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[Music] Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at
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any time you need support, please contact your local crisis center. For suggested phone numbers for confidential
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support, and for a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on
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our website. This episode was originally released on Case Files Patreon, Apple Premium, and Spotify Premium feeds as an
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early bonus for our paid subscribers. To receive these episodes early and adfree,
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you can support Case File on your preferred platform. [Music] One day in December 2015, a 21-year-old
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man from Michigan admitted something very disturbing to his girlfriend. Khalil Ryan had met 19-year-old Jeanna
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Bride just a couple of months earlier via the social media platform Twitter. The two had bonded over shared interests
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and commonalities. Both were from strict Muslim families and lived in the city of
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Detroit. As they were unable to date openly the way other young people in the United
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States typically would, their relationship had moved quickly and they were already discussing marriage as a
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way to be together. Khalil and Janna would often talk about heavy topics including violent crimes
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committed by the terrorist group Islamic State. During one such conversation in December
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2015, Khalil made an alarming confession. He told Janna, quote, "I tried to shoot up a church one day. I
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don't know the name of it, but it's close to my job. It's one of the biggest ones in Detroit. Yeah, I had it planned
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out. I bought a bunch of bullets. I practiced a lot with it. I practiced reloading and unloading.
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But my dad searched my car one day and he found everything. He found the gun and the bullets and a mask I was going
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to wear. Khalil said he'd decided to attack a church because it was an easy target.
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Lots of people would be in attendance and would be unarmed. Plus, it would make the news, he added.
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He had an AK-47 rifle, so he would be capable of shooting many victims. When Jeana asked Khil if he would have
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shot women and children at the church as well as men, he responded, "I would have killed every last one of
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them. I would have shown no mercy. [Music] [Music] Khalil Ryan was raised in the Detroit
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suburb of Dearborn Heights, which had a large ArabAmerican population. Many women in the area wore hijabs, a
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head covering wrapped over the hair and beneath the chin. Some men wore long loose- fitting robes
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known as a th and the call to prayer could be heard echoing through parts of the suburb five times a day.
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Khalil was the son of Palestinian immigrants though his parents split up when he was three. He was then primarily
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raised by his father's family and he received plenty of love and care while at home.
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He had six younger siblings and step siblings. But despite growing up in an Arab-American family and neighborhood,
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Khalil felt torn between two worlds. He also wanted to be an ordinary American kid, so he sometimes went by
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the nicknames K or Ray to sound less foreign. In September 2001, when Khalil was 7
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years old, the 9/11 attacks changed everything. They were committed by 19 terrorists,
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all of whom were extremist Muslims affiliated with the jihadist group al-Qaeda, an armed militant organization
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dedicated to establishing fundamentalist Islamic states. Suddenly, some people in Khalil's
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community began looking at him differently. He was bullied at school for his heritage and began lying about his
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background, telling people he was Hispanic or Italian. Although he lived in a strong
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ArabAmerican community, in a broader sense, Khalil felt like an outsider. As he grew older, he became more
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troubled. At the age of 12, he had a dream that he took a gun to school and shot his entire
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class. He later told a teacher about the nightmare and he was referred to counseling.
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As a teenager, Khalil developed a reputation for being a class clown at the charter high school he attended,
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where the other students were also of mostly Muslim and Arab descent. But he also became the target of bullies
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and was given suspension on at least three separate occasions after getting into fights.
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While his home life was stable, Khalil struggled with his peers and with depression.
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By the age of 17, he'd started using cannabis. It was after graduating, however, that
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Khil's problems escalated. He briefly attended college, but his poor mental health and drug use led to
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him failing his classes. He decided to essentially drop out and take a break from studying to work
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full-time as a pizza delivery driver. Khalil's father was an engineer with two master's degrees, and he also owned a
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pizzeria. Working for his father at the pizzeria seemed like a good solution. However, without the structure of school
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and the friends he'd previously seen daily, Khalil's depression worsened. His job was isolating, involving long
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hours alone in a car, sometimes up to 70 hours a week. Khalil became even more dependent on
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drugs, often smoking between deliveries to curb his boredom and a low mood. By the age of 19, he was often smoking
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between 10 and 15 cannabis joints a day. To make matters worse, Khalil often felt
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unsafe while working. Detroit could be a dangerous city, and Khil was generally working late at
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night. He had to deliver pizza at sketchy looking apartment buildings or on blocks with no porch lights to aid
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visibility. On more than one occasion, Khalil would pull up at an address to deliver a
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pizza, only to find it was an abandoned house, and there were people waiting there to jump and rob him.
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Sometimes Khil was even robbed at gunpoint. Feeling lonely, angry, and powerless,
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Khil suffered something of an identity crisis, wondering who he was and where he belonged.
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He began spending his free time retreating online to seek out a sense of belonging with other young Muslims his
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age. Then he started seeking out shocking and graphic content as a distraction from
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his own feelings. Seeing real gore and violence just felt like an escalation from watching an
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action movie. It involved the same shock and awe on a heightened level. By this time it was 2014 and the actions
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of the terrorist group Islamic State or IS had captured the world's attention. Militants from IS had taken over large
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territories in eastern Syria where there was an ongoing civil war and northwestern Iraq where local military
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forces were dwindling. is declared itself to be a caliphate, the term for a state under the
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leadership of a religious Muslim considered a successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
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Is adheres to a radical pro-Si Islamist ideology and seeks to establish a global
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caliphate through armed struggle. It was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States
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government in April 2014. As they conquered parts of Syria and Iraq, IS became known for their use of
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social media to disseminate their message. They posted news, photos, and videos on
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Twitter as a way to reach a broader audience beyond their geographical borders and radicalize sympathetic
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individuals abroad. Is also became known for their brutality. Much of the content they shared featured
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shocking acts of violence against those they deemed their enemies. One such video was of a Jordanian pilot
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they had captured being set on fire and burned to death. Others showed men who were suspected by IS of being gay being
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thrown off a high-rise building as a form of execution. is also used public beheadings to
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terrorize and punish and filmed soldiers, journalists, aid workers, and others being killed this way.
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In one incident, a French citizen and mountaineering guide named Erve Gordell was kidnapped in Algeria, then held
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hostage before being beheaded. This crime was filmed and released online under the title a message of
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blood for French government. Khalil Ryan had a Twitter account using the handle at Khalil Ray21.
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In November 2014, he started seeking out is content. He liked propaganda posts about their
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victories, including videos of beheadings and the Jordanian pilot's murder. Sometimes he would retweet posts,
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re-sharing them on his own profile or reply with a comment. In one instance, he asked another
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Twitter user if they had a link to a video showing people being thrown from a tall building.
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When the other users shared it with him, Khil replied, "Thanks. That made my day."
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Khalil sent some photos of beheadings to his brother. He saved one such photo as
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the screen saver on his smartphone. Emboldened by the online world he was falling into, Khalil took a photograph
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of himself and two friends, all dressed in camouflage. Khalil was holding a semi-automatic
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pistol in his right hand. His left hand was pointing skyward, his index finger raised.
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This gesture was a commonly acknowledged sign of support for Islamic State known
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as the tohed, a term referring to the oneness of God. Neither of Khalil's friends were making
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the gesture. On Thursday, February 19, 2015, Khil shared this photograph on his Twitter
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account. Throughout 2015, Khalil continued to immerse himself in is content after
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clocking off from work. Late in the year, he decided to buy a gun. On Monday, October 5, Khalil went to a
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Dearbornne Heights sporting goods store and purchased a 22 caliber revolver. To complete the purchase, he had to fill
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out a form required by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, commonly known as the ATF.
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Question 11E on the form asked, "Are you an unlawful user of or addicted to marijuana or any depressant, stimulant,
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narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?" Khalil checked no and signed the form.
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2 days later, Khalil left work and got into his 2001 Buick Sentry. As he was driving away from the
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pizzeria, he noticed two police cars with their lights on, signaling him to pull over.
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Khil did so at a nearby intersection. The officers approached him on foot with their weapons drawn, later saying that
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as they did so, they could see him still seated in his car, bending down and making hurried movements as though
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hiding something. When the officers reached Khalil, they noticed a strong smell of cannabis and
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asked Khalil to exit the vehicle. As Khalil did so, he told the officers that his gun was in the car. The
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officers found it on the floor under the driver's seat. When Khalil asked the officers why they
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had pulled him over in the first place, one told him that he'd been speeding. Another pointed to some prayer beads
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Khil had hanging from his rear view mirror and said they'd stopped him for obstruction of vision.
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K9 units were called in and police also recovered a plastic bag under the dashboard which contained a black vial,
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three sleeping pills, and four baggies of cannabis. In total, the search took about 3 hours.
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Khalil was arrested for possession of cannabis and for carrying a concealed weapon.
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Michigan was an open carry state, meaning residents were permitted to carry firearms provided they were
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displayed openly. To conceal carry, you needed a special license. Khalil did not have this license, and
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hiding a gun under his driver's seat counted as concealment. Khalil waved his Miranda rights and
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provided a full statement to the police, stating, "I tried to hide the gun under
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my seat because I panicked. I think my fidgeting made the police officer nervous because he ordered me out of the
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car." That's when I told him, "Hey man, I got a pistol." Khil Ryan spent the night in jail and
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was released on bond the following morning. Khalil was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and illegal possession
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of a controlled substance. One month later at around the same time on Sunday, November 15, he tried to buy another
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gun. He went to a different sporting goods store and again filled out the ATF form
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the same way, but this time his purchase was blocked due to his pending court case.
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Later that day, Khalil and a friend went to a local firing range. The pair rented an AK-47 and an AR-15
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rifle, both of which are military-style firearms. Background checks were not required for
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this. Khalil took photographs of himself holding the weapons and two weeks later
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he posted one of these pictures on Twitter. He captioned the photo saw hunting. Sawat is an is term for a person who
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opposes their group originally referring to the Sunni tribesmen who fought alongside US-led coalition troops in
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Iraq. [Music] About one week after Ryan posted this photo, he received a direct message on
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Twitter from a 23-year-old woman called Garter. She'd noticed his account and was
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reaching out. Garter told Khalil she was of Pakistani descent and lived in Cleveland, Ohio.
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She shared some photos of herself with Khil. Some were selfies she'd taken in front
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of a mirror. Others were her with her family. Khalil thought she was beautiful. The pair exchanged phone numbers and
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soon they were texting each other daily. Khalil had never had a girlfriend before. Their relationship quickly
00:18:04
escalated from getting to know one another by asking questions about their lives to a serious romance where they
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were discussing marriage. Khalil told Garter that his religious faith forbade him from playing games
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with her. If they were going to be together, it needed to be a commitment. Within a week of meeting, they were
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describing themselves as engaged. Although he was yet to meet Garter in person, her presence in Khalil's life
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had already made an enormous impact. In one message, he told her, "While I was driving, I started to cry
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because of how happy I am to have you." "Don't cry, my love. Please," Garter replied. "It's tears of joy," Khalil
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reassured her. "I never felt this way before. [Music] The love struck young couple discussed
00:19:04
what their wedding would be like and how many children they would have. Eager to progress to the next stage of
00:19:12
their relationship, Khalil said he didn't want them to sneak around behind their family's backs. Instead, their
00:19:19
parents should meet one another. He spoke about it with his father who said he was happy to go to Ohio with
00:19:27
Khalil to meet Garter and plan their wedding. Khalil went back to Garter to share the
00:19:34
news but wasn't met with the joy he expected. Instead, Garter said she was having
00:19:42
second thoughts about everything and wasn't sure it was a good idea. She then stopped responding to Khalil
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altogether. He was heartbroken and distraught. Their relationship had ended as quickly
00:19:58
as it began. Khalil wondered if he'd been too clingy or rushed to the situation.
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Whatever had gone wrong, he believed it must have been his fault. A couple of weeks after Ga disappeared,
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Khalil received a direct message from another young woman on Twitter. Her name was Jeanna Bride and she was of
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Iraqi descent. At 19, she was a few years younger than Garta and she also lived closer to
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Khalil. Like him, she was a Sunni Muslim residing in Detroit. Janna told Khalil that she felt an
00:20:46
overwhelming urge to talk to him and she believed God had connected them. Janna had suffered a lot recently and
00:20:56
was deeply depressed. Like Khalil, she'd experienced heartbreak. She had been engaged to a young man
00:21:04
named Ahmad who had died during an air strike in Syria. Two of Janna's cousins had also been
00:21:12
killed by anti-IS forces. Now she was living at home with her parents whom she felt were destroying
00:21:20
her life. Janna was suicidal and needed somebody to talk to. Over the course of mid to late December
00:21:30
2015, Khalil and Janna began communicating daily. Khalil developed romantic feelings for
00:21:38
Janna quickly, but she was slower to respond. Janna seemed too absorbed by her own
00:21:45
pain to be interested in dating at all. Nevertheless, the two became close and were soon confiding intimate thoughts
00:21:54
and feelings to one another. They found some common ground in their feelings about Islamic State.
00:22:03
Janna was a staunch supporter of the group as she blamed their enemies for the deaths of her fianceé and cousins.
00:22:12
Khalil began confessing some of his darker thoughts to Janna. He told her about a plan he'd had to
00:22:19
shoot up a church near his home with an AK-47. He'd chosen it as a target because lots
00:22:26
of people went there and he knew the parishioners would be unarmed. Khalil told Janna he would show no
00:22:33
mercy, even killing women and children. Honestly, I regret not doing it. If I can't go do jihad in the Middle East, I
00:22:43
would do my jihad over here. Maybe down the line, I can try again. Jihad is an Arabic word that translates
00:22:53
to struggling. In an Islamic context, it can refer to an individual striving to live a moral
00:23:00
life or to put efforts towards building a good Muslim community. However, in the context of extremist
00:23:08
Islam, it has come to mean an armed struggle against perceived enemies of the religion.
00:23:15
Janna understood where Khalil was coming from. She told him, "Jihad is my dream.
00:23:24
She was suicidal, but only had interest in dying if she could martyr herself for
00:23:29
God and as revenge for the deaths of Syrians and Iraqis following international invasions.
00:23:37
The following month, Khalil told Janna that hearing about shootings and murder excited him.
00:23:44
I would gladly behead people if I needed to, he said. It is my dream to behead someone.
00:23:52
He claimed that sometimes Satan spoke to him at night, telling him to burn people
00:23:57
alive and cut their tongues. Khalil also wanted to murder one of the police officers who'd arrested him for
00:24:05
concealed carry and possession of a controlled substance a few months earlier. Khalil explained that his trial had been
00:24:13
delayed because the officer in question had suffered a heart attack and was in hospital.
00:24:19
Khalil said he wanted to commit a quote martyrdom operation at the hospital, killing the officer in the process.
00:24:28
Khalil also said he was now carrying a large knife or sword in his car in case he ever got into a fight.
00:24:36
He told Janna that his father knew about Khalil's support of is and that he'd told his father that he wanted to make
00:24:43
jihad. Khalil's father did not support this and had warned his son to be careful about
00:24:50
what he said and posted online. On Thursday, February 4, 2016, Khil received a text message from Jeanna
00:25:05
early in the morning. She asked whether he was going to work that day. Khil replied that he was then got ready
00:25:14
for his shift. He left home and stopped to get gas before driving to work. Khalil was opening up the pizzeria that
00:25:24
day and as he approached the front door, he suddenly saw a man with an AR- style
00:25:29
rifle aimed at him. He ordered Khil to get on the ground. Soon there was a swarm of other people
00:25:38
surrounding him, all brandishing firearms and wearing bulletproof vests. They were agents for the Federal Bureau
00:25:45
of Investigation or FBI. As they placed Khil under arrest and searched the pizzeria, a simultaneous
00:25:54
raid was taking place at his family home. His mother and younger sister were escorted from the premises while his
00:26:02
younger brother was handcuffed. Khalil Ryan was taken to the FBI headquarters and placed in an
00:26:10
interrogation room. An agent informed him that he was under arrest for possession of a firearm by an unlawful
00:26:17
user of a controlled substance. Khil already knew he had state charges pending for these offenses and wasn't
00:26:26
aware they'd been upgraded to a federal level. He requested a lawyer several times, but
00:26:32
the FBI agent told him he had some questions to ask first. "What is your involvement with Islamic
00:26:39
State?" the agent asked. At that point, Khalil realized he was under investigation for terrorism.
00:26:49
He responded by asking what he was being charged with. The agent repeated that it was just a
00:26:55
gun case, but followed up by asking about posts Khalil had shared on social media and his thoughts about Islamic
00:27:03
State. He then brought up Ajanna, implying that she was being questioned simultaneously
00:27:10
in the room next door. The agent knew about things the two had discussed, like Khil's plan to commit a
00:27:18
mass shooting at a church and his desire to behead people. At that point, Khalil began to worry
00:27:26
about Janna. If the FBI had evidence against them, he wanted to take the rap so she could go
00:27:33
free. Despite the agents questions, no additional charges were laid against Khalil, nor was he charged with anything
00:27:43
relating to terrorism. But this time, he wasn't being released on bond. He was to be held in federal custody
00:27:52
until his case was resolved. Almost 2 weeks later on Tuesday, February 16, Khil was charged in a
00:28:02
two-count indictment. He was being charged with making a false statement to acquire a firearm for lying
00:28:10
on the ATF form when purchasing his handgun by stating he wasn't an unlawful user of a controlled substance.
00:28:18
He was also charged with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. As Khil sat in court, his attorney went
00:28:28
through his charge sheet. After reading it, she turned to Khil and told him that
00:28:33
the woman he knew was his girlfriend, Jeanna Bride, didn't exist at all. It turned out that the FBI had been
00:28:46
monitoring Khalil Ryan ever since May 2015 after his Twitter account came to their attention.
00:28:55
His comments and posts in favor of IS activities had been flagged and a review found that he'd been liking and
00:29:02
retweeting IS propaganda for over 6 months. The FBI began investigating Khalil via a
00:29:10
number of methods, including monitoring of his social media accounts and surveillance.
00:29:17
A few months after they first began surveilling Khalil, the FBI became aware that he'd bought a firearm.
00:29:25
They arranged for local police to pull Khalil over just 2 days after the purchase under the guise of a routine
00:29:32
traffic stop. It was then that Khalil was first charged with criminal offenses for the
00:29:39
concealed carry of the gun and possession of a controlled substance. The FBI has not released the full facts
00:29:47
of their investigation into Khalil, but it is believed that they first attempted
00:29:52
to approach him undercover about 2 months after his arrest using the online persona of Garter.
00:29:59
Garter initiated a whirlwind romance with Khalil via Twitter and he had believed that they were engaged to be
00:30:07
married. But then Garter abruptly ended the relationship, leaving Khalil feeling
00:30:13
broken. A few days after Khil last heard from Garter, either the same agent or another
00:30:21
one reached out to Khalil again with a brand new persona. Unlike a Gata, Janna Bride's approach
00:30:30
was grounded in a strong focus on Islamic State. The agent operating as Janna gave her a
00:30:37
history steeped in conflicts taking place in the Middle East and repeatedly turned their conversations to the topics
00:30:43
of jihad, martyrdom, and is during conversations throughout December 2015 and January 2016. Khalil made a
00:30:55
number of statements that the FBI took as indications he might be planning a terror attack.
00:31:02
These included claims that he'd previously planned to shoot up a church. Based on information in Khalil's
00:31:10
messages, agents were able to identify a church that fit the description he gave.
00:31:16
It was less than half a mile from the pizzeria where Khalil worked and stretched across two blocks.
00:31:24
It was a large building with a capacity to fit 6,000 people. In late January 2016, Khil also talked
00:31:34
about wanting to go to the hospital where the officer who arrested him was being cared for and murdering him.
00:31:41
The next day, he told Jeanna how he carried a sword in his car and added, "I would gladly behead people if I needed
00:31:50
to." About 2 weeks after this, on Thursday, February 4, FBI agents struck. They arrested Khalil at his workplace
00:32:02
and confronted him with what they knew about his terrorist ambitions. [Music] In the days following Khalil Ryan's
00:32:12
second arrest, articles were published about the incident in local and national newspapers and media outlets. Headlines
00:32:20
announced that a 21-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of supporting Islamic State and planning to attack a
00:32:28
Detroit church. Khalil was portrayed as a dangerous budding terrorist who had been
00:32:34
successfully stopped before he'd caused harm. The FBI's criminal complaint against
00:32:41
Khalil was also shared online. The affidavit contained this notable quote from FBI special agent Alan
00:32:51
Southard. Since May of 2015, the FBI has been conducting an investigation of Khalil
00:32:58
Abu Ryan regarding increasingly violent threats he has made to others about committing acts of terror and martyrdom,
00:33:07
including brutal acts against police officers, churchgoers, and others on behalf of the foreign terrorist
00:33:14
organization Islamic State of Iraq and Lavant. Khalil was held on bond and had to
00:33:22
undergo a competency exam to prove he was fit to stand trial. A grand jury indicted Khalil on the two gun rellated
00:33:30
felonies the FBI had initially charged him with, making a false statement to acquire a firearm and possession of a
00:33:38
firearm by a prohibited person. However, the grand jury did not indict Khalil on any terrorism charges.
00:33:49
On Tuesday, September 13, 2016, Khalil faced court. On the advice of his attorney, he
00:33:57
pleaded guilty to the two federal firearm charges. He had already pleaded guilty to the state charges relating to
00:34:05
the same offenses, and the evidence against him was clear. Khalil told the court of his deep
00:34:12
remorse for his actions, stating, "I am so ashamed. I have humiliated myself. That conduct is not who I am or what I
00:34:22
believe in. Islamic state has nothing to do with Islam. I have shamed my faith. I
00:34:29
have shamed the Muslim people." Sentencing guidelines for these charges typically called for 10 to 16 months in
00:34:38
prison. The judge spoke for an hour before sentencing Khalil, focusing primarily on Khalil's support for
00:34:46
Islamic State. This is not merely viewing an Islamic State website, the judge stated, while
00:34:54
pointing to the threat Khalil had shared with the Janna. The judge also cited the photo Khalil
00:35:01
had posted of himself to Twitter holding a military-grade rifle and claiming he was saw somewhat hunting.
00:35:08
Although Khalil had expressed remorse for holding these sentiments, the judge said his apology was too little too
00:35:15
late. He sentenced Khil Ryan to 5 years in federal prison. Although the shocking headlines about
00:35:27
Khalil's planned terrorist attacks had scared some members of the public, there were others who harbored concerns about
00:35:34
the case against the young man. Civil rights advocates and Muslim American leaders believed Khalil's case
00:35:42
was emblematic of a larger abuse of power taking place. What hadn't been included in the FBI's
00:35:50
criminal complaint against Khalil Ryan was mitigating evidence that indicated he had never had any intention to commit
00:35:57
a terrorist act at all. In fact, the evidence provided by the government was missing key portions of the
00:36:05
conversations between Khalil and Janna with nothing at all provided from before December 23, 2015, well into the pair's
00:36:14
relationship. The government claimed these emissions were due to a printing error, but Khil's
00:36:21
defense team suspected otherwise. They filed a motion for discovery to gain access to the FBI's full case
00:36:29
against Khil. The government was able to successfully withhold most of its surveillance
00:36:36
evidence by arguing that doing so would protect national security. But a closer look at the conversations
00:36:43
between Khalil and Janna that were available still provided greater clarity as to what had actually taken place.
00:36:52
From the start, Jeanna bride had presented as a deeply depressed suicidal young woman who had suffered immense
00:37:00
loss. While she had repeatedly raised the subject of Islamic State and Jihad, Khalil's responses to her had been more
00:37:09
focused on building a romantic relationship. "I wish I could take you away from this
00:37:15
sadness," he wrote. "I pray a lot for your happiness. Sometimes I think I see you in my dreams."
00:37:24
Over time, he started professing his love to Janna and asked her to marry him. Lonely and depressed, Khalil had never
00:37:33
had a romantic relationship before and saw marriage as a way to be happy. He tried to dissuade Janna from harming
00:37:41
herself or others, telling her, "Just stay positive. Everything will work out." In one conversation, Janna expressed her
00:37:52
deep sadness before asking Khalil, "What do you want from this dunya?" Dunya is an Arabic word referring to the
00:38:02
temporal world. Khalil replied, "Honestly, to get married, I think if I get married, I will be happy. I'm just
00:38:12
lonely sometimes. I want to start a family." "What about the afterlife?" Jeanna asked
00:38:20
before adding, "I want to leave this dunya. I don't want to get married." Khalil encouraged her not to give up,
00:38:29
reassuring her that her life would improve. "Don't you want to have children and
00:38:34
watch them grow up?" he asked. "That's probably the best feeling." In subsequent conversations, Jeanna
00:38:44
spoke of wanting to m herself for Allah or God, stating, "I want to die for the sake of Allah." Her motivation for doing
00:38:54
so was vengeance for quote. Seeing my sisters and brothers and young women die in Syria and Iraq like that.
00:39:04
Khalil replied that she was young and confused and didn't know what she wanted. Jihad is my dream. Jeanna responded.
00:39:15
But Khalil didn't pick up on these threads. instead trying to convince Jeanna that marriage and building a
00:39:22
future was the best path forward. During one conversation, Jeanna appeared to directly ask Khalil about a possible
00:39:31
plan for them to commit jihad together, writing, "So, you don't want to do anything of
00:39:37
what we talked about together?" "No, I can't." Khalil replied, "I want us to be together. I have other plans.
00:39:48
Don't do anything that will hurt yourself or other people. At one point, he grew so tired of
00:39:57
Jeanna's repeated talk about jihad that he stopped talking to her for 3 days. She continued to contact him incessantly
00:40:06
during that time. Perhaps picking up on his distaste for conversations about violence, she no
00:40:14
longer messaged about that, but instead said how much she needed someone to talk
00:40:18
to. Khalil caved and resumed contact. This time, when Jeanna began fixating on Islamic State and Jihad again, Khalil
00:40:30
followed her lead. He would later explain in an interview with progressive advocacy group the
00:40:37
Gravel Institute that he could see those were the things that were quote turning
00:40:42
her on. So he decided to go along with it to impress Jeanna and maintain her interest.
00:40:51
Whenever he turned to other topics, Janna became distant and started to pull away.
00:40:58
And desperate to keep her attention, Khalil started making up stories, claiming he'd been accused of murder and
00:41:05
had spent 3 months in prison before being let go. This had never happened. Khalil said that his claims of wanting
00:41:14
to behead people or commit a massacre at a church were invented as well to make him sound more like the sort of man
00:41:22
Jeanna would be interested in. When the FBI searched Khalil's home and workplace, they found no trace of the
00:41:30
AK-47 he said he'd owned. The truth was that Khalil had never owned an AK-47, nor did he have any bullets.
00:41:41
He had purchased a handgun in October 2015, but this was in response to feeling unsafe at work. After being
00:41:49
robbed multiple times while delivering pizzas, sometimes at gunpoint, he felt he needed to be armed for protection.
00:41:58
The gun he bought could only carry six bullets in its chamber. He'd had it for just 2 days when he was
00:42:05
pulled over, and it was confiscated by the police. Khalil had also told Janna he'd bought a
00:42:13
mask to wear during the church attack, but no such mask was recovered during searches by the FBI.
00:42:21
Khalil's defenders have described his proposed massacre as fantasy to impress a girl.
00:42:29
But prosecutors argued that even if he hadn't made preparations to carry it out, his messages were still an
00:42:36
expression of intent. The situation between Ryan and Ajanna reached a boiling point in early
00:42:44
February 2016. Ryan had grown increasingly depressed while awaiting trial for the gun
00:42:51
charges. He was also anxious because his phone had been searched following his arrest and he knew authorities might
00:42:59
find the Islamic State content he had downloaded and watched. There were also photos of him posing
00:43:06
with guns at the firing range. He worried these might lead to further charges. During a phone conversation on Tuesday,
00:43:15
February 2, Ryan told Janna that he was suicidal and had bought a rope to hang himself.
00:43:23
"I'm tired of this," he said. "We're doing the same thing every day." He told Jeanna of his anxieties that he
00:43:32
might be charged with further offenses. He claimed he'd tried to travel to Syria
00:43:38
a year earlier to join Islamic State, but had been turned away. Lately, he'd noticed that he seemed to
00:43:46
be under surveillance. There were always cop cars near his workplace or dark vehicles following
00:43:53
him. One time, Khalil had actually called the police to report that he'd seen a man in
00:43:59
a vehicle taking photos of him. An officer had attended the scene, spoken to the man in the vehicle, and
00:44:07
then told Khalil that it was fine. The man had just been taking photos of some nearby signs.
00:44:16
Janna pushed back against Ryan's suicidal ideiation, telling him that taking his own life was haram forbidden
00:44:24
by Islamic law. When it's for the sake of Allah, when it's jihad, or when it's for a cause,
00:44:32
that's the only time Allah allows it. But not to put your life to waste and to just hang yourself like you say you want
00:44:40
to do. Janna asked Khalil directly whether he wanted to hurt anybody else. I would not like to hurt somebody else,
00:44:51
he replied. Towards the end of their conversation, Khil said that he couldn't stand the
00:44:58
thought of being incarcerated. If the police tried to take him into custody again, he planned to try and
00:45:06
stab them to incite them to kill him in response. But at no time did he discuss planning
00:45:14
or intending to carry out a terrorist attack. 2 days after this conversation, FBI
00:45:22
agents arrested Khalil Ryan at his place of work. [Music] To Khalil's defense attorneys, it
00:45:35
appeared as though the FBI had repeatedly tried to manipulate their client towards committing an act of
00:45:41
terror. They believed that both female personas the government had used to communicate
00:45:47
with Khalil had been part of a quote reprehensible drama. First, they manipulated the young man to
00:45:56
fall head over heels in love with Garter, leaving him brokenhearted when she abruptly dumped him.
00:46:03
They then introduced him to Janna who had just lost her fianceé as Khalil had lost his.
00:46:11
Janna was an attempt to exploit his devastation and loss by pushing him towards terrorism.
00:46:19
Instead of just gauging where Khalil stood when it came to such crimes, Janna had actively and repeatedly steered him
00:46:27
towards them by promoting jihad. When Khalil expressed suicidal thoughts and revealed a suicide plan, Jeanna told
00:46:36
him the only way suicide was acceptable was in the form of a suicide attack that
00:46:41
would also harm others. Near the conclusion of their motion, Khalil's attorneys wrote,
00:46:50
"The government has indiscriminately thrown damaging information about Mr. Ryan into the public record, allowing
00:46:56
the media to run wild with the accusations that he is a mentally ill terrorist sympathizer.
00:47:03
The truth is that the government has subjected the defendant, a US citizen, to a relentless and cynical emotional
00:47:11
manipulation in an attempt to radicalize a lonely young man who was looking for a
00:47:16
wife to start a family. A psychologist hired by the defense found that Ryan's level of dangerousness
00:47:25
was very low. According to an article in The Intercept, the psychologist wrote in
00:47:31
his report that Ryan's comments and behavior with the undercover agent was the result of deep longings for female
00:47:40
attention in a very shy and awkward young man. His verbalization was the result of an effort to keep the
00:47:48
attention with hopes of a future. They were not the result of radicalization or representative of terrorist intentions.
00:48:00
According to author and journalist Trevor Aronson, who published a book titled The Terror Factory: Inside the
00:48:07
FBI's Manufactured War on Terror, the FBI was using more than 15,000 informants in counterterrorism
00:48:15
investigations in early 2016. At that time, many of their investigations focused on alleged
00:48:23
Islamic State sympathizers. The particular type of surveillance used in Khil Ryan's case was known as a
00:48:32
honeypot, an operational practice where a covert agent uses the allure of a romantic or sexual relationship to
00:48:39
compromise a target. An article in the Detroit Free Press around the time of Khalil's conviction
00:48:47
quoted the head of the FBI in Detroit as defending these undercover operations, saying they only targeted individuals
00:48:54
who had already expressed intentions to commit criminal behavior. He described informants as a legitimate
00:49:02
tool in combating terrorism. Two other men in Detroit also faced court in early 2016 after being targeted
00:49:12
by FBI informants for terror related activities. But like Khalil, they were never charged
00:49:19
with any offenses relating to terrorism. Local Muslim leaders accused the FBI of
00:49:27
pursuing young men who were mentally unstable or suffering from emotional problems and goating them into
00:49:34
terrorism. Other young Muslims in Michigan said that they had been pressured to become
00:49:40
informants for the FBI. One young man was interrogated at the airport after returning home from Yemen
00:49:47
and said he'd been told that if he became an informant, he would be taken off a no-fly list.
00:49:54
Another man said he was asked to spy on other Muslims in exchange for a visa, allowing him to work in the US.
00:50:04
In an interview with RT America, author and journalist Trevor Aronson stated, "In the vast majority of cases where the
00:50:13
FBI uses informants and sting operations and files terrorism related charges, they're not finding people who have
00:50:21
weapons and bombs and direct connections to terrorist organizations. [Music] Instead, more than anything, they're
00:50:29
finding people who are mentally ill. What's particularly problematic about these cases is they're not finding the
00:50:36
truly dangerous person who would strike tomorrow. Instead, they're finding someone who is
00:50:43
easily manipulated via an informant. There are also arguments that building cases against radicalized individuals
00:50:52
via undercover agents isn't an effective way to prevent terrorism. In many instances, this approach pushes
00:51:01
people towards criminal activity instead of away from it. In Denmark, a program was introduced
00:51:08
that focused on dradicalizing citizens who had chosen to support Islamic State. Creators of the program recognized that
00:51:17
young people drawn to YS were typically second generation immigrants who felt isolated and abandoned by their
00:51:24
communities. They designed a collaborative approach between police, Danish intelligence,
00:51:31
social services, the health care system, and education providers that would see radicalized citizens receive counseling,
00:51:39
mentoring, and support as long as they hadn't committed any crimes. Named the Orhus model, it appeared to
00:51:47
have some success. While 30 Danish citizens traveled to Syria to join Islamic State in 2013, that number
00:51:56
dropped to one a year later and two in 2015. One young man who took part in the Orhus
00:52:05
model spoke with the BBC about his experience. Going by the name of Ahmed, he explained
00:52:12
that after he came to police attention for extremist leanings, they approached him at home and took him out for a
00:52:19
coffee. They then introduced him to a mentor, another Muslim man who worked with Ahmed
00:52:25
for months to dradicalize him and show him he had other options. The program ultimately worked with Ahmed
00:52:34
telling the BBC, "I'm happy right now. I see my future in Denmark. I couldn't see
00:52:41
that before because it was all dark. Khalil Ryan spent almost 4 years incarcerated at a federal prison in
00:52:52
Indiana. For the first 6 months, he was held in solitary confinement for his own
00:52:58
protection. Prison officials felt that the high-profile nature of Khalil's case and
00:53:04
the allegations of terrorism could lead to other inmates harming Khalil. In an interview with the Gravel
00:53:12
Institute, Khalil stated that his time in solitary confinement permanently altered him. He felt forgotten by his
00:53:19
family and hopeless about his future. quote, "I really do firmly believe that a part of me actually did break when I
00:53:29
was in there." Eventually, Khalil joined the general population. He developed a routine that
00:53:37
involved lots of reading, praying, and working in the prison commissery. Khalil Ryan was released from custody in
00:53:46
June 2020. He returned to his family in Dearbornne Heights and also rejoined social media.
00:53:54
He soon found a niche on the platform Tik Tok where he posted videos answering questions about what life was like in
00:54:00
prison. Khalil also began a serious relationship with his first real girlfriend. Though
00:54:07
he struggled with trust issues for a long time, he couldn't shake the fear that his girlfriend might actually be an
00:54:15
undercover informant. Khalil Ryan has shared his story in a number of interviews. He is adamant that
00:54:23
the FBI knew exactly where his life was lacking and how vulnerable he would be to a honeypot approach.
00:54:31
He has also been at pains to make clear how little of a threat he was to the American people as he never had any
00:54:37
plans to launch an attack. Khalil has pointed to the grand jury's dismissal of any terrorism charges
00:54:45
against him as proof of this quote. My lawyer, he gave me this quote that a grand jury indictes a ham sandwich.
00:54:55
Meaning, whatever charges you put on a grand jury, the grand jury is going to indict you on.
00:55:01
And for them to return back with no indictment on terrorism really just goes to show that the prosecution didn't have
00:55:09
proof beyond reasonable doubt that there was some kind of crime committed there.
00:55:16
In 2024, Khalil spoke with Rolling Stone about issues facing the young Muslim population of Dearbornne Heights in the
00:55:24
present day. He said that he still lives in fear that he might one day be stopped
00:55:29
or raided again by the FBI, adding, "That kind of stuff doesn't go away. [Music]