July 27 (UPI) — Federal authorities arrested a 33-year-old Bronx man Friday at John F. Kennedy International Airport charging that he attempted to provide material support to terrorists.
Prosecutors claimed that Delowar Mohammed Hossain had planned to travel to Afghanistan and join the Taliban to commit terrorist acts. Hossain attempted to board at JFK to Thailand during the first leg of his trip.
Hossain was still wearing his traveling clothes that included a white T-shirt and blue jeans when he attended his initial hearing in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Stewart Aaron on Friday in Manhattan. Stewart ordered him held without bail.
“Hossain planned to travel overseas and join the Taliban in order to kill American soldiers,” assistant U.S. attorney John Demers said in a statement. “The threat of terrorism at home and abroad remains, and the National Security Division is committed to preventing individuals from carrying out deadly plans such as this.”
Hossain, who allegedly started talking about joining the Taliban last year, tried to recruit another person to join him, but that person was allegedly an FBI informant.
“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 Sweeney Jr. said. “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.”
Hossain is officially charged with one count of attempting to provide material support for terrorism, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.
Authorities said he had planned to fly to Thailand then Pakistan, where he would join the Taliban and fight in Afghanistan. U.S. negotiators are currently in talks with the Taliban over the fate of Afghanistan and ending American troop presence there.
