After pleading guilty to arson, Elmerhebi was sentenced to 40 months in prison. He was eighteen at the time of the attack. His mother, Rouba Elmerhebi Fahn, was charged as an accessory although the outcome of her trial is unknown. One other individual, Simon Zogheib, who was a co-defendant of Elmerhebi's, had his charges dropped due to a lack of evidence. As its sole member is currently incarcerated, no further violence is expected from the Sheikh Ahmed Yassin Brigades in the near term.

The Posse Comitatus movement was founded in the late 1960s.  Some experts credit Henry L. Beach of Portland, Oregon as the group's founder.  Beach was a member of William Dudley Pelley's Silver Shirts, a group modeled on the Black Shirts and Brown Shirts of fascist Europe.  Some experts, however, believe that William Gale, a Christian Identity minister, is the true founder of the Posse Comitatus movement.  Gale's influential writings helped to spread Posse ideology across the Midwest.<p>The Posse Comitatus is a loose association of people who share the same beliefs, a blend of Christian Identity, tax protest, Sovereign Citizen ideology, and common law activism.  Posse Comitatus followers believe that the sheriff is the highest legitimate government authority, and that the federal government has no rightful power over American citizens.  Therefore, the posse argues, judges, the I.R.S., and the F.B.I. are constantly violating the rights of Americans everywhere.  The sheriff (according to Posse adherents) can form a posse of citizens to enforce the law, and if he fails to do so, then the citizenry may forcibly replace him.<p> The Posse hates non-whites as much as it hates the government.  Racism provides a convenient explanation for the federal government's alleged abuses of power.  Posse members believe, for example, that the Federal Reserve is an illegal "private monopoly" that prints money unconstitutionally, and that it does so because it is controlled by the international Zionist conspiracy.  (Ridgeway, 129) Posse followers are generally Christian Identity followers as well.  "Yahweh our father is at work setting the stage for the final act against the Christ-murdering Jews and their father, Satan," Posse leader James Wickstrom once said.  (ibid, 131)  Klan leader and presidential candidate David Duke said, "We [the Ku Klux Klan] work with Posses wherever we can." (ibid, 135)