UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. ROMAN OTTO CONAWAY - Terrosism, Threats,

The threat of Terror attack is with us daily. Since the awful events of 09/11/2001 and the domestic attacks that have followed, law enforcement officials from the NSA to the local beat cop are constantly on the lookout for potenrial Terrorists and their deadly deeds.  Social Media provides these groups easy world wide communication, making a cave in Afghanistan as easy to use as an Internet cafe in any large American city and planning and execution can be accomplished with ease. .

Threats are taken seriously and constantly monitored. As the NSA surveillance has demonstrated, all of your emails, posts and tweets are carefully watched to ensure that these groups do not use the Internet to plan future attacks. While Mr. Conway in this case only made threats, this danger was taken seriously and led to the following legal actions. 

In UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. ROMAN OTTO CONAWAY No. 11-3246. United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit. Argued January 12, 2012. Decided April 16, 2013.

This case entails the events September 2010 when defendant Roman Otto Conaway made a series of threatening phone calls to an imam and numerous federal and state officials. These calls culminated in a standoff at Conaway's home that evening that drew a response from over a dozen governmental agencies and resulted in the evacuation of the entire street. Thankfully Conaway's threats to, among other things, blow up the entire block turned out to be bogus—an ominous-looking device strapped to his chest held squares of putty, not explosive C-4. Conaway set his own plan in motion just ten days later on September 21, 2010 with a page from Jones's playbook: he posted on Facebook his plans to burn the "holy quaran" (sic) and invited anyone with a camera or video camera to witness the event at his home address.

The governmental response to Conaway's threats and the ensuing standoff was immense. All told, at least fifteen state and federal agencies were present at the scene and well over 100 individual state and federal law enforcement agents. The entire street was evacuated to a church several blocks away. It was also necessary to set up a command center and establish a perimeter around the area to redirect both foot and vehicle traffic. A SWAT team was also deployed to the woods behind Conaway's home to enforce the perimeter there and prevent anyone from approaching the home from behind.

Ultimately Conaway surrendered, at which point it became apparent that the entire thing had been an elaborate hoax.

Conaway ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of making false threats with an explosive device, see 18 U.S.C. § 1038(a)(1), and one count of influencing a federal official by threat, see 18 U.S.C. § 115(a)(1)(B). 

He was sentenced to two concurrent sentences of 60 months' imprisonment after pleading guilty to making false threats to detonate an explosive device, see 18 U.S.C. § 1038(a)(1), and influencing a federal official by threat, see 18 U.S.C. § 115(a)(1)(B). He argued on appeal that his 60-month sentences both procedurally and substantively unreasonable in light of his crime and what he views as mitigating factors that the district court failed to adequately consider.

After considering his arguments, the Court AFFIRMED Conaway's convictions and sentences in all respects.

Big Brother IS WATCHING today. 

http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1420354527752371199&q=UNITED+STATES+OF+AMERICA+v.+ROMAN+OTTO+CONAWAY&hl=en&as_sdt=4,112,127,268,269,270,271,272,314,315,331,332,333,334,335,377,378