ISIS-Bound: The case of Tairod Pugh

It was the end of a secretive journey he’d undertaken, drifting around the Middle East, where he used the skills he acquired in the Air Force to get a variety of jobs in avionics. Unaware at the time, Tairod was being met by an undercover agent from the FBI.

In January of 2015, Tairod Pugh, a convert to Islam and a former airplane mechanic in United States Air Force, stepped off a plane from Turkey, after being deported back to the U.S., that touched down at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. It was the end of a secretive journey he’d undertaken, drifting around the Middle East, where he used the skills he acquired in the Air Force to get a variety of jobs in avionics. Unaware at the time, Tairod was being met by an undercover agent from the FBI.

Before long Tairod Pugh would be taken into custody, and held on suspicion of providing material support to ISIS and attempting to travel to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside the Islamic State. Pugh’s case would be the first of its kind in America to come to verdict and eventual sentencing.

Tairod Pugh’s case is one of at least a dozen or so cases like it pending in American courts, and it will likely be one of dozens more in the near offing. Currently, the FBI is investigating, an estimated, one thousand ISIS-related cases, with at least one being investigated in every state of the Union.

“I am a Mujahid. I am a sword against the oppressor and a shield for the oppressed,” was Tairod Pugh’s own admission, in a letter authorities believe he intended to send his wife. Pugh went on to say he planned to, “use his talents and skills given to him by Allah to establish and defend the Islamic State.”

His defense attorney tried to argue that this letter was part of a fantasy, or some delusion of grandeur by an unstable man. But the defense attorney’s version of these events was not to be believed – and justifiably so. Tairod Pugh had made plenty of provisions and a number of efforts to willfully cross into Syria and fight alongside the brutal terrorist organization now-known as ISIS or ISIL.

Tairod Pugh had done far more than post ramblings of hatred on social media in support of the Islamic State – where he had actually gained a following. One of those that followed Pugh, was a woman from Queens, New York, Noelle Velentza, whom herself was arrested on charges related to the plotting of a terrorist attack. Pugh traveled to Istanbul, which has become a common starting point for those who wish to join the “jihad” in the Levant. Pugh researched crossings, controlled by ISIS, into Syria. He was found with a laptop upon his arrest, along with some flash drives he attempted to destroy. These flash drives featured ISIS propaganda, one a well-known video titled, “Flames of War.” Also discovered amongst various other forms of ISIS propaganda were videos of executions performed by the deadly terror group.

The former avionics specialist summed up his intentions simply by stating, “there are only two possible outcomes for me. Victory or Martyr.” Tairod Pugh will get to have neither. What he will receive is a 35-year prison sentence, and according to U.S. District Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Robert Capers, Pugh. “has now been held accountable for his crimes by a jury and will not reach the terrorist group he sought to support.” Pugh’s sentence was handed down on June 1st of this year. The Assistant Director in Charge, William F. Sweeney Jr., went even further to say, “the alarming reality of this case is that Pugh served in the U.S. military but ultimately traded his pledge to defend the United States to defend Islamic State.” One thing is becoming abundantly clear. Pugh’s case is not isolated and it will not be the last.

Aside from the case of Tairod Pugh, Sweeney had highlighted a stark reality that seems to have escaped much of the public and has received far less of the attention from the media it deserves. Men, young men, from various Western nations like the U.S., Canada, and Europe, are still vying to travel overseas and take-up arms with the savage Islamic State. And although the belief of those like Bridget M. Rohde, acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, is that Pugh’s sentence, “sends a powerful message that those who support terror will be brought to justice,” with so many open ISIS-related investigations in the U.S. to date, it is tough to argue such a point.

The efforts of those who investigated and prosecuted the Tairod Pugh case were extraordinary, but we would be remiss to suppose that tough prison sentences alone will solve the problem. There seems to be a number of fundamental issues being left out of the discussion, and that is why these young men, in such large numbers in Western nations, are choosing this murderous path. And aside from the fact that many questions still need to be answered, it’s glaringly obvious there are still so many vital questions yet to be asked. Perhaps many of those questions are ones so many do not want the answers to. We can, of course, continue to accept Pugh’s defense attorney’s version of these events, and write this incident – and others like it – as one where Tairod Pugh was simply delusional, unstable, or even insane. However, with so many cases like these pending in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, this type of argument becomes far less plausible each day.