Sentencing Today For Orange Co. Man Guilty Of Attempting To Aid Islamic State Terrorists

ORANGE COUNTY, CA – Sentencing is scheduled today for a 21-year-old Orange County man who pleaded guilty to attempting to help Islamic State terrorists in Syria. Adam Dandach, who pleaded guilty last August, faces up to 25 years in federal prison, but prosecutors have not publicly revealed how much time they think he should spend behind bars.

At an April 21 evidentiary hearing, an FBI agent testified that Dandach, of Orange, had planned to use a charity as a cover to gain easier access into the civil war-torn country. Federal prosecutors requested the evidentiary hearing to show U.S. District Judge James Selna how much planning and sophistication went into Dandach's efforts to aid Islamic State terrorists in Syria.

Defense attorney Pal Lengyel-Leahu tried to make the case that Dandach's attempts were fumbling at best and included a desire to help refugees.

FBI Special Agent Scott Wales testified that Dandach would use social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to keep abreast of news on the Syrian struggle via reports from Islamic State insiders. He also used an application to solicit advice from apparent associates of Islamic State and participated in discussions in an online forum, Wales said.

According to Wales, Dandach asked one Canadian citizen who had gone to Syria to join the fight to unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, "How did you do it?'' Within a day of that conversation, Dandach had bought a laptop and applied for a passport to replace the one his mother threw away in late 2013 when she feared he would go to Syria, Wales testified.

When investigators searched digital devices belonging to Dandach, including the laptop and his smart phone, they found he had amassed information on how to travel to Syria, including the advice to join a charity "to provide cover so travelers would receive less scrutiny,'' Wales testified.

The way in was through Turkey, where he would look for Islamic State sympathizers, according to Wales. He said Dandach had pamphlets that included photos of dead, smiling "martyrs'' who, according to the propagandists, had begun to see "paradise.''

Prosecutors showed the judge video of Dandach's interrogation after he was detained in July 2014 at John Wayne Airport, where his passport was confiscated, showing the defendant calmly explaining how the beheading of prisoners of war is OK under Sharia Law and how he figured he would receive weapons training when he got to Syria.

Dandach was subsequently heard in a recorded phone call from the Santa Ana jail telling family members to destroy evidence on his digital devices because it could incriminate him and others.

Dandach at one point wrote in one of his online conversations, "I wish to fight one day,'' Wales testified. He said Dandach also wrote a letter to an Orange County Register reporter in January 2015, after the deadly terrorist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo journal's offices in Paris, and included a poem with a line declaring, "je suis Al Qaeda'' or "I'm Al Qaeda.''

Dandach had a ticket to Atlanta when he was detained at the Santa Ana airport. He had planned to catch an international flight to Istanbul. Dandach's lawyer said his client was attempting to get insider information about the situation in Syria by following various sources on Facebook and Twitter, not necessarily because he agreed with those individuals'opinions on the war.

The attorney asked Wales if Dandach was just "parroting'' Sharia Law when he said beheadings were OK, and was not necessarily condoning the practice.

When Dandach was detained at the airport, Lengyel-Leahu said, the defendant "had no plan, no route (into Syria), no forms of communication'' on him, nor was he carrying any money.

Lengyel-Leahu attacked Wales' testimony that Dandach planned to pledge allegiance to Islamic State when he got to Syria. He also questioned the agent's testimony about Dandach's belief that "bloodshed'' would be necessary to oust Bashard, noting that President Thomas Jefferson backed the French Revolution, which included executions at guillotines of the monarchy's supporters.

"You wouldn't call Thomas Jefferson a terrorist, would you?'' Lengyel-Leahu asked.

Dandach told investigators he would not be able to fight because of his disability, and when agents asked him if he could be a driver or do some other non-combat tasks, the defendant replied others could do those activities,according to Lengyel-Leahu.

Previous:

• Defense Attorney Likens OC Terror Suspect to Thomas Jefferson
• OC Man Arrested at John Wayne Airport Charged with Trying to Support Terrorists
• O.C. Man Pleads Not Guilty to Passport Fraud in Attempt to Join Terrorists in the Mideast
• Feds Suspect Man Stopped at John Wayne Airport Was Headed to Join Terrorist Ring

--City News Service/Images via Shutterstock/screengrab KTLA Screengrab