The City of Rochester inspector’s report on Halal MoJoe’s Famous Chicken and Pizza could have sent the owner into despair.
“Food not protected during storage, preparation, display, transportation and service, from potential sources of contamination...Food uncovered, mislabeled, stored on floor…Plumbing and sinks not properly sized, installed, maintained; equipment and floors not properly drained…Accurate thermometers not available or used to evaluate refrigerated or heated storage temperatures...”
And that was not all.
“Harborage areas available for rodents, insects and other vermin…Food contact surfaces not washed, rinsed, and sanitized after each use and following any time of operations when contamination may have occurred…Cooked or prepared foods are subject to cross-contamination from raw foods…Premises littered, unnecessary equipment and article present, living quarters not completely separated for food service operations, live animals, birds and pets not excluded…”
But when Mufid Elfgeeh went on the computer at the back of the grimy eatery where he worked and lived, he did not concern himself with such trivialities as that December 2012 report. Online, the 31-year-old native of Yemen became a militant jihadi, tweeting about the glories of ISIS and predicting great triumphs for the murderous organization he called “the State.”
“[ISIS] will one day rule the world with the will of Allah,” he tweeted.
In recent days, President Obama has vowed to defeat ISIS and directed airstrikes in Iraq and then in Syria. But there is also a threat at home, fanned by social media and online videos, and now even a 52-second jihadi movie trailer called “Flames of War.”
Our primary domestic defense is not a pilot or a drone on high but somebody in the street with a badge. And the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force did not fail to notice Elfgeeh’s jihadi declarations at the beginning of last year. Agents contrived for one paid federal informant and then another to introduce themselves into his life.
In an apparent effort to show his new pals that he was not just some schlub who ran the greasiest of greasy spoons, Elfgeeh opened Facebook on his white iPhone and showed them that his present friends included the commander of the militant “Green Battalion,” which had struck up an alliance with ISIS in Syria. He also demonstrated how he communicated via WhatsApp with a Jordanian ISIS rep in Syria. He spoke of raising what money he could for ISIS, and he allegedly set in motion plans for his two new Best Jihad Bros (BJBs) to travel to Syria and join up.
“The State is in need of men and money,” he was recorded saying.
He told the BJBs that when they arrived in Syria via Turkey they would be kept in a house for two to three months as they were evaluated by a former member of Iraqi intelligence.
“They will know who’s a spy,” Elfgeeh was recorded saying.
In the meantime, Elfgeeh allegedly sent $600 to help a young man in Yemen journey to Syria and become one more ISIS jihadi. Elfgeeh suggested he might sign on himself if he could sell MoJoe’s, but there were no takers. He is said by the FBI to have resolved to bring the terror home to America.
“I just gotta do, I’m gonna do my deed,” he was recorded saying.
He figured on going solo.
“They call them here ‘individual wolf,’” he said.
He was referring to the lone wolves such as ISIS is now urging online to detonate pipe bombs in Times Square. The particular wolf he mentioned was Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old French petty criminal turned jihadi who arrived back in his home country from Pakistan and Afghanistan and perpetrated three gun attacks. He killed three soldiers and four civilians, these including three children at a Jewish day school.
“He was just going and doing it himself,” Elfgeeh said.
Elfgeeh announced his intention to follow Merah’s example.
“I’m thinking about just go buy big automatic gun from off the street or something and a lot of bullets and just put on a vest or whatever and just go around and start shooting,” Elfgeeh announced.
“You already have a bulletproof vest,” one of the BJBs noted.
Elfgeeh did, in fact. But he did not have a weapon.
“The main thing is right now we don’t have nothing, so we have to have something,” he said.
He turned more practical with regard to a firearm and wished aloud for “some small and nice Glock” with a silencer to “take the volume away.” The easily concealable and muted weapon would allow him to sneak up on his victims and get away afterward to kill again.
“You just walk up shooting, boom, boom, boom,” he said.
He figured he could search online for the names and addresses of returning American soldiers. The Internet also offered a religious ruling that he was permitted to kill “non-believers.”
“There is a YouTube that says all,” he told the BJBs.
One of the BJBs said he could obtain a pistol. He came up with not just a Glock but a Walther PPK as well, both with silencers. Elfgeeh was arrested in May when he met the BJBs at a Wal-Mart, allegedly to acquire the weaponry he needed for the deed he had declared himself desperate to do.
As the latest loser turned jihadi sat in jail on federal weapons charges, a fire swept through his eatery. The blaze was deemed suspicious enough to warrant an investigation.
The larger investigation continued, and on Tuesday Elfgeeh was hit with added charges of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and attempting to kill officers and employees of the United States.
Elfgeeh is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday, charged with becoming what he tweeted himself to be back when the city inspectors issued that report. He is expected to plead not guilty.
And the Internet thrums on with the tweets, postings, and videos of other twisted souls who seek to forget their ratshit lives and find meaning in the senseless murder of innocents.