Feds: US Air Force vet tried to join Islamic State group

[webfact]

Feds: US Air Force vet tried to join Islamic State group
By COLLEEN LONG and JENNIFER PELTZ

NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. Air Force veteran and airplane mechanic plotted to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group and was arrested on terrorism charges, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh, of Neptune, New Jersey, was due Wednesday in a New York federal court after being indicted on charges of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist group and obstructing justice.

Prosecutors said Pugh had been stopped at a Turkish airport in January carrying a laptop with information on Turkey-Syria border crossing points, 180 jihadist propaganda videos including footage of an Islamic State prisoner beheading, and a letter declaring: "I will use the talents and skills given to me by Allah to establish and defend the Islamic States."

"There is only two possible outcomes for me. Victory or martyr," continued the letter, which authorities believe was to Pugh's Egyptian wife, investigators said in court papers.

Pugh's lawyer, Michael K. Schneider, said Pugh would plead not guilty. Schneider declined to comment further.

The 47-year-old Pugh served in the Air Force from 1986 to 1990 and was trained in installing and maintaining aircraft engines and navigation and weapons systems, according to Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch's office. An airman first class, Pugh was assigned to the Woodbridge Air Base in England in July 1987 and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona in July 1989, the Air Force said.

Pugh converted to Islam around 1998, court papers said.

After leaving the Air Force, he worked as an avionics specialist and airplane mechanic for a number of companies in the Middle East and the U.S. — including American Airlines, where the FBI got a 2001 tip about him from a co-worker who said Pugh expressed sympathy for Osama bin Laden, according to court papers. The airline said he left in early 2000 after a few months at American.

In 2002, an associate of Pugh's told the FBI that Pugh was interested in traveling to Chechnya to wage war, the investigators' court filing said.

Pugh worked on for DynCorp International in Iraq as an Army contractor in 2009 and 2010, the filing said. McLean, Virginia-based DynCorp declined to comment.

Pugh has been living overseas for the past year and a half, most recently in Egypt, investigators said. Last summer, Kuwait-based charter airline Gryphon Airlines considered hiring Pugh for a project but decided he didn't meet the requirements, the company said in a statement. He told an acquaintance in a December email that he'd been fired from his most recent job, according to investigators.

Prosecutors said Pugh then decided to join the Islamic State group, traveling from Egypt to Turkey to ultimately cross the border into Syria. He was stopped at the Turkish border Jan. 10, turned away and returned to Egypt, where he was detained to be returned to the U.S.

Pugh variously told authorities in Turkey and Egypt that he had gone to Turkey for vacation and to look for a job, and he said had no desire to go to Syria, court papers said.

But investigators said they found a chart of crossing points between Turkey and Syria, plus information about whether the border checkpoints were staffed, on Pugh's laptop. Investigators said his cellphone also had photos of a machine gun and airplanes, including an airplane bathroom and an area under passenger seats.

He was flown back to the U.S. on Jan. 15.

The Department of Justice has charged roughly 20 people in the past year with planning to travel to the Middle East to fight alongside militants such as the Islamic State group, which controls parts of Syria and Iraq. Federal officials have been concerned about Americans going overseas to train with these groups and returning with plots to carry out attacks at home.

"We will continue to vigorously prosecute extremists, whether based here or abroad, to stop them before they are able to threaten the United States and its allies," Lynch said in a statement Tuesday.

Three men were arrested late last month in a plot to travel to Syria; they have pleaded not guilty.

-- (c) Associated Press 2015-03-18

[neverdie]

Execute.

[NickJ]

Agreed.....but how were running out of drugs?

[neverdie]

Agreed.....but how were running out of drugs?

Burn in cage.

Good for goose. Good for gander.

[DeaconJohn]

This from the BBC:

"When told he was going to be deported to the United States, he asked to be sent to any other Middle Eastern country and said 'the US doesn't like black Muslims...'"

Is he a member of the Nation of Islam?

If so, this story may be more important than it at first appears.

[bridge2bridge]

I don't understand why Governments want to stop these SCUM BAGS from leaving their Countries to fight for any Terrorist Group.

Let them go and if they survive.

DO NOT let them back into the country.

They arrest them and the TAXPAYER has to feed them while they are in Jail.

We don't want the SCUM in our communities.

[Steely Dan]

Why not mention his Islamic name, seeing as changing names is both a religious and political statement. Whoops, almost forgot, this has nothing to do with Islam, nor does his misunderstanding of Islam being a religion of peace.

[daveAustin]

Bang him up, insert microchip in body, let him go, track him to IS territory, carpet bomb when he's with his colleagues.

[F430murci]

Please let them go. Why the heck are we brining them back to burn up resources and pay money to house these losers POSs?

[cup-O-coffee]

Isn't this a bit over the top for the US guardians to embellish?

It is a known fact that a lot of this sort of thing is going on. It is a known fact that the Southern Mexican border is wide open, and anyone can cross over.

So, they tell me that he had information about border check points and other information that anyone can get on the Internet. Why is this so sensational?

They tell me that he has videos of beheadings. You can get this on the Internet. Why don't they shut down Goggle and everyone else?

It's not that he is a socially unacceptable or inappropriate man for the USA's standards... moreover, it is that the individuals sworn to not allow this type of thinking into the USA's environment is contradictory to these people's sworn oath to not allow it to happen... yet they do.

And even more so, these guardians of the divine realm get all excited and have to get me all stirred up when they fail in their sworn duties... as if they need my approval to condone their stupidity and ironic standards.

The bottom line: Do your job, but do so in a manner that is not insulting to the intelligence of the common man. Stop whining when someone wants to hurt you, and you provide all the resources and nurturing for said person to want to hurt you. Stop complaining that someone did something, when that something is readily available for anyone to procure and engage in. Stop using your inefficiencies as a springboard to cry to those who elected you do fix the problem without coming back to us as a total and complete failure.

Every day in the USA, there is some man or woman preaching hatred about the USA, YT or some other element of a once great country to suit their personal agenda. These protectors of the realm allow this on a daily basis. It's funny to note how they select whom they are going to single out, when all one has to do is look around the US and read and see all the anti-American BS going on and being said on the public forum.

All one has to do is look around and see all the loop holes and galactic gaps in the system, that you could drive a meteor the size of the moon through.

The irony is so thick you could cut it with your finger.

Stop whining about a man, who wants to join this or that, and expect people to care, when in considerations of all of your other massive failings to your sworn duty and oath to protect ALL the people, rather than instead YOUR people.

...Next!

Did the guy do anything wrong? Probably! Is it the worst thing that happened on that day? Absolutely not!

[maidee]

nice

in my home country & many other west-european countries, those scum can come back and further enjoy social security payments

some even while in syria / iraq , thanks to the lack of control

[Seastallion]

I don't understand why Governments want to stop these SCUM BAGS from leaving their Countries to fight for any Terrorist Group.

Let them go and if they survive.

DO NOT let them back into the country.

They arrest them and the TAXPAYER has to feed them while they are in Jail.

We don't want the SCUM in our communities.

For all the disenfranchised angry young men that want to go...I agree with you; let them go, let them die, and if they survive, don't let them back.

But this guy has special training....stop him going.

[Scott]

An off-topic post has been removed. Stay on topic. Trolling is not going to be tolerated. Some posters have a bigger agenda than ISIS.

[oneday]

Fry his butt.

[cup-O-coffee]

Fry his butt.

Why?

[Rancid]

Maybe he thought ISIS would be more democratic or figured he'd still be getting paid by the US.

That aside religious fervour has no positive characteristics.

[F430murci]

Maybe he thought ISIS would be more democratic or figured he'd still be getting paid by the US.

That aside religious fervour has no positive characteristics.

Too funny! What it must be like to be inside that brain. I wish I was more devote in my faith. Those I see and know have a great inner peace and don't let all this ridiculous background noise and chatter distract them from what is really important in the world.

Lol, starting think I am the real loser letting background chatter such as this here occupy my time and thoughts and even thinking it worthwhile at any level to consider debating whether ISIS is more democratic than the US.

Let him join or don't let him join. Arrest him or don't arrest him. Execute or don't execute him. Why the F do we care!!! Why is it any of our business? Why the heck do we think we have any control over what happens here or what others think about it

Lol, people like you are making me realize I should just get a life and focus in the positives in life. the world will take care of itself without my help!

Thanks my man. Think I will officially retire my moniker and from my duties of trying to solve the world's problems. Ciao baby!

Edited March 18, 2015 by F430murci

[Daniel Ingalls]

Any attempt to re-patrionize this guy is fruitless. Throw his ass in jail. or out of a plane at 32,000 feat over Syria.

[Daniel Ingalls]

Maybe he thought ISIS would be more democratic or figured he'd still be getting paid by the US.

That aside religious fervour has no positive characteristics.

Too funny! What it must be like to be inside that brain. I wish I was more devote in my faith. Those I see and know have a great inner peace and don't let all this ridiculous background noise and chatter distract them from what is really important in the world.

Lol, starting think I am the real loser letting background chatter such as this here occupy my time and thoughts and even thinking it worthwhile at any level to consider debating whether ISIS is more democratic than the US.

Let him join or don't let him join. Arrest him or don't arrest him. Execute or don't execute him. Why the F do we care!!! Why is it any of our business? Why the heck do we think we have any control over what happens here or what others think about it

Lol, people like you are making me realize I should just get a life and focus in the positives in life. the world will take care of itself without my help!

Thanks my man. Think I will officially retire my moniker and from my duties of trying to solve the world's problems. Ciao baby!

With an attitude like that, .............you would think differently dressed in orange hands, tied be hind your back, with an ISIS scum bag holding your head in the air!.. ..........They want world control.....Your an Infidel The enemy! Get it now?

[JackJD]

In 30 years what will all the ex-free societies be saying? Maybe: "We should have exterminated every last one of them a long time ago."