FBI arrests man who plotted attacks on Israel, Masonic Temple

MILWAUKEE — The mother of a man accused of planning a mass shooting at a Masonic temple in Milwaukee says her son was set up by the FBI.

According to the authorities, Samy Mohamed Hamzeh also planned to attack Israelis, a plot he later abandoned.

The Jordanian-born Khawla Hamzeh said that despite a criminal complaint describing her son as a Muslim extremist, her 23-year-old son is not very religious and was just trying to convince his friends he was tough.

“He’s not mature. You know guys, they want to show they are brave,” she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper.

Samy Mohamed Hamzeh is charged with unlawfully possessing a machine gun and receiving and possessing improperly registered firearms. He is accused, but not indicted, of planning to attack the temple and kill 30 people.

His mother said she wonders why the FBI watched Hamzeh for months without arresting him and then sold him guns.

Wisconsin’s top federal defender said Hamzeh’s defense will likely focus on the accuracy of undercover recordings that were made in Arabic and translated into English.

According to court documents, FBI agents were tipped off in September that Hamzeh planned to travel to Israel to attack Israeli soldiers and citizens in the West Bank. He abandoned those plans due to “family, financial and logistic reasons,” instead focusing his efforts on a domestic attack.

Hamzeh was arrested Monday after he paid two undercover FBI agents for two automatic machine guns and a silencer.

During his court appearance Tuesday, Hamzeh told US Magistrate Judge David Jones that he had read and understood the federal complaint filed against him, but that he doesn’t agree with it. The hearing was closed, but the newspaper obtained an audio recording and posted it online.

Samy Hamzeh was supporting his family because his father was having trouble finding steady work since moving to the US last year, his mother said.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.