Illinois Cousins Arrested for Trying to Help the Islamic State

At about 3:15 PM on Wednesday, Hasan Edmonds exited a minivan in front of Chicago's Midway Airport. Inside the Illinois Army National Guardsman's black backpack and black Coronado rollerbag were cargo pants, hiking boots, and a couple of civilian outfits. His Delta ticket said that he'd be heading to Detroit, and then Amsterdam before arriving in Cairo, Egypt.

What the 22-year-old didn't want anyone to find out was his final destination of Libya. His plan, according to a criminal complaint filed in US district court Thursday, was to link up with the Islamic State and carry out jihad.

Unfortunately for Edmonds, he'd been corresponding with an undercover federal officer on Facebook for months. At 5:21 agents swarmed the terminal and took him into custody. Edmonds and his 29-year-old cousin, Jonas, were charged with conspiring to provide material to a terrorist organization. Jonas, who was going to stick around—at least for a while—was allegedly planning an attack on the military training facility where Hasan worked.

In late 2014, Edmonds unwittingly accepted a Facebook friend request from an undercover officer and the two began talking. According to the complaint, on January 19 of this year, he wrote to the officer, "Say akhi (brother) you speak arabic? I'm trying to get my affairs in order and get my funds up for the plung [sic], thought it was smart to plug in with my brothers while i prepair [sic]."

Later in the month, Hasan expounded on his beliefs that it was his "duty" to join IS. "[It will] not be easy but i'd rather struggle and strive hard in the cause of Allah rather than sit back and live a 'comfortable' life," he wrote. "InshaAllah we will complete our task or be granted shahada (martyrdom) trying." He mentioned that he planned to travel overseas in April.

On February 2, Hasan indicated that his cousin was willing to carry out an attack on US soil. "Honestly we would love to do something like the brother in Paris did," he wrote, presumably in reference to the Charlie Hebdo attack. Jonas also got in touch with the undercover officer on Facebook and wrote to him that he was ready to "unleash the lion" and was "prepared to go even if it's with a rock"

The cousins eventually met up with a second undercover officer they met through an online medium left unnamed in the complaint. In person, they elaborated that the target would be the army training facility where Hasan worked, according to the FBI. Jonas allegedly anticipated a 100 to 150 person "body count," with his younger cousin correcting him and saying it would be closer to 120.

Although Hasan was arrested at the airport, and Jonas was taken into custody at his home, the most hair-raising communications between them and the undercover officers hinted that they knew other people who were plotting the exact same thing—people who have presumably not been arrested.

"To be honest i'm best with my side arm(handgun) and then my rifle," Hasan Edmonds wrote in January. "We are few in number compared to the kufar army but there are believers like myself hear in america and we wait amd prepare ourselves for the orders of the ameer. Either we will make it to dowlah or bring the flames of war to the heart od this land with Allahs pro mission." [sic]

The arrest is just the latest in a series involving young people allegedly determined to take up arms with the Islamic State. Last month in Brooklyn, two men were arrested in a case that stoked concerns about the feds' tendency to nudge those flirting with the idea of terrorism toward actually carrying it out.

But the case of Hasan Edmonds and his cousin Jonas appears—according to initial court filings, at least—to be a bit more clear-cut.

Follow Allie Conti on Twitter.