Opinion Journal: 9/11: The War on Terror Continues4:01
Editorial Page Editor Paul Gigot on lessons from Al Qaeda and the continuing battle against Islamic jihad. Photo Credit: Getty Images.
Joshua Ryne Goldberg’s motivation revealed in US court as he claimed to be an online Australia-based jihadist
A MAN who claimed online to be an Australian-based jihadist called Australi Witness and who faces charges in the US of attempting to destroy a building with explosives engaged in the charade to fulfil his dream of becoming a journalist.
Joshua Ryne Goldberg was arrested in 2015 at his home in Clay County, Florida after a joint FBI and Australian Federal Police investigation, and now faces sentence proceedings in the US District Court, Jacksonville Division.
In defence filings in the US this week, his legal team sets out the true motivation of Goldberg in setting up numerous online alias’ and pretending to be an Islamic State linked jihadist — to uncover real terrorists, find out about those involved in terrorist activities, expose them and write about them to become a journalist. And they set out a long history of mental illness.
Transcripts and screen shots of Goldberg’s online conversations with Australian journalists and emails between journalists and Goldberg, using his aliases, are now included in the defence filings in the Florida court.
Goldberg has pleaded guilty to one charge of attempting to maliciously damage and destroy a building by means of an explosion and comes after lengthy negotiations between the parties. The charge relates to Goldberg encouraging an individual online, who was an undercover agent, to place a pressure cooker bomb at a 9/11 memorial event in Kansas City.
In the 32-page defendant’s sentencing memorandum his lawyers note that “despite his obvious mental incapacity” that years and years are added to sentences when the word terrorism is included.
Goldberg, who spent 14 to 20 hours a day on the internet, created the alias “Australi Witness” and used that to communicate with Perth and Melbourne-based journalists, under the ruse that he was a Perth-based Jihadi.
“Joshua, as Australi Witness, was quite successful in getting the attention of actual extremists (he believed they were authentic), learning their language and finding out what they do. That was, of course, part one of his plan. As ill-conceived as his plan might have been, he actually made impressive progress given who he truly was,” the defence submission states.
“He reached a point where he was following many potential extremists and they were following him at various websites … Once he started obtaining the information about extremists that he thought would be the basis for his fledgling journalism career, it was necessary to engage actual journalists to see if they were interested in publishing his inside information.”
By early to mid 2015 Goldberg was engaging in conversations with Australian journalists on Twitter and by email.
Copies of his online conversations with eight named Australian journalists are included as exhibits in the defence filings as are summaries of the conversations he had with each of them.
“Joshua would make some provocative posts using the Australi Witness alias somewhere on the internet with the idea that Australi Witness was a real extremist. Joshua would then use one of his other identities to bring attention to Australi Witness.”
At one stage Goldberg admitted setting up a fake Twitter account in the name Junaid Thorne, a radical Islamic preacher from Perth, in a bid to attract real jihadists and gain legitimacy.
In emails which are now exhibits in the court he tells several Australian journalists he has picked up chatter about a plot to kill cartoonists Bill Leak and Larry Pickering.
“He planned to discover and acquaint himself with real extremists over the internet, get them to reveal plans of attack, memorialise them with screenshots and then expose them and write about them to become a journalist. While this sounds like a fantastical idea, he actually executed this plan well and received positive feedback from many established journalists,” the defence submission states.
His lawyers are now arguing that he had a long history of mental illness which lead to his offending and that he was in no way a terrorist.
The documents submit that Goldberg had suffered mental health problems since early childhood and had now been diagnosed with autism, having been misdiagnosed as a child. He also suffered depression which had worsened in the weeks leading up to his arrest.
“The extent of Joshua’s criminal liability can only be truly determined by fully understanding Joshua’s mental health at the time of these events and how his impairments impacted his state of mind.”
