(HorizonPost.com) – A Lebanese national who was apprehended by Border Patrol earlier this month claimed during his initial interview that he was a member of the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah and said he planned to build a bomb, the New York Post reported.
According to a US Border Patrol document obtained by the Post, 22-year-old Basel Bassel Ebbadi was apprehended near El Paso on March 9 and transferred to the US El Paso Hardened Facility for further processing.
While there, Ebbadi was questioned by Border Patrol agents on why he had come to the United States. He claimed to be a member of a “foreign terrorist organization” and said he was in the US to build a bomb.
However, in a subsequent interview, Ebbadi said he fled Lebanon because he “didn’t want to kill people.” He claimed that once someone joined a terror group, there was no getting out, according to another document the Post obtained.
According to the Post, in his sworn interview, Ebbadi claimed to have trained for seven years with Hezbollah and then spent four years guarding weapons stores. He claimed that his training was in killing non-Muslims and waging jihad.
Based on documents reviewed by the Post, Ebaddi had no papers with him when he crossed the border and claimed that they had been stolen at knife-point when he was in Costa Rica.
He admitted that he used a fake name and date of birth while making his way to the US border via Sweden, Ecuador, and Panama.
Ebaddi told Border Patrol that he had wanted to first go to New York before traveling around the United States.
Border Patrol placed Ebaddi in isolation and he was referred to the Tactical Terrorism Response Team for an interview. Documents obtained by the Post indicated that Ebbadi was scheduled to be deported.
In FY2023 which ended on September 30, Border Patrol encountered 172 individuals on the terror watchlist at both the southern and northern US borders.
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