An Alabama man has been arrested as part of a terrorism probe after telling FBI agents that he would kill US soldiers if ordered to do so by ISIS.
Nayef Qashou, a dual Jordanian and United States citizen who was born in the United Arab Emirates and raised in Saudi Arabia, was arrested by federal agents on Monday.
According to a report from the Associated Press, Qashou is charged with lying to the FBI and destroying records.
Qashou moved to Alabama in 2015, to study nursing at an Opelika, Alabama, community college. He has been interviewed by the FBI more than a dozen times since he arrived.
According to the FBI affidavit obtained by AP, Qashou was using encrypted apps to communicate with suspected terrorists who urged him to carry out a terror attack in the US.
“Qashou would not tell interviewers exactly how he responded to the suggestion to conduct a U.S. attack,” FBI Special Agent Scott Sullivan wrote in the sworn affidavit. “He stated he essentially responded by saying the only way he could justify an attack is for it to be against U.S. Armed Forces personnel on U.S. soil.”
The affidavit says that Qashou told the FBI he would be willing to “drive fuel trucks, feed troops, and use a gun to defend against U.S.-led attacks against ISIS,” but that he “does not believe in violence.”
