Paintball - Accused Terrorists' Usage

Accused Terrorists' Usage

Many professional law-enforcement and military groups around the world actively use airsoft to simulate combat situations in the training of their personnel. Conversely unlawful groups and terrorist have been accused of using paintball for similar tactical training purposes.

Mohamed Mahmood Alessa and Carlos "Omar" Eduardo Almonte, two men arrested in June 2010 as they were bound for Somalia, and charged with terrorism and conspiring to kill, maim, and kidnap people outside the U.S., had simulated combat at an outdoor paintball facility in West Milford, New Jersey, according to the complaint against them.

Similarly, 11 men, convicted in 2003–04 of composing the Virginia Jihad Network, engaged in paintball training in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, to simulate small-unit tactical operations and develop combat skills to prepare for jihad, according to prosecutors. In 2006, Ali Asad Chandia of the Virginia Jihad Network was also sentenced to 15 years in prison for providing support to a Pakistani terrorist organization, Lashkar-e-Taiba, including helping Lashkar ship 50,000 paintballs from the U.S. to Pakistan.

In addition, two of the 2005 London 7/7 bombers were filmed in June 2005 at a paintball center in Tonbridge, Kent, ducking behind oil barrels and shooting paintballs at cut out figures before lining up to pray at the end of the day. Also, the suspects in the 2006 Toronto Terrorism case played paintball to prepare for their attack. In 2007, paintball training was engaged in by five terrorists to prepare for an attack aimed at killing American soldiers in Fort Dix, New Jersey; they were later convicted.