Who is James Bradley? Ex-Eagle Scout who claimed he was deradicalized after trying to join ISIS gets 11 years in prison
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY: A former Boy Scout who was arrested in New Jersey while boarding a ship heading for Yemen in an attempt to join ISIS there has been sentenced to 11 years in federal prison on Thursday, February 2. James Bradley, 21, and his attorneys said in court documents that he had been deradicalized by work he had done with a nonprofit organization following his arrest in 2021, and they urged for a sentence of time served instead of a prison term.
However, Judge Paul Engelmayer declared that request to be a "complete non-starter" in Manhattan federal court. "I cannot foresee the future, none of us can," the judge remarked as he handed down the 11-year sentence, adding that the non-profit staff who "deradicalized" Bradley "don't have crystal balls." "The gravity of the offense is hard to get around," he added.
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Who is James Bradley?
The federal prosecutors had asked for a 15-year sentence for Bradley, claiming that at the time of his capture, he was completely devoted to joining the terrorist state and intended to use it as a platform to kill innocent Americans, as reported by New York Post. At the hearing on Thursday, Assistant US Attorney Kaylan Lasky informed Engelmayer that the defendant "was dead set on taking up arms for ISIS in one way or another."
'I’m truly embarrassed'
Bradley apologized to his family and loved ones in his speech to the court and insisted that he had undergone complete rehabilitation. "I’m truly embarrassed and remorseful for what I have done," he stated. "I’m so different from the James Bradley that was arrested two years ago."
'Earned the highest rank of Eagle Scout'
Engelmayer praised Bradley's family and the nonprofit workers that worked with him to break the hold of extremist ideology before issuing the sentence. He also read out letters from Bradley's friends and acquaintances including one from his former Scoutmaster, who highlighted that the would-be member of ISIS had earned the highest rank of Eagle Scout during his tenure in the organization. However, Engelmayer ruled that he could not reasonably give Bradley time served because he wasn't sure the former scout boy wouldn't conduct another crime or be tempted to radicalism in the future so he ultimately decided on an 11-year sentence.
'Groomed and radicalized'
In an agreement with the prosecution, Bradley, a resident of the Bronx, pled guilty in September to one count of attempting to give material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist group. He converted to Islam at the end of his senior year of high school in 2018 and started going to prayers at a mosque on the Upper East Side, which is when he developed a passion for the terrorist organization. According to Bradley's attorneys, the teenager met Mohammed Delowar Hossain at the mosque, a radical who "groomed and radicalized James". He spent the following two years engrossed in ISIS propaganda online before getting married to Arwa Muthana, an Alabama-based radical he had only known for a few weeks. The two were arrested on March 31, 2021, on the gangplank of a cargo ship in Newark that they had paid to board in order to be brought to Yemen, to join the Islamic State's armed forces. Arwa Muthana has admitted guilt as well but has not yet received a sentence.
'Plead guilty to providing material support to ISIS'
Bradley and Muthana both used, posted, and shared extremist internet content in the months and years before their arrests, including pieces that suggested their support for ISIS. These materials included the pictures of ISIS fighters, Usama Bin Laden, and terrorist attacks that Bradley posted online, as well as the videos of ISIS fighters, a 2020 stabbing attack against a New York City Police Department officer, and extremists shooting a uniformed soldier that Bradley distributed to UC-1.
Images of an ISIS flag with Arabic writing, firearms, ISIS propaganda, and quotations of the deceased extremist preacher and former al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula member Anwar al-Awlaki were found on Muthana's cellphone, which was searched under a court-authorized search warrant.
