Daniel Seth Franey; Army deserter and ISIS supporter arrested
Data Dawg sends us a link from Military.com about Daniel Seth Franey who is an Army deserter from 2008, he had about six years of service, and he has expressed his support for ISIS. Franey has been living in western Washington State and he expressed his desire to do a Nidal Hassan-style attack on soldiers at Joint Base Lewis McChord. In that endeavor, he enlisted the aid of FBI informants like everyone does, apparently. He’s forbiden to own firearms because of a permanent order of protection order, so that’s how they snagged him when he took delivery;
He has a partner and two young children, as well as children with another woman, who obtained a permanent protection order against him in Lake County, Illinois, in 2014. The protection order bars him from possessing guns under federal law, the documents say.
Franey was arrested without incident Saturday as agents served a “no-knock” search warrant at his home. An affidavit filed in support of the warrant alleged that he had behaved increasingly erratically in recent weeks.
He was seen driving slowly in a parking lot at the non-operational Satsop Nuclear Power Plant; his visits to the homes of two neighbors prompted calls to 911; he made apparent references to attacking a nearby campground that’s only open to military members, retirees and their families; and he told the undercover agent on Jan. 29, “I do really wanna kill agents,” the affidavit said.
According to The Olympian, Franey was in the Air Defense Artillery field of endeavor and he had been stationed in Korea and Texas during his time in the Army. The FBI became interested in Franey last year when a couple of residents contacted the Feds about his constant chatter in regards to his intentions to join ISIS and engage in terrorist behavior.
Five people who have known Franey for some time told the FBI that Franey frequently talked about wanting to buy weapons, kill cops or fight with the Islamic State.
Category: Terror War
Too bad we won’t fry this clown…
Well we can lock his ass up forever and just let him wither away.
As a wartime deserter, the Army certainly can if he’s convicted of same at court-martial.
Whether the Army has the guts to do so after trying him for desertion – or has the guts to try him for desertion at all – is another matter entirely.
Given the Army’s record of late, it’s maybe 60-40 he’ll get court-martialed, or die of old age.
Well, he’s get more than his fair share of cockmeat sammiches and tubesteak from the BTJT “concession” in the Federal poundhimintheass prison
(BTJT = Bubba, Thor, Julio and Mr. “Tiny”)
Good thing he made it a point to run his suck so much about it all.
Indeed. San Bernardino shows what can happen when terrorists use a modicum of OPSEC. And even that case IMO wasn’t a particularly good example of OPSEC.
In that case, the foreign-born spouse should have been identified and refused entry to the US based on failure to complete required pre-immigration requirements and past public social media statements supporting violent jihad. It should also have raised concerns about her prospective spouse.
This guy is just plain creepy.
Ah, I would have loved to been on the NKW arrest!
Especially considering his love for agents, LE, military et al as to to wit …
The subject is essentially a flinch away from deadly force in such cases!
Lars defends this guy in 3…2…
Nooooooooo ! ! !
FOR GAD SAKE DON’T ! ! ! !
That is like saying Bettleguise 3 times.
This fucker can enjoy slurping out his personal love jihad on Thor, Bubba and “Tiny”…
This guy is nuts, and unstable as hell. it is good they wrapped him up.
It does not look like they have much on him besides possessing a weapon while under a DVR order and desertion.
The rest is a whole lot of vague nutcase statements with no real indication he was going to act on any of them. I do not think trying to buy a firearm in of itself is going to be enough evidence to indicate he was going to carry out any specific delusional idea. Especially since the ideas he expressed were non-specific and based on hypothetical circumstances.
The guy even seems to think Osama Bin Ladin is a “beautiful man” and uses the present tense indicating he thinks he is still alive.
Might want to review “conspiracy” and Federal laws regarding support for terrorism.
If I recall correctly, if two or more people agree to commit an illegal act, and if one of them then afterwards performs any concrete action towards that agreement (e.g., buys something needed for the crime) – that’s legally conspiracy to commit the act. I believe that’s generally punishable with the same penalty as the act itself.
Here, depending on the precise circumstances buying the firearm may well constitute the act required to effect conspiracy. Not a slam-dunk case, but I also wouldn’t dismiss out of hand the prosecution’s chances of getting a conviction.
And as I observed above: desertion during wartime can be used to put him away for life – if the Army has the guts to do it.
Hondo is correct. Conspiracy can be written as a math equation:
Agreement to commit a crime + overt act in furtherance of that agreement = conspiracy. The overt act does NOT need to be a crime in and of itself (though in this case it apparently was.)
The classic example is that Bill and Tom agree to rob a bank and Bill goes and borrows a car for the job. Borrowing a car is not a crime but it is an overt act in furtherance of the crime they agreed to commit and by that act both Bill and Tom can be convicted of conspiracy.
I agree with both of you. I just did not see any statement that indicated that he agreed to any specific action to be furthered.
His threats about law enforcement were hypotheticals, such as killing them if they enter his house.
His comment about JBLM was a hypothetical and non-specific statement about the will of Allah.
I am sure they have hundreds of pages of transcripts from their interactions with him, and in those he may very well have made a statement or statements that would meet the elements of a crime for conspiracy.
But I did not see any in the two articles.
In order for it to be a true conspiracy there has to be at least one other person involved. That person may be the one providing the information regarding specific plans.
I don’t think the plans have to be specific as to time, place, person, etc. – the only requirement is that there is an agreement to commit a specific crime.
What I don’t know is whether a person can be charged with conspiracy if the only other conspirator was actually an agent of the government working undercover. I don’t think so but I’m not 100% sure (this would be because of only one person was actually intending to commit a crime, there is no genuine conspiracy.)
Edit: Should be “IF only one person was actually intending to commit a crime”
Usually conspiracy can be charged even if the other “conspirator” was an agent of the government.
It would open up an entrapment defense. As long as the idea for the crime was not the agent’s and the agent did not coerce the him into agreeing to commit the crime the defense would have little leg to stand on though.
As I said, I don’t think that’s the case because a conspiracy requires an “agreement.” In a case where the only other party is a government agent, there is no actual conspiracy. A conspiracy requires an agreement. If one party is intent on committing a crime and the other party is only pretending to be intent on committing a crime then there is no actual agreement and thus no actual conspiracy.
Now, if there are more than two parties and only one of them is a government agent, then yes you can still have a conspiracy because the two or more people who are not agents can genuinely agree to commit a crime.
I think some defense lawyers have probably tried to argue that if there is even one government agent then there isn’t a true conspiracy but I imagine that argument doesn’t hold much water.
As for entrapment, that’s a different scenario entirely – if a defendant raises an entrapment defense he has to assert that he had no intention of committing a crime and that an agent of the government coerced or induced him to commit a crime he would not have otherwise committed.
Here’s a brand new paper (1/20/16) on this very topic:
https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41223.pdf
Note the portion on “agreement.” A conspiracy requires that two or more people were working towards a common purpose. If one person is a would-be terrorist whose purpose is to sow terror and the other is an undercover cop whose purpose is to arrest the first person, there is no common purpose and therefore no agreement and no conspiracy.
In reading the brief and the case law I can find, I think you are right.
You are right that it does not seem to require a specific time or place, just a specific crime.
Yet, the quotes in the articles do not indicate he even mentioned an intent to do specific crime.
This statement is definitely reason to wrap him up and try to keep him detained. But is it enough to claim he was furthering his intent to commit a specific crime?
“Lewis-McChord would just be a little pimple to pop, man,” Franey said, “That’s all that is. Just waiting for the commands of Allah.”
Maybe.
Though in reading some more about it, he made statements that indicated he considered himself to be a member of ISIS. There may be some elements of counter terrorism statutes that the combination of regarding yourself to be a member of a group identified as a terrorist group, and making comments about committing acts of terror is more than enough for a federal conviction.
I didn’t see anything definitive either, Taylor. Just seemed to me you were rejecting the possibility out of hand, and I wanted to point out that the reality might be otherwise.
Here, we agree.
As you said HONDO….
Conspiracy to commit a crime can be the same as actually doing it. Consider Charles Manson. Didja know Manson never actually killed anyone? The reason why he’s in California’s Crossbar Hotel for life is because he conspired to kill seven people. Could this be used as precedent here?
wtf is wrong with Washington and oregon
Portland and Seattle attract libidiots like sugar attracts ants. My understanding is that with the exception of a few other areas the rest of each state is relatively sane.
You’re correct, Hondo… get away from the large cities and those areas are conservative voting.
I would have said ‘crap attracts flies’ vice ‘sugar attracts ants’, but other than that, what you said is correct Hondo.
What Hondo said. I was stationed at Ft Lewis, I loved it. There is a good portion of the population that are “normal” people. Its just when you get into places like Seattle where the freaks of nature happen.
Washington state also has no state income tax, is a pro gun owner state, even while having a fair mix of cultures and ideologies. However, Seattle did drink the kool-aid and do a 15 bucks an hour min wage.
Other than Portland, the same for Oregon, though I don’t know it as well. But it is a decent place. Not to mention, you can’t find a place to park to save your life in Portland.
Parking is a bytch in Portland… and heaver forbid if you go downtown during some protest, traffic comes to a standstill.
If you take MAX to get around, you’ll get to meet the homeless/chemical abusers up close… a true “cultural” experience!
Ain’t that the truth!
Having grown up on the Oregon coast in a county that has only 57K people in it, I can say for a certainty that the majority of us are fairly conservative/libertarian out here.
There’s a parking structure on…I think it’s 3rd (it’s by a Nordstrom’s) that’s very nice and inexpensive, but your right, parking in downtown is a real bitch.
I concur about Lewis. My favorite post in the Army, by far. Winters were a little dismal with lots of rain but the summers were glorious and it was nice having a “real city” instead of a sleazy camp town outside the gates (coughFAYETTENAMcough.)
It is in a beautiful part of the country and if you like outdoors stuff there is plenty to do.
I could never understand the bitching about Lewis unless it was related to a specific unit.
Second favorite was probably Huachuca. Another great place to be if you like to do outdoors stuff.
AMEN to We-Got-Cha. Served three tours there.
Did 16 of my 24 year career at we gotcha.
Can’t beat the weather, that’s for sure. Warmer than most of the country in the Winter (though they do get occasional snow there – but it doesn’t last long) and cool (relatively speaking) in the Summer due to the 4800′ altitude.
Are you all MI folks? Signal?
Started Infantry, switched to MP in the COARNG, then went back on AD for MI. Most of my time I was a 96B (all source analyst.)
It is a solid career field full of great soldiers.
BRRNATH LIVED THERE and poisoned the water by not disposing his bio hazard filed colostomy bag properly….
Bernath is now suing You Tube in Florida
WTF is he suing YouTube for? I’m sure it’s either just as or even more asinine than his Yelp lawsuit, I wonder if it’ll end like that one did, how much money does that walking bucket of walrus puke and slug snot owe from past judgements by now? That’s Daniel A. Bernath the Fred Phelps clone for you!
Maybe they took down his nutcase videos, and he’s unhappy about it?
ANY court releasing him from custody ought to be held accountable for whatever he does afterward, he’s obviously hell-bent on doing something.
Gotta be nuts!
Deserter, with his other eruptions how come he hasn’t been scooped up previously? Or is it that certain agencies of the Feds don’t communicate with each other?
Unbelievable.
Things have sure changed since Eddie Slowik, or there hasn’t been a lot of announcements to the contrary.
I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic or not. But thinking federal agencies actually talk to each other? That’s just crazy talk.
Actually, if I understand things correctly in this case there should have been a deserter alert for him on file with LE nationwide. I understand that’s how most deserters are apprehended these days: they do something minor (traffic stop, minor crime) and the deserter charge alerts local LE to contact the military.
Perhaps one of our current/former LE types can confirm or correct?
Yes, feds do talk to other feds. Its a brother/sisterhood and as long as a perp is found they don’t care who gets credit.
Am I right Grog?
Sometimes.
“He has a partner….” Does he say “Howdy” to his partner?
I thought one said howdy to a pardner
and “You look Fabulous!!!!!” to a “partner”.
Modern life confuses me so…..
Army dropped chasing AWOL’s back in the 70’s for cost savings measures. APB’s were always issued anyway unless it was known for sure where an AWOL was holed up at, the MP’s waited until stopped on a traffic violation or other minor offense.
Doubtful he really wanted to join ISIS. He just sounds like a nutcase. A not too bright one at that. Rolling into an FFL, using your real name when you have a permanent order and are a deserter? The only suprising thing is that the ATFE caught this.
Sometimes their system actually works! Maybe it was because he’s not part of a Mexican Drug Cartel?
Seriously, folks; why do these guys enlist the help of FBI informants or agents? Haven’t they learned that doing so is going to get them arrested? The stupidity of some people.