Aamer Madhani

USA TODAY

CHICAGO—A federal judge on Thursday delayed a bail hearing for a 19-year-old Chicago-area man who is accused of trying to travel to Syria to join the terror group ISIS.

Federal prosecutors pushed for part of the hearing to be held in secret.

Prosecutors say Mohammed Khan's bond hearing should be held in private to protect "third-party privacy interests," according to a motion they filed late Wednesday. Authorities charged Khan earlier this week with attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State.

But on Thursday, when Khan appeared in court for his scheduled detention hearing, Judge Susan Cox made clear that prosecutors were concerned about revealing the identity of unidentified minors associated with the case.

Khan's defense attorney, Thomas Durkin, objected and filed his own motion to keep the hearing open. Cox gave federal prosecutors until Oct. 17 to respond to Durkin's motion, and is expected to rule on the matter on Oct. 21.

In court, Durkin said Khan was "more concerned about his rights and the public's rights," in arguing for the hearing to be kept open.

"I'm adamant about not giving up constitutional guarantees out of fear and hysteria," Durkin added.

Agents arrested Khan on Saturday at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport as he was about to board a flight to Vienna en route to Turkey. A criminal complaint alleges that Khan acknowledged during questioning by the FBI that he intended to travel by bus to a transit point where he would meet an Islamic State contact who would get him into Syria.

Authorities, who searched Khan's family's home, found notebooks and other writings they believe are from Khan that show his support for the Islamic State.

Among the documents recovered was a letter to Khan's parents in which he explained why he was traveling to Syria and urged them not to contact authorities.

According to a criminal complaint, Khan expressed distress in the letter about having to pay taxes to support the killing of Muslims, an apparent reference to his anguish over the U.S.-led bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria against the terror group.

He also allegedly wrote: "We are all witness that the western societies are getting more immoral day by day. I do not want my kids being exposed to filth like this ... "

Federal authorities have remained mum about how they were tipped off about Khan. But Durkin said the suspect's parents, Shafi and Zarine, were not the ones to alert authorities about his plans to travel overseas. He also said that Khan's parents were not aware of the alleged note Khan wrote until after agents searched the family's home.

Durkin said Khan was born in the USA and had attended one year of college at Benedictine College in the western suburbs of Chicago. He argued that "there may be room to disagree with [Khan's] views" but that he wasn't a threat to U.S. security.

Ultimately, he said, Khan was caught up in "geopolitical grandstanding" by American politicians.

"If anyone hasn't noticed, ISIS went from a group that wasn't supposedly a threat to the United States to being our existential enemy in a matter of weeks," Durkin said. "In my opinion, ISIS isn't a threat to the United States and there are a lot of people who share that view. And if ISIS isn't a threat to the United States, I don't know how he could be."

Khan faces a maximum of 15 years in prison if convicted of the charge.