An American who "gave himself" to the Islamic State group before defecting told US investigators that he was aware the extremist fighters want "America to be taken over," court documents showed today.
Mohamad Jamal Khweis, a 26-year-old Virginia man, is charged with providing material support to IS, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed hours before he was due to appear in US court for the first time in his case.
Khweis voluntarily gave himself up to Kurdish peshmerga forces on March 14 near Sinjar Mountain in Kurdish-controlled territory in northern Iraq, according to an affidavit submitted by a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Investigators found through a search of his electronic devices that he had been researching IS since December, with images of the World Trade Center burning on September 11, 2001, IS fighters and leaders, as well as maps of Iraq, Syria and Turkey, including known IS bastions.
During an interview with federal investigators, Khweis "stated he 'gave himself' to ISIL and that they controlled him," the affidavit read, using an acronym for the IS group.
"The defendant stated he was aware that ISIL wants to attack and destroy the United States. The defendant stated that ISIL wants America to be taken over."
He was due to appear later before US Magistrate Judge John Anderson in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington.
In a video released online days after his arrest by Kurdish media, Khweis describes his contacts with IS before stating that he has renounced the group's violent extremist ideology.
Khweis later told the FBI that he had "provided misleading information in the video for self-protection," according to the affidavit, which did not provide further details on those statements.
During his interviews with investigators, Khweis said he initially was inspired to join IS because he believed they were engaged in "peaceful and humanitarian efforts."
On his way to IS territory, Khweis sold his car and stopped in London to send a message to an unnamed "well-known Islamic extremist cleric who supports terrorism," according to the affidavit.
In Turkey, he used the code phrase "green bird" indicating his support for violent jihad, or holy war, in order to make IS recruiters feel at ease in dealing with him.
While staying in an IS safe house in Raqqa, Syria, Khweis said he told another IS member he wanted to become a suicide bomber.
