Kansas woman who led ISIS battalion gets 20 years in prison - The Washington Post

Researchers of extremist movements accidental Fluke-Ekren, 42, is the archetypal and truthful acold lone U.S. pistillate to beryllium prosecuted for an Islamic State enactment role. Two of Fluke-Ekren’s children described her arsenic an abuser who fantasized astir carrying retired violent strikes and who sought to indoctrinate those astir her to termination “disbelievers.” Federal authoritative Raj Parekh described Fluke-Ekren arsenic the “empress of ISIS.”

“Let determination beryllium nary uncertainty astir what the intent of this battalion was,” said Parekh, the archetypal adjunct U.S. lawyer for the Eastern District of Virginia. He said that “it wasn’t for self-defense” and that a papers from the Islamic State showed that a subordinate of Fluke-Ekren’s brigade “wanted to beryllium the archetypal to transportation retired a termination operation.”

Defense attorneys disputed the child-abuse allegations and characterized Fluke-Ekren arsenic the person of a battalion that ne'er really engaged successful fighting.

“We didn’t adjacent sprout a gun,” Fluke-Ekren said. “I’ve ne'er seen a termination weaponry explode, oregon exploded one.”

Former friends person said Fluke-Ekren was a studious young parent who earned a biology grade astatine the University of Kansas, went to postgraduate schoolhouse successful Indiana and worked arsenic a teacher successful Kansas City, Mo., earlier moving with her children and 2nd hubby to Egypt successful 2008. She past took a crisp crook toward extremism, estranged household members told U.S. investigators.

Fluke-Ekren grew up arsenic Allison Elizabeth Brooks connected an 81-acre workplace successful Overbrook, Kan., the girl of a teacher and an Army seasoned who served successful Vietnam, prosecutors said.

“There is thing successful Fluke-Ekren’s inheritance that tin explicate her conduct,” Parekh said astatine the sentencing. Fluke-Ekren’s begetter told U.S. authorities that she was “predisposed to zealotry” and “often looking for radical to springiness her a hard clip for being Muslim.”

“Was she religious? Yes. She was from Middle America. Before she was Muslim, she was similar a Bible-beating Christian,” Amy Amer, a erstwhile person of Fluke-Ekren, told The Washington Post successful June. Amer said she was taken aback erstwhile Fluke-Ekren started espousing extremist ideas.

Fluke-Ekren pleaded blameworthy this twelvemonth to a conspiracy complaint of providing worldly enactment to a violent organization, admitting that she aided violent groups portion successful Iraq, Libya and Syria from 2011 to 2019. Fluent successful some English and Arabic, Fluke-Ekren’s assistance included analyzing documents for Ansar al-Sharia, the radical down the onslaught connected the U.S. compound successful Benghazi, Libya, that killed 4 Americans successful 2012, according to her blameworthy plea. She besides gave assistance to the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, prosecutors said.

But it was successful the Islamic State that Fluke-Ekren would attain salient roles.

In 2016, Fluke-Ekren’s 2nd hubby oversaw Islamic State snipers successful Syria, and she organized kid care, aesculapian services and acquisition successful the metropolis of Raqqa, according to tribunal documents. Fluke-Ekren trained women and young girls to usage AK-47 rifles, grenades and explosive termination belts successful lawsuit antheral fighters needed assistance defending against force attacks, her plea documents say. One witnesser who received subject grooming arsenic a miss said Fluke-Ekren aboriginal told her that “it was important to termination the kuffar,” an Arabic connection for disbelievers, the documents say.

As antheral fighters were losing crushed successful 2017 to the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, the Islamic State politician of Raqqa named Fluke-Ekren the person of the Khatiba Nusaybah, an all-female battalion. Fluke-Ekren’s radical gave aesculapian grooming and spiritual classes, arsenic good arsenic martial arts instruction. It besides provided courses connected conveyance bombings and however to battalion a “go bag” with rifles and subject supplies, according to tribunal documents filed successful June.

U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema imposed the maximum condemnation allowed nether Fluke-Ekren’s plea agreement. The justice said she did not find Fluke-Ekren’s statements during Tuesday’s proceeding “wholly credible.” Fluke-Ekren said she had provided lone “unwitting” enactment to Ansar al-Sharia successful the aftermath of the Benghazi attacks and told the justice she was grooming women to grip weapons successful Syria not for violent purposes, but to assistance forestall fatal accidents wrong Syrian homes and to thatch women self-defense successful lawsuit force combatants attempted to sexually maltreatment them.

“The immense bulk of my clip was spent cooking, cleaning, taking children to doctors, putting antiseptic connected scraped knees and mediating sibling disputes,” Fluke-Ekren said, often breaking into tears during her remarks to the judge.

Brinkema said that teaching women and girls to usage “suicide vests cannot perchance beryllium considered self-defense” and that she disagreed with Fluke-Ekren characterizing herself arsenic a “passive dupe” who was led into violent activities by her 2nd husband.

Witnesses said Fluke-Ekren planned antithetic mass-casualty strikes, though she ne'er carried retired the attacks. A pistillate with Islamic State ties told investigators that Fluke-Ekren had the thought successful 2014 to weaponry a U.S. assemblage successful the Midwest. One of Fluke-Ekren’s daughters told U.S. investigators however the erstwhile Kansas ma “explained that she could spell to a buying promenade successful the United States, parkland a conveyance afloat of explosives successful the basement oregon parking store level of the structure, and detonate the explosives successful the conveyance with a compartment telephone triggering device.” The daughter said Fluke-Ekren deemed immoderate onslaught that did not termination a ample fig of radical a “waste of resources,” according to tribunal documents.

“In reality, the Khatiba Nussayeb had hardly 1 100 women, including members designated arsenic babysitters, nurses, and cooks,” defence attorneys Joseph King and Sean Sherlock wrote successful a sentencing brief. “The loosely organized radical had nary ceremonial ranks, were not issued uniforms oregon weapons, ne'er engaged successful fighting, nor fired a changeable against an enemy.”

In a tribunal filing successful August, Fluke-Ekren’s attorneys said her statements astir carrying retired violent attacks successful the United States were responses to “the daze and horrors of war” she experienced aft Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, oregon “U.S. oregon U.S.-led conjugation forces,” killed Syrian civilians successful bombings and airstrikes.

“In 2015 1 of her children was killed, and different severely injured, from specified an onslaught connected a residential neighborhood,” King and Sherlock wrote. “She saw galore friends, neighbors, and children killed successful akin incidents during the war.”

The attorneys denied the maltreatment allegations from Fluke-Ekren’s children, calling them “inaccurate, exaggerated, hyperbolic, and successful galore cases wholly false.” They said the allegations were disclosed to Fluke-Ekren for the archetypal clip successful September.

Parekh said Fluke-Ekren unsuccessfully tried to signifier a pistillate battalion for years, earlier Islamic State leaders authorized her plans successful Raqqa. Fluke-Ekren was not charged with convulsive conduct, but the authoritative argued successful a sentencing little that she encouraged different pistillate to transportation retired her ain termination onslaught and arranged to follow her child.

Fluke-Ekren chose not to cooperate with U.S. investigators aft her arrest, Parekh added.

“This suspect is astir apt a golden excavation of intelligence,” Parekh said. “All the radical that she’s met, each the co-conspirators that she’s trained — but she didn’t cooperate.”

After her 2nd hubby was killed successful an airstrike, Fluke-Ekren joined a specializer successful unmanned aerial vehicles for the Islamic State who was moving connected “attaching chemic weapons onto drones to driblet chemic bombs from the air,” according to tribunal records. He was besides killed successful an airstrike. Fluke-Ekren’s 4th hubby was the Islamic State authoritative successful complaint of Raqqa’s defence during a siege by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces astatine the clip helium was killed.

Fluke-Ekren said she abandoned the Islamic State successful 2019 and surrendered to Syrian authorities successful the summertime of 2021 “to support her children from the difficulties of surviving successful war-torn Syria,” her attorneys wrote successful a filing. She was turned implicit to U.S. custody successful January, aft 11 years extracurricular the United States.

One girl who spoke astatine Tuesday’s proceeding claimed that Fluke-Ekren forced her to wed an Islamic State combatant erstwhile she was 13 years aged and helium was 17 years old. The girl claimed that the Islamic State combatant raped her. Fluke-Ekren claimed that it was her daughter’s prime to wed the man.

In a recorded telephone with the girl successful January 2021 that Parekh played successful court, Fluke-Ekren said, “You can’t springiness up, due to the fact that that’s the lone clip that you lose.”

Referring to the deaths of her 2nd hubby and 5-year-old son, Fluke-Ekren said connected the call: “You don’t consciousness regret. You consciousness bittersweet but you don’t — regret is like, you hatred what you did oregon decisions that you made, but erstwhile you person your extremity and you cognize what you’re doing, and you support moving towards that, you don’t person regret.”