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Texas Man Pledged Allegiance to ISIS Leader
A Mesquite, Texas, man who pledged allegiance to ISIS and lied to the FBI about it was arrested on Thursday, according to a criminal complaint.
Bilal
Abood, 37, a licensed security guard, is charged with making a false statement to the FBI. He faces up to eight years in prison.
Abood was born in Iraq and migrated to the United States in 2009. He was a naturalized U.S. citizen, prosecutors said.
| So revoke his citizenship and send him back to Iraq -- after he finishes 8 years in a Federal super-max... |
Abood tried to travel to Iraq from D/FW International Airport on March 29, 2013, but was not allowed to board the flight. He was interviewed by FBI agents, claimed he was going to visit family, and denied that he planned to fight for ISIS, the complaint said.
He later admitted he planned to go to Syria to fight with the Free Syrian Army against the government, the complaint said.
The following month, he left DFW for Mexico and traveled through various countries to get to Syria. When he returned in September 2013, he admitted to FBI agents that he had stayed in a Free Syrian Army camp and fought with the group, the complaint said.
| And we didn't arrest him then because... |
In July 2014, the FBI obtained a search warrant to search his computer. The search found that Abood had pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on June 19, 2014 and had viewed videos of atrocities such as beheadings and had tweeted information on al-Baghdadi, prosecutors said.
In his interview with FBI agents, he denied he had pledged allegiance to ISIS, and that denial was the basis of his charge.
It was not clear why agents waited nearly a year to arrest him.
| Why don't you ask them, Mr. Reporter? |
Abood does not face a terrorism charge and there is no allegation he was planning any attacks in the United States.
| Sift through his email and Facebook accounts... |
A detention hearing is set for 9:30 am tomorrow. Abood is being held in federal custody. Attorney information for Abood was not immediately clear.
Posted by: Steve White 2015-05-15 |
