DALLAS — A Mesquite man who lied to the FBI about pledging allegiance to an Islamic State terrorist leader was sentenced Wednesday to four years in federal prison.
Bilal Abood, 38, a former U.S. military translator, admitted he lied to the FBI about traveling to Syria and sending a tweet pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State, or ISIS.
The only question for U. S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade on Wednesday was whether Abood’s motive was terrorism.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Penley argued that it was and asked for the maximum of eight years. He has said in court filings that Abood’s real reason for trying to travel abroad was to wage jihad and die a martyr.
Kinkeade said Abood made “abominable” comments in his tweets. But he agreed with his defense attorney that there was no evidence suggesting Abood was planning a terrorist attack.
The judge called Abood a “goofball” and an “odd character” who did some stupid things. But he said he thinks Abood is a “misguided kind of fellow who’s not going to act on things.”
Abood, 38, pleaded guilty in October to one count of making a false statement to a federal agency.
Abood told Kinkeade on Wednesday that he copied and pasted other people’s tweets to join online insults between the Sunni and Shia, Islam’s two largest groups. Abood, an Iraqi-born Sunni who is now an American citizen, said his tweets were intended to “piss off” the Shia posters.