Israeli prosecutors plan on handing down a severe indictment on Monday; charges already filed in the US
ed note–a few things worth noting here–
1. The only, repeat ONLY reason that the ‘yoot’ was charged by Israel is because not doing so would open the Jewish state up to all sorts of problems, not the least of which would be the assumption that Israeli intelligence was involved in this operation from the beginning.
2. The fact that Israel is refusing his extradition to the US is due to the fact that they know that more ties to Israeli intelligence will be uncovered as the ‘yoot’ is offered a deal by the prosecution that if he cooperates with the investigation that he will get a lighter sentence…
And finally–
3. If Trump were truly ‘owned by the Jews’ as so many ‘experts’ in this ‘movement’ claim, none of this would be taking place.
Consider past presidential puppets such as George W. Bush, who allowed the Mossad spies arrested on 9/11 to return home to Israel, and Obama’s release of Pollard as points of reference in this matter.
Times of Israel
Israel has refused a US request to extradite an Israeli-American teenager suspected of making hundreds of bomb threat calls to American Jewish institutions over the last several months, a report said Sunday.
According to Channel 2, Israel intends to hand down a severe indictment of its own on Monday against the hacker from Ashkelon, and therefore denied the US Department of Justice request to extradite the teen.
The 18-year-old is expected to be charged with crimes involving extortion with menaces, causing panic and money laundering.
On Friday, he was charged in the US with 28 counts of making threatening calls and conveying false information to police, according to the indictment filed in federal court in Orlando. Separately, he was charged with three more counts of making threatening calls, conveying false information and cyberstalking in an indictment filed in federal court in Athens, Georgia.
Investigators from both countries have been questioning the youth since his arrest last month, and new details of his alleged crimes are continuing to emerge.
The youth, whose name is under a gag order in Israel, also reportedly charged for his phone threat services on occasion, specifying incidents in which he issued bomb threats to US educational institutions, forcing their evacuation, on behalf of students who wanted exams postponed. He was paid in Bitcoins for these threats; almost 2 million shekels (more than half a million dollars) worth of Bitcoins was found in his internet bank account.
If tried and convicted in the US, he would face a lengthy jail term, and US prosecutors are set to seek his extradition, Channel 2 reported Saturday. However, it is not clear that Israel’s state prosecutors, proceeding with their own case against him, will readily agree, the TV report noted.
It added that the youth has expressed no sorrow or regret for his actions.
His lawyer has said that he has a brain tumor and suffers from autism. His parents have also argued that he is unfit to stand trial, though they have apologized for his alleged actions. On Thursday an Israeli court extended his remand until April 24.
The teen living in Israel left scores of messages graphically describing children’s deaths in calls to Jewish community centers and schools across the United States, using an online calling service to disguise his voice as a woman and hide his identity, according to the federal indictment filed in Florida.
The calls to the Jewish community centers and schools stoked fears of rising anti-Semitism and led to campus evacuations.
The Florida indictment said that he made 245 threatening calls, most of them to Jewish community centers and schools, from January to March. He recorded each of the calls himself and kept them in organized files at his home in Ashkelon, along with news articles describing the police responses to the threats, the indictment said.
A large antenna at his apartment building allowed him to make long-distance, outdoor wireless connections.
The Florida indictment said recordings of the calls stripped of the software-enabled disguise revealed a speech impediment in the caller’s voice that matched his.
The Georgia indictment connects him to several incidents of ‘swatting’ in which authorities are called to respond to an emergency that ends up being fake. The indictment alleges that in January the University of Georgia Police Department received a phone call about a home invasion that ended up being untrue.
The JCC Association of North America said in a statement that it welcomed the charges and that it was ‘enormously proud of the extraordinary commitment to safety and security’ at the community centers.
‘Today’s charges into these violent threats to Jewish Community Centers and others represent this Department’s commitment to fighting all forms of violent crime,’ US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Friday. ‘These threats of violence instilled terror in Jewish and other communities across this country and our investigation into these acts as possible hate crimes continues.’
FBI Director James Comey added: ‘This kind of behavior is not a prank, and it isn’t harmless. It’s a federal crime. It scares innocent people, disrupts entire communities, and expends limited law enforcement resources. The FBI thanks our partners for working with us here at home and around the world.’
The suspect, said Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth E. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, ‘allegedly took extraordinary steps to conceal his identity and location through several technological means, including voice alteration, use of proxy IP addresses, virtual currencies and caller ID spoofing.’
A wave of bomb threats to American Jewish institutions since the start of the year helped spread fear amid an apparent increase in hate crimes and anti-Semitic acts in the United States. Some said that the rise of Donald Trump as US president encouraged the extreme right and emboldened hate groups.
The arrest of the Jewish teenager over dozens of the threats complicated the debate, however.
He is also alleged to have made threatening phone calls over the past two to three years targeting schools and other public institutions in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
In addition, Israeli police say he is suspected of a bomb threat to Delta Airlines in February 2015 that led to an emergency landing.
During a remand hearing on Thursday in Rishon Lezion, the teenager’s parents asked the court to replace their son’s attorney with a public defender, but the defendant insisted that his current lawyer, Shira Nir, remain on the case, Channel 10 reported. The court ruled that Nir should remain the suspect’s counsel.
‘After I saw documents related to the suspect’s past, I decided to ask his parents to bring a private psychiatrist to the prison, in order to help clarify that he is not fit for detention,’ Nir told Channel 10. She said the suspect’s father refused to pay for a private psychiatrist and subsequently asked the court to replace her with a public defender.