The FBI arrested 26-year-old Everitt Aaron Jameson and charged him with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Jameson’s planned terror attack included setting off an explosive device on San Francisco’s Pier 39 on Christmas Day.
Jameson, a tow truck driver born in Modesto, California, was discharged from the Marine Corps for fraudulent enlistment when it was discovered that he failed to disclose his latent asthma. Prior to being discharged, Jameson earned a sharpshooter rifle qualification.
According to the FBI’s arrest complaint, Jameson intended to set off an explosive device in order to “funnel” people into an enclosed area where he could then inflict maximum casualties with an M-16 or an AK-47.
A Northern California tow-truck driver is accused of planning an ISIS-inspired Christmas Day suicide attack on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.
Everitt Aaron Jameson, 26, was arrested and charged Friday with one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
. . . . Earlier this month, [FBI special agent Christopher] McKinney said an undercover FBI agent began communicating with Jameson and questioned how he might be able to help ISIS. Jameson allegedly responded, “I was a soldier in the Kuffar army before I reverted [to Islam]. I have been trained in combat and things of war. [God willing,] anything of that nature.”McKinney said Jameson attended Marine basic training “in or about” June 2009 and “graduated several months later.” Jameson trained as a sharpshooter, but was later discharged for failing to disclose a history of asthma.On Dec. 16, McKinney claimed Jameson met with a second undercover FBI agent and “expressed that he was willing to do anything for ‘the cause,'” including traveling to fight with ISIS in Syria. At the same meeting, Jameson allegedly suggested a bomb-and-gun attack on the San Francisco waterfront’s Pier 39 and asked for help obtaining a fully automatic military assault rifle — either an M-16 or an AK-47 — along with ammunition and materials to make explosives — including nails, timers and remote detonators, the affidavit said.Jameson told the undercover agent that “he did not have and did not need an escape plan because he was ready to die,” McKinney wrote in his affidavit.
An accidental phone call from an FBI employee in Washington D. C. may have tipped Jameson off that he was under investigation. Following the receipt of the phone call, Jameson stated that he wanted to call off the planned terror attack.
Prosecutors say Jameson apparently wanted to detonate the explosives to funnel people into an area where he could inflict more casualties. The FBI executed a search warrant on his home on Dec. 20 and allegedly found multiple firearms and explosives materials.Two days prior to the raid, an FBI employee accidently called Jameson’s cellphone number from a Washington, D.C., area code, court papers say. Jameson called the number back but the employee let it go to his voicemail, which identified his name but not that he was a federal agent.It appears that Jameson may have been clued-in that the feds were onto him. He soon told an undercover agent that “I also don’t think I can do this after all. I’ve reconsidered.”. . . . The FBI said it found a letter signed by Jameson in which he took credit for the planned attack. “You’ve Allowed Donald J Trump to give away Al Quds to the Jews,” the letter said, using the Arabic name for “Jerusalem.” Mr. Trump recently announced the U.S. will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
If convicted, Jameson faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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His family is reportedly stunned by the news, stating that while they knew Jameson had converted to Islam they didn’t know how radicalized he had become.
“I just couldn’t believe it, you know what I mean, that’s not him,” Jameson’s father Gordon said. “This is not the way he was raised, this is not you know what I mean, this is not him.”Jameson’s family says he recently lost [custody of] his kids.They say that broke him.“I mean he come to me and he was just.. you know what I mean, I was thinking oh he’s going to commit suicide because he lost his kids,” Gordon said.His family says this was also the time Jameson shared his newfound religion, but according to them, he never said anything about radical jihadi beliefs.“We just didn’t know it was that far. You know? It’s not – We never thought it to be a bad thing. Religion is religion,” Jameson’s aunt Sarah said.Sarah says she can’t believe this happened.“It’s like their [sic] talking about somebody else,” Sarah said. “I can’t explain it any other way it’s not my nephew that they’re talking about.”
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