Long Island man trying to travel to Middle East to join ISIS arrested at JFK: federal prosecutors

NEW YORK (WABC) -- A Long Island man was arrested Wednesday at JFK as he tried to board a flight to Qatar, from where he intended to travel to Syria and join ISIS, federal prosecutors said.

Syed Aman, 28, expressed his support for ISIS through social media posts in an online forum, sent money to an individual he believed to be an Islamic State operative and made arrangements to travel to Syria, according to the criminal complaint.

For the last month, Aman has been talking with an FBI source about his plan to join ISIS in Syria. Aman expressed that "jihad and hijrah," referring to traveling to ISIS-controlled territory and waging war on ISIS's behalf, are "the most important thing, more than anything else at the moment," the complaint said.

The complaint quoted Aman expressing hatred for non-believers: "If you don't kill them they will kill us and ruin the earth with decay." Aman also posted on a social media platform his desire "to kill Americans" and wrote in a notebook his intent to study becoming a shaheed, or martyr on behalf of ISIS.

Aman allegedly intended to disembark from his flight in Qatar and to purchase a flight from Qatar to Turkey where he would seek to cross into Syria to join ISIS. Aman also stated that he would travel with a steel pen to defend himself if he were arrested and that he would attack law enforcement. A silver metal pen was found in Aman's crossbody bag when he was arrested, prosecutors said.

"As alleged, Aman was steadfast in his attempts to travel to the Middle East to join ISIS and fortunately his evil plan to wage jihad was thwarted," said United States Attorney Breon Peace.

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