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 John T. Booker, Jr., 20, of Topeka, had arrived at the Kansas base
with two undercover FBI agents to detonate what he did not realize
was an inert bomb, prosecutors said.
Booker was charged with three criminal counts including attempting
to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide
material support to Islamic State fighters, who have captured parts
of Iraq and Syria over the past year and have sympathizers in
several countries.
A second Topeka man, Alexander Blair, 28, was arrested and charged
on Friday with failing to report a felony. Blair shared some of
Booker's views, knew of his intent to detonate a bomb at Fort Riley
and loaned Booker money to rent a storage unit Booker used to store
bomb components, prosecutors said.
According to the criminal complaint, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation had been tracking Booker since March of last year when
he posted Facebook messages in which 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 had signed up for the U.S. army in Kansas the previous month
and when interviewed by FBI agents after the Facebook postings
admitted he had enlisted "with the intent to commit an insider
attack against American soldiers" similar to the attack carried out
in November 2009 by Major Nidal Hassan at Fort Hood, Texas, the
complaint said.
He was denied entry into the army as a result.
Imam Omar Hazim of the Islamic Center of Topeka told the Topeka
Capital-Journal newspaper he talked with Booker over the past year
to help him "unravel some of the confusion," adding that Booker
battled with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
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"He was getting some counseling, trying to understand," Hazim, who
said he also met with the FBI in regard to Booker's statements, told
the Journal. "Maybe he came to me too late, I don't know."
Since October, Booker had unknowingly been in contact with an
undercover FBI agent and in March of this year was introduced to
another undercover agent who posed as a high-ranking Islamic sheik
planning attacks on the United States.
On March 10, Booker, accompanied by the two undercover agents, made
an ISIS propaganda video near Marshall Army Airfield at Fort Riley,
prosecutors said.
Booker waived his right to a detention hearing on Friday, and is in
custody pending trial.
If convicted, Booker faces up to life in prison and Blair faces up
to three years in prison. Lawyers for Booker and Blair could not be
immediately identified for comment.
(Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Mary Wisniewski,
Andre Grenon, Grant McCool and Sandra Maler)
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