ISIS by Way of Brooklyn
The FBI announced the arrests of three alleged Islamic State supporters who were reportedly planning attacks in New York City and planned to travel to Syria.
As alleged in the complaint, Juraboev was also prepared to engage in an act of terrorism in the United States if ordered to do so by ISIL, and Saidakhmetov intended to commit such an act if unable to travel abroad to join ISIL. In the August 2014 posting on the website that propagates ISIL’s ideology, Juraboev offered to kill the President of the United States if ordered to do so by ISIL. More recently, Saidakhmetov expressed his intent to buy a machine gun and shoot police officers and FBI agents if thwarted in his plan to join ISIL in Syria.
The complaint noted that one of the men was thought to be involved with a plan to attack targets within the city as well as assassinate President Obama. Abror Habibov, the third man arrested on Wednesday, is also an Uzbek national and is accused of raising funds for Saidakhmetov's efforts to join ISIS.
The Associated Press is following the story closely and has more details about the alleged plans of the arrestees.
The full Justice Department complaint includes comments from Brooklyn's U.S. attorney, Loretta Lynch (also President Obama's attorney general nominee), as well as New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton.
The Atlantic's cover story on the Islamic State provides more context on its mission and recruitment tactics.
