U.S. man charged with trying to support Islamic State

By Lindsay Dunsmuir and Mary Reardon WASHINGTON/MADISON, Wis. (Reuters) - An American man has been charged with trying to provide support for the Islamic State militant group, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday. Joshua Ray Van Haften, 34, of Madison, Wisconsin, intended to travel to Iraq or Syria to join the group, also known by the acronyms ISIL and ISIS, prosecutors said in a statement. Van Haften was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Wednesday after arriving on a flight from Turkey. He had been in the custody of Turkish immigration authorities since October, according to U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil. A U.S. magistrate judge ordered Van Haften detained after a brief hearing in U.S. District Court in Madison on Thursday. "Our charge was that he was planning to commit violent acts with ISIL and aid them as a terrorist organization," Vaudreuil told reporters after the hearing. If convicted, Van Haften faces up to 15 years in prison. Vaudreuil said prosecutors do not have evidence that Van Haften made physical contact with Islamic State militants. "People heard him saying things, saw him doing things," he said. "They called law enforcement and we started working the case." Reached by email, Van Haften's attorney, Joseph Bugni, with Federal Defender Services of Wisconsin, said he had no comment. Prosecutors allege that Van Haften left the United States on Aug. 26, 2014, bound for Turkey, which borders Syria and Iraq. While there, he exchanged a series of Facebook messages with friends and interacted through the social network with other alleged Islamic State supporters, according to prosecutors. In one series of messages with a former roommate in the United States in October, he was asked when he would return home. He replied: "Turkey is looking like it is divided at the moment about attacking ISIS, which if they do, I'm gonna attack them," according to prosecutors. He added: "I was about to cross to Syria ... but I didn't make it. Hopefully soon though. ... I'm tired of this life man." A grand jury is set to consider the case later in April. Van Haften is scheduled to appear in court next on April 24. (Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Additional reporting by Mary Reardon in Madison, Wisconsin; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Mohammad Zargham)