Ali Kourani Was Trained by Hizballah’s External Terrorist
Operations Component and Gathered Intelligence in New York City in Support of
Attack-Planning Efforts
Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York, announced that a jury returned a guilty verdict
today against Ali Kourani, a/k/a “Ali Mohamad Kourani,” a/k/a “Jacob Lewis,”
a/k/a “Daniel,” on all eight counts in the Indictment, which charged him with
terrorism, sanctions, and immigration offenses for his illicit work as an
undercover terrorist operative for Hizballah’s external attack-planning
component. KOURANI is scheduled to be
sentenced on September 27, 2019, by the Honorable Alvin K. Hellerstein, who
presided over the eight-day trial.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “Ali Kourani was recruited, trained, and
deployed by Hizballah’s Islamic Jihad Organization to plan and execute acts of
terrorism in the United States.
Kourani’s chilling mission was to help procure weapons and gather
intelligence about potential targets in the U.S. for future Hizballah terrorist
attacks. Some of the targets Kourani
surveilled included JFK Airport and law enforcement facilities in New York
City, including the federal building at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan. Today, Kourani has fittingly been convicted
for his crimes in a courthouse that stands in the shadow of one of his potential
targets.”
As reflected in the criminal Complaint, Indictment, and the
evidence presented at trial:
Hizballah is a Lebanon-based Shia Islamic organization with
political, social, and terrorist components that was founded in the 1980s with
support from Iran. Since Hizballah’s
formation, the organization has been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks
that have killed hundreds, including United States citizens and military
personnel. In 1997, the U.S. Department
of State designated Hizballah a Foreign Terrorist Organization, pursuant to
Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and it remains so
designated today. In 2010, State
Department officials described Hizballah as the most technically capable
terrorist group in the world, and a continued security threat to the United
States.
The Islamic Jihad Organization (“IJO”), which is also known
as the External Security Organization and “910,” is a highly compartmentalized
component of Hizballah responsible for the planning, preparation, and execution
of intelligence, counterintelligence, and terrorist activities on behalf of
Hizballah outside of Lebanon. In July
2012, an IJO operative detonated explosives on a bus transporting Israeli
tourists in the vicinity of an airport in Burgas, Bulgaria, killing six people
and injuring 32 others. Law enforcement
authorities have disrupted several other IJO attack-planning operations around
the world, including the arrest of an IJO operative surveilling Israeli targets
in Cyprus in 2012, the seizure of bomb-making precursor chemicals in Thailand
in 2012, including chemicals manufactured by a medical devices company based in
Guangzhou, China (“Guangzhou Company-1”), and a similar seizure of chemicals
manufactured by Guangzhou Company-1 in Cyprus in May 2015 in connection with
the arrest of another IJO operative.
KOURANI, who was born in Lebanon, attended
Hizballah-sponsored weapons training in Lebanon in 2000 when he was
approximately 16 years old. After
lawfully entering the United States in 2003, KOURANI obtained a Bachelor of
Science in biomedical engineering in 2009, and a Masters of Business
Administration in 2013.
KOURANI and certain of his relatives were in Lebanon during
the summer 2006 conflict between Israel and Hizballah, when a residence
belonging to his family was destroyed.
At some point before 2008, IJO recruited KOURANI to its ranks. In August 2008, KOURANI submitted an
application for naturalization in the United States in which he falsely
claimed, among other things, that he was not affiliated with a terrorist
organization. In April 2009, KOURANI
became a naturalized citizen and was issued a United States passport. Despite claiming in his passport application
that he had no travel plans, KOURANI traveled to Guangzhou, China – the
location of Guangzhou Company-1 – on May 3, 2009. He later claimed to the FBI that the purpose
of the trip was to meet with medical device manufacturers and other
businessmen.
IJO assigned KOURANI an IJO handler, or mentor, responsible
for providing him with taskings, debriefings, and arranging training. KOURANI sometimes communicated with his
handler using coded email communications, including messages sent by the
handler that informed KOURANI of the need to return to Lebanon. In order to establish contact with his
handler when KOURANI returned to Lebanon, KOURANI called a telephone number
associated with a pager (the “IJO Pager”) and provided a code that he
understood was specific to him. After
contacting the IJO Pager, the handler would contact KOURANI to set up an
in-person meeting by calling a phone belonging to one of KOURANI’s
relatives. The IJO also provided KOURANI
with additional training in tradecraft, weapons, and tactics. In 2011, for example, KOURANI attended a
weapons training camp in the vicinity of Birkat Jabrur, Lebanon, where he used
a rocket propelled grenade launcher, an AK-47 assault rifle, an MP5 submachine
gun, a PKS machine gun (a Russian-made belt-fed weapon), and a Glock pistol.
Based on other taskings from IJO personnel, which IJO
personnel conveyed during periodic in-person meetings when KOURANI returned to
Lebanon, KOURANI conducted operations, which he understood to be aimed at
preparing for potential future Hizballah attacks. These covert activities included searching
for weapons suppliers in the United States who could provide firearms to
support IJO operations; identifying individuals affiliated with the Israeli
Defense Force whom the IJO could either recruit or target for violence;
gathering information regarding operations and security at airports in the
United States and elsewhere, including JFK International Airport in New York;
and surveilling U.S. military and law enforcement facilities in New York City,
including the federal building at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan. KOURANI transmitted some of the products of
his surveillance and intelligence-gathering efforts back to IJO personnel in
Lebanon using digital storage media.
*
* *
KOURANI, 34, of the Bronx, New York, was convicted of
providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization,
which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; conspiracy to provide
material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization,
which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; receiving military-type
training from a designated foreign terrorist organization, which carries a
sentence of 10 years in prison or a fine; conspiracy to receive military-type
training from a designated foreign terrorist organization, which carries a
maximum sentence of five years in prison; conspiracy to possess, carry, and use
firearms and destructive devices during and in relation to crimes of violence,
which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison; making and receiving a
contribution of funds, goods, and services to and from Hizballah, in violation
of IEEPA, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; conspiracy to
make and receive a contribution of funds, goods, and services to and from Hizballah,
in violation of IEEPA, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison;
and naturalization fraud in connection with an act of international terrorism,
which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. The maximum potential sentences in this case
are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes
only, as the defendant’s sentence will be determined by Judge Hellerstein.
Mr. Berman praised the outstanding efforts of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation’s (“FBI”) New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, which
principally consists of agents from the FBI and detectives from the New York
City Police Department. Mr. Berman also
thanked the Counterterrorism Section of the Department of Justice’s National
Security Division.
This prosecution is being handled by the Office’s Terrorism
and International Narcotics Unit.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Emil J. Bove III and Amanda L. Houle, with
assistance from Trial Attorney Bridget Behling of the Counterterrorism Section.
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