A 40-year-old Florida man accused of plotting a terror attack on a local synagogue wanted to pin the blame on ISIS and allegedly recorded a video warning “ISIS is in the house.” To cement the ISIS connection, he allegedly considered leaving “a note or a banner … that … resembles the letters of Arabic.”
“We could make it up,” he was allegedly caught saying on tape.
What the man, James Medina, didn’t know was that he was the target of a FBI sting. He was arrested Friday, according to the Miami Herald, after buying a dummy bomb from an undercover agent and approaching the synagogue with it, authorities said. The affidavit alleged that Medina repeatedly expressed his desire to attack the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center in the Miami area and had no problem with killing women and children in the process, according to the transcripts.
Court documents suggest that Medina — who is said to have converted to Islam four years ago — had no ties to ISIS, and rather sought to stage its involvement so “they can show it on Television.”
“I’m up for it. I really am. This is is no joke. This is serious dog,” Medina allegedly told an undercover agent (known in the doc as “UCE”).
Medina intended to execute the attack Passover weekend, under the mistaken notion that it was Yom Kippur, according to the court documents. He initially planned to bring assault rifles to gun down worshippers at the synagogue, the docs said, but then changed the plan to “like drop a bomb and just leave it and then it pop, just pop that bitch and we out.”
“I wanna get away with it. But I wanna, I wanna see it make the news and everybody,” Medina allegedly said, adding, “ l wanna see it go worldwide with now all the Muslims realizing you know, when it’s our time … Next thing you know it will be in California, Washington, and the brothers are saying you know, it’s our time now.”
Part of his plan for publicizing the attack included leaving leaflets at the site of the attack with text that looked Arabic.
“We gotta leave a note or a banner, something that in, that it resembles the letters of Arabic…We could make it up. We can print it up, a Ietter, something. Just leave it, like as I was, just drop it,” Medina said, according from an FBI affidavit that included transcripts of audio recordings taken undercover.
“Yeah, we can print up or something and make it look like it’s ISIS here in America. Just like that,” Medina allegedly said.
The charging docs said Medina harbored anti-Semitic sentiment and blamed Jews for the wars and conflicts around the world.
“I wanna see damage happen to their ass. l wanna see something man,” he said according to the affidavit.
Medina traveled with an “FBl Confidential Human Source” (“CHS”) to the synagogue in the mid April to map out the plan for the attack, the affidavit said. A few days later, they met with an undercover agent who Medina believed would sell them explosives, according to the docs.
Asked by the agent why he wanted to attack the synagogue, Medina said, “Because realize that I have a lot of love for Allah. And I know that all these, all these wars that are going on, it hurts me. You know? It’s my call of duty. l gotta get back when I’m doing this, I feel that l’m doing it for a good cause for Allah.”
At one point, Medina filmed videos using the source’s phone, according to the affidavit:
Medina met with the undercover agent in a Hallandale Beach parking lot on Friday to purchase the explosives, with plans to attack the synagogue during its services that day, the affidavit said .The two drove to the synagogue, where Medina approached the Jewish center with the dummy device in hand before he was taken into custody.
Medina appeared in federal court Monday afternoon, according to the Sun Sentinel, where he sought to make a speech before he was cut off by U.S. Magistrate Judge William Turnoff. He could face life in prison the Sentinel said, and will have a detention hearing on Thursday, where he will be represented by a public defender.
He has been arrested multiples times before, according to the Sentinel, including for allegations in 2012 that he sent dozens of threatening text messages to a family in Coral Springs, Florida.
Read the full affidavit below:
