A Deadly Scheme Has an Unexpected Twist | Forensic Files

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you can support Case File on your preferred platform. [Music] One day in December 2015, a 21-year-old
man from Michigan admitted something very disturbing to his girlfriend. Khalil Ryan had met 19-year-old Jeanna
Bride just a couple of months earlier via the social media platform Twitter. The two had bonded over shared interests
and commonalities. Both were from strict Muslim families and lived in the city of
Detroit. As they were unable to date openly the way other young people in the United
States typically would, their relationship had moved quickly and they were already discussing marriage as a
way to be together. Khalil and Janna would often talk about heavy topics including violent crimes
committed by the terrorist group Islamic State. During one such conversation in December
2015, Khalil made an alarming confession. He told Janna, quote, "I tried to shoot up a church one day. I
don't know the name of it, but it's close to my job. It's one of the biggest ones in Detroit. Yeah, I had it planned
out. I bought a bunch of bullets. I practiced a lot with it. I practiced reloading and unloading.
But my dad searched my car one day and he found everything. He found the gun and the bullets and a mask I was going
to wear. Khalil said he'd decided to attack a church because it was an easy target.
Lots of people would be in attendance and would be unarmed. Plus, it would make the news, he added.
He had an AK-47 rifle, so he would be capable of shooting many victims. When Jeana asked Khil if he would have
shot women and children at the church as well as men, he responded, "I would have killed every last one of
them. I would have shown no mercy. [Music] [Music] Khalil Ryan was raised in the Detroit
suburb of Dearborn Heights, which had a large ArabAmerican population. Many women in the area wore hijabs, a
head covering wrapped over the hair and beneath the chin. Some men wore long loose- fitting robes
known as a th and the call to prayer could be heard echoing through parts of the suburb five times a day.
Khalil was the son of Palestinian immigrants though his parents split up when he was three. He was then primarily
raised by his father's family and he received plenty of love and care while at home.
He had six younger siblings and step siblings. But despite growing up in an Arab-American family and neighborhood,
Khalil felt torn between two worlds. He also wanted to be an ordinary American kid, so he sometimes went by
the nicknames K or Ray to sound less foreign. In September 2001, when Khalil was 7
years old, the 9/11 attacks changed everything. They were committed by 19 terrorists,
all of whom were extremist Muslims affiliated with the jihadist group al-Qaeda, an armed militant organization
dedicated to establishing fundamentalist Islamic states. Suddenly, some people in Khalil's
community began looking at him differently. He was bullied at school for his heritage and began lying about his
background, telling people he was Hispanic or Italian. Although he lived in a strong
ArabAmerican community, in a broader sense, Khalil felt like an outsider. As he grew older, he became more
troubled. At the age of 12, he had a dream that he took a gun to school and shot his entire
class. He later told a teacher about the nightmare and he was referred to counseling.
As a teenager, Khalil developed a reputation for being a class clown at the charter high school he attended,
where the other students were also of mostly Muslim and Arab descent. But he also became the target of bullies
and was given suspension on at least three separate occasions after getting into fights.
While his home life was stable, Khalil struggled with his peers and with depression.
By the age of 17, he'd started using cannabis. It was after graduating, however, that
Khil's problems escalated. He briefly attended college, but his poor mental health and drug use led to
him failing his classes. He decided to essentially drop out and take a break from studying to work
full-time as a pizza delivery driver. Khalil's father was an engineer with two master's degrees, and he also owned a
pizzeria. Working for his father at the pizzeria seemed like a good solution. However, without the structure of school
and the friends he'd previously seen daily, Khalil's depression worsened. His job was isolating, involving long
hours alone in a car, sometimes up to 70 hours a week. Khalil became even more dependent on
drugs, often smoking between deliveries to curb his boredom and a low mood. By the age of 19, he was often smoking
between 10 and 15 cannabis joints a day. To make matters worse, Khalil often felt
unsafe while working. Detroit could be a dangerous city, and Khil was generally working late at
night. He had to deliver pizza at sketchy looking apartment buildings or on blocks with no porch lights to aid
visibility. On more than one occasion, Khalil would pull up at an address to deliver a
pizza, only to find it was an abandoned house, and there were people waiting there to jump and rob him.
Sometimes Khil was even robbed at gunpoint. Feeling lonely, angry, and powerless,
Khil suffered something of an identity crisis, wondering who he was and where he belonged.
He began spending his free time retreating online to seek out a sense of belonging with other young Muslims his
age. Then he started seeking out shocking and graphic content as a distraction from
his own feelings. Seeing real gore and violence just felt like an escalation from watching an
action movie. It involved the same shock and awe on a heightened level. By this time it was 2014 and the actions
of the terrorist group Islamic State or IS had captured the world's attention. Militants from IS had taken over large
territories in eastern Syria where there was an ongoing civil war and northwestern Iraq where local military
forces were dwindling. is declared itself to be a caliphate, the term for a state under the
leadership of a religious Muslim considered a successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Is adheres to a radical pro-Si Islamist ideology and seeks to establish a global
caliphate through armed struggle. It was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States
government in April 2014. As they conquered parts of Syria and Iraq, IS became known for their use of
social media to disseminate their message. They posted news, photos, and videos on
Twitter as a way to reach a broader audience beyond their geographical borders and radicalize sympathetic
individuals abroad. Is also became known for their brutality. Much of the content they shared featured
shocking acts of violence against those they deemed their enemies. One such video was of a Jordanian pilot
they had captured being set on fire and burned to death. Others showed men who were suspected by IS of being gay being
thrown off a high-rise building as a form of execution. is also used public beheadings to
terrorize and punish and filmed soldiers, journalists, aid workers, and others being killed this way.
In one incident, a French citizen and mountaineering guide named Erve Gordell was kidnapped in Algeria, then held
hostage before being beheaded. This crime was filmed and released online under the title a message of
blood for French government. Khalil Ryan had a Twitter account using the handle at Khalil Ray21.
In November 2014, he started seeking out is content. He liked propaganda posts about their
victories, including videos of beheadings and the Jordanian pilot's murder. Sometimes he would retweet posts,
re-sharing them on his own profile or reply with a comment. In one instance, he asked another
Twitter user if they had a link to a video showing people being thrown from a tall building.
When the other users shared it with him, Khil replied, "Thanks. That made my day."
Khalil sent some photos of beheadings to his brother. He saved one such photo as
the screen saver on his smartphone. Emboldened by the online world he was falling into, Khalil took a photograph
of himself and two friends, all dressed in camouflage. Khalil was holding a semi-automatic
pistol in his right hand. His left hand was pointing skyward, his index finger raised.
This gesture was a commonly acknowledged sign of support for Islamic State known
as the tohed, a term referring to the oneness of God. Neither of Khalil's friends were making
the gesture. On Thursday, February 19, 2015, Khil shared this photograph on his Twitter
account. Throughout 2015, Khalil continued to immerse himself in is content after
clocking off from work. Late in the year, he decided to buy a gun. On Monday, October 5, Khalil went to a
Dearbornne Heights sporting goods store and purchased a 22 caliber revolver. To complete the purchase, he had to fill
out a form required by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, commonly known as the ATF.
Question 11E on the form asked, "Are you an unlawful user of or addicted to marijuana or any depressant, stimulant,
narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?" Khalil checked no and signed the form.
2 days later, Khalil left work and got into his 2001 Buick Sentry. As he was driving away from the
pizzeria, he noticed two police cars with their lights on, signaling him to pull over.
Khil did so at a nearby intersection. The officers approached him on foot with their weapons drawn, later saying that
as they did so, they could see him still seated in his car, bending down and making hurried movements as though
hiding something. When the officers reached Khalil, they noticed a strong smell of cannabis and
asked Khalil to exit the vehicle. As Khalil did so, he told the officers that his gun was in the car. The
officers found it on the floor under the driver's seat. When Khalil asked the officers why they
had pulled him over in the first place, one told him that he'd been speeding. Another pointed to some prayer beads
Khil had hanging from his rear view mirror and said they'd stopped him for obstruction of vision.
K9 units were called in and police also recovered a plastic bag under the dashboard which contained a black vial,
three sleeping pills, and four baggies of cannabis. In total, the search took about 3 hours.
Khalil was arrested for possession of cannabis and for carrying a concealed weapon.
Michigan was an open carry state, meaning residents were permitted to carry firearms provided they were
displayed openly. To conceal carry, you needed a special license. Khalil did not have this license, and
hiding a gun under his driver's seat counted as concealment. Khalil waved his Miranda rights and
provided a full statement to the police, stating, "I tried to hide the gun under
my seat because I panicked. I think my fidgeting made the police officer nervous because he ordered me out of the
car." That's when I told him, "Hey man, I got a pistol." Khil Ryan spent the night in jail and
was released on bond the following morning. Khalil was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and illegal possession
of a controlled substance. One month later at around the same time on Sunday, November 15, he tried to buy another
gun. He went to a different sporting goods store and again filled out the ATF form
the same way, but this time his purchase was blocked due to his pending court case.
Later that day, Khalil and a friend went to a local firing range. The pair rented an AK-47 and an AR-15
rifle, both of which are military-style firearms. Background checks were not required for
this. Khalil took photographs of himself holding the weapons and two weeks later
he posted one of these pictures on Twitter. He captioned the photo saw hunting. Sawat is an is term for a person who
opposes their group originally referring to the Sunni tribesmen who fought alongside US-led coalition troops in
Iraq. [Music] About one week after Ryan posted this photo, he received a direct message on
Twitter from a 23-year-old woman called Garter. She'd noticed his account and was
reaching out. Garter told Khalil she was of Pakistani descent and lived in Cleveland, Ohio.
She shared some photos of herself with Khil. Some were selfies she'd taken in front
of a mirror. Others were her with her family. Khalil thought she was beautiful. The pair exchanged phone numbers and
soon they were texting each other daily. Khalil had never had a girlfriend before. Their relationship quickly
escalated from getting to know one another by asking questions about their lives to a serious romance where they
were discussing marriage. Khalil told Garter that his religious faith forbade him from playing games
with her. If they were going to be together, it needed to be a commitment. Within a week of meeting, they were
describing themselves as engaged. Although he was yet to meet Garter in person, her presence in Khalil's life
had already made an enormous impact. In one message, he told her, "While I was driving, I started to cry
because of how happy I am to have you." "Don't cry, my love. Please," Garter replied. "It's tears of joy," Khalil
reassured her. "I never felt this way before. [Music] The love struck young couple discussed
what their wedding would be like and how many children they would have. Eager to progress to the next stage of
their relationship, Khalil said he didn't want them to sneak around behind their family's backs. Instead, their
parents should meet one another. He spoke about it with his father who said he was happy to go to Ohio with
Khalil to meet Garter and plan their wedding. Khalil went back to Garter to share the
news but wasn't met with the joy he expected. Instead, Garter said she was having
second thoughts about everything and wasn't sure it was a good idea. She then stopped responding to Khalil
altogether. He was heartbroken and distraught. Their relationship had ended as quickly
as it began. Khalil wondered if he'd been too clingy or rushed to the situation.
Whatever had gone wrong, he believed it must have been his fault. A couple of weeks after Ga disappeared,
Khalil received a direct message from another young woman on Twitter. Her name was Jeanna Bride and she was of
Iraqi descent. At 19, she was a few years younger than Garta and she also lived closer to
Khalil. Like him, she was a Sunni Muslim residing in Detroit. Janna told Khalil that she felt an
overwhelming urge to talk to him and she believed God had connected them. Janna had suffered a lot recently and
was deeply depressed. Like Khalil, she'd experienced heartbreak. She had been engaged to a young man
named Ahmad who had died during an air strike in Syria. Two of Janna's cousins had also been
killed by anti-IS forces. Now she was living at home with her parents whom she felt were destroying
her life. Janna was suicidal and needed somebody to talk to. Over the course of mid to late December
2015, Khalil and Janna began communicating daily. Khalil developed romantic feelings for
Janna quickly, but she was slower to respond. Janna seemed too absorbed by her own
pain to be interested in dating at all. Nevertheless, the two became close and were soon confiding intimate thoughts
and feelings to one another. They found some common ground in their feelings about Islamic State.
Janna was a staunch supporter of the group as she blamed their enemies for the deaths of her fianceé and cousins.
Khalil began confessing some of his darker thoughts to Janna. He told her about a plan he'd had to
shoot up a church near his home with an AK-47. He'd chosen it as a target because lots
of people went there and he knew the parishioners would be unarmed. Khalil told Janna he would show no
mercy, even killing women and children. Honestly, I regret not doing it. If I can't go do jihad in the Middle East, I
would do my jihad over here. Maybe down the line, I can try again. Jihad is an Arabic word that translates
to struggling. In an Islamic context, it can refer to an individual striving to live a moral
life or to put efforts towards building a good Muslim community. However, in the context of extremist
Islam, it has come to mean an armed struggle against perceived enemies of the religion.
Janna understood where Khalil was coming from. She told him, "Jihad is my dream.
She was suicidal, but only had interest in dying if she could martyr herself for
God and as revenge for the deaths of Syrians and Iraqis following international invasions.
The following month, Khalil told Janna that hearing about shootings and murder excited him.
I would gladly behead people if I needed to, he said. It is my dream to behead someone.
He claimed that sometimes Satan spoke to him at night, telling him to burn people
alive and cut their tongues. Khalil also wanted to murder one of the police officers who'd arrested him for
concealed carry and possession of a controlled substance a few months earlier. Khalil explained that his trial had been
delayed because the officer in question had suffered a heart attack and was in hospital.
Khalil said he wanted to commit a quote martyrdom operation at the hospital, killing the officer in the process.
Khalil also said he was now carrying a large knife or sword in his car in case he ever got into a fight.
He told Janna that his father knew about Khalil's support of is and that he'd told his father that he wanted to make
jihad. Khalil's father did not support this and had warned his son to be careful about
what he said and posted online. On Thursday, February 4, 2016, Khil received a text message from Jeanna
early in the morning. She asked whether he was going to work that day. Khil replied that he was then got ready
for his shift. He left home and stopped to get gas before driving to work. Khalil was opening up the pizzeria that
day and as he approached the front door, he suddenly saw a man with an AR- style
rifle aimed at him. He ordered Khil to get on the ground. Soon there was a swarm of other people
surrounding him, all brandishing firearms and wearing bulletproof vests. They were agents for the Federal Bureau
of Investigation or FBI. As they placed Khil under arrest and searched the pizzeria, a simultaneous
raid was taking place at his family home. His mother and younger sister were escorted from the premises while his
younger brother was handcuffed. Khalil Ryan was taken to the FBI headquarters and placed in an
interrogation room. An agent informed him that he was under arrest for possession of a firearm by an unlawful
user of a controlled substance. Khil already knew he had state charges pending for these offenses and wasn't
aware they'd been upgraded to a federal level. He requested a lawyer several times, but
the FBI agent told him he had some questions to ask first. "What is your involvement with Islamic
State?" the agent asked. At that point, Khalil realized he was under investigation for terrorism.
He responded by asking what he was being charged with. The agent repeated that it was just a
gun case, but followed up by asking about posts Khalil had shared on social media and his thoughts about Islamic
State. He then brought up Ajanna, implying that she was being questioned simultaneously
in the room next door. The agent knew about things the two had discussed, like Khil's plan to commit a
mass shooting at a church and his desire to behead people. At that point, Khalil began to worry
about Janna. If the FBI had evidence against them, he wanted to take the rap so she could go
free. Despite the agents questions, no additional charges were laid against Khalil, nor was he charged with anything
relating to terrorism. But this time, he wasn't being released on bond. He was to be held in federal custody
until his case was resolved. Almost 2 weeks later on Tuesday, February 16, Khil was charged in a
two-count indictment. He was being charged with making a false statement to acquire a firearm for lying
on the ATF form when purchasing his handgun by stating he wasn't an unlawful user of a controlled substance.
He was also charged with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. As Khil sat in court, his attorney went
through his charge sheet. After reading it, she turned to Khil and told him that
the woman he knew was his girlfriend, Jeanna Bride, didn't exist at all. It turned out that the FBI had been
monitoring Khalil Ryan ever since May 2015 after his Twitter account came to their attention.
His comments and posts in favor of IS activities had been flagged and a review found that he'd been liking and
retweeting IS propaganda for over 6 months. The FBI began investigating Khalil via a
number of methods, including monitoring of his social media accounts and surveillance.
A few months after they first began surveilling Khalil, the FBI became aware that he'd bought a firearm.
They arranged for local police to pull Khalil over just 2 days after the purchase under the guise of a routine
traffic stop. It was then that Khalil was first charged with criminal offenses for the
concealed carry of the gun and possession of a controlled substance. The FBI has not released the full facts
of their investigation into Khalil, but it is believed that they first attempted
to approach him undercover about 2 months after his arrest using the online persona of Garter.
Garter initiated a whirlwind romance with Khalil via Twitter and he had believed that they were engaged to be
married. But then Garter abruptly ended the relationship, leaving Khalil feeling
broken. A few days after Khil last heard from Garter, either the same agent or another
one reached out to Khalil again with a brand new persona. Unlike a Gata, Janna Bride's approach
was grounded in a strong focus on Islamic State. The agent operating as Janna gave her a
history steeped in conflicts taking place in the Middle East and repeatedly turned their conversations to the topics
of jihad, martyrdom, and is during conversations throughout December 2015 and January 2016. Khalil made a
number of statements that the FBI took as indications he might be planning a terror attack.
These included claims that he'd previously planned to shoot up a church. Based on information in Khalil's
messages, agents were able to identify a church that fit the description he gave.
It was less than half a mile from the pizzeria where Khalil worked and stretched across two blocks.
It was a large building with a capacity to fit 6,000 people. In late January 2016, Khil also talked
about wanting to go to the hospital where the officer who arrested him was being cared for and murdering him.
The next day, he told Jeanna how he carried a sword in his car and added, "I would gladly behead people if I needed
to." About 2 weeks after this, on Thursday, February 4, FBI agents struck. They arrested Khalil at his workplace
and confronted him with what they knew about his terrorist ambitions. [Music] In the days following Khalil Ryan's
second arrest, articles were published about the incident in local and national newspapers and media outlets. Headlines
announced that a 21-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of supporting Islamic State and planning to attack a
Detroit church. Khalil was portrayed as a dangerous budding terrorist who had been
successfully stopped before he'd caused harm. The FBI's criminal complaint against
Khalil was also shared online. The affidavit contained this notable quote from FBI special agent Alan
Southard. Since May of 2015, the FBI has been conducting an investigation of Khalil
Abu Ryan regarding increasingly violent threats he has made to others about committing acts of terror and martyrdom,
including brutal acts against police officers, churchgoers, and others on behalf of the foreign terrorist
organization Islamic State of Iraq and Lavant. Khalil was held on bond and had to
undergo a competency exam to prove he was fit to stand trial. A grand jury indicted Khalil on the two gun rellated
felonies the FBI had initially charged him with, making a false statement to acquire a firearm and possession of a
firearm by a prohibited person. However, the grand jury did not indict Khalil on any terrorism charges.
On Tuesday, September 13, 2016, Khalil faced court. On the advice of his attorney, he
pleaded guilty to the two federal firearm charges. He had already pleaded guilty to the state charges relating to
the same offenses, and the evidence against him was clear. Khalil told the court of his deep
remorse for his actions, stating, "I am so ashamed. I have humiliated myself. That conduct is not who I am or what I
believe in. Islamic state has nothing to do with Islam. I have shamed my faith. I
have shamed the Muslim people." Sentencing guidelines for these charges typically called for 10 to 16 months in
prison. The judge spoke for an hour before sentencing Khalil, focusing primarily on Khalil's support for
Islamic State. This is not merely viewing an Islamic State website, the judge stated, while
pointing to the threat Khalil had shared with the Janna. The judge also cited the photo Khalil
had posted of himself to Twitter holding a military-grade rifle and claiming he was saw somewhat hunting.
Although Khalil had expressed remorse for holding these sentiments, the judge said his apology was too little too
late. He sentenced Khil Ryan to 5 years in federal prison. Although the shocking headlines about
Khalil's planned terrorist attacks had scared some members of the public, there were others who harbored concerns about
the case against the young man. Civil rights advocates and Muslim American leaders believed Khalil's case
was emblematic of a larger abuse of power taking place. What hadn't been included in the FBI's
criminal complaint against Khalil Ryan was mitigating evidence that indicated he had never had any intention to commit
a terrorist act at all. In fact, the evidence provided by the government was missing key portions of the
conversations between Khalil and Janna with nothing at all provided from before December 23, 2015, well into the pair's
relationship. The government claimed these emissions were due to a printing error, but Khil's
defense team suspected otherwise. They filed a motion for discovery to gain access to the FBI's full case
against Khil. The government was able to successfully withhold most of its surveillance
evidence by arguing that doing so would protect national security. But a closer look at the conversations
between Khalil and Janna that were available still provided greater clarity as to what had actually taken place.
From the start, Jeanna bride had presented as a deeply depressed suicidal young woman who had suffered immense
loss. While she had repeatedly raised the subject of Islamic State and Jihad, Khalil's responses to her had been more
focused on building a romantic relationship. "I wish I could take you away from this
sadness," he wrote. "I pray a lot for your happiness. Sometimes I think I see you in my dreams."
Over time, he started professing his love to Janna and asked her to marry him. Lonely and depressed, Khalil had never
had a romantic relationship before and saw marriage as a way to be happy. He tried to dissuade Janna from harming
herself or others, telling her, "Just stay positive. Everything will work out." In one conversation, Janna expressed her
deep sadness before asking Khalil, "What do you want from this dunya?" Dunya is an Arabic word referring to the
temporal world. Khalil replied, "Honestly, to get married, I think if I get married, I will be happy. I'm just
lonely sometimes. I want to start a family." "What about the afterlife?" Jeanna asked
before adding, "I want to leave this dunya. I don't want to get married." Khalil encouraged her not to give up,
reassuring her that her life would improve. "Don't you want to have children and
watch them grow up?" he asked. "That's probably the best feeling." In subsequent conversations, Jeanna
spoke of wanting to m herself for Allah or God, stating, "I want to die for the sake of Allah." Her motivation for doing
so was vengeance for quote. Seeing my sisters and brothers and young women die in Syria and Iraq like that.
Khalil replied that she was young and confused and didn't know what she wanted. Jihad is my dream. Jeanna responded.
But Khalil didn't pick up on these threads. instead trying to convince Jeanna that marriage and building a
future was the best path forward. During one conversation, Jeanna appeared to directly ask Khalil about a possible
plan for them to commit jihad together, writing, "So, you don't want to do anything of
what we talked about together?" "No, I can't." Khalil replied, "I want us to be together. I have other plans.
Don't do anything that will hurt yourself or other people. At one point, he grew so tired of
Jeanna's repeated talk about jihad that he stopped talking to her for 3 days. She continued to contact him incessantly
during that time. Perhaps picking up on his distaste for conversations about violence, she no
longer messaged about that, but instead said how much she needed someone to talk
to. Khalil caved and resumed contact. This time, when Jeanna began fixating on Islamic State and Jihad again, Khalil
followed her lead. He would later explain in an interview with progressive advocacy group the
Gravel Institute that he could see those were the things that were quote turning
her on. So he decided to go along with it to impress Jeanna and maintain her interest.
Whenever he turned to other topics, Janna became distant and started to pull away.
And desperate to keep her attention, Khalil started making up stories, claiming he'd been accused of murder and
had spent 3 months in prison before being let go. This had never happened. Khalil said that his claims of wanting
to behead people or commit a massacre at a church were invented as well to make him sound more like the sort of man
Jeanna would be interested in. When the FBI searched Khalil's home and workplace, they found no trace of the
AK-47 he said he'd owned. The truth was that Khalil had never owned an AK-47, nor did he have any bullets.
He had purchased a handgun in October 2015, but this was in response to feeling unsafe at work. After being
robbed multiple times while delivering pizzas, sometimes at gunpoint, he felt he needed to be armed for protection.
The gun he bought could only carry six bullets in its chamber. He'd had it for just 2 days when he was
pulled over, and it was confiscated by the police. Khalil had also told Janna he'd bought a
mask to wear during the church attack, but no such mask was recovered during searches by the FBI.
Khalil's defenders have described his proposed massacre as fantasy to impress a girl.
But prosecutors argued that even if he hadn't made preparations to carry it out, his messages were still an
expression of intent. The situation between Ryan and Ajanna reached a boiling point in early
February 2016. Ryan had grown increasingly depressed while awaiting trial for the gun
charges. He was also anxious because his phone had been searched following his arrest and he knew authorities might
find the Islamic State content he had downloaded and watched. There were also photos of him posing
with guns at the firing range. He worried these might lead to further charges. During a phone conversation on Tuesday,
February 2, Ryan told Janna that he was suicidal and had bought a rope to hang himself.
"I'm tired of this," he said. "We're doing the same thing every day." He told Jeanna of his anxieties that he
might be charged with further offenses. He claimed he'd tried to travel to Syria
a year earlier to join Islamic State, but had been turned away. Lately, he'd noticed that he seemed to
be under surveillance. There were always cop cars near his workplace or dark vehicles following
him. One time, Khalil had actually called the police to report that he'd seen a man in
a vehicle taking photos of him. An officer had attended the scene, spoken to the man in the vehicle, and
then told Khalil that it was fine. The man had just been taking photos of some nearby signs.
Janna pushed back against Ryan's suicidal ideiation, telling him that taking his own life was haram forbidden
by Islamic law. When it's for the sake of Allah, when it's jihad, or when it's for a cause,
that's the only time Allah allows it. But not to put your life to waste and to just hang yourself like you say you want
to do. Janna asked Khalil directly whether he wanted to hurt anybody else. I would not like to hurt somebody else,
he replied. Towards the end of their conversation, Khil said that he couldn't stand the
thought of being incarcerated. If the police tried to take him into custody again, he planned to try and
stab them to incite them to kill him in response. But at no time did he discuss planning
or intending to carry out a terrorist attack. 2 days after this conversation, FBI
agents arrested Khalil Ryan at his place of work. [Music] To Khalil's defense attorneys, it
appeared as though the FBI had repeatedly tried to manipulate their client towards committing an act of
terror. They believed that both female personas the government had used to communicate
with Khalil had been part of a quote reprehensible drama. First, they manipulated the young man to
fall head over heels in love with Garter, leaving him brokenhearted when she abruptly dumped him.
They then introduced him to Janna who had just lost her fianceé as Khalil had lost his.
Janna was an attempt to exploit his devastation and loss by pushing him towards terrorism.
Instead of just gauging where Khalil stood when it came to such crimes, Janna had actively and repeatedly steered him
towards them by promoting jihad. When Khalil expressed suicidal thoughts and revealed a suicide plan, Jeanna told
him the only way suicide was acceptable was in the form of a suicide attack that
would also harm others. Near the conclusion of their motion, Khalil's attorneys wrote,
"The government has indiscriminately thrown damaging information about Mr. Ryan into the public record, allowing
the media to run wild with the accusations that he is a mentally ill terrorist sympathizer.
The truth is that the government has subjected the defendant, a US citizen, to a relentless and cynical emotional
manipulation in an attempt to radicalize a lonely young man who was looking for a
wife to start a family. A psychologist hired by the defense found that Ryan's level of dangerousness
was very low. According to an article in The Intercept, the psychologist wrote in
his report that Ryan's comments and behavior with the undercover agent was the result of deep longings for female
attention in a very shy and awkward young man. His verbalization was the result of an effort to keep the
attention with hopes of a future. They were not the result of radicalization or representative of terrorist intentions.
According to author and journalist Trevor Aronson, who published a book titled The Terror Factory: Inside the
FBI's Manufactured War on Terror, the FBI was using more than 15,000 informants in counterterrorism
investigations in early 2016. At that time, many of their investigations focused on alleged
Islamic State sympathizers. The particular type of surveillance used in Khil Ryan's case was known as a
honeypot, an operational practice where a covert agent uses the allure of a romantic or sexual relationship to
compromise a target. An article in the Detroit Free Press around the time of Khalil's conviction
quoted the head of the FBI in Detroit as defending these undercover operations, saying they only targeted individuals
who had already expressed intentions to commit criminal behavior. He described informants as a legitimate
tool in combating terrorism. Two other men in Detroit also faced court in early 2016 after being targeted
by FBI informants for terror related activities. But like Khalil, they were never charged
with any offenses relating to terrorism. Local Muslim leaders accused the FBI of
pursuing young men who were mentally unstable or suffering from emotional problems and goating them into
terrorism. Other young Muslims in Michigan said that they had been pressured to become
informants for the FBI. One young man was interrogated at the airport after returning home from Yemen
and said he'd been told that if he became an informant, he would be taken off a no-fly list.
Another man said he was asked to spy on other Muslims in exchange for a visa, allowing him to work in the US.
In an interview with RT America, author and journalist Trevor Aronson stated, "In the vast majority of cases where the
FBI uses informants and sting operations and files terrorism related charges, they're not finding people who have
weapons and bombs and direct connections to terrorist organizations. [Music] Instead, more than anything, they're
finding people who are mentally ill. What's particularly problematic about these cases is they're not finding the
truly dangerous person who would strike tomorrow. Instead, they're finding someone who is
easily manipulated via an informant. There are also arguments that building cases against radicalized individuals
via undercover agents isn't an effective way to prevent terrorism. In many instances, this approach pushes
people towards criminal activity instead of away from it. In Denmark, a program was introduced
that focused on dradicalizing citizens who had chosen to support Islamic State. Creators of the program recognized that
young people drawn to YS were typically second generation immigrants who felt isolated and abandoned by their
communities. They designed a collaborative approach between police, Danish intelligence,
social services, the health care system, and education providers that would see radicalized citizens receive counseling,
mentoring, and support as long as they hadn't committed any crimes. Named the Orhus model, it appeared to
have some success. While 30 Danish citizens traveled to Syria to join Islamic State in 2013, that number
dropped to one a year later and two in 2015. One young man who took part in the Orhus
model spoke with the BBC about his experience. Going by the name of Ahmed, he explained
that after he came to police attention for extremist leanings, they approached him at home and took him out for a
coffee. They then introduced him to a mentor, another Muslim man who worked with Ahmed
for months to dradicalize him and show him he had other options. The program ultimately worked with Ahmed
telling the BBC, "I'm happy right now. I see my future in Denmark. I couldn't see
that before because it was all dark. Khalil Ryan spent almost 4 years incarcerated at a federal prison in
Indiana. For the first 6 months, he was held in solitary confinement for his own
protection. Prison officials felt that the high-profile nature of Khalil's case and
the allegations of terrorism could lead to other inmates harming Khalil. In an interview with the Gravel
Institute, Khalil stated that his time in solitary confinement permanently altered him. He felt forgotten by his
family and hopeless about his future. quote, "I really do firmly believe that a part of me actually did break when I
was in there." Eventually, Khalil joined the general population. He developed a routine that
involved lots of reading, praying, and working in the prison commissery. Khalil Ryan was released from custody in
June 2020. He returned to his family in Dearbornne Heights and also rejoined social media.
He soon found a niche on the platform Tik Tok where he posted videos answering questions about what life was like in
prison. Khalil also began a serious relationship with his first real girlfriend. Though
he struggled with trust issues for a long time, he couldn't shake the fear that his girlfriend might actually be an
undercover informant. Khalil Ryan has shared his story in a number of interviews. He is adamant that
the FBI knew exactly where his life was lacking and how vulnerable he would be to a honeypot approach.
He has also been at pains to make clear how little of a threat he was to the American people as he never had any
plans to launch an attack. Khalil has pointed to the grand jury's dismissal of any terrorism charges
against him as proof of this quote. My lawyer, he gave me this quote that a grand jury indictes a ham sandwich.
Meaning, whatever charges you put on a grand jury, the grand jury is going to indict you on.
And for them to return back with no indictment on terrorism really just goes to show that the prosecution didn't have
proof beyond reasonable doubt that there was some kind of crime committed there.
In 2024, Khalil spoke with Rolling Stone about issues facing the young Muslim population of Dearbornne Heights in the
present day. He said that he still lives in fear that he might one day be stopped
or raided again by the FBI, adding, "That kind of stuff doesn't go away. [Music]

In late 2015, a young pizza delivery man named Khalil Abu Rayyan from Dearborn Heights, Michigan, met and fell in love with a woman he met online. Jannah Bride had approached Khalil via the social media platform Twitter, and the two soon became close.

Over the course of several months, Khalil would start admitting disturbing things to Jannah – fantasies he had about harming others. But nothing in the relationship was as it seemed…

CREDITS Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Erin Munro Creative direction – Milly Raso Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer

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Brief Summary

Khalil Ryan's story reveals FBI manipulation in a case of expressed violent intent without actual plans for terrorism.

Key points

Khalil's Disturbing Confession. Khalil reveals to Jeanna that he planned to shoot up a church, expressing no remorse.
Love and Heartbreak. Khalil's relationship with Garter quickly escalates but ends abruptly, leaving him heartbroken.
Escalating Violence. Khalil shares his violent fantasies with Janna, expressing a desire to commit acts of terror.
Khalil's Arrest and Charges. Khalil Ryan was arrested and charged with firearm possession and making false statements.
Khalil's Remorse in Court. In court, Khalil expressed deep remorse for his actions and the impact on his faith.
FBI's Manipulation Allegations. Khalil's defense claims the FBI manipulated him into expressing violent intentions.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I would have killed every last one of them. I would have shown no mercy.

Khalil's chilling confession about a planned attack.

2:57WatchAug 9, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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