A New York man was arrested at JFK Airport en route to join Taliban, according to authorities
- A New York man is facing terrorism charges after authorities say he was planning to kill American military forces and flee the country to join the Taliban.
- Delowar Mohammed Hossain, 33, was arrested at John F. Kennedy Airport and is charged with attempting to provide material support for acts of terrorism, according to the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
- Authorities said Hossain described his plans in recorded conversations with a source, including detailing how he planned to evade raising red flags by first traveling to Bankok before Pakistan, and later Afghanistan.
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A New York man is facing terrorism charges after he was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport after planning to kill American military forces and leave the country to join the Taliban, according to federal authorities.
Delowar Mohammed Hossain, 33, of the Bronx, is charged with attempting to provide material support for acts of terrorism, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said in a statement.
Authorities said that Hossain was due to depart New York on July 26 to Thailand as the first leg of the route to Afghanistan, but FBI agents arrested him before he could board the flight.
"Hossain had a despicable goal," FBI Assistant Director of Counterterrorism Michael McGarrity. "He wanted to make his way to Afghanistan, join up with Taliban forces, and kill Americans. But he failed because members of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force interrupted his plans."
Authorities allege in the statement that Hossain had described his plans in recorded conversations with a source, including detailing how he planned to evade raising red flags by first traveling to Bankok before Pakistan, and later Afghanistan.
Hossain also said he was buying equipment such as walkie-talkies and trekking gear and told the informant to save money "to buy weapons" after reaching Afghanistan, according to the complaint.
"The lure of radical ideologies comes from many sources, and just because the Taliban may seem like an old and out of vogue extremist group, it shouldn't be underestimated," FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. said in the statement. "The FBI New York Joint Terrorism Task Force stopped Mr. Hossain from traveling overseas to allegedly support a deadly organization, and kept him from his alleged plan to kill innocent people."
The charge of attempting to provide material support for terrorism carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.