Federal Agents Identify Man Who Posted Broad Online Threat Against NJ Synagogues
Edited by: Fern Sidman
Federal agents have identified the man they believe posted a broad online threat against synagogues in New Jersey but do not think he was planning to carry out a specific plot, a law enforcement official said Friday, as was reported by the AP.
The man, whose identity was not immediately released, was questioned by law enforcement and told agents he had been bullied in the past and harbored anger toward Jewish people, the official said. But investigators do not believe the man had the means or motive to carry out any specific attack, the official added.
The official could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The nature of the threat was vague. The Newark FBI released a statement urging synagogues to “take all security precautions to protect your community and facility” but wouldn’t say anything about who made the threat or why, according to the AP.
The AP reported that the source of the threat “no longer poses a danger to the community,” the FBI in Newark tweeted.
An online posting with anti-Semitic comments in a forum that is frequented by extremists prompted an FBI alert Thursday night, CNN reported.
Multiple sources told CNN they were tipped off to the original posting.
Authorities were alarmed because the posting was written as if an attack had already occurred, the sources explained. Similar writings have been posted by “active shooters” in several incidents across the country just prior to their attacks, according to the CNN report.
That factored significantly into the urgency of locating him and also releasing the broad warning to the Jewish community, the sources said. It’s unclear at this time what, if any, charges the individual will face, CNN reported.
The AP reported that New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said in an emailed statement Friday that the threat had been “mitigated,” but he did not offer details.
“We will not be indifferent. We will remain vigilant. We will take any and every threat with the utmost seriousness and we will stand up and stand shoulder to shoulder with our Jewish congregations,” Murphy said, according to the AP report.
“It raises the anxiety level,” said Jason Shames, leader of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, as was reported by the AP. “This one for us was about vigilance. We keep having to say: See something, say something.”
Public warnings about nonspecific threats against Jewish institutions, made by a variety of groups including Christian supremacists and Islamist extremists, aren’t unusual in the New York City metropolitan area, and many turn out to be false alarms, according to the AP, however the area has also seen deadly attacks.
Five years ago, two New Jersey men were sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted of a series of attacks in 2012 that included the firebombings of two synagogues, the AP reported. They also threw a Molotov cocktail into the home of a rabbi as he slept with his wife and children.
