New York man arrested on charges of attempting to support Islamic State
By Katie Reilly
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Authorities arrested a U.S. citizen in New York on Thursday on charges that he attempted to provide support to Islamic State and planned to travel overseas to join the militant group, the Justice Department said.
Ali Saleh, 22, used Twitter to post support for the militants and communicate with an Islamic State facilitator while making multiple attempts to travel to the Middle East to join the organization, Justice Department officials said.
He was arrested in the New York City borough of Queens and arraigned Thursday on charges of attempting to provide material support to Islamic State, his attorney, Susan Kellman, said.
Kellman said Saleh has not entered a plea because a formal charge has not yet been brought.
"I’m ready to die for the Caliphate, prison is nothing," Saleh wrote on Twitter in 2014 before booking a flight to travel from New York to Istanbul, according to the statement.
In July, Saleh made another reservation to travel from New York to Cairo but did not board the flight after speaking with airline employees, the Justice Department said.
Saleh then attempted to travel to the Middle East from Newark, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, but he was denied boarding both times. He also tried to take a train from Cleveland to Toronto to travel to the Middle East from there, it said.
"By his own words, Ali Saleh was willing to pledge allegiance to, and die for ISIL, an organization that has called for terrorist attacks against the United States," New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said in a statement, referring to Islamic State by an acronym.
Federal prosecutors have charged several people across the United States in recent months with attempting to support Islamic State, which has seized parts of Iraq and Syria and sought to build support through social media.
If convicted, Saleh faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York.
(Reporting by Katie Reilly; Editing by Eric Walsh and Bill Trott)
