Jersey Jihad: Inside the ISIS case that ensnared 5 friends

NEWARK —They appeared to be a tight circle of friends.

There was Nader Saadeh, a 20-year-old New Jersey man who federal prosecutors say began trolling the internet for jihadist websites before leaving for Jordan in an apparent effort to join ISIS. His older brother, Alaa Saadeh, 23, told a friend to lie if the FBI came knocking.

Samuel Topaz, a talented musician and classmate of Nader Saadeh at Fort Lee High School, was converted by him to Islam. He posted "selfies" on Facebook wearing the dark head and face scarves favored by Islamic State fighters. According to court filings, they were captioned: "Which assassin am I, or am I all of them?"

Munther Omar Saleh, 20, was studying electrical circuitry at an aeronautical engineering college in Queens and also knew Nader Saadeh. After Saleh allegedly tweeted support for the gunmen who attacked the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, authorities believe he began scouting out New York City landmarks and tourist sites. They said he was planning on assembling a deadly pressure cooker bomb.

And Fareed Mumuni, 21, who was close to Saleh, had been described by neighbors as a quiet, friendly guy who "never talked about politics or anything," before he came at federal agents with a kitchen carving knife when they showed up to arrest him.

Lawyers and friends were reluctant to say much, or anything at all. But their story as seen through a series of criminal complaints, following a year-long FBI/Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation that spanned two states, offers a unique view into the lives of five young men who grew up in the U.S. Living typical American lives, attending school, enjoying music, playing sports, still all felt the pull to join the cause of the militant Islamic State.

From New Jersey to California, federal authorities have charged 58 people in the past year alleging support or ties to ISIS, or ISIL as it is also called. Most have been U.S. citizens  in their early 20s.

They have included married women, jobless teenagers, military veterans and converts. At least three of those charged successfully made it to Syria. And as with the case of the five friends now charged in federal court in Brooklyn and in Newark, many may not even show up on the radar screen until worried friends or relatives make a call.

While prosecutors in New Jersey and New York would not discuss the case which came to light last month, an examination of court filings, examined in the context of a single timeline, indicates that the FBI did not open an investigation into the group until a call this past January from a "close acquaintance" of Samuel Topaz—likely a family member—who expressed fears that his friends were pushing him to "do something stupid."

The individual, who federal officials won't identify but clearly had access to Topaz's personal belongings, took his passport and hid it.

High school friends

Topaz and Nader Saadeh grew up together in Fort Lee after the parents of the Saadeh brothers were deported in 2002 over a credit card fraud case, say law enforcement sources. The father of the American-born brothers lived in the Gulf state of Oman. Their mother was in Jordan. Family members could not be contacted and it is not known who raised the boys.

Sam Topaz lived at home with his mother and a younger brother, say friends. Hoping to become a musician, his soulful rendition covering Stevie Wonder's "Ribbon in the Sky" can still be found on YouTube. He played varsity football as a junior. Records show he played one game and had one tackle. He also ran track.

Graduating from Fort Lee High School with Nader Saadeh, the two accepted their diplomas at the June 24, 2013 commencement in the black cap-and-gowns and orange stoles of the suburban Bergen County school district. Nader Saadah can be seen in a photo with a wide smile. Topaz hobbled up on crutches when his name was called.

Classmates say Topaz had been accepted to Boston's Berklee College of Music, but was unable to go because of financial reasons. Instead, he enrolled in Bergen Community College after graduation for a time before dropping out and becoming a line cook at Chipolte, said one classmate who asked not to be identified. In April, the FBI was again in touch with the acquaintance who took Topaz's passport. They were told that Nader Saadeh and a friend from New York, Munther Omar Saleh, were "trying to recruit" Sam, "preying on his insecurities and pain," say court records. And Sam was becoming distant from his old high school friends "who were a good influence on him."

Topaz was not interested in continuing with community college, the federal agents were told in follow-up interviews. "He does not see a future for himself in the United States," the acquaintance said. He said "they" promised him $7,000 a week and that he could have four wives. He also had been praying "night and day," and had begun fasting. Just who "they" might be was not specified in the complaint.

After his graduation, the FBI was told Nader Saadeh had started to express increasing support for ISIS and its violent agenda. He became "deeply and uncharacteristically interested in views and behaviors associated with Islam. In late 2014, he began to fast, stopped drinking and smoking and eating foods not permissible under Islamic law. Prosecutors say he took to wearing heavy, dark eyeliner, grew out his beard and dyed it red with henna, as some Muslim men do. He soon converted Topaz to Islam, according to court filings.

From Pokémon To Jihad

Nader Saadeh already knew Munther Omas Saleh, also 20, whose high school graduation photo on Facebook shows him clean-shaven, a blue dress shirt and matching tie, in blue cap-and-gown. Saleh's Twitter account once was a place where his main interest seemed to be focused on Pokémon and Japanese anime.

But he, too, changed. The FBI later found regular exchanges between Nader Saadeh and Saleh dating to 2012 about the death of Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born Islamic militant killed in a 2011 U.S. drone attack, as well as the Syrian civil war. They discussed building a "small army" that would include their friends. Saadeh messaged the Queens student over the explosive media reports detailing security leaks regarding the National Security Agency's secret surveillance methods.

"Man I feel its really hope[less] to try to oppose these people," complained Saadeh.

"What can we do? Really want to leave this country," Saleh said.

"in shaa ALLAH," wrote Nader Saadeh. God willing.

In January of this year, Munther Saleh enrolled at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in Queens, authorities say. He began coursework and laboratory work in electrical circuitry, said the FBI.

Despite his jihadist talk on his internet accounts, he aroused little suspicion until a Port Authority police officer saw him one Sunday in March walking toward the George Washington Bridge, not far from where Sam Topaz lived in Fort Lee. Saleh told police only that he had been visiting a friend in New Jersey. After agreeing to a search of his computer, law enforcement agents said they found references to ISIS propaganda.

Fareed Mumuni, 21, who lived on Staten Island, completed the circle. Mumuni, who was from Ghana, lived with his parents in Mariners Harbor and graduated in 2013 from Curtis High School on Hamilton Avenue in Staten Island. A student at the College of Staten Island, he worshiped at the Noor Al-Islam mosque near his home. According to complaints filed in the case, he came under surveillance after repeatedly meeting with Munther Saleh in lower Manhattan and Staten Island.

A decision to leave

Most of the group seemed increasingly focused on getting to the Middle East, according to the criminal complaints. Citing messages on Twitter and other social media uncovered after prosecutors began investigating the group, along with other computer records, Nader Saadeh starting looking for airline tickets—at first to Turkey—after learning that the deli where he worked was to be sold.

By April of this year, authorities say Saadeh—identified as a co-conspirator but never directly named in the complaints—was speaking mostly in Arabic, had stopped using the computer in the house, and turned to his smartphone for most communications. He told friends he was heading to Jordan.

His older brother, Alaa Saadeh, was "on the fence" about traveling and so was Sam Topaz, the complaints said. But Nader Saadeh had made his decision. He shaved off his beard, telling friends he did so because he did not want to be harassed by officials. He told another friend only that he wanted to study theology overseas in the Middle East. The friend told the FBI it made him suspicious. Nader Saadeh, he told them, had never been very studious.

Nader's plan to travel to Jordan was apparently not welcome news to his father in Oman.

"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," 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."

His mother, in an email the same day, also urged him not to go: "Nader, do not listen to them they liers [sic]. Do not go anywhere if u love me dont kill your mom...Don't kill my smile."
Their pleas apparently fell on deaf ears.

We're gonna unite everybody...

 On April 30,  a ticket was purchased in Nader's name on Royal Jordanian Airlines, using Alaa Saadeh's credit card. That same day, several friends gathered at a restaurant for a going away party. The Saadeh brothers headed to John F. Kenney Airport on Tuesday evening, May 5, together with Saleh and another unnamed individual believed to be an FBI informant who recorded their conversation.

Munther Saleh declared that when he left the United States, he would never be coming back. Nader Saadeh promised that his brother and Sam Topaz would come too.

"We're trying to bring everybody and reunite everybody," Nader said, according to a transcript of the surveillance recording.

"Like a holiday," laughed Saleh.

"Yeah, it's gonna be awesome. Yeah, yeah," proclaimed Nader Saadeh. "We're just gonna unite everybody, insh'allah."

At 9:40 p.m., Nader Saadeh boarded Flight 262 for Queen Alia International Airport in Amman. The plane took off into the night sky, right on schedule.

A series of arrests

A week later on May 15, Alaa Saadeh's father called to tell his older son there had been trouble in Jordan. Nader was being detained by security forces and placed in solitary confinement. He instructed his son to be "very careful who he talked to," and to delete everything off his phone, prosecutors said.

Alaa Saadeh soon texted Topaz, convinced that "somebody snitched" on his brother. "Lay low," he warned. "And don't talk to nobody." He expressed fears he was being followed by the FBI. According to the court complaints, he told another friend that he hoped it was not Topaz or Saleh who was responsible for his brother's detention. "I'm hoping it's not because if it is...I think I'm going to kill someone."

Munther Saleh, meanwhile, had allegedly begun searching for information on the internet for instructions on how to construct a pressure cooker bomb, according to an FBI agent assigned to the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force. They claimed he was conducting online searches for a watch and other components for a bomb, including propane, and met several times with Mumuni in New York.

On Saturday, June 13, Saleh—who by now the FBI was convinced was targeting one or more New York City landmarks—was the first to be arrested on a warrant issued in U.S. federal court in Brooklyn. Topaz tried repeatedly that day to call him, but complained to a friend that he was not answering.

Four days later, on June 17, the FBI showed up with warrants at Topaz's home in Fort Lee and took him into custody as well. And that same morning, an arrest team showed up at Mumuni's home in Staten Island at 6:35 a.m. But according to the criminal complaint, he lunged at them with a large kitchen knife before being subdued.

As news of the arrests became public, Alaa Saadeh was asked by another informant who recorded the conversation what to say if the FBI came knocking.

"If they do come—straight up—tell them what it is about me," he replied. "When it comes to Nader, just say 'I don't know...You tell them, his personality, how he was. He worked. He was just a normal kid. Blah, blah, blah..."

Awaiting trial

Today, Topaz, 20, is being without bail in the Essex County Correctional Facility, charged with conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq.

Friends say they cannot believe the charges again the classmate they knew as a gentle, insecure student with a beautiful voice. One said the Facebook selfies asking "which assassin am I?" referenced in the criminal complaint were nothing more than a teenager's attraction to the popular video game "Assassin's Creed."

Topaz's court-appointed attorney declined to talk about the case. "At this time, no comment," said Borce Martinoski of Hackensack. "Not at liberty to discuss the situation."

Munther Saleh has also been charged with conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq—a charge that could have him facing up to15 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. His attorney, Deborah Colson of Manhattan, also said she could not comment.

Mumuni has been charged with trying to kill an FBI agent. According to court filings, he waived his rights after his arrest and admitted to discussing the construction of a pressure cooker bomb with Saleh. He faces up to 20 years in prison. His attorney, Anthony L. Ricco of New York, did not return calls to his office.

Nader Saadeh today remains detained in Jordan, according to law enforcement officials. He has not been formally charged in this country, despite being referred to repeatedly in criminal complaints as a co-conspirator.

Alaa Saadeh was arrested on Monday, June 29, and has also been charged with conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State. His attorney, Maria Notto of Matawan, said she could not say much about the case, but said he "is not the monster" he is being portrayed as in the media.

"My client did not go to Jordan," she said.

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