A New York man was arrested on Election Day for allegedly supporting ISIS.
Syed Aman, a U.S. citizen and resident of Nassau County, was taken into custody at the John F. Kennedy International Airport while trying to board a plane to Doha, Qatar, from where he planned to travel on to Syria to join ISIS, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement.
Aman voiced his support of ISIS through posts in an online ISIS group forum, the statement said.
According to the DOJ, he also provided financial backing to a person he believed to be a member of the terrorist organization.
However, the ISIS operative with whom Aman communicated was a confidential human source (CHS) working with the FBI on Aman’s strategy to join ISIS when he arrived in Syria.
Amam told the CHS that waging war on behalf of ISIS is “the most important thing, more than anything else at the moment.”
He told the CHS that if unbelievers aren’t all killed, “they will kill us and ruin the earth with decay.”
“During this same time period, Aman also posted on a social media platform his desire ‘to kill Americans’ and wrote in a notebook his intent to study becoming a shaheed, or martyr, on behalf of ISIS,” the DOJ said.
Aman’s first two attempts to travel to the Middle East in October were blocked by his credit card company, which didn’t approve his purchases.
On his third attempt, he successfully booked a flight to Bangladesh from Doha.
He told the CHS that he would later disembark from his flight in Qatar to purchase a flight to Turkey, where he would then cross into Syria.
“Aman also stated that he would travel with a steel pen to defend himself if he were arrested and that he would attack law enforcement,” the DOJ said. “A silver metal pen was found in Aman’s crossbody bag when he was arrested.”
The FBI arrested Aman after he was checked in and processed at JFK Airport on Nov. 5.
Aman’s first court appearance is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
In October, U.S. Army soldier Cole Bridges, 24, was sentenced to 14 years for attempting to help ISIS in an ambush on American troops, the DOJ reported.
Like Aman, Bridges shared his plans, including sensitive military strategies, with an FBI agent posing as an ISIS supporter.
Bridges pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in June 2023.
In September 2024, the United States carried out two airstrikes in Syria, killing 37 terrorists linked to ISIS and al-Qaeda.
Two of those killed were senior militants, The Associated Press reported, adding that there are approximately 900 U.S. forces in Syria working to stop the return of the terrorist organization.
