American Charged With Aiding Islamic State Man accused of joining, then quitting group By Kate O’Keeffe
http://www.wsj.com/articles/american-charged-with-aiding-islamic-state-1465489432
The Justice Department on Thursday unsealed charges against an American who had allegedly traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State terror group.
While federal prosecutors have been steadily charging people for helping Islamic State from the U.S., there are far fewer cases involving Americans who have allegedly traveled to the Middle East to join the group, become disenchanted, and returned.
Mohamad Jamal Khweis, a 26-year-old who last lived in Alexandria, Va., left the U.S. in December 2015 to join Islamic State, alleged the May 11 complaint, which charged him with providing material support to the terror group.
He lived in Islamic State safe houses in Syria and Iraq, told the terror group he would be willing to become a suicide bomber, and participated in Islamic State-directed religious training for nearly a month before leaving the group’s territory and surrendering in March to Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, the complaint alleges.
It wasn’t immediately known who Mr. Khweis’s attorney is. A U.S. relative of Mr. Khweis had earlier called him “a very respectful and quiet young man” who had “nothing to do” with Islamic State.
Mr. Khweis will have an initial appearance at the federal courthouse in Alexandria on Thursday afternoon, the Justice Department said.
Though Islamic State’s social media presence remains powerful, the number of Americans traveling to the Middle East to fight alongside the terror group has been dropping, James Comey, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, told reporters in May at FBI headquarters.
Since August, one American a month has traveled or attempted to travel to the Middle East to join the group, compared with about six to 10 a month in the preceding year and a half, Mr. Comey said. CONTINUE AT SITE
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