NEW YORK — A New York home health care aide who unwittingly planned a trip to Syria under the eye of law enforcement authorities has been charged with trying to help the Islamic State group, prosecutors said.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim said Saddam Mohamed Raishani was arrested Wednesday night as he prepared to board a plane at John F. Kennedy International Airport to Portugal to begin his travel.
Raishani was detained without bail after a brief initial court appearance Thursday. His federal defender hasn’t commented.
Prosecutors said Raishani wanted to join and train with the militant group after helping another man get there. They said he “acted on his own desire to wage violent jihad” and planned “to leave his family and life in New York City for the battlefields of the Middle East.”
The head of the FBI’s New York office said the arrest demonstrates “the nature of the terrorism threat and its reach” into U.S. communities./rga