Hezbollah Terrorist Plotting NYC Terror Attack Stopped at Border
Sunday, March 17, 2024
Tags: hezbollah | terrorist | ice | border | lebanon | bomb
Hezbollah Terrorist Plotting NYC Terror Attack Stopped at Border
By Eric Mack | Sunday, 17 March 2024 04:08 PM EDT
A self-admitted member of the Hezbollah terrorist organization was reportedly caught by U.S. Border Patrol earlier this month, coming over from Lebanon during Ramadan and heading for New York to conduct a terrorist bombing.
Basel Bassel Ebbadi, 22, was stopped crossing the border illegally March 9 near El Paso, Texas, and admitted to plotting a terrorist attack in New York City, the New York Post reported Sunday.
He said, “I’m going to try to make a bomb,” according to a Border Patrol document reviewed by the Post.
Ebbadi had been training with Hezbollah for seven years and served four years as a member of the armed Middle East terrorist group, guarding weapons, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Post reported.
The training entailed “jihad” and killing people who were “not Muslim,” but he sought to get away from Lebanon to head to the U.S. because he “didn’t want to kill people” anymore, he reportedly told ICE.
“Once you’re in, you can never get out,” he reportedly added.
Ebbadi was stopped trying to cross the U.S. border without documents showing his Lebanese background, claiming his documents were stolen in Costa Rica at knife-point, according to ICE.
He admitted to using fake names in Sweden, Ecuador, and Panama.
He was destined for New York City before plans to move around the U.S., he added.
He has been detained in isolation for an interview with the Tactical Terrorism Response Team for “terroristic threats to personnel” and scheduled for deportation to an unknown country.
