Would-Be
Suicide Bomber Targeted Kansas Army Base
by Abha Shankar • Apr 10, 2015 at
3:53 pm
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A year ago, he wanted to join the U.S. Army to kill his fellow soldiers.
When that didn't work, 20-year-old John T. Booker repeatedly expressed his
desire to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or commit a
suicide attack in the United States on the terrorist group's behalf.
Booker, a convert to Islam who changed his name to Mohammed Abdullah
Hassan, said American soldiers are enemies to Muslims, and the Quran
sanctions killing enemies anywhere.
FBI agents arrested Booker Friday morning just outside Fort Riley, a
military base near Manhattan, Kan. He was driving a van loaded with what he
thought was 1,000 pounds of explosives. In fact, the bomb was rendered
inert by FBI agents and informants. He is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass
destruction, attempting to blow up government property and providing
material support to the Islamic State.
In conversations with an FBI informant, Booker repeatedly expressed his
intent to kill. "I will kill any kuffar. I will follow any place ...
if I was with [the Islamic State] and they said look, we are going to the
White House right now ... I would go with them without any question,"
he said in November.
He was rejected by the Army in March 2014, after someone alerted
authorities to Facebook posts extolling violent jihad and expressing his
desire to kill American soldiers. "I will soon be leaving you forever
so goodbye! I'm going to wage jihad and hopes that I die." In another post the same month, he said: "Getting
ready to be killed in jihad is a HUGE adrenaline rush!!! I am so nervous.
NOT because I'm scared to die but I am eager to meet my lord."
Booker told FBI agents at that time he wanted to enlist "to commit
an insider attack against American soldiers like Major Nidal Hassan had done at Fort Hood, Texas."
For reasons that aren't clear, Booker was left alone until October, when
an informant started talking with him. Booker suggested several ideas for
terrorist attacks, mentioning Fort Riley as an attractive target
"because the post is famous and there are a lot of soldiers stationed
there."
He also said "he wanted to see the fear in the kuffar's eyes as he
pushed the button and they ran for their lives," the criminal
complaint filed Friday said.
Last month, Booker said he wanted to emulate a suicide truck bombing by
an American known as "Jihadi Joe." Booker bought supplies to make
a car-bomb from a list the informants provided. He made two martyrdom
videos, including one in which he gave his bayah [pledge of allegiance] to
Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi and urged Muslims to support
them.
The other video, recorded Wednesday, shows Booker describing his
1,000-pound ammonium nitrate bomb. "Inshallah, this will kill many
kuffar [nonbelievers]. This message is to you America. You sit in your
homes and you think that this war is just over in Iraq . . . we today we
will bring the Islamic State straight to your doorstep. You think this is
just a game ... when this bomb blows up and kills as many kuffar as
possible, maybe then you'll realize it."
Agents arrested him just outside Fort Riley, at a little-used gate
Booker thought would get him onto the base.
He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
Related Topics: Homegrown
Terror, Prosecutions
| Abha
Shankar, John
T. Booker, Mohammed
Abdullah Hassan, Islamic
State, ISIL,
Fort
Riley, Nidal
Hassan, Jihadi
Joe, Homegrown
Terror, Prosecutions
|
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