One Jihadist Mainer Sentenced to 15 yrs, Second Awaits Trial in NY.
Posted by Ed Folsom, November 9, 2023.
It’s a strange thing to have 2 Mainers simultaneously facing terrorism charges in entirely unrelated plots for jihadist activities. But that’s the situation we had until this past Monday. Now one of them, 20-year-old Xavier Pelkey, of Waterville, has been sentenced to serve 15 years in federal prison followed by 20 years of supervised release for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.
Pelkey conspired with two juveniles, one in Canada and another in Chicago, to attack a particular Shia Mosque in Chicago, and possibly other mosques and/or synagogues in that city, during prayers. When police searched Pelkey’s apartment in February of 2022, they found 3 improvised explosive devices and a note intended to be left at the scene of the mosque attack claiming the attack on behalf of the Sunni terrorist organization ISIS. At his sentencing, Pelkey remarked to the sentencing judge, “I could lie and say I’m de-radicalized.”
A second Mainer continues to face terrorism charges for jihadist activities. Trevor Bickford, of Wells, faces four charges of attempted murder in New York federal court for his alleged knife-wielding attack on New York City Police officers near Times Square this past New Year’s Eve. Bickford, who reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”) during the attack, allegedly planned to travel to Afghanistan to work with the Taliban and told a family member he planned to be a suicide bomber. Bickford’s federal trial is set to begin on March 18, 2024.
Pelkey and Bickford are 2 recent examples of aggrieved, alienated young Mainers with a homicidal impulse for mass murder, unrestrained by an internalized sense of moral wrong and undeterred by the threat of punishment. It’s become a problem, hasn’t it?
