A Chicago man has been arrested by U.S. Authorities on Nov. 18 for one count of attempting to provide material support to the terrorist group ISIS.
U.S. citizen, 20-year-old Thomas Osadzinski, was arrested in Chicago an is being held without bond. A detention hearing had been scheduled for Friday morning.
The complaint asserts that Osadzinski “designed a process that used a computer script that directed Social Media Platform 1 bots to copy and save ISIS official media content in order to help ISIS spread its message and make its materials more available to its supporters,” adding that he shared the script and instructions earlier this year with people he thought were members of pro-ISIS organizations.
“ISIS and its supporters disseminate the terror group’s propaganda materials online to as wide an audience as possible in order to recruit fighters and inspire violence against the United States and other countries. Social media platforms routinely remove ISIS media content due to the violent nature of the materials. According to the complaint, Osadzinski’s computer process would automatically copy and preserve ISIS media postings in an organized format, allowing social media users to continue to conveniently access and disseminate the content,” the DOJ stated.
Osadzinski is a native of Park Ridge and a college student, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Bosnian Immigrant Sentenced to 8 Years for Financing and Facilitating Terrorists
A Missouri man who immigrated to the United States from Bosnia was sentenced on Nov. 14 to eight years in federal prison for financing and facilitating terrorists in Iraq and Syria, including an ISIS leader who was active in Syria.
Ramiz Zijad Hodzic, 45, was arrested in 2015 and charged with one count of conspiracy to provide terrorists with material support, one count of providing material support to terrorists and one count of conspiracy to kill or maim persons in a foreign country, according to the Justice Department.
He allegedly provided about $10,000 to terrorists in Syria and Iraq. He reportedly used Facebook, Western Union, PayPal, and the United States Postal Service for the operations.
Hodzic pleaded guilty in April to assisting Abdullah Ramo Pazara, a Bosnian-American who died fighting for ISIS in Syria, reported the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
He recruited a group of Bosnian immigrants to help Pazara, who was living in St. Louis County and left to fight for ISIS in Syria in 2013. Prosecutors say Hodzic sent cash and military equipment to third parties in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere from 2013 to 2015.
Hodzic received money from others, including five co-defendants. Some of the money went to Abdullah Ramo Pazara, also of St. Louis County, who died while fighting for ISIS in Syria.
Three co-defendants have been sentenced to prison. Hodzic’s wife is awaiting sentencing. The fifth suspect pleaded not guilty and awaits trial.
