A member of the US National Guard pleaded guilty on Monday to plotting with his cousin to attack a US military installation as part of a conspiracy to support the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, a spokesman for federal prosecutors said.
“Hasan and Jonas Edmonds conspired to provide material support to ISIL,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin.
“They admitted planning to wage violence on behalf of ISIL in the Middle East and to conduct an attack on our soil," Carlin continued.
Army National Guard Specialist Hasan Edmonds was charged along with his cousin, Jonas Edmonds, with planning to carry out an armed attack on the military facility where Hasan Edmonds had been training in Joliet, 34 miles southwest of downtown Chicago.
Hasan Edmonds, 23, pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and attempting to provide support — namely personnel — to the organization, said Joe Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for the US Attorney's office.
Jonas Edmonds, 30, pleaded guilty last week to the conspiracy charge and a charge of lying to law enforcement on an offense related to terrorism.
Hasan Edmonds faces up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced on March 18. Jonas Edmonds faces up to 23 years at his January 27 sentencing, Fitzpatrick said.
Hasan Edmonds was arrested at Chicago's Midway Airport on March 25 as he tried to fly to Egypt. The cousins' plan called for Hasan to leave the US and join Islamic State fighters while Jonas carried out the attack, according to an affidavit attached to the criminal complaint.
Prosecutors said Hasan Edmonds had been using Facebook to communicate with an undercover FBI agent pretending to be an Islamic State fighter.
As a member of the Illinois National Guard since 2011, Hasan Edmonds reported to the Joliet base one weekend a month and performed two weeks of active duty training per year. Illinois National Guard spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Brad Leighton said Edmonds will now be discharged.
Both cousins, who have been in federal custody since their arrest, came from Aurora, about 41 miles (66 km) southwest of Chicago.
The Edmonds' pleas come just days after the December 11 arrest of an Edgewood, Maryland man, Mohamed Elshinawy, 30, on a federal criminal complaint charging him with attempting to provide material support to ISIS; obstruction of agency proceedings; and making false statements and falsifying or concealing material facts.
Elshinawy admitted that a childhood friend in Egypt had connected him to an ISIS member through social media, according to the Justice Department.
When confronted by the FBI, Elshinawy initially denied that the money was from ISIS, but the FBI says it found terrorist-related propaganda in the exchanges between Elshinawy and his Egyptian friend, as well as $4,000 in payments Elshinawy was instructed to use for “operational purposes."
In both the cases of the Edmonds and Elshinawy, social media apparently played a central role in facilitating communications between ISIS and those they target for radicalization in the West.
“This case demonstrates how terrorists exploit modern technology to inculcate sympathizers and build hidden networks," said US Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein of the District of Maryland of Elshinawy's arrest.
"But federal agents and prosecutors are working tirelessly and using every available lawful tool to disrupt their evil schemes,” Rosenstein continued.
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