Said attended a detention hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Bray on Thursday and remains in custody. Authorities allege Said operated multiple social media accounts that contained messages and posts that allegedly revealed Said’s support for ISIS and the violent attacks carried out in the terrorist organization’s name.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, law enforcement executed searches of Said, his residence, vehicle, and electronic devices. According to court documents, analysis of the seized devices ultimately revealed Said’s activities related to the creation and dissemination of propaganda on behalf of ISIS.
According to a detention memorandum filed by the Department of Justice in the case, Said first appeared on the FBI’s radar in late 2017 after a tip was received regarding an online purchase of stickers containing imagery in support of ISIS. During subsequent interviews of the suspect conducted by the FBI in 2018, Said told authorities both stickers were meant to show support for ISIS. Said told interviewers he started believing in ISIS’s ideology around 2015 after returning to the United States from Lebanon, where he and his family had lived until late 2014. According to the document, Said claimed he did not support killing by ISIS but admitted to visiting ISIS websites and liking the fact that ISIS was “waking people up.”
Although not currently charged with any plans to carry out acts of violence within the United States, the court document reviewed by Breitbart Texas reveals Said may have had those intentions, as revealed in statements allegedly made by the suspect to the FBI agents after his arrest.
