NEW: 23yo American #ISIS Omer Kuzu - captured by #SDF and repatriated to the US in 2019 - pleads guilty to conspiring to provide material support to terrorism, per @TheJusticeDept
.@TheJusticeDept "remains committed to holding accountable those who have left this country in order to join & support #ISIS" per Asst AG John Demers in statement
"We hope countries around the world, including our #Europe|an allies and partners, will likewise take responsibility for their own citizens who traveled to support #ISIS" per @TheJusticeDept's Demers
Kuzu was captured along with about 400 #ISIS fighters by US-backed #SDF near the village of Dashisha in March 2019, after fleeing as the terror group's self-declared caliphate in #Syria ultimately collapsed
According to prosecutors, Kuzu left the US in October 2014 w/his brother and went to #Turkey, before being smuggled into #Syria. From there he went to #Mosul to train.
Kuzu said he pledged allegiance to #ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi upon his return to Syria
Court documents show Kuzu & his brother rejected pleas from their parents not to go to #Syria to join #ISIS. Family members also sought help from #Turkey authorities and advised US officials of the situation
NEW: US charges American TV presenter for Channel One #Russia & his wife in scheme to evade US sanctions
@TheJusticeDept unsealed the indictment vs 76yo Dimitri Simes & 55yo Anastasia Simes Thursday
They have a home in #Virginia but "remain at large...believed to be in Russia"
Dimitri & Anastasia Simes each charged w/1 count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), 1 count of violating the IEEPA & 1 count of conspiracy to commit int'l money laundering
Per @TheJusticeDept, it's a maximum of 20 years per count
Dimitri Simes alleged to have violated sanctions by "serving as a presenter & producer of programming, & by receiving over $1 million, a personal car & driver, a stipend for an apartment in #Moscow... a team of 10 employees from Channel One Russia" per DOJ
Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin 'Attash & Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi were charged in June 2008 & then again in May 2012 for their alleged roles in planning the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on #NewYork's World Trade Center & the Pentagon
JUST IN: US issues new National Counterintelligence Strategy
Updated strategy, signed by @POTUS Thursday, based on 3 pillars, per @NCSCgov:
-outmaneuver/constrain foreign intelligence entities
-protect US strategic advantages
-invest in the future
"Foreign intelligence and security services & their proxies persist in seeking to acquire our most
sensitive information, technology, and intellectual property" per @POTUS in the just-released strategy
"Non-state actors are following suit"
Foreign intelligence entities "also seeking to take advantage of the proliferation of commercially available tools to conduct surveillance; collect vast amounts of previously unavailable personal data;
& position themselves to disrupt our infrastructure..." per @POTUS
Some nuggets from @FBI Dir. Christopher Wray's appearance Tuesday before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies...
#ArtificialIntelligence & #Election2024-"We are, of course, seeing & I've been warning about this for some time, the role of AI to enhance efforts that our foreign adversaries have already been engaged in" per @FBI's Wray
"It's not that it [#ArtificialIntelligence] changes fundamentally what it is our adversaries want to do...it allows them to amplify to do it, to make it more sophisticated, more deceptive, cheaper, faster" per @FBI's Wray