A soldier with the National Guard and his cousin were arrested last night before reportedly traveling from Illinois to Egypt to join ISIS, authorities say.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that 22-year-old Hasan Edmonds, a specialist with the Army National Guard, was taken into custody at Midway Airport by agents with the Chicago FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. Edmonds was reportedly planning to board a plane from Chicago to Cairo. The Sun-Times adds that his cousin, 29-year-old Jonas Edmonds, was also arrested at his Aurora, Ill. home. Both men are U.S. citizens, the paper adds.
According to the Sun-Times, Edmonds intended to utilize the methods he learned as a solider while supporting ISIS:
Hasan Edmonds planned to use his military training to fight on behalf of ISIL, while Jonas planned to carry out an act of terrorism in the United States after Hasan Edmonds departed., the feds say.
They met with an FBI undercover employee and presented a plan to carry out an armed attack against a U.S. military facility in northern Illinois, an installation where Hasan Edmonds had been training, the feds say.
Jonas Edmonds asked the FBI undercover employee to assist in the attack and explained that they would use Hasan Edmonds’ uniforms and the information he supplied about how to access the installation and target officers for attack,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a news release.
Both men are expected to appear in federal court this afternoon.
[via Chicago Sun-Times]
