Illinois, New Jersey men admit to trying to support Islamic State

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[October 30, 2015]  By Fiona Ortiz and Nate Raymond
 
 CHICAGO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. authorities on Thursday secured guilty pleas from two men in New Jersey and Chicago for trying to provide support to the Islamic State in a pair of cases following investigations nationally into potential supporters of the militant group.

Alaa Saadeh, a 24-year-old who was among several men arrested in recent months in New York and New Jersey and accused of trying to aid the Islamic State, pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark to conspiring with others to provide material support to the group.

In a separate federal case in Chicago, Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 20, pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, as part of deal in which prosecutors will seek at most five years in prison.

The pleas came as U.S. authorities pursue a number of so-called "lone wolf" plotters in recent months who have apparently been inspired by Islamic State. Authorities say they are pursuing similar cases in all 50 states.
 


The United States has led air strikes against the Islamic State, which has seized territory in Iraq and Syria, kidnapped and beheaded captives and declared a modern caliphate.

In Newark on Thursday, Saadeh admitted to having planned to travel overseas to join the Islamic State, prosecutors said.

Saadeh admitted he discussed the plan with Samuel Rahamin Topaz, Munther Omar Saleh and his brother, Nader Saadeh, each of whom also expressed a desire to join the Islamic State, prosecutors said.

Those three men were later charged, and Topaz has since pleaded guilty. Saadeh's lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.

Separately in Chicago, Khan appeared in court to admit he intended to travel to Syria to work for Islamic State, including taking a possible combat role.

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Khan was arrested in October 2014 at O'Hare International Airport as he tried to travel to the Middle East with his siblings, then 16 and 17 years old.

Khan, who lived in the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook, admitted in court he used his income from a hardware store job to pay for their passports and tickets.

Thomas Durkin, Khan's lawyer, said he was brainwashed by online propaganda. While Durkin said he understands why Khan pleaded guilty, he expressed skepticism that prosecution is the answer.

"I don't think anybody wants to see American kids being warehoused for being brainwashed by ISIS," he told reporters, referring to another name for the Islamic State. "This could happen to anybody."

(Reporting by Fiona Ortiz in Chicago and Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Bill Trott and Cynthia Osterman)

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