on Israel, Nasr moved to Egypt in July 2023, where he often expressed his desire to wage Jihad in several of his social media posts and communications with his inner circle.
"Starting in at least in or about November 2023, (he) repeatedly expressed his desire and plans to join Al Shabaab, a designated foreign terrorist organization that has attacked Americans and American allies around the world, and wage jihad," part of the release read.
In one of his posts in 2023, he wrote, "Jihad on your turf. Coming to a US location near you." In the post, he also added emojis depicting an airplane, a bomb, and fire probably alluding to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack in New York.
His final act was to join the Somalia-based terrorist group to receive the military training he required to carry out Jihad in the US.
For this, he booked a flight and accommodations to Kenya on December 14, 2023, where he was supposed to meet with members of the al Shabaab for a way forward.
Unbeknownst to him, however, a Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) confidential informant had infiltrated his inner circle and had all the information regarding his travel plans.
He reportedly told the informant, "I would like to become a martyr for the sake of Allah. I think in coming years, inshallah we are going to see here big events in Egypt and the other Arab countries. Inshallah if this happens; I will come back to Egypt, inshallah to help the Muslims in Egypt in their struggle to establish here in Egypt.”
He also told the informant that he planned to delete data from his cellphone and computer to ensure that if he were detained, law enforcement would not be able to recover evidence of his jihadist activities from those devices.
On landing in Nairobi, he was apprehended by the Kenyan authorities before any of his plans to cut "the head of the snake" would materialise. He was later extradited and arrived in the US on December 28, 2023.
Following his guilty plea, he awaits sentencing on June 30.
In the release, US Attorney Danielle R. Sassoon also thanked the FBI’s Legal Attaché Office in Nairobi, the Kenyan Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) and the Joint Terrorism Task Force-Kenya for their assistance.
