Former U.S. Army soldier sentenced for attempted attack on follow soldiers with Satanic, neo-Nazi group
A former U.S. Army soldier was sentenced to 45 years in prison for a planned attack on his own fellow soldiers.
Ethan Phelan Melzer, a.k.a. Etil Reggad, of Louisville, Ky., attempted to coordinate with a neo-Nazi organization known as Order of the Nine Angles (O9A) to ambush other U.S. soldiers he was serving with overseas, by leaking their position to Al-Qaeda.
The decision came Friday after Melzer pled guilty in June for attempting to murder U.S. service members, providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists, and illegally transmitting national defense information.
“Melzer betrayed his fellow soldiers and his country,” said Assistant Director Robert Wells of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, in a statement released by the Department of Justice.
“Americans serving their country overseas should never have to fear a terrorist attack from within their own ranks, and today’s sentence holds him accountable for his deadly plan to attack the brave men and women of the armed forces who protect our nation,” Wells added.
The DOJ’s report describes O9A as “a white supremacist, neo-Nazi and pro-jihadist group” that holds “antisemitic and Satanic beliefs,” in addition to promoting “extreme violence to accelerate and cause the demise of Western civilization.”
Melzer, 24, consumed O9A and ISIS propaganda while deployed overseas in Italy in 2019.
When he was reassigned a year later to a project that involved access to sensitive military information, he immediately began sharing it with members of the terrorist group.
Melzer proposed, advocated for and helped plan the supposed 2020 ambush that would affect a “mass casualty” on his fellow troops.
Melzer also told O9A he had no problem dying for their cause.
“It would be another war . . . I would’ve died successfully . . . caus[ing] another 10-year war in the Middle East would definitely leave a mark,” he wrote through encrypted message channels.
“Today’s sentence makes clear that Melzer’s brazen actions backfired,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. “This office, along with our partners in law enforcement and the military, will work tirelessly to bring traitors like Melzer to justice and to protect the safety and integrity of our armed services,” he added.
