Californian Son Guilty Of Loving ISIS

• A 22-year old Orange County man was convicted to 15 years in prison for planning to join the Islamic State terrorist organization.
• He was stopped at the airport leaving for Syria where they found jihadi propaganda in his phone. 
• His mother was the first one to find out the cruel intentions of her son, it isn't known if she tipped him off to the FBI.

Can you image someone wanting to destroy the sunny beaches of California? Neither can I. Yet, as the saying goes “anything is possible.”

A native of Orange County, California, was sentenced yesterday to 15 years in prison. Why? That is what you are supposed to ask because he aspired to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Not only did he aspire to it, but he actually lied to get a replacement American passport to head overseas.

Adam Dandach, the 22-year old man who was convicted, is not the first to try to flee the United States to join the Islamic terrorist group. He most certainly will not be the last.

Last year, Dandach pleaded guilty to trying to provide material help to the terrorist organization. I'm confused with what kind of material help a 22-year old “man” could provide a terrorist group that is based out of Iraq and Syria. Federal prosecutors did not take the case lightly. For the crimes of aspiring to join ISIS and lying on his passport application, they wanted to sentence him to 20 years.

In the court filings, written by federal prosecutors, the prosecutors said that the U.S. “faces significant threats from terrorists' acts planned or committed by homegrown violent extremists like (the) defendant who become radicalized online and seek to engage in terror and support groups like ISIL.” ISIL is just another acronym used for ISIS.

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During his arraignment, Dandach stated to the judge, “Pardon me for my poor judgment. I believe it should be understood that I am just a hollow shell of what I used to be.”

Apparently, Dandach claimed that he has dissociated himself with who he used to be. In other words, he has personally de-radicalized himself from being radicalized. 

It was, in reports, Dandach's mother who first found out that her son had gone cuckoo for cocoa puffs over the Islamic State. He had been praising and promoting the lectures and attacks by the terrorist group online for a while before he made his plans to go to Syria. His mother then took his passport from him, in an attempt to keep him from leaving the country. This is what caused him to lie on his passport application to get a replacement one. After the passport application was on its way he booked a flight to Syria for July of 2014. 

He, unfortunately for him, was stopped at the John Wayne Airport by FBI. His smartphone was found to be filled, after investigating, with jihadi songs that praised the ISIS terrorist group, maps of the territory that ISIS controlled, and updates from the group's Twitter feed.

Dandach admitted to the agents that he was planning to go pledge his allegiance to the Islamic State.

However, Dandach's lawyer used a plea of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder that came about from an abusive childhood. The judge agreed with the defense and claimed that the plea should be considered when discussing a verdict. It has not been said, but it is most likely why he Dandach got 15 years instead of 20.

The defense wrote that Dandach found a purpose for his life. He found religion and he wanted to travel to the location where other people believed as he did. It's interesting to me how lawyers can sway the truth in such a light that makes anyone look innocent. Dandach found religion in a group whose sole purpose is to kill people who don't believe as they believe.

I wonder if Dandach will still want to join when he gets out of prison in 2031.