Anonymous warned Garland police just two days before terror attack

According to a report, just two days before the shooting at an anti-Islam event in Garland Texas, a Twitter account affiliated with the hacktivist group Anonymous warned local police that ISIS was planning an attack in the area.

The Daily Dot writes that at a little after 5:30 p.m. on Friday, May 1, the user, who requested anonymity for the sake of her security, fired off a tweet to the Garland Police Department’s official Twitter account, warning them of a possible attack.

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From The Daily Dot:

The activist participates with one of multiple [Anonymous]-related groups that make a hobby of tracking, and harassing, Islamic State Twitter accounts.

On Friday, the user discovered that another Twitter account, @AnsarAlUmmah49, had referenced an upcoming attack in Garland, where a group of Americans were planning a “draw Mohammad” event.

The event, dubbed the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest and held under the banner of free speech, directly provoked Muslims who find depictions of their central prophet to be blasphemous. This is believed to be the reason behind the IS-related attacks on the French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo in early January.

Also see: Anonymous ‘does what no government could do’ and destroys ISIS’ social media strategy

The account to the tweet in question, @AnsarAlUmmah49, has since been deleted, as have most Twitter accounts linked to the Islamic State.

Unfortunately, the Twitter account for the Garland Police Department never picked up on the warning.

“That is the first time I’ve heard that,” GPD spokesman Joe Harn told the Daily Dot in regards to the warning. “We were monitoring things; we had the FBI and ATF, but we didn’t see anything [on Twitter].”

The Anonymous-linked tipster still remains unidentified, and insists that she doesn’t want any credit for trying to bring attention to the gunmen.

“The real heroes are the police and the security guy who has been injured.” she said.

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.

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