Third Bergen County man arrested in plot to support ISIS

Third Bergen County man arrested in plot to support ISIS

Nader Saadeh, 20, who grew up in Fort Lee with his brother, Alaa Saadeh, 23, and most recently lived in Rutherford, was arrested and jailed on Monday morning. He was accused of conspiring to provide support to ISIS.

Alaa Saadeh has been in jail since June; the charges against him were the same as the one leveled against his brother.

The brothers are among a group of friends the FBI has investigated; three others, also have been charged. One of them is from Queens and another from Staten Island; the third, Samuel Rahamim Topaz of Fort Lee, was arrested in June.

The brothers were born in this country; their parents were deported in 2002 after they were charged with credit card fraud.

A friend, identified in court documents only as Individual 1, told government officials that he was worried at the tenor of the Saadehs’ behavior, conversation, and posts. The complainant feared at the radicalization he saw was dangerous; U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman agreed.

Nader Saadeh told his friends that he planned to join ISIS as he left the United States for Jordan three months ago. Before he left he apparently became increasingly radicalized; his social media posts showed his growing hatred of the West and his desire to destroy it.

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