(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department announced Wednesday that U.S. citizen Syed Aman has been charged with attempting to support ISIS, after he was arrested Election Day trying to board a plane to Qatar.
Like so many of the DOJ’s terrorism cases, the one against Aman involved an FBI informant that talked to him for more than two years—teaching him about terrorism and seemingly grooming him along the way.
According to the government’s criminal complaint, Aman and the FBI informant were chatting in 2023 on a website where the informant was posing as an ISIS operative in the Middle East.
“AMAN stated to the [FBI informant] that he wanted to travel to join ISIS in Iraq or north Baghdad … The [ FBI informant] provided general guidance on travel and stated that there were options to avoid detection depending on what country AMAN selected,” the criminal complaint against Aman admitted.
Aman and the informant discussed sending cryptocurrency to ISIS, but Aman never did so. After talking for a couple months, Aman went dark from August 2023 to January of this year.
The FBI announced another terrorism sting this week, this one involving a man who had been talking with an FBI informant online for more than 2 years. The criminal complaint admits that the informant was posing as an ISIS operator in the Middle East, and gave the target "general… pic.twitter.com/5b8bUMT9l2
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) November 8, 2024
“AMAN did not contact the CHS, nor did the CHS contact AMAN,” the complaint said.
“On or about January 31, 2024, AMAN messaged the CHS and apologized that he had not been in contact. AMAN said in English that he was ‘t[o]o cautious’ and ‘it prevented [him] from sending’ money to the CHS.”
Aman did send cryptocurrency intended for ISIS to the FBI informant in February. Throughout much of the year, he formulated plans to travel to the Middle East and join ISIS.
Unlike many of the mentally ill teenagers that the FBI busts in terrorism sting, Aman appears to be intelligent: According to the complaint, he’s a software developer.
Aman also apparently knew he was on a no-fly list and that was being monitored by the feds. In October, he was blocked from purchasing a plane ticket—it’s not clear why, but the complaint said his attempted purchase was flagged by Homeland Security—but he had a relative buy him another one.
However, the criminal complaint also suggests that the 28-year-old may not have been a fully independent adult: At one point, he said his parents had taken his passport.
The criminal complaint also suggests that the FBI informant forged a close relationship with Aman over the two-plus years of them knowing each other: “You are beloved to me,” Aman told the informant at one point.
Aman had an initial appearance in court on Wednesday.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
