The Israel Police and Shin Bet Security Service released information on Tuesday regarding a Christian American citizen arrested on suspicion of planning a terror attack on Muslim holy sites in Israel.

According to Shin Bet and Israel Police reports, the suspect is Adam Everett Livvix, a 30-year-old from Texas. Livvix has previously been wanted in the U.S. on drug charges. He was arrested in Israel on November 19, on suspicion of possession of illegal weapons and planning a terror attack.

According to the Shin Bet, Livvix, while residing in the Palestinian territories prior to his arrest, was approached about assassinating U.S. President Barack Obama while the latter was visiting Israel, though the suspect refused to take part in the plan.

Livvix came to Israel in 2013 and lived in the Palestinian cities of Hebron and Bethlehem. It was while living in Bethlehem that Livvix was approached by a Palestinian about assassinating Obama the with a sniper rifle. Livvix refused. After leaving Palestinian Authority territory, Livvix entered Israel illegally, and remained in the country illegally for roughly a year and a half.

Livvix became acquainted with Israelis and presented himself as a former U.S. Navy SEAL. During questioning, Livvix admitted to being involved in various fraud schemes, as well as the initial stages of planning terror attacks on sites holy to Islam in Israel.

Open gallery view Screenshot from fugitiverecovery.com showing Adam Everett Livvix.

He was apprehended in possession of various weapons and explosives that were stolen from the Israel Defense Forces. In October of this year Livvix asked his roommate, an IDF soldier, to procure weapons for him in exchange for money. His roommate managed to bring him a 1.4 kilogram explosive device, for which Livvix paid part of the agreed upon sum.

The American Federal Bureau of Investigation was notified of the investigation by Israeli security services, and the Central District Prosecutor filed an indictment against Livix in the Netanya Magistrate’s Court. On Monday, the court ordered that Livvix be held until the end of legal proceedings, and that he undergo psychiatric evaluation as per the request of his defense attorney.

The Israel Police and the Justice Ministry stated that the suspect attempted to flee when he was apprehended by police, by jumping out of his seventh-floor window onto a sixth-floor balcony.

Livvix's indictment comes at a time of rising tensions in Jerusalem, mostly over a disputed holy site that is holy both to Muslims and Jews.

In 1969, an Australian Christian started a fire at the complex in hopes that it would hasten the second coming of Jesus Christ. The man, Denis Michael Rohan, was subsequently committed to a mental institution.

'One of the mose severe security cases'

Attorney Gal Wolf, representing the public defender’s office, stated on Tuesday evening, that "this case has been presented by the security services as one of the most severe security cases Israel has ever dealt with. Based on this information, the accused has been denied his right to meet with a lawyer for eight days. For eight days he was arrested, and was not allowed to even know who his defense lawyer was, and hearings were held with his defense lawyer while he was not present. The indictment that was ultimately issued shows there was no justification for denying him access to a lawyer and legal counsel.”

Attorney Wolf added that “this is not the first time that the draconian practice of forbidding contact with a lawyer has been proven to be without any justification. Such a practice should be withheld for only the most sever circumstances, and never applied routinely.”



According to the attorney that filed the indictment - Dan Cohen from the Central District Prosecutor’s office - some of the evidence against Livvix includes testimony from friends and acquaintances, including his ex-girlfriend, regarding negative statement he made about the Arab Israeli population and his intent to attack Islamic holy sites.

The various versions of the story held by the police and the Shin Bet include, according to the document that requested he be detained, a partial confession, as well as statements from acquaintances who claimed to have seen Livvix’s weapons. “The fact that he possessed explosives and other weapons while residing in Israel illegally shows the clear extent of the danger,” read the document.