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Federal officials have arrested a citizen of Afghanistan who was living in Oklahoma and allegedly was plotting an Election Day attack in the United States in the name of the terrorist organization the Islamic State.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, is charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State and receiving a firearm to be used to commit a crime, the Justice Department said. He made his initial appearance in federal court in Oklahoma City on Tuesday.
According to the criminal complaint, Tawhedi conspired with a juvenile - his wife’s younger brother - to carry out the planned attack. He allegedly confirmed to law enforcement officials after his arrest that he planned to target large gatherings of people on Nov. 5, the date of the U.S. presidential election, and that he and his brother-in-law planned to die as martyrs during the attack.
Tawhedi took numerous steps toward carrying out the attack, according to the criminal complaint. He allegedly obtained firearms and started liquidating some of his family assets, including an apartment and two cars. That money was intended to help resettle his family, which included a young child, in Afghanistan.
Federal officials say they arrested Tawhedi and his brother-in-law on Monday after the two met up with a confidential FBI source in rural Oklahoma. That person allegedly sold them two AK-47 rifles, 10 magazines and ammunition to be used in their attack. Officials did not release the name of the brother-in-law, who is a juvenile, or the charges he may face.
Tawhedi originally connected with the FBI source in September after the source reached out on Facebook asking to purchase a laptop Tawhedi had listed for sale, according to the complaint. When they met, the source said he was started a gun-manufacturing business, prompting Tawhedi to reach back out to purchase the weapons.
"As charged, the Justice Department foiled the defendant’s plot to acquire semiautomatic weapons and commit a violent attack in the name of ISIS on U.S. soil on Election Day," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
According to the criminal complaint, the FBI searched Tawhedi’s phone and found that he communicated online with a person whom he apparently believed facilitated recruitment for the Islamic State.
Tawhedi also allegedly had Islamic State propaganda saved on his phone, googled how to obtain a firearm without a license in the United States and went online to access the White House and Washington Monument webcams, the complaint says.
Both Tawhedi and his brother-in-law entered the United States on special immigration visas, according to federal officials.
"This defendant, motivated by ISIS, allegedly conspired to commit a violent attack, on Election Day, here on our homeland," said FBI Director Christopher A. Wray. "I am proud of the men and women of the FBI who uncovered and stopped the plot before anyone was harmed. Terrorism is still the FBI’s number one priority, and we will use every resource to protect the American people."
The arrests come just over a month after U.S. officials announced that they foiled an attack against Jewish people that was expected to be carried out in New York on Oct. 7, the first anniversary of the Hamas attack in southern Israel. The Justice Department said on Sept. 6 that it had arrested a 20-year-old Pakistani citizen who was living in Canada and allegedly planned to carry out a mass shooting at a Jewish center in Brooklyn.