Colorado Firebomb Attack Case Moving Forward: What to Know
The hearing was intended to assess whether there was enough evidence for the suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, to stand trial. But Soliman's lawyer told the judge he would give up his right to hear the evidence, the Associated Press reported, and the judge ruled that prosecutors could proceed with their case.
An arraignment hearing, where Soliman will enter a plea in the state case, is scheduled for September 9.
Soliman, 45, faces a total of more than 150 state charges and 12 federal hate crime counts after allegedly throwing an incendiary device towards a crowd of demonstrators in the June 1 attack while yelling 'Free Palestine,' according to law enforcement. The Boulder District Attorney's Office has identified nearly 30 victims of the attack, including 13 who suffered physical injuries. Eight people who sustained burns and other injuries were hospitalized. A dog was also harmed during the incident.
Soliman was originally charged with 118 criminal counts, including several for attempted first degree murder, on June 5. The Boulder County District Attorney charged him with an additional 66 counts and amended some others he previously faced after 82-year-old Karen Diamond passed away as a result of wounds she sustained in the attack later in June.
Soliman previously pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.
He requested that the preliminary hearing be set back to the end of October due to what his counsel referred to as 'significant collateral implications' that could not be addressed ahead of the July 15 date.
'Counsel is not aware of an autopsy report being produced yet,' the motion read. 'Additionally, there will be significant medical records that need to be provided and reviewed in advance of such hearing.'
The request was denied.
Here's what to know about Soliman and what he's accused of.
Who is Mohamed Sabry Soliman?
Soliman is an Egyptian national who first entered the U.S. in August 2022 on a B-2 tourist visa, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). He applied for asylum in September of that year, though details on his application have not publicly been reported. A spokeswoman for DHS previously told TIME that Soliman overstayed his visa, which expired in February 2023.
The suspect was living in Colorado Springs with his family prior to his arrest on June 1.
Soliman told police following the attack that he wanted to kill all Zionists, adding that he 'wished they were dead,' according to an FBI affidavit. He also allegedly informed authorities that he was waiting for his daughter to graduate to conduct the attack, which he said he had been planning for at least a year.
Soliman's wife and five children were detained by immigration authorities in June to investigate whether the family knew of the suspect's intention, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Officials moved to expedite the removal of Soliman's family from the country, but their deportation was temporarily blocked by a federal judge.
Earlier this month, a federal judge in Texas dismissed the family's petition to be released from immigration custody.
What happened in the attack?
Demonstrators from 'Run for Their Lives,' which stages weekly events to advocate for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, gathered at a park in front of the Boulder County Courthouse on June 1. Soliman allegedly entered the park carrying a backpack with 18 glass bottles and jars, as well as flammable liquid and red rags, and approached the group, according to the Justice Department.
At around 1:30 p.m. local time, authorities allege Soliman threw two Molotov cocktails towards the crowd and yelled 'Free Palestine!'
Twenty-nine victims have been identified, one of whom, 82-year-old Diamond, died on June 25 as a result of her injuries.
Following the attack, authorities recovered a handwritten document from Soliman's vehicle that said, 'Zionism is our enemies untill [sic] Jerusalem is liberated and they are expelled from our land.'
Soliman confessed to authorities that he committed the attack, according to the FBI affidavit. He said he initially tried to buy a firearm, per Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado J. Bishop Grewell, but could not purchase one because he was not a legal citizen and instead used Molotov cocktails.
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Washington Post
18 minutes ago
- Washington Post
The for-profit companies behind Israeli-U.S. nonprofit Gaza aid plan
Inside the four hastily constructed warehouses in southern Gaza where food is handed out to desperate and starving Palestinians, it is relatively calm. Ration boxes stamped with the name and logo of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation are distributed by local volunteers in red vests, under the watchful gaze of beefy, armed American security contractors. It is just outside the warehouses where most of the trouble happens. Outside is where hundreds of civilians desperately crowding toward the distribution sites have been shot and killed — many of them allegedly by Israeli soldiers positioned nearby — and where at least 20 Palestinians died Wednesday in a stampede that the GHF says was initiated by gun-toting Hamas militants. Humanitarian aid has been one of the most controversial aspects of the war between Israel and Hamas, which is now approaching its second anniversary. In recent weeks, it has emerged as a final sticking point in negotiations over a ceasefire, placing the Israeli- and U.S.-backed GHF squarely in the crosshairs of the latest talks. Hamas is demanding a return to the U.N.-coordinated system of aid delivery that operated in Gaza for decades. Israel charges that Hamas has corrupted that system. It wants to maintain strict controls on assistance to Gazans, using the newly created GHF as the primary mechanism for food distribution. Critics, including the United Nations and most of the international humanitarian aid community, say the GHF is designed to further Israeli war aims by selectively and inadequately providing assistance, and by forcing Gazans to put their lives in danger for a box of provisions. In a statement released Monday, 21 European countries and others including Canada and Australia issued a joint statement saying that 'the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths' and condemning 'the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food.' 'The Israeli government's aid delivery model,' it said, 'is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity.' Like much of what happens inside Gaza, where Israel has banned international reporters except on brief tours led by the Israel Defense Forces, the origins and operations of the GHF remain obscure. Even more opaque is its funding. The foundation says it received about $100 million in start-up money from a government it has declined to identify. In late June, the Trump administration said it would supply $30 million to GHF operations. A major donation initially expected from the United Arab Emirates, according to internal planning documents seen by The Washington Post, has not materialized. The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has been deeply involved in the aid program, has publicly denied paying for it. But behind the foundation, which is a registered nonprofit, is a web of interconnected U.S. and Israeli individuals, and private U.S. companies — including some that hope to eventually make money on the relief effort, according to public and private documents reviewed by The Post and interviews with more than a dozen U.S. and Israeli government officials, business representatives and others involved, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the controversial initiative. Among those positioned to profit from GHF-linked contracts are a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, whose subsidiary Orbis Operations helped set up the foundation; and Safe Reach Solutions, the primary contractor overseeing GHF operations inside Gaza, which was created late last year for that purpose. SRS is owned by a Wyoming-based trust whose beneficiary is McNally Capital. Boston Consulting Group was also engaged in the effort to stand up the GHF, on what it has said was a pro bono basis. In March, it signed a two-month contract for more than $1 million with McNally to continue assisting SRS, with later extensions in May, an arrangement first reported by the Financial Times. BCG later withdrew from the project amid controversy, and a BCG spokeswoman, Nidhi Sinha, said no payment was accepted. The GHF has continued to deliver food to hungry Gazans: since late May, according to the foundation's count, more than 80 million meals in boxes that are calibrated to feed 5.5 people for 3.5 days. But dwindling resources have limited the number of trucks available to bring food into the enclave to about 70 to 80 per day, compared with early plans for more than 300, according to people familiar with GHF operations. Construction of additional distribution sites has also been indefinitely put off because of a lack of financing, ongoing Israeli military operations and the need to remove unexploded ordnance throughout Gaza. Money problems, and the unknown outcome of ceasefire negotiations, have also put on hold GHF plans for a more holistic — and controversial — proposal to relocate Gazans, summarized in a 19-page slide deck distributed at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv in January, several people said. In addition to the food distribution, the slides included plans for GHF construction of large-scale residential compounds inside and potentially outside Gaza where 'the population' could reside while the enclave was 'demilitarized and rebuilt.' The slide deck suggested that approach would allow the GHF to gain trust with Gazans — a currency that could be leveraged to 'facilitate President Trump's vision' for the battle-scarred enclave. The GHF concept was born as part of a larger effort by a group of Israeli military officials, Israeli businesspeople and foreign partners to support Israel's war effort and plan for Gaza's future. They began meeting shortly after the conflict began with Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack in southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and saw at least 250 hostages taken back to Gaza. As Israel responded to the attack, pounding Gaza with airstrikes and ground troops, it cut off the daily assistance that the 141-square-mile enclave had depended on for decades. Netanyahu's government — long distrustful of the U.N., which coordinated deliveries of food, fuel and medical supplies — justified the blockade by claiming that Hamas controlled and profited from the aid distribution. Under pressure from the Biden administration and humanitarian organizations that said depriving noncombatants of food was a potential war crime, Israel eventually allowed limited relief to resume. But the Israelis kept a tight hold on the spigot of assistance, generating friction between Netanyahu and the U.S. government, Israel's main source of weaponry and diplomatic backing. 'There was a need to get humanitarian aid into Gaza,' an Israeli familiar with the group's efforts said, but it needed to be done 'in a non-U.N. way.' In January 2024, the fledgling Gaza aid working group sought advice from Michael Vickers, a former Green Beret, CIA veteran and undersecretary of defense for intelligence during the Obama administration. Vickers was on the board of Orbis Operations, a consulting company based in McLean, Virginia, that was founded by former national security, military and intelligence specialists and which McNally purchased in 2021. Vickers told the planners, 'I'm not the guy, but I know the guy who can talk to you,' according to a person familiar with the approach. The man they wanted, Vickers said, was then-Orbis Vice President Philip Reilly, a former senior CIA operations officer with extensive experience in private security operations. Reilly quickly gained the trust of the IDF and the Gaza planning group, and spent much of 2024 immersing himself in the details of the Gaza conflict. Neither Vickers nor Reilly responded to queries about their involvement in the Gaza initiative. The Biden administration was well aware that the Israeli government and private-sector Israelis and Americans were working with the government on a plan to impose a new aid delivery system. While some in the administration were supportive, most were skeptical. But they did not directly interfere in the project. 'They were all talking — they being the Israeli government, the prime minister's office, the IDF — sort of throwing spaghetti against the wall to find some magic formula to take the responsibility off their shoulders' to care for Gaza's civilians, a former Biden official involved in Israel policy said. By the fall, the outline of a plan was laid out in a lengthy feasibility study compiled by Silat Technologies, an Orbis subsidiary, envisioning the creation of a nonprofit entity, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, 'to safely deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.' Planning documents distributed over the next several months said that the foundation's leadership would include respected humanitarian figures such as David Beasley, former head of the World Food Program, and Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who now runs an institute to advise change-making political leaders. Although the U.N. and major nongovernmental aid organizations already operating in Gaza were described as an integral part, their proposed role was unclear. An elaborate social media presence and public relations program would include outreach to select journalists to promote a positive image of the GHF. The foundation would hire a 'prime' contractor to organize and supervise construction of the sites and the aid operation inside Gaza. That firm would then subcontract a private security company — ideally U.S.-based — to be the boots and guns on the ground, guarding the aid as it was transported to distribution sites and protecting the sites themselves. The private companies lined up to service the planned foundation also included BCG, where both Reilly and Vickers were senior advisers. BCG, which later said its initial services were offered pro bono, projected $2 billion in initial operating costs for the GHF. On Nov. 21, a new limited liability company, Safe Reach Solutions, was registered in Jackson, Wyoming, and placed in a trust administered by a local company, Two Ocean Trust. While no information in the registration documents indicated what the new company did, who ran it or whom it employed, the beneficiary of the trust and any money it made, according to three people familiar with the arrangement, was McNally Capital, the private equity firm that owns Orbis. SRS, with Reilly as its chief executive, would later become the primary GHF contractor. Spokespeople for Two Ocean Trust and SRS declined to comment. In a statement to The Post, McNally Capital said it 'did not invest in SRS or actively manage the company,' but said it has an 'economic interest' in the firm. 'Given our long-established relationship with Phil Reilly … our strong belief in the importance of humanitarian aid, and the U.S. government's appeal for innovative solutions,' the statement said, McNally was 'pleased to have supported the establishment of SRS as an important step toward meeting the full scope of humanitarian need in Gaza.' Founded in 2008 by Ward McNally, of the Rand McNally publishing family, the firm specializes in the acquisition of aerospace, defense and technology companies. 'Obviously, McNally is a business. They're in the business of making money,' a person familiar with the financial aspects of the project said. But 'I think it's very ambiguous whether this ends up being profitable.' As the new year approached, progress toward the food aid program planning was interrupted by the prospect of a Gaza ceasefire and partial hostage release. Israel had agreed to move its troops out of portions of Gaza at least temporarily — allowing citizens to return to what remained of their homes in the largely destroyed northern portion of the enclave. But Israeli officials insisted on a vehicle checkpoint — run by non-IDF security — on the Netzarim Corridor, a dividing line between northern and southern Gaza, to ensure weapons were not carried back to areas the IDF said it had earlier cleared of Hamas militants. With nine days' notice, U.S. and Arab mediators turned to the newly created SRS to organize the checkpoint. Reilly subcontracted UG Solutions, a small security firm based in North Carolina, to staff the ground operation. Headed by former Green Beret Jameson Govoni, UG had previously worked in Ukraine and Haiti, among other hot spots, and could move quickly because it had few of the classified contracts with the United States or other governments that proved to be complications for bigger security companies. The ceasefire mediators — the United States and Qatar — administered payments to SRS, the prime contractor, according to people familiar with the operation. The ceasefire began Jan. 19, the day before Donald Trump's second-term inauguration. Although the truce lasted only until mid-March, when Israel launched another ground invasion of northern Gaza, the checkpoint was deemed a success, with no major incidents reported. The Netzarim operation came to be considered a test run for the food distribution operation, and SRS and UG were well positioned to take it over for GHF. On Feb. 2, the foundation was registered as a humanitarian nonprofit in Switzerland and Delaware. The Netanyahu government had every reason to believe that Trump would support the initiative. He vowed to quickly end the war and proposed that the United States 'take over' and 'own' Gaza, developing it as a high-end Mediterranean resort. Food distribution by the GHF, planning documents indicated, was just the first step in a larger redevelopment plan. When the ceasefire collapsed on March 18 and the IDF resumed ground operations and airstrikes, Israel again stopped all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. As the days and weeks ticked on, thousands of tons of food and goods piled up in warehouses outside its borders; WFP and other humanitarian actors began to tally reports of starvation inside. By early May, Israel was under mounting international pressure to end its aid blockade, and Trump was looking for progress on his promise to end the war as he prepared for a trip to the Persian Gulf. At a May 9 news conference in Tel Aviv, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee claimed the GHF as a Trump 'initiative.' U.S. representatives, including Aryeh Lightstone, an official who now works with Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and formerly served as an aide to David Friedman when he was U.S. ambassador to Israel, courted U.N. and humanitarian partners to sign on to the plan. But opposition to the plan had grown. The United Nations and most aid partners refused, publicly denouncing the proposal as immoral and designed to further Israel's war plans against Hamas by 'militarizing' assistance to more than a million civilians corralled into ever-shrinking 'safe zones' demarcated by the IDF in southern Gaza. Neither Beasley nor Blair agreed to sign on. On May 22, newly named GHF executive director Jake Wood, a U.S. Marine veteran and co-founding board chair of Team Rubicon, a humanitarian organization that operated in disaster zones, released a letter he had sent to COGAT, the Israeli government coordinator for Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Its purpose, he wrote, was to confirm 'our understandings of agreements' — including an understanding that aid agencies would also be permitted to distribute food and medical assistance under 'existing' humanitarian mechanisms, outside the GHF program. 'GHF acknowledges that we do not possess the technical capacity or field infrastructure to manage such distributions independently,' he wrote, suggesting that the new aid mechanism should complement, but not replace, Gaza's existing aid sector. The night before the scheduled May 26 launch, Wood unsuccessfully sought to persuade the IDF to delay the start date by at least a week amid unanswered questions about funding, the participation of other agencies and the nearby positioning of Israeli troops. Wood resigned, and the next day, UG contractors accompanied the first convoys of GHF food into Gaza. Some of the plans, he said in a statement, were not consistent with 'humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence.' David Burke, a fellow Marine veteran and former Team Rubicon colleague who had been named GHF chief operating officer, also resigned. Burke and Wood did not respond to inquiries from The Post. The GHF promoted John Acree, a former official with the U.S. Agency for International Development originally named head of the GHF operations inside Gaza, to interim executive director of the foundation. The opening of the sites brought new problems, with tens of thousands of despairing Gazans surging toward promised food. In the first week of GHF's operations, witnesses said that Israeli troops shot in the direction of Palestinians queuing outside the fenced distribution sites at least three times. UG contractors voiced concerns about the rules of engagement of nearby IDF troops and the safety of the Palestinians, according to several people familiar with the site operations. Meanwhile, paid Palestinian volunteers working at the GHF sites were receiving death threats from Hamas for participating in the Israeli-backed plan. Volunteers were afraid to travel back to their families at night, but the financial planners had not budgeted to provide them with housing, running water or other supplies to stay on-site, one person said. 'There were number crunchers at every stage, asking why do we have to do this stuff,' said another person familiar with the conversations between BCG financial consultants and SRS planners. Contractors purchased some provisions for the workers out of their own pockets, the person said. The limited number of trucks that passed through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza each day to the sites after Israeli inspection meant that supplies ran out too early, leaving thousands empty-handed, angry and disbelieving there was no more food to be had. During the first week of June, BCG abruptly withdrew from the project. Amid what several people familiar with the situation said was internal criticism of perceived anti-Palestinian initiatives, the company said that members of its team had undertaken 'unauthorized' efforts on postwar planning. Two senior partners, it said in a statement, had been 'exited ... from the firm' and BCG 'has not and will not be paid for any of their work.' Despite ongoing problems and frequent reports of gunfire nearby, the GHF food program achieved a rhythm of sorts after a few weeks. News releases provided a daily accounting of tens of thousands of boxes of pasta, lentils, cooking oil and other commodities it distributed. But the killing of civilians in the vicinity of GHF sites has continued. Last month, eight Palestinian volunteers were shot and killed, allegedly by Hamas, aboard a bus returning them to GHF sites after visiting their families. Early this month, this IDF said 'terrorists' had tossed grenades into a distribution site, injuring two American contractors. Then came the deaths in Wednesday's stampede. 'We came to Gaza to help feed people, not to fight a narrative war,' GHF spokesman Chapin Fay told reporters hours after the stampede deaths, publicly accusing Hamas of causing the carnage by showing up at the site with guns. Aid organizations said it was the predicted result of Israeli militarization of what should be a neutral endeavor. On Sunday, at least 79 Palestinians were killed when food-seeking crowds mobbed a U.N. aid convoy in the northern part of the enclave and were fired on by Israeli troops, according to Gaza health authorities and witnesses. The IDF said it was 'aware of the claim' and that details of the event were 'being examined.' Acree, the GHF interim executive director, repeated appeals to the United Nations and other aid organizations to cooperate with the foundation. 'The demand for food is relentless, and so is our commitment,' he said in a statement. 'We're adjusting our operations in real time to keep people safe and informed, and we stand ready to partner with other organizations to scale up and deliver more meals to the people of Gaza.' GHF contracts expire at the end of August, unless a ceasefire comes first. If and when the fighting stops, it remains unclear how much aid will be allowed into Gaza and who will distribute it. Since late June, Trump has said repeatedly that negotiations were going well and that a truce was imminent.
CBS News
18 minutes ago
- CBS News
Congressman Jason Crow says ICE is impeding oversight by denying official visit to detention center in Colorado
Congressman Jason Crow says he led the fight for members of Congress to conduct unannounced visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities. The Democrat who represents Colorado's 6th Congressional District says this is enshrined in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020. And yet, on Sunday he was denied entry into the ICE facility in Aurora. ICE officials say they informed Crow on July 15 that a visit was not possible at this time. But the congressman says he has the legal authority to conduct visits without prior notice, and that the law is written that way to ensure transparency, and hold the executive branch accountable. "Why does the administration want to impede congressional oversight?" asked Crow. "Why do they want to enforce for the first time ever this seven day notice requirement? What are they trying to hide? Why do they need that much time to clean things up or sweep things under the rug before members of Congress visit?" The Department of Homeland Security sent a statement saying, "ICE law enforcement has seen a surge in assaults of 830%, as well as disruptions and obstructions to enforcement, including by politicians themselves. For visits to detention facilities, requests should be made with sufficient time to prevent interference with the President's Article II authority to oversee executive department functions—a week is sufficient to ensure no intrusion on the President's constitutional authority. To protect the President's Article II authority, any request to shorten that time must be approved by the Secretary." Separately, ICE sent a statement saying: "The Department of Homeland Security takes Congressional oversight and visits from Members of Congress to ICE facilities seriously. However, established protocols must be followed to ensure transparency, operational security, and the safety of staff and detainees. ICE is committed to ensuring detainees held in its custody are treated with dignity and respect and housed in suitable detention conditions that provide for their safety and security. To ensure good order of the facility, ICE maintains security protocols to promote the safety of staff, detainees, and the local community. This includes maintaining a secure perimeter, scheduling facility tours, and screening all visitors prior to entry. These practices are intended to maintain good order of the facility and are required by ICE's detention standards. In this case, the congressman's request did not comply with the mandatory seven-day advance notice requirement. DHS policy clearly requires requests to tour ICE detention facilities be submitted at least seven calendar days in advance for scheduling. This longstanding policy allows for the appropriate coordination necessary to protect facility operations." "Well they're wrong," said Crow. "Executive authority cannot usurp a law passed by the United States Congress. It actually works the other way around. United States Congress is the Article I branch of the Constitution and our laws are the law of the land, and the President must follow those laws. Not by executive authority, not by executive order, not by regulation and certainly not by fiat can any President just say that Congressional authority and a law passed by Congress doesn't apply to them."
an hour ago
Scores killed at aid site by Israeli gunfire, Gaza officials say
Nearly 100 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid near the Israel-Gaza border, Gaza officials say.
