Vermont man standing trial for shooting three Palestinian students says CIA, Mossad instructed him

A resident of the US state of Vermont facing trial for the shooting of three Palestinian students in November 2023 has said the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Israeli regime’s Mossad spy agency instructed him to carry out the act.

Jason Eaton insisted that he was executing orders from American and Israeli spy agencies, saying they communicated with him through FM radio and that he felt divinely compelled to defend his Jewish neighbors.

Eaton’s assertions formed the core of his insanity defense as he faced trial on Monday for attempted murder charges in a case that sent shockwaves through Burlington, Vermont, and the West Bank, where the three injured men were raised and became friends during their school years in Ramallah before relocating to the United States for their college education.

The shooting of Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Aliahmad, and Kinnan Abdalhamid, who were all 20 at the time, took place weeks after the start of the Israeli regime’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.

It prompted calls for a hate crime inquiry, but no such charges were ever filed.

As the men testified one after another, Eaton, who is now 51 years old, remained composed at the defense table in a Burlington courtroom. Although he has pleaded not guilty, he does not deny that he was the one who fired the shots.

Should he be convicted, he may face a sentence of up to life imprisonment. Conversely, if he is acquitted on the grounds of insanity, he might be mandated to receive mental health treatment.

During his opening statement, defense attorney Joshua O’Hara informed the jurors that testimony from a defense psychiatrist would reveal that Eaton was experiencing a delusional, psychotic disorder following his job loss at a credit union just two weeks prior to the shooting.

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During his time listening to a local radio station, Eaton thought he was receiving messages that he attributed to the CIA, according to O’Hara. Initially, these messages were supportive and affirming, the lawyer noted, but later communications took a sinister turn, demanding that Eaton “must go out and shoot someone.”

Prosecutor Sally Adams informed the jurors that a state psychiatrist, who is expected to testify, determined that Eaton did not suffer from any mental illness or defect.

The evidence will demonstrate that he had the intention to kill the men, that his actions in shooting them were not legally justified, and that he does not satisfy the criteria for legal insanity, Adams stated.

Awartani, Aliahmad, and Abdalhamid, all aged 23, recounted to the jurors their holiday weekend visit to Awartani’s grandmother’s residence, a trip to a bowling alley to commemorate the birthday of his twin cousins, and the evening stroll they took near the University of Vermont campus that culminated in violence.

Awartani, who was enrolled at Brown University in Rhode Island at that time, mentioned that they were smoking cigarettes and conversing in a blend of English and Arabic. Two individuals stated that they were adorned with traditional Palestinian scarves referred to as keffiyehs. Awartani recounted that he initially spotted Eaton on a porch as they neared the apartment building where he resided.

In a matter of seconds, Awartani recounted, Eaton stepped off the porch and approached them. His face bore no expression, and he remained silent. When Eaton was approximately five to ten feet (1.5 to 3 meters) away, “he drew a handgun and began firing at us,” Awartani stated, who was left paralyzed from the waist down due to the shooting and now relies on a wheelchair.

O’Hara stated that these were delusions, and Eaton was convinced at that moment that he was acting correctly.

He felt he had been ordered to take this action. Furthermore, he believed he lacked the capacity to recognize the immorality of his actions at that time, as he thought he was following directives from a government agency or a divine entity, the defense lawyer noted.

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