Overview
North California native Donald Ray Morgan was arrested at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport in August 2014 after traveling to Lebanon and Turkey in the hopes of joining ISIS in Syria. Morgan resided in Lebanon for eight months beginning in January 2014, where he advocated ISIS’s cause on Twitter under the alias Abu Omar al-Amreeki. Heleft Lebanon for Turkey in a bid to enter Syria and join ISIS. At the Istanbul airport, however, Morgan was stopped and returned to Lebanon.Sasha Goldstein, “American wannabe ISIS member is ‘practicing Muslim’ hoping to join caliphate,” NY Daily News, September 3, 2014, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/american-wannabe-isis-member-practicing-muslim-hoping-join-caliphate-article-1.1926931.
After returning to the United States, Morgan was arrested for illegal possession of a firearm, and pled guilty to attempting to provide material support to ISIS (as well as to felony possession of a firearm). In May 2015, Morgan was sentenced to a 20-year prison term for aiming to provide material support to ISIS.Lee Ferran, “American Wannabe ISIS Fighter Donald Morgan Gets 20 Years in Prison,” ABC News, May 13, 2015, http://abcnews.go.com/International/american-wannabe-isis-fighter-donald-morgan-20-years/story?id=31009777.
Morgan is currently incarcerated at United States Penitentiary, Marion, in Illinois, with a scheduled release date of May 14, 2032.“DONALD RAY MORGAN,” Find an Inmate – Federal Bureau of Prisons, accessed April 9, 2021, https://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/.
Associated Groups
- Extremist entity
- ISIS
- Read Threat Report
- Type(s) of Organization:
- Insurgent, territory-controlling, religious, terrorist, violent
- Ideologies and Affiliations:
- Islamist, jihadist, pan-Islamist, Salafist, takfiri
- Position(s):
- Foreign fighter, Propagandist
ISIS is a violent jihadist group based in Iraq and Syria. The group has declared wilayas (provinces) in Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the North Caucasus. ISIS has also waged attacks in Turkey, Lebanon, France, Belgium, Iraq, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Tunisia, and Kuwait.
History
Daily Dose
Extremists: Their Words. Their Actions.
Fact:
On October 7, 2023, Hamas invaded southern Israel where, in the space of eight hours, hundreds of armed terrorists perpetrated mass crimes of brutality, rape, and torture against men, women and children. In the biggest attack on Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust, 1,200 were killed, and 251 were taken hostage into Gaza—where 101 remain. One year on, antisemitic incidents have increased by record numbers.