Los Angeles – A one-time Islamic jihadist who spent years in an Israeli prison for attempting to bomb a bus was granted US citizenship and allowed to remain in the country for nearly a decade as federal authorities investigated his background, CNN is reporting.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Federal authorities have been aware since at least 2010 that Shqaire was arrested on a bombing-related charge in Israel and served time in prison. They’ve had fingerprint evidence conclusively linking him to the terrorist act, committed under the name Mahmad hadr Mahmad Shakir, since early 2016, according to federal court records.
Shqaire, 51, carried out the attack in Israel in 1988 “acting on the direction” of a cell of the Palestine Liberation Organization, at the time a terrorist group in the eyes of the US government, according to records filed in US District Court in Los Angeles.
Despite his conviction, which should have barred him from even entering the United States, much less becoming an American citizen, Shqaire’s application was approved and he took the oath of allegiance on November 6, 2008, in the waning days of the second George W. Bush administration, the records state.
He was charged in September with illegally obtaining his American citizenship by intentionally withholding his criminal record and past associations.
“By concealing his violent, terrorist conduct, defendant circumvented the procedures our immigration system depends upon,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
Shqaire is currently free on bond and living in the Los Angeles area as he awaits his sentencing, scheduled for Friday.
How sad …Nothing learned from 9/11 !!!!
Thirty-one years without making trouble. Seems like he did something dumb at age eighteen or less.
This case reminds me of the Nazi war criminals, who were allowed to enter the USA, after World War Two, and eventually became American citizens. Paul, are you excusing the actions of this terrorist? It was more than something “dumb” which he did. He should never have been allowed into the USA, and certainly, should not have been granted citizenship. Now, after he serves his sentence, he should be denaturalized, and deported.
He was harmless enough the Israelis let him go.