A National Guard specialist was arrested and charged with attempting to join the Islamic State extremist group and helping his cousin plot a possible terror attack at a U.S. military base in Illinois, federal investigators said Thursday morning.
Hasan Edmonds, 22, was planning to board an Egypt-bound flight when he was arrested by FBI agents at Chicago’s Midway International Airport on Wednesday night, the Department of Justice said in a statement. His cousin, 29-year-old Jonas Edmonds, was also arrested at his home.
“The defendants allegedly conspired to provide material support to ISIL and planned to travel overseas to support the terrorist organization,” Assistant Attorney General John P. Carlin said in a statement, using an acronym to refer to the radical group. “In addition, they plotted to attack members of our military within the United States. Disturbingly, one of the defendants currently wears the same uniform of those they allegedly planned to attack.”
Hasan Edmonds, a U.S. citizen and specialist with the Illinois Army National Guard, came to the attention of the FBI last year, authorities said, when he and his cousin unknowingly contacted an undercover FBI agent seeking help in the planned attack on a military base in northern Illinois.
Justice Department officials did not immediately say which base the cousins were allegedly targeting, but that Hasan had left behind a uniform and instructed Jonas to use it to infiltrate the base.
Both men are expected to appear in court Thursday. They face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
The incident marks the second time in the last two weeks that a man with a U.S. military background has allegedly attempted to join Islamic State. Earlier this month, 47-year-old Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh, a former mechanic with the U.S. Air Force, was deported back to the United States and arrested after Egyptian security forces intercepted him as he tried to travel to Turkey, with plans to enter Syria, where he planned to join the terrorist organization, authorities said.
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