Two 23-year-old men, including a Bangladesh-born US national, have been arrested here and charged with terror-related offenses after authorities said they planned to travel abroad to engage in violent jihad.
While Rahatul Ashikim Khan allegedly wanted to join al- Shabab, a Somalia-based terror group linked to al Qaeda, Michael Todd Wolfe planned to travel to the Middle East to provide his services to radical groups engaged in armed conflict in Syria, according to court documents.
Khan, who is of Bangladeshi origin, became a US citizen in 2002 and is a full-time student at University of Texas- Austin.
According to charging documents in his case, in early 2011, Khan began communicating with an informant in an online chat room, which he used "as a platform to spot and assess potential recruits for committing violent jihad overseas."
Khan introduced the informant to an unidentified co- conspirator, possibly in Florida, who then attempted to recruit the informant to travel to Somalia to engage in jihad there, ABC News quoted prosecutors as saying in court documents.
In June 2011, Khan told the informant that his brain "starts bleeding" when he sees weak "Bengalis" who have "no love for jihad" and "no love to shed blood," authorities allege.
According to court documents, Wolfe's wife met an undercover FBI agent in August 2013 and told the agent she and her husband wanted to "perform a violent form of jihad" outside of the United States.
She said Wolfe "just wants to hop into Syria. He's just ready to die for his deen [religion]. He's ready to die for someone, for something," court documents say.
Over several months, another undercover FBI agent met with Wolfe, and they discussed Wolfe's plans for going abroad, according to the court documents.
They were planning to use some of their estimated USD 5,000 tax refund to pay for their travel, prosecutors say.
On Tuesday, Wolfe and his family went to George Bush International Airport here, attempting to board a flight to Toronto and then make their way to Syria.
Instead, Wolfe was arrested, accused of attempting to provide "material support and resources to terrorists, including but not limited to personnel, including himself."
The arrests come a month after the Justice Department asked a special prosecutor in its National Security Division to help lead US efforts aimed at stemming the flow of American fighters to the civil war in Syria.
The duo face up to 15 years in prison and a maximum USD 250,000 fine if convicted.
