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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – A military veteran has been charged with attempting to join Hezbollah—a Lebanese Shia political party with an armed wing—while it was engaged in conflict with Israel.
24-year-old Jack Danaher Molloy has been accused by federal authorities of attempting to join Hezbollah and allegedly making false statements to the FBI during their investigation. Molloy was arrested in Chicago on December 6, 2024, and later transported to Pittsburgh by the U.S. Marshals Service on December 30, 2024.
Molloy faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. He is also charged with two counts of making false statements to the FBI, each carrying a potential penalty of up to eight years in prison and an additional $250,000 fine.

Molloy, a dual citizen of the United States and Ireland, served roughly a month of active duty as an American soldier in 2019 before attempting to join an Army training program at the University of Illinois Chicago.
In February 2024, he reportedly converted to Shia Islam and became known among his associates as “Yahya,” a possible reference to Yahya Sinwar, the late leader of Hamas and mastermind behind the October 7th raid on Israel.
Prosecutors claim that Molloy attempted to provide “material support and resources” to Hezbollah, including volunteering himself as personnel for the group’s operations.

Hezbollah, a Shia political movement with an armed faction, emerged during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department since 1997.
Conflict along Lebanon’s southern border between Hezbollah and Israel reignited again in the wake of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 raid on Israel. Hezbollah launched limited operations to support Hamas, aiming to tie up Israeli military resources in the north and displace Jewish settlers in northern Israel in response to the displacement of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Tensions escalated further when Israel directly invaded Lebanon on October 1, 2024, but made limited territorial gains. The war lasted two months, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides before a truce was signed on November 27, 2024.
Under the terms of the truce, Israel was given 60 days to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon. However, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have violated the terms of the agreement multiple times and have since announced they have will maintain a presence in the occupied territory. Hezbollah has declared that it will resume resistance if the IDF does not leave by the deadline on January 26, 2025.

Molloy’s journey began in August 2024, when he traveled to Lebanon in an effort to enlist with Hezbollah. Despite his eagerness, he was reportedly told by multiple Hezbollah contacts that the timing was not right and that he needed to take additional steps, such as learning Arabic, before he could join.
Unlike terror groups like ISIS, which often actively recruit or inspire individuals to carry out domestic attacks, there is no evidence that Hezbollah sought to involve or utilize Molloy in a similar manner.
This contrasts sharply with the recent New Year’s Eve terrorist attack in New Orleans, where Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a Black army veteran who claims to have joined ISIS over the summer, killed 14 people and injured 35.

While in Lebanon, Molloy allegedly stayed in an Airbnb near Hezbollah’s headquarters, a reservation made on the same day the group’s leader Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike which leveled several residential buildings.
Contacts warned Molloy to relocate for his safety. However, he continued his efforts by traveling from Lebanon to Syria in October 2024, where he allegedly arranged meetings and sought to strengthen his ties with Hezbollah.

Upon returning to the United States later that month, Molloy’s efforts reportedly persisted. Investigators claim he maintained communication with individuals linked to Hezbollah and actively sought further opportunities to affiliate with the group.
Evidence recovered from Molloy’s electronic devices included propaganda and usernames described as antisemitic by prosecutors. Among the materials was an image purportedly showing solidarity between a German SS soldier and an Arab soldier.
In a WhatsApp conversation with his mother, she allegedly asked, “But your master plan was to join Hezbollah and kill Jews?” Molloy is said to have replied, “Yes.”
Prosecutors also claim Molloy visited a website containing information about Robert Bowers’ incarceration. Bowers was charged and convicted by the Justice Department with the death penalty for his role in the 2018 Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue shooting, which left 11 Jewish individuals dead.
Although Attorney General Merrick Garland—who is Jewish—issued a moratorium on federal executions in 2021 and withdrew the Justice Department’s intent to seek the death penalty in 32 cases filed before his tenure, his department notably refused to do so in Bowers’ case.
The Biden administration also refused to commute Bower’s death sentence, along with those of Dylann Roof and the Boston Marathon bomber, despite commuting the death sentences of the 37 other federal death row inmates.
Molloy’s prosecution comes amid growing criticism of the U.S. government’s selective and politically motivated approach toward terrorism designations. Critics argue that they are often influenced more by alignment with Israeli foreign policy goals than by genuine security threats.
The United States has continued its unwavering support for Israel, supplying billions of dollars in weapons, despite the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over numerous documented war crimes committed by the IDF in the Gaza Strip during the latest war, which experts are now classifying as genocide.
Israel’s government has also drawn criticism for including extremist figures like National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Ben Gvir has a history of inflammatory actions, including once displaying a photo of Baruch Goldstein, who killed 29 Palestinians—some as young as 12—in the 1994 Hebron Massacre.

The U.S. government’s inconsistent approach to terrorism designations is evident in its treatment of Hezbollah and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Hezbollah, a legally recognized political party in Lebanon, remains designated as a terrorist organization by the United States. In contrast, the State Department recently removed the $10 million bounty on Ahmed al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Julani), leader of HTS—a Sunni-based terrorist group—after the group took over the Syrian government in December. The U.S. is also considering removing HTS’s terrorist designation entirely, despite the group’s ongoing sectarian violence against non-Sunni minorities.
This disparity raises questions about U.S. motivations. While Hezbollah has resisted Israeli incursions into Lebanon, HTS has allowed Israeli airstrikes on Syrian military targets and has refrained from opposing Israel’s occupation of Syrian territory due to the country allegedly being too weak to engage in conflict with Israel. Instead, HTS has redirected its rhetoric against Iran, Israel’s regional rival.
Further fueling controversy, the State Department designated the Nordic Resistance Movement—a pan-Scandinavian nationalist group and legal political party in Sweden—as a terrorist organization last year.
This decision came after the group shared a video of members burning an Israeli flag, which was widely circulated on Telegram channels associated with the Axis of Resistance.
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