Nader Saadeh, a 20-year-old from Rutherford taken into custody shortly after he arrived in Jordon, admitted to conspiring to provide material support to the terror group known as ISIS.
NEWARK--A third member of a close circle of friends tied together in an investigation spanning across New Jersey, New York and to the Middle East, pleaded guilty Thursday of attempting to travel to Syria to join ISIS.
Nader Saadeh, a 20-year-old from Rutherford taken into custody shortly after arriving in Jordan last May, admitted in a court appearance before U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton in Newark to conspiring to provide material support to the terror group now controlling large areas of Syria and Iraq.
Prosecutors said Saadeh also admitted that two of his friends discussed plans to bomb landmarks including Times Square and the World Trade Center in the name of ISIS. That plot never materialized.
Saadeh had been one of five men linked by the FBI after a year-long investigation by the bureau and the Joint Terrorism Task Force that apparently began after the mother of one expressed fears that his friends were pushing him to "do something stupid."
Nader's older brother, Alaa Saadeh, 24, of West New York, pleaded guilty in October--also to conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State, by helping Nader travel to Jordan.
Samuel Topaz, 21, who graduated Fort Lee High School with Nader Saadeh, pleaded guilty in September to the same charge of conspiring to provide services and personnel to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
Two others have been charged in federal court in Brooklyn. Munther Omar Saleh, 20, a student at an aeronautical engineering college in Queens and another friend of Nader Saadeh, is the focus of an ongoing investigation into the alleged bomb plot that authorities said would have utilized homemade pressure cooker bombs similar to those used in the Boston Marathon bombing. Fareed Mumuni, 21, of Staten Island, was charged with trying to kill an FBI agent who had arrived at his home to take him into custody.
Both Saleh and Mumuni, held since June, were indicted in August, again on charges of conspiring to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization. Prosecutors have given notice that they will enter into evidence electronic records collected under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Authorities said Nader Saadeh, a U.S. citizen who grew up in New Jersey, admitted that prior to his departure from the United States, he was shown technical drawings for the homemade bombs that Saleh and Mumuni discussed using to carry out an attack in the name of ISIS in Times Square, and also at the World Trade Center and the Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in Queens, where Saleh was a student.
While the U.S. Attorney's office has said little more about the alleged plot, Topaz's attorney, Ian Hirsch of Hackensack, said some of those tied to the conspiracy had talked about "going to the White House lawn and killing whoever they could because they could not get out of the country." Hirsch said Topaz played no role in any such plot, but he acknowledged he took no steps to report it.
U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, following Thursday's plea, said Nader Saadeh was the last of the three charged in New Jersey to admit guilt in the case.
"ISIL is intent on threatening the safety of Americans here and abroad, and we and our law enforcement partners are just as intent on stopping them," Fishman said.
Growing radicalization
According to criminal complaints in the case, Saadeh and others in the group had grown increasingly focused over the past year on getting to the Middle East to join ISIS. Prosecutors cited messages on Twitter and other social media, along with other computer records, showing that Saadeh had begun looking for airline tickets--initially seeking to fly to Turkey--after learning that the deli where he worked was to be sold.
Saadeh also admitted that Saleh assisted him by giving him a contact who authorities said would facilitate his travel from Turkey to Syria, prosecutors said.
By April of this year, investigators said Nader Saadeh was speaking mostly in Arabic, had stopped using the computer in the house, and turned to his smartphone for most communications. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, an informant said Saadeh had become a radicalized supporter of the Islamic State group, calling the execution of a captured Jordanian Air Force pilot by burning him alive earlier this year "justified."
According to court filings, Nader's parents had tried to convince him not to go.
"Yesterday your mother called me. She was crying and was subdued because of your issue. She said that you want to travel to Turkey and join a group of people you do not know who they really are," Khaled Saadeh, the father, wrote in an email cited in the criminal complaints filed in U.S. District Court in New Jersey.
He urged his son to reconsider. "They seduce you under the flag of Islam, but when you get to them, you see things that make you hate your situation...My dear, please, think about it...If you aim at the afterlife, you should obtain your parents' satisfaction, build a family and make us happy."
The father, who works as a project manager in the Gulf state of Oman, said in an email to NJ Advance Media that he and his wife had encouraged their son to come to Jordan instead, as a way of keeping him from traveling to Turkey and joining ISIS.
"I did what I have to do like a father to protect my sons, but the government is not doing enough to protect our kids from this kind of group, who try to brainwash our kids," he said in the email.
Nader Saadeh left for Jordan on May 5 aboard a Royal Jordanian Airlines flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport, flying on a ticked purchased on his brother's credit card. But he was taken into custody by Jordanian security forces upon his arrival in Amman.
Returned to the United States under circumstances the U.S. Justice Department still will not disclose, Saadeh was arrested and charged in August with trying to organize support for the Islamic State.
He faces up to 15 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 when he appears for sentencing March 18, 2016.
Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
