An 18-year-old recently arrested on terrorism charges in Arizona has the mental capacity of a child and had been in regular contact with the FBI for years before his arrest, according to family members, former teachers, and medical documents reviewed by The Intercept. Mahin Khan was arrested July 1 on charges of plotting to support the Taliban as well as the militant group the Islamic State and commit acts of terrorism in the local community.
People close to Khan say he had serious mental health and developmental issues and the FBI was aware of this, having met with him regularly since he was a young teenager. According to medical records and statements from family members, he was first referred to the FBI after sending a threatening email to one of his teachers at the age of 15. After an initial meeting with the FBI, he spent 45 days at an inpatient psychiatric facility for evaluation. His family says this stay at the facility was coordinated with FBI officials. Agents reportedly continued to meet with Khan regularly after he returned home and continued to do so up until the time of his arrest.
A community activist told The Intercept that after Khan’s initial contact with the FBI, he began regularly meeting with the teenager in an attempt to mentor him. He said that during these meetings, Khan had exhibited obvious signs of mental illness. “He was unable to even tie his shoelaces and his mother would have to do it for him. He would say things supporting extremism and terrorist groups but then would later start crying and apologizing,” the activist said. The activist did not want to be named for fear of retribution from law enforcement.
His statement echoed those made by a former tutor of Khan’s in an interview with local Arizona media, in which the tutor said Khan had “the mentality of a 6-year-old” and he had told Khan’s mother that there was no point in having him tutored as he was “unable to learn anything.”
In a statement released to local media shortly after Khan’s arrest, his family said he was developmentally delayed and suggested that he had autism. The statement also mentioned that “three years ago, Mahin went through an extensive inpatient psychiatric evaluation under the directive and supervision of the FBI. The evaluation documented the extent and severity of his mental health.”
Medical documents reviewed by The Intercept seem to confirm that Khan had cognitive impairments. A developmental evaluation conducted by psychologists last year found that Khan “requires considerable support from parents to complete day-to-day skills.” It also said that he had been adversely impacted by the loss of his older brother, who died after suffering cardiac arrest a year earlier.
Another document released by his former therapist’s office stated that doctors observed Khan, “acts younger than his stated age,” adding that his “concept formation and mental processing also lack maturity and forethought.”
Further medical records showed that Khan had been taking anti-psychotic medication in recent years.
His parents say that the FBI routinely visited Khan since he was first referred to the agency at the age of 15. During these visits, which occurred every few months, no lawyer was present, as Khan’s family assumed the FBI had been meeting to “help him.”
The FBI declined to comment as the case is still pending. The Arizona Attorney General’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.
An undated photo of Khan provided by his family.
Source: Khan family
At an initial hearing, a Joint Terrorism Task Force agent reportedly confirmed that authorities had provided Khan with a prepaid cellphone so that he could communicate with a government informant. In the course of his conversations with that informant, Khan is alleged to have indicated his willingness to kill hundreds of people, while also musing about attacking a local motor vehicle registration office or a Jewish community center.
But due to the level of Khan’s psychological impairment, it is questionable whether he was actually capable of acting on any of these statements. His documented history of mental illness and young age (he was legally a minor when the investigation against him started) suggest he may have been more well suited to psychiatric treatment than an elaborate sting operation. The national headlines trumpeting the case as a thwarted instance of homegrown terrorism seem to diverge from the reality of Khan’s reduced mental circumstances.
“Mahin is 18, but mentally he is like a child,” his father, Atif Khan, said. “He doesn’t even have a driver’s license because he can’t pass his test, he can’t even tie his shoes or take care of himself in the most basic ways. We didn’t let him have a phone because we didn’t trust him with one, but now we have found out that he had been using a phone given to him by the FBI.”
Court documents indicate the formal investigation began as early as February of this year. On June 18, Khan turned 18 and was arrested shortly afterward. “They waited until two weeks after his 18th birthday to arrest him, but even now he doesn’t understand the gravity of the things going on around him,” his father said.
Had authorities arrested him beforehand, Khan would have potentially faced less punitive legal consequences as a minor. Shortly after he was taken into custody, Khan was assaulted by other inmates in the local jail. He has since been placed in segregated confinement.
In addition to the impact on Khan’s own life, activists in Khan’s local community who spoke to The Intercept expressed frustration that the FBI’s informant had discussed with Khan a plot to attack a Jewish center, leading to sensational news headlines that have strained interfaith ties they had been working to build. A story on recent terrorism convictions by AlterNet accused the FBI of “stoking divisions” among Muslim and Jewish communities in the course of some of its informant-directed investigations.
“The FBI knew all along that he was not a real threat on his own,” Khan’s father said, adding that the government had allowed him to board a flight to Minnesota to see family members during the same period he had been conversing with its informant.
“They were meeting with us and saying they were there to help him, but meanwhile they were trying to trap him at the same time,” Khan’s father said.
“the FBI’s informant had discussed with Khan a plot to attack a Jewish center.”
The war on terror involves coaxing retards into saying stupid crap followed by arresting and persecuting them. Similar arrests have happened in Florida when a schizophrenic homeless man was arrested for “plotting an attack.” Unfortunately dimwit entrapment is an actual phenomenon in the war on terror. These arrests make national headlines scaring American’s into forfeiting their civil liberties and a significant portion of their paychecks via taxation. These funds along with this manufactured fear fuels the reactionary emotional response that enables the perpetual expansion of the wars in middle east on behalf of Israel. The absurdity of a terrorists or a lone wolf composed of retard(s) who “can’t even tie his shoes” along with cartoonish references of Hitler is an insult to the intelligence of all Americans with an IQ over 90. This would make for hilarious satire if it wasn’t so freaking sad that this is our current reality in America.
Just incredible! Why didn’t FBI send him to a psychiatrist???
If he isn’t mentally competent to stand trial, I hope the judge will commit him to a hospital and dismiss the charges. However, that’s not for the FBI to determine. I want scumbag would-be Jihadist to fear infiltration by undercover FBI agents. This will make them think twice before they launch a plot to murder innocent people
Left wing Breitbart strikes again. Are terrorists ever responsible for their actions? How come these mentally disturbed people always just happen to be Muslim? I can’t remember the last time a Hindu was “entrapped” by the Feds
PLEASE REMEMBER …. the FBI keeps us safe, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha – and they are to good guys ha ha ha ha ha
Do you believe in the Easter Bunny??
Where is 60 Minutes? Oh, that is right they’re MSM, where investigative journalism disappeared eons ago.
All entrapment, all of the time.
Unlike some I do not displace my displeasure on people who are used to reach an outcome because they are innocent or naive. The way I see it, kids like this are set up and used. We should absolutely be focusing on what wheels push these sorts of backdoor dealings behind the scenes and keep trying to educate our kids not to talk to strangers or the feds they ride in on. But they still will, is my guess, because there is so much manipulation going on and I don’t believe we can prevent all or even most of these cases as things stand now. There are just too many angles and no way to prepare people for all of them or even most of them. We need to change the system entirely, as in ‘no stings’ or at least far more hoops for warrants and far more limits on what is chargeable and what is permissible. But since the courts tend to toss out entrapment defenses and it seems like everyone tries to use them, we have a conundrum.
This isn’t Minority Report. Yet we seem to have most of the tech and procedures and mores — just not the outlier case that matters. Instead we have a majority of them. How does that make sense?
Anybody smarter than Khan would not have been caught by these FBI fools. If this is all they can come up with on terror they must have missed the lady running for Prez.
No, I’m pretty sure they claimed tat she was a dimwit who “made some mistakes” as well, but unlike this guy, her dimwittedness is complicit in their careerism and upward mobilty in the now fully blosomed stinkplant of the reach-around surveillance state.
You scratch my graft, I scratch yours.
Sounds like they are grooming him for politics! That’s all we have in the WH – retards. His parents must have been scared or paid off to have Fed mess with their kid like that? Wow, how many others do they do this to – despicable!
If you look at who the underwear bomber and the shoe bomber really were you would be disappointed in our national security.
The “mind of a 6 year old” claim does seem overblown. But if the FBI can make cases against kids, why not six-year-olds? Heck, they could make up a pretty app with spotted mushrooms and flittering butterflies and a little notice about in-app purchases, and then instead of the parent getting the usual bill for $1000 in gilded coins at the end of the month, she gets a SWAT team to take in her kid for pressing the shiny golden “Donate To ISIS” button.
I mean, it is nice for the FBI to observe the nicety of having the kid commit the formal crime after his birthday, but it doesn’t even sound like that was a requirement, just a choice on their part.
The way I see it, we have a concept of adulthood, however crude an approximation that may be. To bring a kid into a criminal lifestyle is a crime, and if federal agents commit crimes getting you to do something, whether it is breaking into your mailbox without a warrant or pointing a gun at your head when they tell you to do something, that shouldn’t be part of any kind of law enforcement. Now there are adults who have the mind of a six-year-old child, sure. And we have ways of formally recognizing a diminished status in an adult; criminal prosecution is the least desirable of those ways.
Yes, if we say that kids and mentally disabled can’t be prosecuted for being lured into ISIS conspiracies, we give ISIS a clear path to try to recruit them. But the deterrent value of stings against those with non-adult thinking is pretty low, as is their value to ISIS. Last thing a terrorist secret agent wants is to see a bunch of selfies from the big jihadist powwow all over some kid’s Instagram beside photos from his birthday party. They could put a suicide vest on a dog and have it do what it’s told, and is the law going to go after the dog?
That was good — don’t give the FBI ideas!!
My best guess is that he suffers from Paranoid Schizophrenia. He is at a prime age for it, seeing as he has been on psychotropics for psychosis. I didn’t see what kind of schooling he had in the news reports I have read. Having lived in Arizona, I have no faith in their educational system at all. I also find it strange that the state, rather than the feds, is prosecuting this case. Something smells.
Nothing out of the ordinary here.
It is ALWAYS intellectually challenged persons that the FBI, CIA, DHS, etc set up with the bogus “terrorist” entrapment schemes.
Here in Canada we recently set a precedent: The courts here will let defendants walk when they get entrapped like this. The cops are the evildoers. The citizens are victims of these entrapment schemes.
Mind-boggling the FBI would exploit positively the most vulnerable. ‘ His documented history of mental illness and young age (he was legally a minor when the investigation against him started) suggest he may have been more well suited to psychiatric treatment than an elaborate sting operation.’
This is worse than criminal! They fed him bull shit, made him regurgitate it, just so they could lock him up. DO THEY GET A NOTCH ON THEIR BELT? Two weeks in the Bahamas? This is not the first case like this that has been exposed, but it is the most pathetic. Just look at that child.
Now what do we do?
Yeah, I wonder how much of this is happening right now as I write. The kid was clearly vulnerable and his parent’s were naive. Basically, they were building a case for years against him. This is probably more common than most people think. There are certain people, it seems, they want no matter what.
Prosecute, to the FULL extent of the law, the perpetrators. That is what I would do if I were in charge.
They don’t get a notch on their belts, it’s even better than that–they keep their salaries and benefits coming. If there are no terrorists, there’s no job security. So you create some terrorists.
Their notch is the consistent highlighting of “Jewish” … to keep them on the top of the persecution mountain…depraved enough to exploit an autistic human that is cursed with a ME name.
Utterly despicable. I have come to know an autistic young adult. He works two jobs, his smile and jokes take away the most depressed soul and leaves one feeling grateful for what they have. I have seen his white bosses at the grocery store where he works threaten him to keep moving in his work so as to not linger on their fucking dime. Now when I see him…he hurries and has been taught to not be the wonderful social friendly soul that he is. But I still make sure he knows I care about his life and his jobs and his newest jokes.
Ps 82:3-4
3 Vindicate the weak and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and destitute.
4 Rescue the weak and needy; deliver {them} out of the hand of the wicked.
(NAU)
As I was thinking about this story and my buddy I mentioned above…
I want to say to the FBI and all the scumbags that are in collusion with them…
I know for a fact
That autistic humans DO NOT know how to discriminate nationalities, races, or religion. They simply CAN’T.
It would be a blessing if the FBI were autistic. If capitalism and wealth did not know how to discriminate oppress dictate and cause poverty. And if homogenized manipulated perverted religions ceased to exist.
And to those who achieve to the Special Olympics…
You have my utmost respect. God bless you.
But a Child wouldnt kill anybody
well if you can find the terrorists the second best thing is to raise your own ( they are called patsies).
The main criteria is they aren’t capable of fighting back or even telling their side of the story.
The FBI would never get away with this shit if the prosecutors had any sense of justice. The same can be said of the judges.
It’s all so despicable and depressing the law enforcement have such lack of professional honor.
And still what crime did this kid commit? nothing real. The poor kid will spend his life in jail for being egged on to just think about committing crimes and to say he was thinking about committing crimes.
Congratulations FBI, we are all so much safer!
I agree that a lot comes down to the prosecutors. If they kicked cases back that never should have existed begin with and filed procedings against those that break the letter and the spirit of the law, this would happen far less often. I am sure LE would say “but then we might not catch so many terrorists!” — but the problem with this complaint is that it neglects alternative resolutions (and honestly I think a lot of that is a staffing and psychological screening issue — a process that probably all LE officers, etc, should have to go through every year or so to screen for various unwanted traits, outside of their home towns, and not with the same psychologists).
Always room for a simple chap like that in the Republican Party. Ignorance and under educated are welcome.
In many states, it is a crime to deal with the developmentally disabled (or delayed) as this young man appeared to be by the FBI. The fact that they waited until he turned 18 to charge him is an outrage. Just careerists trying to personally profit off the fear of the citizens that the media does their best to scare silly.
The FBI totally disgust me with their ongoing grab for more and more funding at the expense of people’s lives, but I’m not going into that for the moment. What I find almost inconceivable is how in the hell could the family think for even a minute that the FBI, The goddamned FBI for cripe’s sake, was helping their mentally challenged son? Where can a level of naivete that deep possibly come from? Especially since it involved the well being or their own child?
You can sleep soundly tonight; your FBI is awake and cooking up shameful, phony terrorism schemes — and sending the clueless, hapless victims they entrap to prison for decades.
Is this a great country, or what?
Errr, not really.
O.o
What is “segregated confinement”?
single cell apart from the rest of the people detained.
In movies, you’ll hear it referred to as “the hole.”
As fuster said, people in segregation are separated from the general population of inmates. Some of the times it is for punitive reasons, such as if an inmate assaults someone. In the case of this individual, it is for protective reasons since other inmates are targeting him.
it’s ridiculous to claim that he had the mind of a 6 year old since he attended a regular high school
Dude, people literally graduate high school illiterate all the freaking time. And they aren’t even considered mentally incompetent! I.e. Jocks and Mexican border babies
people with the minds of 6 tear olds, as this twit Hussein reports, are NOT placed in regular high school classes.
being illiterate or uninterested in studying are quite different from being developmentally disabled…which is the dubious claim being peddled here.
Public school attendance is mandated by law in most states. I was tutoring a man in his late 30’s who has Aspergers. He was excited to be learning what we working on, and one day he exclaimed in frustration, “how come they didn’t teach me any of this in high school?”
They kick them out the door as “graduates” when they turn 18, no matter if they passed a course or not. The teachers don’t have the resources or patience to deal with the developmentally disabled. There need to be special programs and they are often not adequately funded, or funded at all. Maybe some of that “anti-terrorism program” funding should be shifted to schools. Maybe most of it.
you presume quite a bit.
attending regular classes in regular high schools is NOT mandated.
people who ACTUALLY have the minds of 6 year old are NOT required to attend such schools and classes…and are usually barred from doing so and placed elsewhere
Maybe things have changed since the 60’s and 70’s as a minor. I attended public school along with my mentally challenged fellow students…in the same facilities, walking home on the same sidewalks. The only difference was the “special-ed” classes they attended. This is how I was integrated with these “other” children…befriended them on their level and accepted them. It caused me to be grateful even at an early age for having a mind to carry me into adulthood.
Gods, you are everywhere… You must work in a fusion center. Lots of surfing and obfuscating time. fuster – obfuscator. Interesting.
Deal in absolutes much? Oh, never mind. Just another two bit troll.
mr Hussain can print all the claims from parents and defense lawyers, but it is ridiculous to claim that the kid had the mind of a 6 year old……biven that he attended a regular high school
Yes, I’d bet they knew all along Mahin Khan was no real threat. Just as lying U.S. leaders also knew that about Iraq and Libya.
Apparently Comey’s FBI just cannot help themselves though, they must at least “appear” pro-active in fighting almost non-existent terrorism. I mean, the government frightens us with it almost daily, so they got to keep those Big Brother budget $$$ flowing.
This then is the FBI’s modus operandi when self-justifying its existence. A too-shady paid informant system – setting up the mentally challenged as plausible terrorists, no matter how unlikely crime by those patsies may have been without that entrapment.
And oh yeah, while in court hide any coercion at the hands of hard-sell informant scumbags, you know, because they’re the ones actually creating those badly needed “PR-crimes.” Have to protect that cadre of professional liars accepting large gratuities for setting up Fibi’s fall guys.
I wouldn’t be surprised if persons of normal intelligence with their wits about them are relatively immune to these federally sponsored “enablers,” but also wonder at how that group doesn’t seem to include enough judges.
Alright, THIS time you have something.
It’s one thing for the FBI to approach someone who seems to want to talk to ISIS, so that ISIS doesn’t get there first. But this? Yeah, unbelievable. The kid was a minor, legally speaking, and inviting him into terrorist talk was contributing to the delinquency of a minor. At least that’s how I see it. Actively, palpably, illegal. It’s one thing to expect adults to stay out of lunatic plots or face the consequences, but even the law recognizes that kids are malleable. This should be thrown out of court, but need to be invited back in as a criminal case against any agents who actively tried to convince the kid it is OK to participate in a terrorist plot.
If he got roughed up by fellow inmates, he has to be in one of Joe’s jails. He needs to be removed immediately and placed in a secure facility where he can received adequate counseling and treatment. If I were his did, I’d seek a write of habeas corpus.
This is unbelievable. Instead of finding real terrorists, we have the FBI taking advantage of mentally disabled people and making their already life even worse so they can get some points for stopping this mastermind?
The people responsible for this should be prosecuted, let alone fired. Can you imagine the mindset it requires to make it look like a mentally challenged individual is a terrorist?
Additionally, if they are aware of it on an ongoing basis (like years), it must be paralysing for them or effect their development even further.
Let’s find out the facts before we judge or question the FBI, the family, the informant or the Muslim community. I want to know more than just the bias of Mr. Hussain’s report.
Well, who’s bias will you believe?
John doesn’t bother to mention any of the facts in the linked documents, meaning that he could “know more than just the bias” of the report if he actually wanted to.
See John obfuscate. Obfuscate, John, obfuscate!
Two minutes earlier below, John claims these kinds of operations are “errors on the side of caution” and “errors on the side of security.” Which are funny ways to describe the FBI spending time & money seeding fake terror plots by the mentally challenged.
The FBI can’t win. They were criticized for having known about the Orlando shooter and not arresting him. So, now they do something about someone who has indicated that they would like to execute a mass shooting – and they get criticized again.
That’s exactly right. People always need to blame others. I never knew the FBI was into providing mental health either. It would seem that if this guy was seeing a professional, there’s no way the FBI would have known what was said or happening since that confidential information. I’m sure the Intercept would argue that they should have just listened to the phone conversations they illegally obtain or perhaps the Intercept knows of some other bugs the FBI has in the doctor’s office.
People need to decide, do you want security or do you want sensationalized stories by the likes of The Intercept so you have someone to blame for everything. As for what or why the FBI did whatever they may have done, I have no idea but had someone gotten to this young man, wired him up with explosives and sent him into an arena somewhere and killed a multitude of people, then The Intercept would have been on the FBI like a wet suit over not having known since they talked to this guy in the past.
You don’t get it both ways. Perhaps there were errors here but tell me folks, errors on the side of caution? Errors on the side of security? Just turn the other way and then get blamed? What the hell DO you people want besides an Intercept bitch session!
Here was a family so trusting of the FBI that they allowed them to meet regularly with their son. As cases like this go forward, does the FBI expect the Muslim community to continue to cooperate with them?
Yes. Cooperation with law enforcement to prevent mass murder is an unconditional obligation. You’re saying they should now turn a blind eye to any potential terror attacks because the FBI have acted improperly in the past. Your comment is the problem with society.