US: Former guardsman pleads guilty to supporting Daesh

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) – A former Virginia Army National guardsman pleaded guilty Thursday to trying to obtain a weapon to carry out an attack on the U.S.

Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 27, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Sierra Leone, admitted he attempted to provide Daesh with material support, including sending money overseas to fund the group.

“Mohamed Bailor Jalloh purchased a weapon following multiple attempts to procure assault rifles and handguns, believing they would be used in an ISIL-directed attack on U.S. soil,” FBI official Paul M. Abbate said in a statement, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, another name for Daesh.

“Jalloh also provided money on multiple occasions to support ISIL after attempting to join the terrorist group,” he added.

According to court documents, Jalloh told an FBI informant he decided to leave the Guard after listening to online lectures by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s now deceased English-language spokesman, Anwar al-Awlaki.

During a 2015 trip to Africa, Jalloh met with a Daesh facilitator in Nigeria and sought to join the group in Libya, but abandoned the plan after last minute reservations prompted a change of mind.

Before departing Sierra Leone to return to the U.S., Jalloh made online contact with Abu Saad Sudani, whom he knew to be plotting an attack in the U.S., according to court documents.

Sudani put him in touch with a U.S. individual who was actually an undercover FBI informant, unbeknownst to Sudani, hoping that the two would carry out the attack.

Jalloh told the informant he was hoping to carry out an attack similar to the 2009 assault by U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hassan in Fort Hood, Texas, that killed 13 victims and injured 32 others.

“I just want to live a good Muslim life and die as a shaheed,” Jalloh told the FBI source, referring to an Arabic term for a martyr, according to the documents.

He was arrested July 3 after successfully purchasing a Stag Arms AR-15 the previous day from a local gun store, according to the Justice Department. The firearm was rendered inoperable before it was sold to him, the department said.

Jalloh faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 10.