Experts question wisdom of prosecuting Mohamed Khweis with material support of terrorism rather than using him to encourage other defections

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Federal prosecutors have charged a Virginia-born man who travelled to join and then fled from the Islamic State with material support for terrorism, even though a criminal complaint against him provides no connection to any acts of violence.



Mohamed Khweis, a 26-year old Palestinian American man who surrendered to Kurdish peshmerga forces in Iraq this March, neither trained with Isis fighters, participated in Isis attacks nor funded Isis operations, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday.

Terrorism experts said it was inevitable for Khweis to face charges, as travelling to Isis-held territory violates US law. But some questioned the value of prosecuting Khweis, an apparent defector from Isis, at a time when the US is seeking to blunt the militant group’s propaganda.

“You have to build incentives for people to defect,” said Seamus Hughes, the deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.

Victoria Martinez, an FBI agent who interrogated Khweis in Iraq, stated in the complaint that Khweis told an Isis member that he wanted to be a suicide bomber, but Khweis “thought this question was intended to test his commitment” to the group.

The complaint also states that Khweis “voluntarily submitted to Peshmerga authority” after leaving Isis-controlled territory in Iraq, suggesting a defection rather than capture.

Khweis, whom the complaint says adopted the nom de guerre Abu Omar al-Amriki, acknowledged travelling from the US to the Isis-held cities of Mosul and Raqqa via Turkey in December 2015. While Isis members touted weapons, Khweis told interrogators he did not.

“The defendant stated that he only touched a firearm once, moving aside a firearm on a couch so he could sit down,” the complaint states.

According to a video released by the Kurdistan24 news agency after Khweis surrendered, the 26-year old said he regretted travelling to Isis territory. Ideological disagreements drove him to flee, he claimed. But Martinez stated without elaboration that Khweis provided “misleading information in the video for self-protection”.

The complaint accuses Khweis of meeting with an Isis branch charged with preparing new recruits for militant actions around Raqqa. “The defendant claimed he did not commit to this training,” the complaint states.

Additionally, the complaint states that Khweis’s electronic devices contained Isis propaganda, including images of the World Trade Center towers’ destruction. Khweis is said to have also had pictures of Omar Hammami, an American who joined and then rejected the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab, which killed Hammami in 2013.

Khweis is scheduled to appear on Thursday afternoon before a federal judge in Virginia, according to the US justice department, his first courtroom hearing since his March surrender. Charges of material support for terrorism typically carry sentences of 15-20 years in prison for each act.

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a terrorism expert and senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said charging Khweis was a “no-brainer”, as he had travelled to Isis-held territory after the group had conducted years’ worth of terrorist attacks. Prosecuting Khweis, Gartenstein-Ross said, would have to be weighed against his potential value “counter-messaging” other potential Isis recruits.

“It’s self-evident that the [justice department] decision process was that there’s more value in charging him and seeking to go to trial. There’s a deterrent factor for others that’d seek this path,” said Robert McFadden, a former navy counter-terrorism investigator.

Hughes of George Washington University said that charging Khweis provided prosecutors with leverage to turn Khweis into a US propaganda asset, while noting that he travelled “bright-eyed” to join Isis, per the complaint.

“I think that there is an important role here for the use of defectors, formers, whatever you want to call them,” he said. “It’s a powerful story to tell to prevent the next young kid from making horrible choices. It’s a difficult balance.”