Breaking (5/3/15): Gunfire Reported At Anti-Islam Event At Garland ISD Facility (TX)

[Ryan Ruck]

What I want to know...WHERE DID THEY GET AN EMP? I realize the military has been working getting EMPs into the field to detonate IEDs...I didn't know they had a fully portable device and that it was now being deployed in the USA.

I saw that last night and I'm a bit skeptical about the reporting of that myself.

If they did use an explosively driven EMP, it must have had a very, very small effective radius since those robots were in such close proximity as well as the other vehicles.

[Malsua]

I want one. I'm not exactly sure what I would do with it, other than brandish it around. He maaahhn, look at me, I can turn off your electronics! heh.

Actually though, I would love to experiment with one, just to see real world examples of how to shield against it. That said, I want no part of the "explosives". I have been around explosives before and they're not something I would want to carry or deal with, even in war. There's just too much risk of blowing yourself up.

[Malsua]

I suppose you could use a rail gun concept to drive a puck at high velocity through a coil. This way you don't need explosives. Hmm. It'd probably still make a big noise. Some caps, some wires, a contactor...hmm. Very feasible.

[American Patriot]

US | Mon May 4, 2015 3:13pm EDT Related: U.S.
Gunman in Mohammad cartoon attack in Texas monitored for years

GARLAND, Texas/PHOENIX | By Jon Herskovitz and David Schwartz







(Reuters) - Federal agents for years monitored one of the two gunmen shot dead after opening fire with assault rifles at a heavily guarded Texas exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.


Two law enforcement officials who asked not to be named identified one of the dead shooters as Elton Simpson, under surveillance since 2006 and convicted in 2010 of lying to FBI agents over his desire to join violent jihad in Somalia. The second shooter was identified as Nadir Soofi, a roommate of Simpson, according to two sources close to the investigation.


Phoenix FBI spokesman Perryn Collier confirmed agents were at the Autumn Ridge Apartments in connection with the shooting in Texas. The complex in north-central Phoenix was cordoned off and residents were evacuated for several hours in the early morning.


The shooting incident in the Dallas suburb of Garland was an echo of past attacks or threats in other Western countries against art depicting the Prophet Mohammad. In January, gunmen killed 12 people in the Paris offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in what it said was revenge for its cartoons.



The latest incident unfolded on Sunday, when a car drove up behind an indoor arena in Garland, where 200 people attended an event featuring caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad, portrayals considered offensive by Muslims.


Two men jumped out of the car and fired on security guards, injuring one. One police officer returned fire and killed both men in the parking lot.


Those inside the Curtis Culwell Center who had gone through heavy security to enter the event were not aware of the attack until afterward.


Police and federal agents had planned security for months ahead of the event organized by American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), a free-speech organization that is also described as a hate group, and that paid $10,000 for extra protection.


The shooters wore protective gear and had extra ammunition in their car, Garland police spokesman Joe Harn said. No bomb was found in their vehicle.


"Obviously they were there to shoot people," Harn said at a news conference.


Referring to the police officer who used his duty pistol and killed the attackers, Harn said, "He did a good job."


At Autumn Ridge in Phoenix, policed searched both an apartment and a white van parked outside, with its side windows broken.


Bob Kieckhafer, 54, who lives one floor above and across from the apartment that was searched, said FBI and other law enforcement in SWAT gear evacuated people in the building at 11 p.m. late Sunday and did not let them back until 4 a.m.


He said two men lived in the apartment that was being searched by authorities. He described them as "just like your next-door-neighbor type of guys."


It was not immediately clear if both gunmen had lived in the complex, or if they shared an apartment.


WANTED TO JOIN JIHAD


Simpson, identified as one of the dead shooters, according to the two law enforcement sources, was convicted in 2010 of lying to FBI officials over discussions he had with an informant about his desire to travel to Somalia to engage in violent jihad.


According to court records, Simpson waived his right to a jury trial and was tried before then-U.S. District Judge Mary Murguia, who found him guilty of making a false statement and sentenced him to three years probation and ordered him to pay $600 in fines and penalties.


Murguia said there was insufficient evidence to conclude the false statement involved international terrorism.


The court documents say federal authorities began monitoring Simpson in 2006 because he was associated with an individual the FBI believed was trying to set up a terrorist cell in Arizona.


At one point, according to the documents, the FBI tried "unsuccessfully" to put Simpson on a U.S. government no-fly list.


ABC News said officials believed Simpson sent out tweets ahead of the attack, with the last one using the hashtag #texasattack.


Simpson's father told ABC News his son was "always a good kid" but said they had "some very serious differences."


"We are Americans and we believe in America," Dunston Simpson told ABC News. "What my son did reflects very badly on my family."


U.S. authorities were investigating possible links between the gunmen and international terrorist groups, a government source said.


A fighter for Islamic State, a militant group that has taken over large parts of Iraq and Syria, said in a tweet that "2 of our brothers just opened fire at the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) art exhibition in Texas," according to the SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based monitoring group. S.A.W. is an abbreviation for "May Allah honor him and grant him peace."


FREE SPEECH OR HATE


The AFDI event in Garland was called "Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest" and offered a $10,000 prize for the best artwork or cartoon depicting the Prophet.


Depictions of the Prophet Mohammad are considered offensive in Islam, and Western art that portrays the Prophet has angered Muslims and provoked threats and attacks from extremists.


The event featured speakers including Geert Wilders, a polarizing Dutch politician and anti-Islamic campaigner who is on an al Qaeda hit list.


The AFDI, described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group, has among other activities sponsored anti-Islamic advertising campaigns in transit systems across the country.


(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington, D.C., Nancy Wiechec in Phoenix, Arizona, Lisa Garza and Laura Buckman in Garland, Texas, Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Julia Edwards aboard Air Force One; Writing by Fiona Ortiz and Ian Simpson; Editing by Frances Kerry and Jeffrey Benkoe)

[American Patriot]

If these assholes are allowed to walk on our flag, burn the Bible, make blasphemous pictures of Christ and call that "Free Speech" then I say "to hell with Mohammed..." - Paint on.

[Ryan Ruck]

Wow, they certainly did a number on those guys' car! It's literally been partly torn apart, sheet metal and all!

[vector7]

Companion Thread:The Left's Unholy Alliance with Islam

Obama Potential Supreme Court Nominee Let Off Cartoon Gunman Because She Wasn’t Sure What “Jihad” Meant

May 4, 2015 by Daniel Greenfield 2 Comments



The Mohammed cartoon shootings did not turn into a massacre because of the quick actions of police officers on the scene. But if a massacre had occurred, much of the responsibility would rest with Judge Mary H. Murguia.

Judge Murguia is a Clinton appointee and has been mentioned as a potential Obama Supreme Court nominee. Her sister, Janet Murguia, heads the racist hate group known as La Raza or The Race, which is closely tied to the Obama White House’s amnesty effort. Her brother, Carlos Murguia, coordinated the the Immigration Amnesty Program before Clinton also nominated him for a judgeship.

The FBI knew that Elton Simpson, one of the Garland Jihadists, was a threat and had attempted to lock him up after amassing evidence that he intended to go to Somalia as a terrorist. They had him on tape stating “that Allah loves an individual who is “out there fighting [non-Muslims]” and “If you get shot, or you get killed, it’s [heaven] straight away.” Mr. Simpson then said “[Heaven] that’s what we here for…so why not take that route?”

This was back in 2011.

In another recording from May 29, 2009, Mr. Simpson told Mr. Deng “it’s time to go to Somalia, brother…we know plenty of brothers from Somalia.” Mr. Simpson and Mr. Deng then discussed their possible contacts in Africa. Mr. Simpson then said “It’s time. I’m tellin’ you man. We gonna make it to the battlefield…it’s time to roll.” Mr. Simpson and Mr. Deng then discussed “jihad”.

Simpson’s lawyers suggested that Jihad was a spiritual struggle.

Thus far, the Government has failed to show even one instance where Mr. Simpson mentions “violent jihad” in Somalia. That phrase is one made up by the Government, likely because it is aware that jihad in the Muslim religion does not necessarily imply violence. Instead, jihad signifies a struggle between two forces. Muslims use the word “jihad” to signify one of three types of struggles: 1. An internal struggle to maintain faith, 2.The struggle to improve the Muslim society, or 3. The struggle in a holy war.

Judge Murguia appears to have accepted some of the defense’s arguments, writing that, “It is true that the Defendant had expressed sympathy and admiration for individuals who “fight” non-Muslims as well as his belief in the establishment of Shariah law, all over the world including in Somalia. What precisely was meant by “fighting” whenever he discussed it, however, was not clear.”

“Neither was what the Defendant meant when he stated he wanted to get to the “battlefield” in Somalia.”

You can tell Murguia is a Clinton appointee. She’s probably also unclear on the definition of what ‘is’ is.

“to reach this conclusion, Agent Hebert must make a number of inferential leaps –from Defendant’s expressed support of “fighting” of non-Muslims and his support for the establishment of Shariah law, to his sending a video regarding the permissibility of martyrdom operations, to his statement about going to the battlefield in Somalia and his statement that school is a “just a front”.”

Murguia chose not to make any inferential leaps about battlefields or fighting non-Muslims. Instead Elton Simpson got off with a slap on the wrist because Murguia chose not to find that he was lying about being engaged in terrorism.

Now a man has been shot and a serious terrorist attack was narrowly averted because Judge Murguia refused to do her job.

[Phil Fiord]

I stayed in Garland in about 1998. The Walmart is HUGE! I agree too that if things of our predominant faith and country culture can be desecrated and destroyed by the umadbro jihadis, we can certainly hold exhibits such as that one. The exhibit was no burning of a book, or beheading of anyone. Some people, sheesh.

No wonder Texas is on edge. Jade Helmet concerns and this. Btw, unrelated, but i do not believe this Jade Helmet op is a takeover for anything and Texas is labelled hostile because in the exercise Texas will be considered as compromised or taken over, therefore hostile.

[vector7]

Texas is labelled hostile because in the exercise Texas will be considered as compromised or taken over, therefore hostile.

Interesting statement right there...

I'm beginning to see embedded within this Russian professors breakup prediction analysis map a legend to a possible regional Axis invasion plan.

The map below outlines the regions where each participating nation or nations in a Axis multinational coalition would penetrate America.



Red: Russia would launch several invasions points along the borders and or within this region, notice the East Coast is also Red.

Green: China would launch several invasions points along the borders and or within this region.

Blue: Mexico/Cartels/Hezbollah and a coalition of Latin American countries would launch several invasions points along and or within this region, Mexico could also support China along the California and Arizona borders.

Yellow area would be the second phase of the invasion after DC falls and the seat of government moves to West to be re-established.

This is where the final battles would be fought.

[Malsua]

Why did it take so long for this narrative to come out?

So the officer wounded them and SWAT dispatched them.


--------
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/p...cartoon-event/


The gunmen who attacked a cartoon contest depicting the prophet Muhammad in Texas earlier this month were killed multiple officers on a SWAT team, rather than a sole traffic patrol officer, as police had initially said after the encounter.

This new information was released by Garland’s police chief on Monday during a news conference seeking to emphasize that his department had no warning that the gunmen would target the contest and cartoon exhibit.

In the initial narrative outlined the morning after the incident occurred, Garland police said the two gunmen drove up to the center and opened fire in the parking lot, hitting a school security officer in the leg. A police spokesman said last week that an officer who normally works on traffic, but who was at the event as part of a heavy security detail, shot and killed both gunmen using his duty pistol.

On Monday, Mitch Bates, the Garland police chief, clarified details of this shootout between the gunmen and five of his force’s officers.

Bates said that the officer and the security guard who were confronted by the armed gunmen were not in a police car, as was initially believed, but were standing by it when the gunmen drove up to a barricade and got out of their car.

In addition, Bates said that the Garland police officer, who has not been identified, shot the gunmen and wounded, rather than killed, both of them. Four SWAT members armed with assault rifles and pistols came over within seconds, Bates said, and after dozens of rounds were fired from police and the suspected shooters, both gunmen had been killed.

Elton Simpson, 30, and his roommate, Nadir Soofi, 34, traveled from Phoenix to the inflammatory contest, which offered $10,000 for the best cartoon depicting Muhammad. Drawings of Muhammad are considered blasphemous by many Muslims, and the show had drawn worldwide attention from jihadists calling for attacks in Garland.

Bates said on Monday that the two men had six guns between them — three assault rifles and three pistols — as well as hundreds of rounds of ammunition on their bodies and in their vehicle. He said there were no indications that anyone else was involved in the attack, but said the investigation is ongoing.

The FBI had known about Simpson for nearly a decade, since it began investigating him and he was eventually suspected of trying to fly overseas to wage jihad.

FBI Director James B. Comey told reporters at a briefing last week that his agents sent an intelligence bulletin to authorities in Garland about three hours before the attack with information about Simpson. Comey said the FBI learned around that time that Simpson was possibly interested in going to Garland, so he said they sent local authorities a photo of him and information that they had.

But he said that the FBI had no reason to believe that Simpson had left Phoenix or was going to attack the event, only that he may have been interested in going to the event.

“We didn’t know more than that,” he said.

During his news conference Monday, Bates said that no one in his department or at the command post for the event’s security knew about this e-mail before the shooting.

But he also emphasized that the e-mail would not have changed what happened that day, saying that the bulletin couldn’t have prevented the shooting or changed the way law enforcement officials responded. He praised the officers who engaged in the shootout with Simpson and Soofi as heroes “who put their own lives at great risk.”"

Bates also said Monday that the police were not releasing the names of any of the officers involved in the episode due to what he called “direct and indirect threats to their safety and the safety of their families

[Ryan Ruck]

Interesting...

This seems like a slightly more realistic scenario than the lone cop armed with a handgun taking both bad guys with rifles out, not an impossible scenario on it's own though.

Sounds like the initial officer shot and wounded them, kept them pinned down until SWAT guys showed up with rifles, and SWAT put them down.

They both were killed fairly close to the car so the other SWAT guys must have gotten there pretty quick.

[Ryan Ruck]

Something that's been bugging me...

Why do they keep calling Simpson "Simpson"? Surely someone radicalized enough to Jihad against some artists had ditched his "slave name". So, what was it?

Reminds me of the media calling the D.C. Shooters by their original names instead of their convert names.

[American Patriot]

They are calling him that because, in effect "Simpsons" is a cartoon. A cartoon is non-threatening to most. A cartoon isn't Muslim connected.

It's simple brainwashing.

Nothing more.

[Ryan Ruck]

Funny how this news leaks on a weekend...

Assailant In Garland, Texas, Attack Bought Gun in 2010 Under Fast And Furious Operation

August 1, 2015

Five years before he was shot to death in the failed terrorist attack in Garland, Texas, Nadir Soofi walked into a suburban Phoenix gun shop to buy a 9-millimeter pistol.

At the time, Lone Wolf Trading Co. was known among gun smugglers for selling illegal firearms. (Because the ATF told them to sell them knowing they were bad sales) And with Soofi's history of misdemeanor drug and assault charges, there was a chance his purchase might raise red flags in the federal screening process.

Inside the store, he fudged some facts on the form required of would-be gun buyers.

What Soofi could not have known was that Lone Wolf was at the center of a federal sting operation known as Fast and Furious, targeting Mexican drug lords and traffickers. The idea of the secret program was to allow Lone Wolf to sell illegal weapons to criminals and straw purchasers, and track the guns back to large smuggling networks and drug cartels. (And yet still no one knows how this "tracking" was going to happen...)

Instead, federal agents lost track of the weapons and the operation became a fiasco (Again, because there was no way to actually track them.), particularly after several of the missing guns were linked to shootings in Mexico and the 2010 killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona.

Soofi's attempt to buy a gun caught the attention of authorities, who slapped a seven-day hold on the transaction, according to his Feb. 24, 2010, firearms transaction record, which was reviewed by the Los Angeles Times. Then, for reasons that remain unclear, the hold was lifted after 24 hours, and Soofi got the 9-millimeter.

As the owner of a small pizzeria, the Dallas-born Soofi, son of a Pakistani American engineer and American nurse, would not have been the primary focus of federal authorities, who back then were looking for smugglers and drug lords.

He is now.

In May, Soofi and his roommate, Elton Simpson, burst upon the site of a Garland cartoon convention that was offering a prize for the best depiction of the prophet Muhammad, something offensive to many Muslims (). Dressed in body armor and armed with three pistols, three rifles and 1,500 rounds of ammunition, the pair wounded a security officer before they were killed by local police.

A day after the attack, the Department of Justice sent an "urgent firearms disposition request" to Lone Wolf, seeking more information about Soofi and the pistol he bought in 2010, according to a June 1 letter from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, to U.S. Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch.

Though the request did not specify whether the gun was used in the Garland attack, Justice Department officials said the information was needed "to assist in a criminal investigation," according to Johnson's letter, also reviewed by The Times.

The FBI so far has refused to release any details, including serial numbers, about the weapons used in Garland by Soofi and Simpson. Senate investigators are now pressing law enforcement agencies for answers, raising the chilling possibility that a gun sold during the botched Fast and Furious operation ended up being used in a terrorist attack against Americans.

Among other things, Johnson is demanding to know whether federal authorities have recovered the gun Soofi bought in 2010, where it was recovered and whether it had been discharged, according to the letter. He also demanded an explanation about why the initial seven-day hold was placed on the 2010 pistol purchase and why it was lifted after 24 hours.

Asked recently for an update on the Garland shooting, FBI Director James B. Comey earlier this month declined to comment. "We're still sorting that out," he said.

Officials at the Justice Department and the FBI declined to answer questions about whether the 9-millimeter pistol was one of the guns used in the Garland attack or seized at Soofi's apartment.

It remains unclear whether Soofi's 2010 visit to Lone Wolf is a bizarre coincidence or a missed opportunity for federal agents to put Soofi on their radar years before his contacts with Islamic extremists brought him to their attention.

Though Islamic State militants have claimed to have helped organize the Garland attack, U.S. officials are still investigating whether Soofi and Simpson received direct support from the group or were merely inspired by its calls for violence against the West.

Comey suggested that the attack fits the pattern of foreign terrorist groups indoctrinating American citizens through the Internet. He referred to it as the "crowdsourcing of terrorism."

In a handwritten letter apparently mailed hours before the attack, Soofi said he was inspired by the writings of Islamic cleric Anwar Awlaki, an American citizen killed in a 2011 U.S. drone strike in Yemen.

"I love you," Soofi wrote to his mother, Sharon Soofi, "and hope to see you in eternity." In a telephone interview, Sharon Soofi described the letter and said her son had been shot twice in the head and once in the chest, according to autopsy findings she received.

At the time of the 2010 gun purchase, Soofi ran a Phoenix pizza parlor. His mother said that was about the same time he met Simpson, who worked for Soofi at the restaurant. They later shared an apartment, a short drive from the Lone Wolf store.

Reached by telephone, Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf, denied that his store sold the gun to Soofi. "Not here," Howard said before hanging up.

Sharon Soofi said her son had told her he wanted the pistol for protection because his restaurant was in a "rough area." She said he also acquired an AK-47 assault rifle at the end of last year or early this year, when authorities believe he and Simpson were plotting an attack on the Super Bowl in Arizona.

"I tried to convince him that, what in the world do you need an AK-47 for?" she said in a telephone interview. Soofi told her they practiced target shooting in the desert. Her younger son, Ali Soofi, was living with his brother and Simpson at the time, she said, but left after becoming frightened by the weapons, ammunition and militant Islamist literature.

She blamed Simpson for radicalizing her son, who she said had no history of religious extremism. A month before Soofi bought the pistol, Simpson was indicted on charges of lying to the FBI about his plans to travel to Somalia and engage in "violent jihad," according to federal court documents.

Simpson was jailed until March 2011 and convicted of making false statements. But the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove the false statements were connected to international terrorism. Simpson was released and placed on probation.

After the Garland attack, the FBI arrested a third man, Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, and charged him with planning the Garland attack. At a detention hearing on June 16, prosecutors and an FBI agent provided details about the plot, but avoided discussing the history of the firearms.

Sharon Soofi said she found her son's letter in her post office box. It was dated the Saturday before the attack, and postmarked in Dallas on Monday, the day after the assault, suggesting he dropped it in the mailbox before he and Simpson arrived in Garland. "In the name of Allah," the letter began, "I am sorry for the grief I have caused."

He referred to "those Muslims who are being killed, slandered, imprisoned, etc. for their religion," and concluded, "I truly love you, Mom, but this life is nothing but shade under the tree and a journey. The reality is the eternal existence in the hereafter."

[Malsua]

Obama and Holder's Fast and Furious is the gift that just keeps on giving.

[Ryan Ruck]

So we had a F&F connection and now this...

60 Minutes Investigates First ISIS-Claimed Attack In U.S. And What The FBI Knew

A terrorist attack in Texas by two U.S. citizens shows how hard it is to prevent such an attack -- even when one of the terrorists is well-known to the FBI

March 26, 2017

The following is a script from “Attack in Garland,” which aired on March 26, 2017. Anderson Cooper is the correspondent. Graham Messick and Steve McCarthy, producers. Jack Weingart, associate producer.

Wednesday’s terror attack in London by a man who had been known to British law enforcement is just the latest reminder of how difficult it is to prevent an attack before it takes place. Here in the U.S., in just the past three years, more than 100 people have been arrested for ISIS-related crimes. The FBI devotes significant resources to identifying potential terrorists and sometimes spends years tracking them. The terror attack in Garland, Texas, two years ago was the first claimed by ISIS on U.S. soil.

It’s mostly been forgotten because the two terrorists were killed by local cops before they managed to murder anyone. In looking into what happened in Garland, we were surprised to discover just how close the FBI was to one of the terrorists. Not only had the FBI been monitoring him for years, there was an undercover agent right behind him when the first shots were fired.

The target of the attack was an event taking place in this conference center on May 3, 2015. A self-described free speech advocate named Pamela Geller was holding a provocative contest, offering a cash-prize for the best drawing of the prophet Muhammad, whose depiction is considered sacrilege by some Muslims. Security outside was heavy. There were dozens of police, a SWAT team, and snipers.

More than 100 people were gathered inside and the event was ending when two terrorists drove up to a checkpoint manned by a Garland police officer and a school security guard. This grainy image shows both law-enforcement personnel standing next to an unmarked police car seconds before the attack. Bruce Joiner, the security guard, was unarmed.

Bruce Joiner: It’s like they pull up, stop, and the doors open.

Anderson Cooper: Do you remember seeing the weapon?

Bruce Joiner: Oh, yeah. Definitely saw their weapon. And that’s when I locked onto his face ‘cause he’s got this smile.

Anderson Cooper: He was literally smiling?

Bruce Joiner: Yeah, like, “I got ya. I got ya.”

The two terorrists opened fire with automatic rifles. Joiner dove for cover, but was shot in the leg. Officer Greg Stevens, returned fire with his handgun. Police nearby ran toward the scene.

Eyewitness video: And right here (expletive) just started shooting at this convention!

When this video was recorded by a passerby, both terrorists had been mortally wounded by Officer Stevens, and were laying on the ground next to their car.

Eyewitness video: They still shootin man! …

A SWAT team shot them both in the head.

Bruce Joiner: Because they kept moving and they weren’t sure there were explosives involved they had to shoot them.

Anderson Cooper: How quick did all of this happen?

Bruce Joiner: Oh, it’s a matter of seconds. I would say 20, 30 seconds. It’s very quick.

The next day as the FBI picked through the crime scene, the evidence showed Garland police had prevented a massacre. The terrorists brought six guns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, bulletproof and tactical vests, and Xeroxed copies of the black flag of ISIS. They were identified as 31-year-old Elton Simpson and 34-year-old Nadir Soofi. Just hours before the attack they had sent this tweet pledging allegiance to ISIS. But Simpson was already well-known to the FBI.

He grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in middle school. He briefly played college basketball before dropping out and converting to Islam when he was 20.

According to leaders of the Phoenix mosque he attended, Simpson was well-liked and soft-spoken.

Usama Shami: He was always asking questions, attending lectures.

Usama Shami is president of the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix. People here thought so much of the young Muslim convert, who took the name “Ibrahim,” that he was included in the mosque’s promotional video in 2007.

Elton Ibrahim Simpson: When you come together and you pray five times a day with the brothers and you’re reminded about the hereafter…

But at the time of this interview, Simpson had already become interested in radical Islam, and the Phoenix FBI, which was investigating one of his friends, hired an informant, a Sudanese refugee named Dabla Deng, to check Simpson out.

Anderson Cooper: There are informants inside the mosque?

Usama Shami: Yeah. I mean the whole case with Elton Simpson was with an informant that he was befriending Elton and taping his conversations.

Dabla Deng spent three years pretending to be Simpson’s friend, and was paid $132,000 by the FBI. He taped more than 1,500 hours of their conversations and finally recorded him talking about traveling overseas to wage jihad. Simpson lied to the FBI about it and got three years probation.

Usama Shami: When he found out that this guy was spying on him, and taping him and then finding out that the government was doing that, I think something clicked in him. And the mosque, we couldn’t do anything. Because we don’t know what he did.

Anderson Cooper: He felt that the mosque had abandoned him?

Usama Shami: Yes. And he felt that a lot of people had abandoned him. And that’s why he stopped coming to the mosque.

He moved into this Phoenix apartment complex with Nadir Soofi, who he knew from the mosque. Soofi had just had a bitter break-up and the pizza parlor he owned was going out of business. It was here in this apartment that Simpson and Soofi began closely following the rise of ISIS, reaching out to their supporters online, and acquiring weapons for a terrorist attack.

Seamus Hughes: Simpson and Soofi knew what they were getting into and I think they likely knew they were going to die.

Seamus Hughes tracks the online activities of ISIS sympathizers in the U.S. He served at the National Counter Terrorism Center, and is currently deputy director of George Washington University’s “Program On Extremism,” where he also trains FBI agents on how to identify American jihadis.

Anderson Cooper: Why is the Garland attack so significant?

Seamus Hughes: The Garland attack is essentially the first opening salvo when it comes to attacks on the homeland.

Anderson Cooper: Attacks in the United States?

Seamus Hughes: Attacks in the United States. These low-level attacks by ones and twos of people who are drawn to the ideology and decide to act.

Seamus Hughes: Ya gotta make sense of it all. So what you do is you bring it all together and put it on a board and say who’s connected to who.

Using an old-fashioned law enforcement tool, Hughes maps out ISIS’ online tentacles into the United States.

Seamus Hughes: So you have the two attackers, Soofi and Simpson. They’re also talking to Mohammed Miski, who’s an ISIS recruiter in Somalia.

Anderson Cooper: This is somebody in Somalia who they’re talking to online--

Seamus Hughes: Uh-huh. Yep. Through an encrypted app, Surespot. They’re also talking to Junaid Hussein.

Anderson Cooper: And he’s in Raqqa?

Seamus Hughes: He’s in Raqqa.

Raqqa is ISIS’ stronghold in Syria. Hughes calls Junaid Hussain an “ISIS rock star,” a British citizen, who communicated online with English-speaking recruits worldwide. He was killed in a U.S. drone strike a year-and-a-half ago. “Miski,” an American living in Somalia, tweeted this link about the “draw Muhammad contest,” in Garland, Texas, and direct-messaged Elton Simpson urging him to attack it.

Seamus Hughes: The most interesting part about this is we’re in a hybrid time, right. Before we used to be worried about these network attacks, think of 9/11 with the hijackers training for years and then coming over here. And then, we had lone actor attacks, individuals who were kind of drawn to this and decided to act. Now, we’re in this weird moment in between, where you have a number of individuals in Raqqa, reaching out to Americans in Ohio, New York, and other places and saying, “So here’s the knife you should use. Here’s the address of the local U.S. military officer and do what you can.”

Anderson Cooper: Do you think Elton Simpson would have launched this attack if it wasn’t for people in ISIS overseas who were online whispering in his ear?

Seamus Hughes: I think the folks whispering in his ear was a big part of it.

The FBI closed the case on Elton Simpson in 2014, only to re-open it several weeks before the attack because of statements he made on social media.

Seamus Hughes: It speaks to a larger problem the FBI has, which is you have an individual who pops into your radar in 2006, but doesn’t commit an attack until 2015. So do you want the FBI to watch this individual for nine years?

After the attack, Phoenix FBI agents became convinced the two men hadn’t acted alone, and began investigating Elton Simpson’s friends. They arrested this man Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, a 43-year-old convert to Islam who grew up in Philadelphia, and accused him of funding the attack, as well as training and encouraging Simpson and Soofi.

Witnesses at Abdul-Kareem’s trial testified the three men watched ISIS execution videos together and discussed attacking a military base or the 2015 Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona. Abdul-Kareem denied taking part in any discussions about a terror attack and says he rejected his friend’s growing radicalization.

He was found guilty on multiple counts and sentenced to 30 years in prison. But his attorney Dan Maynard continued to investigate, and uncovered new evidence the FBI was much closer to the Garland attack than anyone realized.

Anderson Cooper: After the trial, you discovered that the government knew a lot more about the Garland attack than they had let on?

Dan Maynard: That’s right. Yeah. After the trial we found out that they had had an undercover agent who had been texting with Simpson, less than three weeks before the attack, to him “Tear up Texas.” Which to me was an encouragement to Simpson.

The man he’s talking about was a special agent of the FBI, working undercover posing as an Islamic radical. The government sent attorney Dan Maynard 60 pages of declassified encrypted messages between the agent and Elton Simpson – and argued “Tear up Texas” was not an incitement. But Simpson’s response was incriminating, referring to the attack against cartoonists at the French magazine Charlie Hebdo: “bro, you don’t have to say that...” He wrote “you know what happened in Paris… so that goes without saying. No need to be direct.”

But it turns out the undercover agent did more than just communicate online with Elton Simpson. In an affidavit filed in another case the government disclosed that the FBI undercover agent had actually “traveled to Garland, Texas, and was present… at the event.”

Dan Maynard: I was shocked. I mean I was shocked that the government hadn’t turned this over. I wanted to know when did he get there, why was he there?

And this past November, Maynard was given another batch of documents by the government, revealing the biggest surprise of all. The undercover FBI agent was in a car directly behind Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi when they started shooting. This cell-phone photo of school security guard Bruce Joiner and police officer Greg Stevens was taken by the undercover agent seconds before the attack.

Anderson Cooper: The idea that he’s taking photograph of the two people who happen to be attacked moments before they’re attacked.

Dan Maynard: It’s stunning.

Anderson Cooper: I mean, talk about being in the right or the wrong place at the right or the wrong time.

Dan Maynard: The idea that he’s right there 30 seconds before the attack happens is just incredible to me.

Anderson Cooper: What would you want to ask the undercover agent?

Dan Maynard: I would love to ask the undercover agent-- Are these the only communications that you had with Simpson? Did you have more communications with Simpson? How is it that you ended up coming to Garland, Texas? Why are you even there?

We wanted to ask the FBI those same questions. But the bureau would not agree to an interview. All the FBI would give us was this email statement. It reads: “There was no advance knowledge of a plot to attack the cartoon drawing contest in Garland, Texas.”

If you’re wondering what happened to the FBI’s undercover agent, he fled the scene but was stopped at gunpoint by Garland police. This is video of him in handcuffs, recorded by a local news crew. We’ve blurred his face to protect his identity.

Dan Maynard: I can’t tell you whether the FBI knew the attack was gonna occur. I don’t like to think that they let it occur. But it is shocking to me that an undercover agent sees fellas jumping out of a car and he drives on. I find that shocking.

Anderson Cooper: That he didn’t try to stop--

Dan Maynard: He didn’t try to stop ‘em. Or he didn’t do something. I mean, he’s an agent, for gosh sakes.

Anderson Cooper: If this attack had gone a different way, and lots of people had been killed, would the fact that an undercover FBI agent was on the scene have become essentially a scandal?

Seamus Hughes: It woulda been a bigger story. I think you would have seen congressional investigations and things like that. Lucky for the FBI and for the participants in the event you know, here in Texas, you know, everyone’s a good shot there.

The FBI’s actions around this foiled attack offer a rare glimpse into the complexities faced by those fighting homegrown extremism. Today, the battle often begins online where identifying terrorists can be the difference between a massacre, and the one that never occurred in Garland, Texas.

Anderson Cooper: People brag about stuff. People talk big. One of the difficulties for the FBI is trying to figure out who’s just talking and who actually may execute an attack.

Seamus Hughes: That’s the hardest part when you talk about this, right. There’s a lot of guys who talk about how great ISIS is. It’s very hard to tell when someone crosses that line. And in most of the cases, you see the FBI has some touchpoint with those individuals beforehand. There had been an assessment, a preliminary investigation or a full investigation. It’s just very hard to know when somebody decides to jump.