Iranian Terror Mastermind Allegedly Orchestrating Attacks from Behind Bars

US authorities believe that Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al Saadi, an Iranian operative accused of orchestrating numerous anti-Semitic attacks across Europe and the United States, is continuing to plot further assaults from his prison cell. According to documents from the US Department of Justice, as reported by The Times, Mr. Al Saadi has allegedly been using coded messages in phone calls from prison to incite others to carry out new plots. He is also suspected of directing $1 million in money transfers and overseeing the release of propaganda videos.

Mr. Al Saadi, a 32-year-old dual citizen of Iran and Iraq, was charged in New York in May with six terrorism-related offenses. These charges stem from his alleged activities as an operative for the Iraqi militia group Kataib Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), both of which are designated as terrorist groups and are under US sanctions. He is also reportedly linked to Harakat Ashab Al Yamin Al Islamia, also known as Ashab Al Yamin, which translates to the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right Hand. This group has been blamed for fire-bombings at Jewish locations in London and synagogues in Europe. US prosecutors stated that targets in the US included a New York City synagogue and two Jewish institutions in Los Angeles, California, and Scottsdale, Arizona.

UK security services have reported over 50 Iran-linked arrests in the past year, indicating an intensification of Tehran's plots against targets in the UK. Mr. Al Saadi was extradited to the US from Turkey and is currently held without bail in a federal facility in New York. His trial is anticipated next summer, and he faces a potential life sentence if convicted of the most serious charges.

Images released by US prosecutors show Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al Saadi watching a livestream of an arson attack on a London synagogue. His legal team has asserted that he is facing a "political prosecution" and has raised concerns about his detention conditions, including near-solitary confinement and strict limitations on family contact. "By keeping Mr Al Saadi in extreme solitary confinement and aggressively curtailing his access to information, the government is violating his rights under the constitution and the third Geneva Convention. We will continue to vigorously challenge these inhumane conditions," Federal Defenders of New York, his lawyers, were quoted as saying by The Times. They argued that the government's justifications for these restrictions were speculative and misinterpreted.

The Department of Justice documents indicate suspicions that Mr. Al Saadi used a FaceTime call with a woman believed to be his mother to urge further attacks. A video of this call, in which he stated, "we shall not care whether we fall upon death or death falls upon us as long as we are on the path of truth," was shared on social media and garnered nearly 100,000 views. In another phone call, he inquired about a member of Kataib Hezbollah and "work" for an individual believed to be an IRGC operative. The FBI terminated one call due to references to a gun and money.

The Justice Department documents also expressed concerns that Mr. Al Saadi was "enlisting third parties to engage in certain conduct, including planning or even carrying out more attacks such as the European terrorist attacks." Mr. Al Saadi is accused of serving as a commander in Kataib Hezbollah, a group sanctioned for years of attacks on US forces in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq. He is alleged to have worked closely with Maj Gen Qassem Suleimani, former commander of the IRGC's Quds Force, and Kataib Hezbollah leader Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis, both of whom were killed in a US airstrike in early 2020. Social media accounts belonging to Mr. Al Saadi featured photographs of him with Maj Gen Suleimani at a military facility. Prosecutors allege that Mr. Al Saadi called on others to attack and kill Americans, potentially in retribution for the deaths of Maj Gen Suleimani and Al Muhandis. The complaint states that he posted about these attacks on platforms like Snapchat and Telegram and discussed them in phone calls recorded by an FBI informant whose assistance he sought in planning attacks in the US. Al Saadi allegedly told the informant he was prepared to kill individuals in any such attacks.