Unfortunately, the AP deliberately chose language to paper over the anti-Masonic motivation for Hamzeh's plot by choosing their words very carefully:
MILWAUKEE — The trial for a man accused of plotting a mass shooting in defense of Islam at a Masonic temple in downtown Milwaukee has been delayed.
The trial was set to begin Wednesday in federal court in Milwaukee, but prosecutors have appealed a judge’s decisions to exclude evidence...
Nice try. Hamzeh was NOT "plotting a mass shooting in defense of Islam." Freemasons had not—and were not—attacking, insulting or besmirching Islam in any way, shape or form. But today's AP story lede has attempted to ascribe some onus onto the Masonic fraternity instead of the would-be terrorist. The trial was set to begin Wednesday in federal court in Milwaukee, but prosecutors have appealed a judge’s decisions to exclude evidence...
Hamzeh's actual plan was to open fire with multiple automatic weapons deliberately at a large Masonic event in the Humphrey Masonic Center (photo) and bar the doors to prevent escapes. His motivation was a conspiracy theory fueled by fundamentalist and extremist ideology that brands Masons as enemies of the Muslim faith.
That's a big shift in interpretation from the AP story published on Tuesday of this week. At least that one explained the crackpot theory that Hamzeh was espousing - that Freemasons were somehow secretly supporting the terrorist group ISIS in order to discredit Islam in world opinion. Without seeing the actual material from the case, it's a pretty good guess that this absurd notion was tied in with the standard "Jewish-Masonic Worldwide Conspiracy Theory.®"
But a trial jury will never hear a whiff of it.
Hamzeh is claiming entrapment by Federal agents, a defense tactic that almost never succeeds. But because numerous terrorism charges sought by government prosecutors have been thrown out by the judge, a jury will never hear many of their actual recorded conversations in which he discussed his motives for wanting to buy fully automatic machine guns. Despite Hamzeh's fully documented conversations in which he detailed his planned slaughter of Masons and their families, the charges have been reduced merely to the illegal acquisition of machine guns.
From Tuesday's story, 'Man accused of plan to attack Milwaukee temple goes on trial':
Attorneys for 26-year-old Samy Hamzeh plan to argue that the FBI entrapped their client, who they say never owned a gun, has no criminal record, and was incapable of mass murder. The FBI has said their agents thwarted an act of terrorism when they arrested Hamzeh in January 2016.
The Journal Sentinel reports that Hamzeh, an American citizen who spent his childhood in Jordan, was ultimately only charged with possessing two machine guns and a silencer, all of which he bought from undercover FBI agents who had informants set up the deal.
[snip]
The case against Hamzeh began when a longtime friend identified in court records only as Steve, who was in the country illegally, told FBI agents in September 2015 that Hamzeh talked of going to Egypt to get a gun and terrorist training. That’s when the FBI planted a professional informant, identified only as Mike, to work at the same restaurant as Hamzeh and Steve, according to court documents.
Mike introduced Hamzeh to YouTube videos espousing the belief that Masons secretly support the Islamic State, which through its terrorism was discrediting all Muslims, according to court records. That’s how Hamzeh and the informants settled on Milwaukee’s Humphrey Scottish Rite Masonic Temple as a target. Defense attorneys argue the FBI induced Hamzeh to buy weapons by offering them at cheaper price and after months of indoctrination.
Mike recorded his conversations with Hamzeh, but not all are being allowed as evidence. U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper, who will oversee the trial, ruled that some were prejudicial.
Included among the recorded conversations with Mike and Steve are Hamzeh’s cancellation of the attack after he said he consulted with two imams who told him what he was planning was wrong.
But a magistrate judge who heard a request from Hamzeh to be released on bail in 2017 did not see that conversation as evidence that Hamzeh wasn’t really committed to violence.
“It comes down to this,” wrote then-U.S. Magistrate Judge David E. Jones. “It should not take the spiritual guidance of two religious leaders to dissuade a person from committing mass murder.”
The Journal Sentinel reports that Hamzeh, an American citizen who spent his childhood in Jordan, was ultimately only charged with possessing two machine guns and a silencer, all of which he bought from undercover FBI agents who had informants set up the deal.
[snip]
The case against Hamzeh began when a longtime friend identified in court records only as Steve, who was in the country illegally, told FBI agents in September 2015 that Hamzeh talked of going to Egypt to get a gun and terrorist training. That’s when the FBI planted a professional informant, identified only as Mike, to work at the same restaurant as Hamzeh and Steve, according to court documents.
Mike introduced Hamzeh to YouTube videos espousing the belief that Masons secretly support the Islamic State, which through its terrorism was discrediting all Muslims, according to court records. That’s how Hamzeh and the informants settled on Milwaukee’s Humphrey Scottish Rite Masonic Temple as a target. Defense attorneys argue the FBI induced Hamzeh to buy weapons by offering them at cheaper price and after months of indoctrination.
Mike recorded his conversations with Hamzeh, but not all are being allowed as evidence. U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper, who will oversee the trial, ruled that some were prejudicial.
Included among the recorded conversations with Mike and Steve are Hamzeh’s cancellation of the attack after he said he consulted with two imams who told him what he was planning was wrong.
But a magistrate judge who heard a request from Hamzeh to be released on bail in 2017 did not see that conversation as evidence that Hamzeh wasn’t really committed to violence.
“It comes down to this,” wrote then-U.S. Magistrate Judge David E. Jones. “It should not take the spiritual guidance of two religious leaders to dissuade a person from committing mass murder.”
U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper
(Photo: Journal Sentinel)
Even this AP story eliminates almost all of the evidence being excluded from the trial because of court rulings by U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper (photo).
Reporter Bruce Vielmetti of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a far more detailed account of the legal battles that have been waged to throw out all of the anti-Masonic terrorism charges against Hamzeh, or even any mention of his planned attack.
From his article, "Entrapment defense in 2016 Masonic Center shooting plot will have to wait as prosecutors appeal judge's rulings" :
In pre-trial rulings, [Judge] Pepper barred prosecutors' use of about 70 statements or discussions between Hamzeh and the informants.
Motive is not an element of the crimes, so Hamzeh's early talk of going to Israel is not relevant to him buying the guns, Pepper found, though his comments about wanting to take guns from Israeli soldiers and spraying other people with bullets can be admitted as possibly relevant to his desire to obtain a machine gun.
Much of Hamzeh and the informants' chilling, detailed discussions about how an attack on the Masonic Center would take place will not be allowed either. Pepper again found them irrelevant to buying the guns and highly prejudicial.
In a 51-page order, Pepper lays out, passage by passage, which of more than 100 exchanges between Hamzeh and the informants will be admissible and which will not.
For example, Hamzeh's statements about going to Israel to fight with Hamas against Jews or how his martyrdom might inspire others don't help prove whether he was inclined to get a machine gun in Milwaukee, Pepper found, and excluded them.
But she allowed Hamzeh's talk of taking Kalashnikov rifles from Jewish soldiers and spraying innocent people because it's arguably related to an interest in machine guns.
She also excluded testimony from a government expert about the Middle East and whether conspiracy theories about the Masons exist in that region.
According to court records, at some point Hamzeh watched YouTube videos espousing the belief that Masons secretly support the Islamic State, which through its terrorism was discrediting all Muslims, which purportedly led Hamzeh and the informants to settle on the Milwaukee center as a target.
Hamzeh and the informants discussed who would be shot first, whether children would be spared and other details. But those talks "raise the risk that the jury will convict the defendant for his cold, calculating and chilling words, and not because he possessed the charged items," Pepper ruled, and blocked them from use as evidence at trial...
I'm reminded of a situation many years ago. My wife and I were confronted very late one evening by a drunken driver who leapt from his car, pointed a pistol into my face, and screamed over and over that he was going to blow my head off, before suddenly jumping back into his truck and driving off. When I attempted to file charges against him after identifying his vehicle, a weary cop shook his head and said, "You'd have had a better case if he pulled the trigger." I always pitied some future convenience store clerk who handed that guy the wrong change one night when he might be on a similar bender, similarly armed, and in a similarly unhinged frame of mind. Motive is not an element of the crimes, so Hamzeh's early talk of going to Israel is not relevant to him buying the guns, Pepper found, though his comments about wanting to take guns from Israeli soldiers and spraying other people with bullets can be admitted as possibly relevant to his desire to obtain a machine gun.
Much of Hamzeh and the informants' chilling, detailed discussions about how an attack on the Masonic Center would take place will not be allowed either. Pepper again found them irrelevant to buying the guns and highly prejudicial.
In a 51-page order, Pepper lays out, passage by passage, which of more than 100 exchanges between Hamzeh and the informants will be admissible and which will not.
For example, Hamzeh's statements about going to Israel to fight with Hamas against Jews or how his martyrdom might inspire others don't help prove whether he was inclined to get a machine gun in Milwaukee, Pepper found, and excluded them.
But she allowed Hamzeh's talk of taking Kalashnikov rifles from Jewish soldiers and spraying innocent people because it's arguably related to an interest in machine guns.
She also excluded testimony from a government expert about the Middle East and whether conspiracy theories about the Masons exist in that region.
According to court records, at some point Hamzeh watched YouTube videos espousing the belief that Masons secretly support the Islamic State, which through its terrorism was discrediting all Muslims, which purportedly led Hamzeh and the informants to settle on the Milwaukee center as a target.
Hamzeh and the informants discussed who would be shot first, whether children would be spared and other details. But those talks "raise the risk that the jury will convict the defendant for his cold, calculating and chilling words, and not because he possessed the charged items," Pepper ruled, and blocked them from use as evidence at trial...
Let's all hope Mr. Hamzeh has sufficiently learned not to believe moronic conspiracy theories from the Internet the next time he spots a square and compass on a Masonic hall, because it seems that any outcome of this watered down trial will result in little actual punishment. Or deterrent for anyone similarly inspired.
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