Chancellor Carranza Visits The Bronx Charter School for Excellence

  Chancellor Richard Carranza visited the Excellence Community Charter School located at 1960 Benedict Avenue in the Bronx to see the newly opened seven story building the charter school is now housed in. Several reporters including myself were able to accompany Chancellor Carranza as the CEO of Excellence Community Schools Dr. Charlene Reid took him on a tour of the new school. 

We visited a kindergarten class first where the children were immersed in learning. All of us then fit into the elevator to ride up to the seventh floor to see some older children. The school is a K - 8 school, with some children leaving in the seventh grade to go onto specialized schools. we saw algebra being taught in a seventh grade math class. We visited a computer room, music room, the gym, cafeteria, and almost every room in the school as Dr. Reid wanted to show how this charter school was working.  

A student has to apply to be admitted to a charter school, and there are a series of steps the charter school must go through before admitting students. The procedure is that any current student in the charter school has the right to stay in the school. the next step in admission is that any siblings of current students are given preference. the next step if there is room available is for the home district, then the city district, and lastly if there is room available any student from anywhere in New York State can be admitted. The last step or two rarely happens as space is very sought after in charter schools, and this school I was told has a wait list of almost one thousand applicants. 

After the tour Chancellor Carranza met privately with Dr. Reid, and then took some questions from reporters before leaving. There were questions from other reporters about the admission policy, what resources charter schools receive, and how they may differ from public schools. Having been a parent leader years ago I asked the new chancellor about poor student performance in most Bronx schools. I went into specific details about the Average Yearly Progression numbers now compared to before Mayoral Control, and received the answer "I am new here, we have to look at the numbers, they don't always tell the whole story etc." I heard that fifteen years ago from then Chancellor Joel Klein, and said that to current Chancellor Carranza. I offered my help as I did to Chancellor Klein, but parents want to know why their children have problems in public school. 

Above - Chancellor Carranza meets Dr. Reid.

Below they observe a kindergarten class.

Above - The pair check in on a computer lab room.

Below - The chancellor takes a selfie of himself under the college flag.

Above - Chancellor Carranza poses with students in front of the Honor Roll Board.

Below - The charter is so successful it has acquired space around the corner on Pugsley Avenue.

New Stringer Report: 90% of City Contracts for Human Services Submitted Late for Registration, After the Contract Start Date

Thousands of non-profits – many serving most vulnerable New Yorkers – go unpaid for months, forced to deliver services without a registered contract

HRA, DHS, DOE are worst offenders, submitting over 99% of their new contracts retroactively

Stringer calls for new, transparent tracking system for all contracts, strict agency timelines

  New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer released a new reportthat found pervasive delays in the City’s contracting system, particularly for human services contracts where 90.8 percent were submitted late for registration in Fiscal Year 2017 – half of them by six months or more. Moreover, all contract types had extensive delays – 81 percent of new and renewal contracts across all City agencies were submitted late in FY 2017.

The report highlighted “Type 70” contracts, which support programs for some of the City’s most vulnerable populations – including seniors, the homeless, and children – and found that some agencies, including the Human Resources Administration (HRA) and the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), submitted a shocking 100 percent of their contracts late in FY 2017, forcing cash-strapped non-profits to resort to taking loans and potentially putting themselves at financial risk.

Vendors can only be paid once a contract is registered, so “retroactive” contracts (or those registered after a contract’s start date has already passed) force vendors into a risky, catch-22 choice: wait to begin work, which can stall projects and drive up costs, or begin work without a registered contract, which can cause significant risk and financial burden to a vendor.

For human services providers, whose programs often support the City’s most vulnerable populations – such as delivering meals for seniors and providing shelter for homeless families – the stakes raised by retroactive contracts are particularly high. These services are critical and moreover, vendors are often non-profit organizations with limited budgets and cash flow. When contracts are registered retroactively, vital supports for communities are put at risk, while the non-profits themselves are often forced to take out loans to meet payroll and other expense needs.

“Behind every human services contract are people who need support from our City – food to eat, a roof to sleep under, or someone to care for them. But our slow contracting system is hurting the very organizations that the City’s most vulnerable communities depend on each day,” said Comptroller Stringer. “With non-profits already under pressure from Washington, here in New York City the bureaucratic process only makes their jobs harder. This comes down to our priorities as a city. We owe it to all our neighbors to deliver necessary services in a timely manner. And there’s a common-sense solution to this problem – hold City agencies accountable. We need to reform our contract system and make it more transparent. If a shipping company can track millions of packages as they cross the globe, we should be able to track a contract as it moves through City agencies.”

The City’s procurement process involves oversight from a number of agencies before a contract can be registered with the Comptroller’s office. While oversight is crucial to ensure that required procedures are followed and to root out corruption, waste, and fraud in City spending, the length of time it takes for a contract to work its way through all stages of review – most of which do not have deadlines – is a primary source of contract delays. Making matters worse, there is no public-facing system for tracking contracts as they make their way through the various stages of review, leaving vendors uninformed about the status of their contracts.

The Comptroller’s report includes an extensive analysis of City contracts for FY 2017, with a particular focus on human service contracts.

Vital Services Threatened by Retroactive Human Services Contracts

New York City relies on an extensive network of non-profit human service organizations to meet the needs of our diverse population. Despite their integral role in delivering City services, community-based non-profits struggle the most with delayed contract delays as their tight budgets and responsibility to deliver vital services stretches their organizations thin.

The Comptroller’s report examined Type 70 contracts – the designation for program contracts – among seven City agencies that contract for the majority of human services programs, finding for Fiscal Year 2017:

• Of the total 2,448 Type 70 contracts registered for the seven human service agencies, 2,224, or 90.8%, were retroactive by the time they reached the Comptroller’s Office.
• Moreover, the Comptroller’s analysis found that half of human service contracts were retroactive by over six months, with the average retroactive period at over 209 days.
• Retroactivity among human services contracts was higher than for other contracts. In FY17, 81% of all new and renewal contracts arrived at the Comptroller’s Office for registration after the contract start date had passed, and over one-third of all contracts were late by more than six months.
• These delays often force non-profit vendors to take loans from the City in order to make payroll and cover other expenses. In fact, in FY17, the City’s Returnable Grant Fund processed 751 loans for non-profits worth a combined total of $149.9 million – many necessitated by delayed contract awards.

Length of Retroactivity Among Registered Human Service Contracts

	Under 30 days	31 – 60 days	61 – 90 days	91 – 189 days	181 – 365 days	Over 1 year	Total
Number of contracts	428	158	155	371	709	403	2,224
% of total	19.2%	7.1%	7.0%	16.7%	31.9%	18.1%	100%
Average number of days retro	7.1	45.1	76.5	133.7	269.7	504.0	209.5

Four Agencies – HRA, DHS, DOE, DFTA – Worst Offenders

• Of the seven agencies the Comptroller’s report focused on, two agencies – the Human Resources Administration (HRA) and the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) – submitted 100% of their program contracts retroactively, meaning not one contract from these agencies arrived for registration prior to the contracted start date.
• The Department of Education (DOE) and the Department for the Aging (DFTA) did not do much better. DOE submitted all but one of its 406 program contracts retroactively (99.8%), and DFTA submitted 98.9% of its contracts retroactively, with only 3 of its 275 contracts registered before the contract start date.

Oversight Works but is Non-Existent for Most Agencies

While the Comptroller’s report found widespread problems in the agency contracting process, by comparison, the analysis found that once contracts are submitted to the Comptroller’s Office, they are processed and registered within 19 days on average. The vast majority, 96 percent, of contracts submitted to the Comptroller’s Office by the seven agencies examined were registered within an initial 30 days review window.

To help alleviate the burden placed on vendors that wait months for contracts to make it through the City’s review process, the Comptroller’s Office proposed two recommendations:

• Assign each City agency with a role in contract oversight a specific timeframe for their contract review work. By holding agencies to specific timeframes, the contracting process can be expedited and standardized.
• Create a public facing tracking system to allow vendors to monitor the progress of their contract through each stage of the contract process. Making the contract process more transparent would introduce real accountability to the City’s oversight agencies.

To read the full report, click here.

$1.8 BILLION AHEAD OF PROJECTIONS, MAYOR DE BLASIO ANNOUNCES NEW GOAL TO AWARD $20 BILLION TO M/WBES BY FY 2025

Mayor also increases the maximum amount of key City loan program for M/WBEs and small businesses from $500,000 to $1 million per business

  Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced that the City is two years ahead of schedule to meet his OneNYC goal, which aims to award $16 billion to minority- and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs) by the end of Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. The City has awarded approximately $7.8 billion to M/WBEs since the goal was established in 2015 – $1.8 billion more than initial projections. As a result, the Mayor will increase his OneNYC goal to award $20 billion to M/WBEs by the end of FY 2025.

Today the Mayor also announced an increase in the loan cap on the City’s Contract Financing Loan Fund, a program that allows M/WBEs and small businesses to access affordable loans. Currently, M/WBEs and small businesses have access to loans totaling $500,000. Beginning this summer, M/WBEs and small businesses will be able to access loans totaling up to $1 million per year at a low three-percent interest rate.

These two announcements come on the heels of the 2018 Disparity Study which analyzed the disparity between the availability of firms owned by minorities and women in the market area where the City does business and the utilization of those firms for procurements by City agencies.

“I have said this before, and I’ll say it again: this city works best when all New Yorkers – regardless of race, gender or ethnicity – have the resources they need to contribute in our economy,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “We are reaching historic highs when it comes to awarding contracts to M/WBEs, and with our new OneNYC goal, we are reminding all available M/WBEs interested in doing business with the City that we are in fact open for business.”

“When we invest in minority and women entrepreneurs across New York City, we reinvest directly in our communities,” said J. Phillip Thompson, Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives. “Bringing people of color and women into City contracting improves our work and empowers our communities.”

“M/WBEs are an essential part of the City’s economy, and I thank Mayor de Blasio and Deputy Mayor Thompson for their leadership in the making the M/WBE Program a priority,” said Jonnel Doris, Senior Advisor and Director of the Mayor’s Office of M/WBEs. “We are glad to report that we are ahead of schedule on our OneNYC goal by $1.8 billion, and we look forward to continuing this work in partnership with the M/WBEs, who have been champions for the Program, to create an economy that works for all.”

“Under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s leadership, we are committed to building a more inclusive local economy,” saidGregg Bishop, Commissioner of the Department of Small Business Services. “Our new goal for leveraging the City’s purchasing power will help even more M/WBEs succeed, which will go a long way toward promoting equity of opportunity here in New York City.”

Since the launch of the Contract Financing Loan Fund in March of 2017, the City has loaned more than $6 million to over 30 businesses, allowing these businesses to perform on over $37 million worth of work. Approximately 90-percent of these businesses are City-certified M/WBEs.

Increasing access to affordable loans for M/WBEs supports the Mayor’s $20 billion M/WBE OneNYC goal, which is part of the City’s broader OneNYC plan to become the most resilient, equitable, and sustainable city in the world. The increased loan limit will allow M/WBEs to perform on more City contracts, improving their ability to hire more workers and purchase materials as they ramp up to work on City projects.

These two announcements come on the heels of the 2018 Disparity Study which found a higher percentage of M/WBEs among businesses available to work with the City of New York compared to the 2012 Study. In 2012, when the previous Study was completed, the City found a 37-percent availability rate of M/WBEs within the City’s market area. The 2018 Study has found an M/WBE availability rate of approximately 50-percent in the City’s market area.

In a change from the previous Study, the 2018 Disparity Study supports the setting of participation goals for Asian-American businesses in Professional Services – one of the four industry classifications – and for Native-American businesses in all industry classifications, including professional services, construction services, standard services, and goods.

As of the end of quarter two of FY 2018, the City reached a 20-percent utilization of M/WBEs, meaning that M/WBEs were awarded 20-percent of the value of City contracts from July 1 2017-December 31, 2017. The City currently has a goal to award 30 percent of the value of City contracts to M/WBEs by end of FY2021, a goal the Disparity Study supports.

The City is continuing to certify available firms as per the Mayor’s goal of City-certifying 9,000 M/WBEs by end of FY 2019. Currently, the City boasts nearly 6,000 certified M/WBEs in its Program, a roughly 50-percent increase since the beginning of the Administration.

The Administration is reviewing all findings and recommendations of the Study as it relates to the current City-wide M/WBE program.

The full Study and Executive Summary can be found here.

A NIGHT IN THE BRONX ON ARTHER AVENUE RAISES OVER $125,000 TO BENEFIT BRONX CATHOLIC SCHOOLS REGION

Joe Torre presents awards to David Greco, Jerome Raguso, and Sister Marguerite Torre for their Commitment to the Students Attending Bronx Catholic Schools.

   Over 150 guests raised close to $125,000 at A Night in the Bronx on Arthur Avenueon Wednesday, May 23. Guests gathered at the historic Arthur Avenue Market in the Bronx’s “Little Italy” where the event benefitted the 27 elementary schools within the Bronx Catholic Schools Region.

Joe Torre, Hall of Fame Yankees Manager, and Fr. Jonathan Morris, Pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, honored David Greco, owner of Mike’s Deli and Jerome Raguso, owner of Gino’s Pastry Shop; for their unwavering support for community development in the Bronx and Bronx Catholic schools. Sister Marguerite Torre, member of Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk, and Joe Torre’s sister, was also honored for her personal commitment to students during her 50 year career as a Catholic educator.

“As a school principal, I loved seeing the students each day and, of all the things I miss, it’s by far the children,” said Sister Marguerite after accepting the Bronx Catholic School Award from her brother.   

Guests enjoyed live-entertainment and Italian-American fare from Mike’s Deli, the Original Arthur Avenue Deli and cannolis from Gino’s Pastry Shop.

The Catholic School Regions of Northwest/South Bronx and Northeast/East Bronx are two of nine Catholic elementary school regions in the Archdiocese of New York. Each of the nine regions is located within different geographic regions and is a separate, not-for-profit, educational corporation chartered by the New York State Department of Education. Both Bronx regions combine to educate over 8,500 students throughout the borough.

About Bronx Catholic Schools

Bronx Catholic schools are uplifting communities that encourage children to lead fulfilling, charitable lives. We welcome families of all religious, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, with a special commitment to providing underserved students with the values and skills to break the cycle of poverty.

Joe Torre with Honoree Sister Marguerite.

Van Nest Memorial Day Services

 In what is now a refurbished park with new equipment for the children of the area at White Plains Road and Van Nest Avenue a Memorial Day Ceremony took place Monday. Elected officials were on hand as were members of the Armed forces, including World War II veteran Norman Moore. The only thing missing was the flagpole to fly the flag up. 

 About 50 people gathered to hear Mr. Rich Vitallo speak of the Top Dog 45 Unit. Councilman Ritchie Torres pledged to fix the park before next year's Memorial Day Ceremony, and thanked those veteran's on hand for their service to the country. Assemblywoman Nathalia Fernandez of the 80th A.D. now speaking at her second Memorial Day Ceremony of the day also thanked those who fought for the United States. 

 Ms. Bernadette Ferrara and Ms. Rose Marie Vasti (of the Van Nest Community Association) read a list of names of soldiers no longer with us. Retired Master Sergeant John Perez read a poem of exactly what a soldier has done for the people of the United States and what it means to our freedom. 

Above - Mr. Rich Vitallo speaks about Memorial Day.

Below - Councilman Ritchie Torres thanks the veterans for their service, and pledges to have a new flagpole up for next years Memorial Day ceremony.

Above - Retired Master Sergeant John Perez, tells the story of what it means to be a soldier.

Below - World War II veteran Norman Moore was on hand for the Memorial Day Ceremony.

Above - Three shots are fired on Memorial Day to represent the 21 Gun Salute for fallen soldiers. 

Below - The lone bugler blows Taps also for the fallen soldiers.

VISION ZERO: MAYOR DE BLASIO CALLS FOR SPEED-CAMERA EXPANSION IN ALBANY AND ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR SAFER REDESIGN OF NINTH STREET IN PARK SLOPE

With life-saving school zone speed camera law in danger of expiring, Mayor urges expansion bill that will allow cameras along corridors like 9th Street, where they are currently banned

 With the City’s School Zone Speed Camera program set to expire in Albany next month, Mayor de Blasio today called on the State legislature to immediately reauthorize and expand the life-saving program. Standing at the site of a deadly crash in Park Slope that took the lives of two children and an unborn baby, the mayor unveiled a safer street design but urged Albany to do its part to protect kids in school zones. Under legislation now being considered, the number and coverage area of cameras would be expanded -- and allowed for the first time along corridors like 9th Street, where they are currently barred.

“We are doing our part with a redesign of 9^th Street to reduce speeding and make it safer. Now we need Albany to its part. We need school zone speed camera legislation extended and expanded immediately to prevent future tragedies on our streets. Speed cameras save lives,” said Mayor de Blasio.

DOT’s proposed redesign, which includes expanded pedestrian access and protected bicycle lanes, will be released at a community workshop tonight. It will be presented to Community Board 6 in June, with installation slated this summer following community feedback.

  

“For the last few months, DOT’s planners, designers and engineers have been hard at work coming up with a safe and smart redesign of 9^th Street,” said DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg.  “Under the Mayor’s leadership, we will expand pedestrian space, and also add safer crossings and protected bicycle lanes. We look forward to getting feedback in June from the local community board, stakeholders and elected officials about our proposed plans.  At the same time, we also look forward to making our closing argument in Albany next month for school-zone speed cameras, which have been such a critical component in our Vision Zero efforts that have helped New York City buck national trends -- with fatality declines for four straight years.”

Key Reforms to the Speed Enforcement Camera Program:

·         Authorize the City to install speed cameras at an additional 150 school zones—more than double the current number.

·         Revise the definition of a school zone to allow DOT to address speeding on streets that are near a school, as opposed to only the street or streets on which a school is located.   For example, despite three different schools located along 7^th or 8^th Streets in Park Slope, no cameras are now allowed along 9^th Street, which students from those schools walk across every day. 

·         Extend the program until 2022

Comprehensive Redesign of 9^th Street (Prospect Park West to Third Avenue)

• Corridor redesign focuses on improved pedestrian and cyclist safety.
• Protected bicycle lanes for six avenue blocks (nearly one-mile distance) with shortened crossings and slow-turn treatments at intersections.
• Modified loading regulations to reduce double parking.
• New narrower cross sections reduce speeding while maintaining vehicle flow and emergency access.

Following the March crash along 9^th Street that claimed the lives of two children and an unborn baby and seriously injured several others, the City is also pushing reforms in Albany that will escalate fines and suspend the vehicle registrations of repeat speeding and red-light running offenders, and require physicians to notify the DMV following medical events that could cause drivers to lose control of their vehicle.

State Senator Jose Peralta said, "It is vital that we increase, once and for all, the number of speed safety cameras in school areas across the city. The time for excuses is over. There is plenty of evidence that shows that this program has been successful since pedestrian, cyclist and motorist-related crashes have been reduced by 15% where speed cameras are installed. My proposal to increase the number of speed cameras has only one goal: Protect schoolchildren and New Yorkers in general. We must act before the current school zone speed camera program expires this summer, so children will not be at risk when they return to school in September. I applaud the Mayor and DOT for their efforts to increase road and pedestrian safety across the city, and I urge my colleagues in the State Senate to pass my bill to increase the number of speed cameras."

"We must commit to work together to redesign our city's unsafe streets so we can prevent future tragedies and protect our children," said Assembly Member Dan Quart. "Speed cameras are a proven, effective way to save lives and I'm proud to cosponsor legislation that will expand Vision Zero to more school zones and encourage safe driving."

EDITOR'S NOTE:

While we agree something must be done to stop speeding, a speed camera does not stop reckless driving. The only proven way to stop reckless driving is to have more police officers on patrol to catch abusive speeders, and those who drive recklessly to get them off the road which a speed camera does not do.  

We ask the two legislators whose comments we left in this press release from Mayor de Blasio if they know just how the speed camera program came about. 

This reporter was at the public school in State Senator Jeff Klein's district where then Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the NYCDOT claimed it registered over 90 percent of the drivers going over the (then) 30 MPH speed limit. It was assumed that the DOT surveyed the heavily traveled Riverdale Avenue in front of the elementary school. When I asked just what street was surveyed, I was told a different street Fieldston Road several blocks away from this school was surveyed. The road had four reasons for the high rate of speeding. It led to an entrance of the Henry Hudson Parkway, it led to the private community of Fieldston, it led to the private Riverdale Country school, and fewer vehicles drove on the surveyed part of Fieldston Road. All four factors as to why speeding would occur. 

Mayor Bloomberg knew how to use figures to his advantage, not tell the whole story, and let people assume what you want them to think. Mayor de Blasio is attempting to do the same thing. It should also be the reckless drivers that he goes after, and the only way is to have more police officers patrolling the streets. 

Don't think what Mayor de Blasio wants you to think, because speed cameras can not, and do not get reckless drivers off the road. Only a police officer can do that.

United States Citizen Sentenced To 35 Years In Prison For Providing Material Support To Al Shabaab

Maalik Jones Trained and Fought with the Terrorist Organization’s Specialized Fighting Force, Jaysh Ayman

  Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, announced that MAALIK ALIM JONES was sentenced today to 35 years in prison for conspiring to provide material support to al Shabaab, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization based in Somalia, conspiring to receive military training from al Shabaab, and carrying and using an AK-47 machinegun, rocket-propelled grenades, and other destructive devices in furtherance of his support for al Shabaab.  In 2011, JONES, a United States citizen, traveled to Somalia, where he took up arms and provided military support to al Shabaab for approximately four years.  On September 8, 2017, JONES pled guilty to a three-count Superseding Information.  U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe imposed JONES’s sentence in Manhattan federal court. 

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said:  “We may never know what drove Maalik Jones to travel to Somalia and pledge allegiance to al Shabaab, a terrorist organization that has vowed to destroy America.  But we do know that with today’s sentence, Jones is no longer a threat to America’s ideals.”

Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers said:  “U.S. citizens who travel overseas to fight with a terrorist organization – which is what Jones did – betray our country and pose a serious threat to our national security.  The National Security Division remains committed to committed to identifying and stopping terrorists like Jones, and we will hold them accountable.  Credit goes to all those who worked so tirelessly to bring Jones to justice.”

According to the Complaint, the Indictment, the Superseding Information, and statements made in court proceedings, including at sentencing:

In February 2008, the U.S. Department of State designated al Shabaab as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.  Al Shabaab has used violent means – including targeted assassinations of civilians and journalists, and the use of improvised explosive devices, rockets, mortars, and automatic weapons – to, among other things, destabilize the government of Somalia, quell the Somali population, and force the withdrawal of foreign troops in Somalia.  A former leader of al Shabaab, whose exhortations were echoed by the leadership of al Qaeda, called for foreign fighters to join al Shabaab in a “holy war” in Somalia.  As a result of al Shabaab’s recruitment efforts, men from other countries – including the U.S. – have traveled to Somalia to engage in violent jihad. 

Since al Shabaab’s designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in February 2008, it has made several public statements demonstrating its intent to harm U.S. interests.  For example, in April 2008, al Shabaab released a statement declaring a campaign against the U.S.  Similarly, after an al Shabaab member was killed in May 2008, al Shabaab leaders announced that the mujahidin would “hunt the U.S. government” and that governments supporting the U.S. and Ethiopia should keep their citizens out of Somalia.  In April 2009, al Shabaab claimed responsibility for mortar attacks against a U.S. congressman who had been visiting Somalia, and in February 2012, the then-Emir of al Shabaab swore allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Emir of al Qaeda, stating that al Shabaab “will hereby merge into al Qa’ida.”

Al Shabaab also maintains a specialized fighting force, known as Jaysh Ayman, that is responsible for carrying out commando-style attacks and cross-border raids in which fighters, among other things, travel across the land border between Somalia and Kenya to target individuals and conduct attacks against civilian and military targets in Kenya.  Among the attacks executed by Jaysh Ayman fighters are: (i) a June 16, 2014, attack in which al Shabaab fighters opened fire in a hotel bar in Mpekatoni, Kenya, killing approximately 40 people; (ii) a July 2014 attack in Hindi, Kenya, in which approximately 12 al Shabaab fighters opened fire at a trading center and set fire to government buildings and a church, killing nine people; and (iii) a June 14, 2015, attack in which al Shabaab fighters ambushed a Kenyan Defense Force base in Lamu County, Kenya, using various weapons, including AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, killing two Kenyan Defense Force soldiers (the “Lamu Attack”).

In July 2011, JONES left Baltimore, Maryland, to join al Shabaab in Somalia.  JONES traveled to New York City, then flew via commercial aircraft to Kenya, with stopovers in Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.  After arriving in Kenya, JONES traveled by land from Kenya to Somalia, which is a common travel route for foreign fighters traveling to Somalia to join al Shabaab.

In Somalia, JONES joined al Shabaab and was a member of the terrorist organization for approximately four years.  During this time, JONES trained, worked, and fought with al Shabaab in Somalia.  Among other things, JONES received three months of military training at an al Shabaab training camp, where he learned, among other things, how to operate an AK-47 assault rifle and rocket-propelled grenades.  Upon completion of this training, JONES also was assigned to al Shabaab’s specialized fighting force, Jaysh Ayman, and participated in combat against soldiers of the Kenyan government on behalf of al Shabaab. 

In particular, after joining Jaysh Ayman, JONES and his Jaysh Ayman unit participated in a battle in Afmadow, Somalia, against Kenyan government soldiers.  JONES, armed with an AK-47 rifle, engaged in the fighting until he was injured by a missile and then hospitalized.  After his release from the hospital, JONES continued to operate with al Shabaab and, in particular, Jaysh Ayman.

JONES has appeared with other al Shabaab fighters in videos that were recovered from an al Shabaab fighter who participated in and was killed during the aforementioned Lamu Attack.  In one of the videos, JONES can be seen holding a firearm, and in the company of several al Shabaab fighters.  The al Shabaab fighters are depicted greeting each other, hugging each other, and carrying firearms.

On December 7, 2015, JONES was taken into custody by Somali authorities while he was attempting to procure a boat to depart Somalia for Yemen. 

In addition to the prison term, JONES, 33, of Baltimore, Maryland, was sentenced to five years of supervised release. 

Mr. Berman and Mr. Demers praised the investigative work of the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force – which principally consists of agents from the FBI and detectives from the New York City Police Department.  He also thanked the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Division and Office of International Affairs, and the U.S. Department of State, for their assistance. 

This case is being handled by the Office’s Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit.