Feds charge Kansas man with Fort Riley bomb plot

Doug Stanglin | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Kansas man charged with suicide bomb attack plot A 20-year-old man has been charged with planning a suicide bomb attack against the Fort Riley military base in Kansas, in an alleged plot to support the Islamic State group, federal prosecutors said Friday. (April 10)

A 20-year-old Kansas man was arrested Friday in a federal sting operation and charged with plotting to detonate a suicide bomb at Fort Riley Army base on behalf of Islamic State terrorists, federal authorities said.

John Thomas Booker Jr., was arrested in Manhattan, Kan. without incident near the base he was allegedly taking the final steps to carry out his plan, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom told reporters at a news conference in Kansas City.

The authorities alleged that Booker, also charged under an alias as "Mohammed Abdullah Hassan," had even completed a "martyr video" to explain his actions.

The operation, however, was part of an elaborate sting that the FBI had been running since November. The explosive device was inert and the suspect never got onto the base, the authorities said.

The complaint alleges Booker told another person "that detonating a suicide bomb is his number one aspiration because he couldn't be captured, all evidence would be destroyed, and he would be guaranteed to hit his target." Booker picked Fort Riley as a good target, "because the post is famous and there are a lot of soldiers stationed there," the complaint alleges.

Fort Riley, home to the 1st Infantry Division, is located about 100 miles west of Kansas City.

Booker was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and providing material support for a foreign terrorist organization, Islamic State, or ISIL, which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq.

Authorities said Booker allegedly spent months on his plan, picked the target himself and intended to set off the device in order to make sure it worked and so that he would become a martyr. FBI Special Agent in Charge Eric Jackson said the threat "was real."

The federal complaint says the FBI first learned of Booker -- at the time a new Army recruit -- last April after receiving complaints about some alleged postings he had placed on Facebook in which he said he was going to "wage jihad."

The authorities said he was interviewed at the time by the FBI and allegedly admitted to enlisting in the Army with the intent to commit an insider attack similar to one at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009 that left 13 people dead. The authorities said Booker was subsequently barred from joining the military.

Booker's new plot allegedly took shape again in October, the complaint said, when Booker allegedly spoke to an FBI informant about his desire to engage in "violent jihad" on behalf of Islamic State. The complaint said he then approached a second informant about getting in touch with the terrorist organization.

He allegedly told the informant that he would make a "martyr video" and then immediately capture and kill an American soldier. The intent, he allegedly claimed, was to "scare this country" and to tell the people that "we will be coming after American soldiers in the streets. .. we will be picking them off one by one."

The complaint said Booker then met with a second informant who he believed was a high-ranking sheik planning terror attacks in the U.S.

The complaint charges that Booker then rented a storage locker near his apartment in Topeka and began buying components for a bomb.

The same day, the complaint says, Booker told the initial informant that he "wanted to be the one to push the switch ... when the time came."

Booker was arrested after allegedly bringing a van with the purported explosive device to a spot that he thought was a utility gate that would give him access to Fort Riley.

The arrest was the latest in a series of sting operations aimed at Americans who allegedly were plotting to either launch a terror attack or join ISIL.

Nearly 50 Americans have been charged in the last two years with trying to join the terrorist group or are suspected of taking action inspired by the group..