Muslim who plotted to murder Pamela Geller threatens confidential informant in the case

“Prosecutors seek to keep witness’s identity secret in ISIS case,” by Maria Cramer, Boston Globe, July 26, 2017:

Prosecutors on Wednesday asked a federal judge to shield the identity of a confidential informant in the case of an Everett man accused of plotting to support the Islamic State terrorist group.

“There have been threats made against this confidential informant by this defendant,” Assistant US Attorney B. Stephanie Siegmann told US District Judge William G. Young during a pretrial conference.

The defendant, David Wright, 27, is accused of plotting to kill people in the United States on behalf of the Islamic State. Wright was charged after his uncle, Usaamah Abdullah Rahim, was shot in a Roslindale parking lot by an FBI agent in June 2015. Authorities said the shooting occurred after Rahim, 26, attacked police with a military knife.

Law enforcement officials had confronted Rahim to question him about an alleged plot to kill police, according to authorities. Wright and Nicholas Alexander Rovinski, 26, of Warwick, R.I., had allegedly discussed that plot with Rahim, as well as a plan to behead anti-Islam activist Pamela Geller….

“Man tied to planned Islamic State-inspired attack due in Boston court,” Reuters, July 26, 2017:

BOSTON (Reuters) – A Massachusetts man charged with conspiring in an Islamic State-inspired plot to behead a woman who had organized a 2015 competition featuring cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed is due in court on Wednesday.

David Daoud Wright has pleaded not guilty to charges including planning the attack on the organizers of the Garland, Texas, “Draw Mohammed” contest with his uncle, Usamaah Abdullah Rahim.

Their plot went off the rails when Rahim told Wright and a third man that he could no longer wait and that “I’m just going to, ah, go after them, those boys in blue.” That conversation was picked up by law enforcement, who had the group under 24-hour surveillance, and when officers tried to question Rahim in a Boston supermarket parking lot, he pulled a large knife and was shot dead by police.

The third member of the alleged plot, Nicholas Rovinski of Rhode Island, last year pleaded guilty to conspiracy.

Wright, who lived just outside Boston in Everett, is due to appear later on Wednesday for a status conference in Boston federal court ahead of his September trial.

The organizer of the “Draw Mohammed” contest and the group’s alleged target, Pamela Geller, said the event was intended to highlight free-speech rights, which are protected by the U.S. Constitution. Opponents described it as intentionally provocative, as many Muslims consider depictions of the Prophet Mohammed blasphemous….