New York Daily News:
“The thought of plunging a sharp object into another person’s flesh” is “never an excuse for abandoning jihad,” Clark wrote in one chatroom.
An ISIS acolyte from Brooklyn pleaded guilty to terrorism charges Monday, admitting he posted bomb-making instructions online and urged terror-group sympathizers to carry out knife attacks in New York City, prosecutors said.
Zachary Clark — who also goes by the names Umar Kabir, Umar Shishani and Abu Talha — admitted guilt in Manhattan Federal Court to one count of attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, court filings show.
Clark, 41, first pledged his allegiance to then-ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in July 2019. When Abu Ibrahim al-Sashemi al-Qurayshi took over following al-Baghdadi’s assassination, Clark reaffirmed his loyalty to the terrorist organization in October 2019, court docs show.
Beginning as early as March 2019, Clark began posting ISIS propaganda online inside encrypted chatrooms where he urged supporters to carry out “lone wolf” attacks in New York, court papers show.
“The thought of plunging a sharp object into another person’s flesh” is “never an excuse for abandoning jihad,” Clark wrote in one chatroom.
“Knives, though certainly not the only weapon for inflicting harm upon the kuffar (non-believers), are widely available in every land and thus readily accessible,” he wrote in another.
