By Francis Scarcella
The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.
ALLENWOOD, Pa. — A 27-year-old Canadian man, already sentenced to federal prison for planning a mass casualty terroristic attack in New York City, pleaded guilty to offenses related to a 2020 attack on correctional officers at the U.S. Federal Penitentiary in Allenwood and now faces up to an additional 130 years in prison.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the National Security Division of the Department of Justice said Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy pleaded guilty Tuesday.
According to United States Attorney Brian D. Miller and Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg, Bahnasawy was an inmate at USP Allenwood and on Dec. 7, 2020, attacked two corrections officers using a weapon made from part of a steel desk in his cell.
Bahnasawy stabbed one officer in the head and face, according to the charges. When a second responded to assist, Bahnasawy stabbed her in the hand, officials said.
The first officer eventually lost his right eye as a result of the attack, according to the reports. When Bahnasawy was restrained, a note was found in his sock that read, “This is a terrorist attack for the Islamic State,” officials said.
A pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham ( ISIS ) was also found taped to the inside of a locker door in Bahnasawy’s prison cell, authorities said Tuesday.
Bahnasawy pleaded guilty to multiple counts of assault, assault with intent to commit murder and possession of contraband inside a prison, as well as providing material support to ISIS, a designated foreign terrorist organization.
At the time of the attacks at USP Allenwood, Bahnasawy was serving a sentence for his role in plotting a mass-casualty terrorist attack in New York City on behalf of ISIS. Bahnasawy, a then-20-year-old Canadian citizen and resident, plotted with Talha Haroon and Russell Salic to conduct bombings and shootings in heavily populated areas of New York City during the Islamic holy month of Ramadhan in 2016, all in the name of ISIS.
An undercover FBI agent infiltrated the co-conspirators’ terrorist plot, posing as an ISIS supporter prepared to join in the attacks. The FBI arrested Bahnasawy in May 2016 after he traveled from Canada to the New York City area in preparation for the attacks. He has been in custody since that time, authorities said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case. Assistant United States Attorney Geoffrey MacArthur and Counterterrorism Section Trial Attorney Jessica L. Joyce prosecuted this case.
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The 4 Cs of inmate management: Maintaining order involves more than just searching and counting inmates and performing inspections. It involves understanding your inmate population.
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