A 21-year-old man from Kansas whose lawyer says he is mentally ill pleaded guilty over a plot to plant a bomb outside an Army post. The man acknowledges that he wanted to help the Islamic State group.
On Wednesday, John T. Booker Jr. pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts. Booker changed his pleas to guilty in US District Court to charges of attempting to use an explosive device to destroy government property and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. The prosecutors recommend that he be sentenced to 20 years in prison for the first charge and 30 years on the second charge, as reported by Fox News.
Daily Mail reported that Booker of Topeka admitted in court to trying to set of what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb in a van outside Fort Riley, about 60 miles west of Topeka. In April 2015, he was arrested outside the post as he was trying to arm what he believed was the bomb. Reports say that he have contacted two more individuals, but such information was labeled as classified by FBI sources.
Meanwhile, prosecuting attorneys dropped a charge of attempting to extend material support to the Islamic State group. He had initially pleaded not guilty to three felony charges. Booker could have faced life in prison if convicted of those charges.
US Attorney Barry Grissom of Kansas said in a statement, US Attorney Barry Grissom of Kansas said in a statement, "If this defendant had succeeded, American soldiers would have died." The attorney added that the investigators and the lawyers who worked on this case were the country's line of defense against terrorism, as reported by Yahoo News.
Booker told an FBI informant he wanted to engage in violent jihad on behalf of Islamic State group and wanted to kill Americans. He believes that such plot is justified because the Quran says to kill your enemies wherever they are.
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