FBI agents in New York have arrested three men from Brooklyn for attempting to travel to the Middle East and join ISIS.
One of the men had agreed to kill president Barack Obama if ordered, according to a criminal complaint.
Cbslocal.com reports:
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The trio had also discussed launching attacks domestically if they were unable to travel to join the terror group, authorities said.
Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, Akhror Saidakhmetov and Abror Habibov face charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.
Back in the summer of 2014, Juraboev, 24, and Saidakhmetov, 19, had expressed support online for the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in Iraq in Syria, authorities said.
They went on to devise a plan to travel to Turkey and then Syria to wage jihad, authorities said.
According to the complaint, Juraboev posted the following message on an Uzbek website.
“Greetings! We too wanted to pledge our allegiance and commit ourselves while not present there. I am in USA now but we don’t have any arms.
But is it possible to commit ourselves as dedicated martyrs anyway while here? What I’m saying is, to shoot Obama then get shot ourselves, will it do? That will strike fear in the hearts of infidels.”
Federal agents became aware of the message and tracked the IP address back to Juraboev’s Brooklyn home. When confronted by agents, Juraboev said he wanted to travel to Syria to fight with ISIL or attack Obama if he could, according to authorities.
Juraboev later said he didn’t have the means or plan to attack Obama, according to authorities.
Authorities said Juraboev also was willing to plant a bomb at Coney Island if ordered to do so.
Saidakhmetov was arrested early Wednesday morning at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he was about to board a flight to Istanbul.
Saidakhmetov allegedly plotted to buy a machine gun and kill police officers and FBI agents if he was unable to join ISIS in Syria, authorities said.
“I will just go and buy a machine gun, AK-47, go out and shoot all police,” Saidakhmetov said, according to the complaint. “We will go and purchase one handgun, then go shoot one police officer. Boom. Then, we will take his gun, bullets and a bulletproof vest… then we will do the same with a couple of others. Then we will go to the FBI headquarters, kill the FBI people.”
ISIS is also known as ISIL, which stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Sean Adl-Tabatabai