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 Jaelyn Delshaun Young, 20, was arrested at a Mississippi airport
in August 2015 while attempting to board a flight to Turkey with her
husband, Muhammad Oda Dakhlalla, 23.
Young acknowledged her role as the "planner of the expedition" in an
incriminating farewell letter, according to court documents filed by
U.S. prosecutors.
Convictions for Islamic State-related activity by Americans have
become more frequent in recent months as more than 80 such cases
brought by U.S. prosecutors since 2013 work their way through
federal courts.
Young's Twitter posts about her desire to join the militant group
caught the attention of the FBI in May 2015, and an agent posing as
an Islamic State recruiter began corresponding with her and
Dakhlalla.
 Young and Dakhlalla told the supposed recruiter they would help
Islamic State "correct the falsehoods" about it in U.S. news media,
such as reports that the group trades young girls as sex slaves,
according to court records.
They also asked the recruiter whether Islamic State would offer
Koran classes in English, how they would be required to prove that
they were Sunni Muslims, and what kind of military training
Dakhlalla would receive.
Both Dakhlalla and Young, of Starkville, Mississippi, are U.S.
citizens. Young converted to Islam in March 2015, the court
documents said.
The couple entered their guilty pleas in the U.S. District Court for
the Northern District of Mississippi, in Greenville.
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In exchange for Young's guilty plea to a single count of conspiring
to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization,
which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, U.S.
prosecutors agreed to not press any other charges.
According to court records, the couple, who had an Islamic marriage
but did not get their union legally recognized, were motivated to
join the group after viewing Islamic State executions of people they
deemed immoral, and because they perceived the group as "liberators"
of parts of Syria and Iraq.
(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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