Man arrested for allegedly trying to firebomb US embassy office in Israel
Federal officials say agents arrested a man on Sunday accused of attempting to firebomb the branch office of the US embassy in Israel, a justice department press release said.
According to a news release from the US justice department, Joseph Neumayer – a dual US and German citizen – was arrested at John F Kennedy airport in New York after being deported by Israeli officials.
The Guardian was not able to verify the details of the criminal complaint cited in the justice department's press release, with the case docket having not been updated as of Sunday afternoon. The justice department did not respond to the Guardian's request for access to a copy of the criminal complaint.
According to the justice department, Neumayer arrived in Israel in April. The 28-year-old was then alleged to have arrived to the US embassy in Tel Aviv with a backpack and spit on an embassy guard last week.
When the guard tried to arrest him, Neumayer managed to break free and escape, leaving behind his backpack.
The justice department alleged that the backpack had three molotov cocktails. Officials reportedly tracked him to his hotel and arrested him.
The department's press release further alleges that a social media account purportedly linked to Neumayer read: 'join me as I burn down the embassy in Tel Aviv. Death to America, death to Americans, and fuck the west.' Officials say he also allegedly posted threats to assassinate Donald Trump.
'The defendant is charged with attempting to firebomb the US Embassy and making threats to President Trump,' the FBI's director, Kash Patel, said in a statement. 'This despicable and violent behavior will not be tolerated at home or abroad, and the FBI, working with our partners, will bring him to face justice for his dangerous actions.'
Neumayer reportedly stood before a judge on Sunday and was ordered detained without bond.
The arrest of Neumayer comes days after authorities in Washington DC arrested a man in connection with the fatal shootings of two Israeli embassy officials.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
39 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Obama's doctor makes candid confession about Biden's mental decline while in office
The former White House physician to President Barack Obama has broken his silence, candidly admitting that President Joe Biden should have undergone rigorous cognitive testing throughout all four years of his presidency. Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, who served as Obama's doctor from 2009 to 2013, didn't mince words warning that Biden should have been subjected to extensive annual neurocognitive exams and that the results should be made public. 'My position is that a 78-year-old candidate, Trump at the time, an 82-year-old president [Biden], would both benefit from neurocognitive testing,' Kuhlman stated, noting how age-related decline is inevitable. 'Any politician over the age of 70 has normal age-related cognitive decline.' Kuhlman, the author of Transforming Presidential Healthcare, has been making these recommendations for nearly a year - notably publishing them in a New York Times op-ed on the very day Biden bowed out of the 2024 race. Despite multiple detailed physicals during Biden's time in office, Kuhlman pointed out that none included neurocognitive assessments like the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) - a basic test famously taken and 'aced' by President Trump. 'I have no doubt that President Trump aced it,' Kuhlman remarked. Yet Biden's evaluations, spanning five to six single-spaced pages and referencing 10 to 20 specialists, conspicuously omitted any serious cognitive screening. Biden's physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor who also treated Biden during his vice presidency never subjected him to a formal cognitive battery or even the routine MoCA test. Such an omission has become more glaring given the president's visible struggles, culminating in his disastrous debate performance in June 2024 that effectively ended his reelection bid. 'Sometimes those closest to the tree miss the forest,' Kuhlman said to the New York Post acknowledging his respect for O'Connor's medical judgment but hinting at blind spots that may have endangered the presidency itself. Kuhlman also emphasized that simple cognitive screens like the MoCA are not enough to fully assess deeper mental deterioration. True evaluation requires extensive testing for memory, reasoning, processing speed, and spatial visualization. Such faculties begin to decline starting around age 60. The White House had long insisted Biden was 'fit for duty,' yet Kuhlman's remarks cast fresh doubts on those assurances. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre brushed aside concerns at a February 2024 briefing declaring, 'The president doesn't need a cognitive test. He passes a cognitive test every day.' But the former presidential physician's comments now suggest that claim was complacent. Adding fuel to the fire, White House logs revealed Biden met with Dr. Kevin Cannard, a Parkinson's specialist from Walter Reed, as part of his annual physical in January 2024. While O'Connor insisted the meeting was routine, other medical professionals weren't convinced. 'If somebody turns up a report that Kevin Cannard said he has Parkinson's then that's a completely different story,' Kuhlman said. He did, however, express trust in Cannard's evaluation based on their long-standing professional history. In the past, critics pointed to Biden's stiff gait, slow movement, and shuffling walk as signs of something deeper. 'I could've diagnosed him from across the Mall,' neurologist Dr. Tom Pitts bluntly told NBC in July 2024. In one final blow, Special Counsel Robert Hur's bombshell decision not to indict Biden over his handling of classified documents cited that a jury would likely view the president as 'a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.' The Republican-led House Oversight Committee is now turning up the heat. Chairman James Comer (R-Kentucky) has subpoenaed O'Connor to testify under oath on June 27 about Biden's mental fitness. In a pointed letter, Comer raised concerns about O'Connor's 'financial relationship with the Biden family' and suggested there may have been a cover-up to conceal the president's cognitive decline from the American public. Jean-Pierre who has since left the Democratic Party and is preparing to release a scathing tell-all book about the 'broken' Biden administration is also expected to testify. Last month, a new book titled Original Sin by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson hit the shelves with allegations of a vast cover-up of Biden's final years in office. According to the book's authors, O'Connor resisted administering a cognitive test during Biden's last two years. Days before the book's released Biden revealed he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer with the cells having spread to the bone. Kuhlman emphasized that cancer testing protocols should have been maintained after 2014, but hinted that Biden may have been let down even in that regard. 'I hope that Kevin O'Connor had that conversation every year with his patient, Joe Biden, and documented that in the medical record,' he said. 'If he did the PSA and chose not to release it, I don't agree with that.'
The Independent
41 minutes ago
- The Independent
Travel ban may shut door for Afghan family to bring niece to US for a better life
Mohammad Sharafoddin, his wife and young son walked at times for 36 hours in a row over mountain passes as they left Afghanistan as refugees to end up less than a decade later talking about their journey on a plush love seat in the family's three-bedroom suburban American home. He and his wife dreamed of bringing her niece to the U.S. to share in that bounty. Maybe she could study to become a doctor and then decide her own path. But that door slams shut on Monday as America put in place a travel ban for people from Afghanistan and a dozen other countries. 'It's kind of shock for us when we hear about Afghanistan, especially right now for ladies who are affected more than others with the new government,' Mohammad Sharafoddin said. 'We didn't think about this travel ban.' President Donald Trump signed the ban Wednesday. It is similar to one in place during his first administration but covers more countries. Along with Afghanistan, travel to the U.S. is banned from Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Trump said visitors who overstay visas, like the man charged in an attack that injured dozens of demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, earlier this month, are a danger to the country. The suspect in the attack is from Egypt, which isn't included in the ban. The countries chosen for the ban have deficient screening of their citizens, often refuse to take them back and have a high percentage of people who stay in the U.S. after their visas expire, Trump said. The ban makes exceptions for people from Afghanistan on Special Immigrant Visas who generally worked most closely with the U.S. government during the two-decade war there. Thousands of refugees came from Afghanistan Afghanistan was also one of the largest sources of resettled refugees, with about 14,000 arrivals in a 12-month period through September 2024. Trump suspended refugee resettlement on his first day in office. It is a path Sharafoddin took with his wife and son out of Afghanistan walking on those mountain roads in the dark then through Pakistan, Iran and into Turkey. He worked in a factory for years in Turkey, listening to YouTube videos on headphones to learn English before he was resettled in Irmo, South Carolina, a suburb of Columbia. His son is now 11, and he and his wife had a daughter in the U.S. who is now 3. There is a job at a jewelry maker that allows him to afford a two-story, three-bedroom house. Food was laid out on two tables Saturday for a celebration of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday. Sharafoddin's wife, Nuriya, said she is learning English and driving — two things she couldn't do in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. 'I'm very happy to be here now, because my son is very good at school and my daughter also. I think after 18 years they are going to work, and my daughter is going to be able to go to college,' she said. Family wants to help niece It is a life she wanted for her niece too. The couple show videos from their cellphones of her drawing and painting. When the Taliban returned to power in 2021, their niece could no longer study. So they started to plan to get her to the U.S. at least to further her education. Nuriya Sharafoddin doesn't know if her niece has heard the news from America yet. She hasn't had the heart to call and tell her. 'I'm not ready to call her. This is not good news. This is very sad news because she is worried and wants to come,' Nuriya Sharafoddin said. While the couple spoke, Jim Ray came by. He has helped a number of refugee families settle in Columbia and helped the Sharafoddins navigate questions in their second language. Ray said Afghans in Columbia know the return of the Taliban changed how the U.S. deals with their native country. But while the ban allows spouses, children or parents to travel to America, other family members aren't included. Many Afghans know their extended families are starving or suffering, and suddenly a path to help is closed, Ray said. 'We'll have to wait and see how the travel ban and the specifics of it actually play out,' Ray said. 'This kind of thing that they're experiencing where family cannot be reunited is actually where it hurts the most.' Taliban criticizes the travel ban The Taliban itself criticized Trump for the ban, with leader Hibatullah Akhundzada saying the U.S. was now the oppressor of the world. 'Citizens from 12 countries are barred from entering their land — and Afghans are not allowed either,' he said on a recording shared on social media. 'Why? Because they claim the Afghan government has no control over its people and that people are leaving the country. So, oppressor! Is this what you call friendship with humanity?'
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Trump threat to LA over ICE protests echoes his notorious ‘the shooting starts' quote during Black Lives Matter demos
Donald Trump made a possibly unwitting reference to his own past usage of a notorious quote attributed to a Miami police chief who cracked down on protests in Black neighborhoods on Saturday as he threatened local and state officials in California with a massive federal response. The president issued a statement on Truth Social on Saturday evening ahead of his attendance at a UFC match in response to demonstrations across the city of Los Angeles on Friday and Saturday — themselves the result of ICE raids across the city. His statement, which asserted that 'looters' were present amid the chaos, was not yet supported by any publicly-available evidence — which indicates that the demonstrations are centered around the Los Angeles Federal Building after word spread that ICE detainees were allegedly being held at the location. Other individual clashes between citizens and members of ICE were reported around the city as raids were carried out at businesses and other locations. 'If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can't do their jobs, which everyone knows they can't, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!' the president wrote on Truth Social, using an epithet for the state's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom. His reference to 'looters' did not immediately appear to have any connection to the reality on the ground in Los Angeles. But it does harken back to similar statements he made during the final year of his presidency, when passionate demonstrations broke out in nearly every major city around the country in response to the shocking police bodycam footage of the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer, Derek Chauvin. The heart of that passion was centered at the time in Minneapolis, the site of Floyd's murder. Days of violent confrontations between heavily-armed police and demonstrators was condemned by the Republican president in a tweet that claimed the protesters were dishonoring Floyd's memory. "These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!" he wrote in the summer of 2020, before his post-January 6 Twitter ban. The phrase used by the president in the penultimate sentence of his 2020 tweet was copied from a Miami police chief, Walter Headley, who coined it in 1967 — amid heightened racial tensions nationwide and the push for Black civil rights. Headley was thought to go on to repeat the phrase to justify violent suppression of riots in the mostly-black Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, where riots took place the following year after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Trump has not repeated the phrase verbatim since being called out for using it. He has shown no hesitation against using other dehumanizing language, however, and during a rally for Ohio 's now-Senator Bernie Moreno in March of 2024 said of undocumented immigrants, 'in some cases, they're not people.' Critics say Saturday evening's escalation of federally-deputized force in California marks an authoritarian turn to the second Trump presidency that was previewed during Trump 1.0 when the president ordered law enforcement agencies to clear a park in Washington, D.C. in order for him to conduct a photo opp at a church. As protests continued into Saturday evening and images of a burning vehicle in the city's Compton neighborhood circulated on social media, the president ordered 2,000 California National Guard troops to deploy and quell the demonstrations. 'President Trump has signed a Presidential Memorandum deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester. The Trump Administration has a zero tolerance policy for criminal behavior and violence, especially when that violence is aimed at law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs,' said press secretary Karoline Leavitt. She added: 'These criminals will be arrested and swiftly brought to justice. The Commander-in-Chief will ensure the laws of the United States are executed fully and completely.' Local leaders in California attacked the action as an unnecessary escalation of the protests. Governor Gavin Newsom accused the president on Twitter of seeking a violent 'spectacle'. 'The federal government is taking over the California National Guard and deploying 2,000 soldiers in Los Angeles — not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle. Don't give them one,' urged the governor. 'Never use violence. Speak out peacefully. '
