Saleh used his Twitter account to communicate with an ISIS recruiter
By Raif Karerat
A New York man has been arrested and charged with trying to get overseas to join the ISIS terror group.
Ali Saleh, 22, of Queens, New York, is charged with attempting to provide material support to a terror group. He was arrested earlier today at his home and is slated to appear in court this afternoon.
The FBI says in the past year he has tried several times to get to the Middle East to join ISIS. In August 2014, he booked a flight Kennedy airport to Istanbul. A few days earlier, he used his Twitter account to post, “I’m ready to die for the Caliphate, prison is nothing.”
Saleh has also used his Twitter account to communicate with an ISIS recruiter and asked for advice on how to travel to the Middle East to join the group, authorities said.
He attempted to board another flight from JFK to Cairo in July but was denied access to this flight and to two others, one from Newark and another from Philadelphia, according to Newsweek.
After repeatedly being denied access to flights to the Middle East from the United States, Saleh attempted to travel to Toronto from Cleveland by train, but was unable to do so as well.
There is no indication that he was plotting attacks in the U.S., reported NBC news.
“By his own words, Ali Saleh was willing to pledge allegiance to, and die for ISIL, an organization that has called for terrorist attacks against the United States,” New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton said in a statement. “Saleh’s attempts to travel to Syria and ISIL’s battlefields were halted by good intelligence and smart law enforcement. I commend the agents and detectives of the Joint Terrorism Task Force as well as the dedicated prosecutors at the office of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.”
The case is slated for prosecution by the National Security and Cybercrime Section of the Eastern District of New York.