National Guard soldier cousin arrested, Plotted attack on IL military facility, Fight for ISIS, Aurora Illinois cousins, Hasan and Jonas Edmonds, FBI undercover

From the Chicago Tribune March 26, 2015.

“Feds: National Guard soldier, cousin plotted to attack Illinois military facility, fight for ISIS”

“Two Aurora cousins — one an Illinois National Guardsman — plotted to have one carry out a terrorist attack at a northern Illinois military facility while the other planned to fly overseas to fight with Islamic State, federal authorities alleged Thursday.

Hasan Edmonds, 22, an Army National Guard specialist, was arrested Wednesday night at Midway Airport as he attempted to fly to Cairo to wage violence on behalf of Islamic State, according to authorities.

Edmonds’ cousin, Jonas Edmonds, 29, planned to carry out an act of terrorism on U.S. soil after his cousin departed the country, authorities said.

Both cousins met with an undercover FBI employee and presented a plan to carry out an armed attack against an undisclosed U.S. military facility in northern Illinois where Hasan Edmonds had been training, the criminal complaint alleged.

Jonas Edmonds asked the undercover FBI employee to assist in the attack and said they would use Hasan Edmonds’ uniforms and inside knowledge on how to access the installation and target officers for attack, authorities charged.

Hasan Edmonds was assigned to Golf Company of the Joliet-based 634th Brigade Support Battalion, according to the National Guard. But the complaint does not name the facility the cousins plotted to attack.

In an online exchange on Jan. 30, Hasan Edmonds told the undercover agent that the best way to beat the U.S. and its army was to “break their will,” according to the complaint.

“With the U.S. no matter how many you kill they will keep coming unless the soldiers and the American public no longer have the will to fight,” Edmonds wrote, according to the complaint. “If we can break their spirits we will win.”

A woman who identified herself as Hasan’s sister and Jonas’ cousin said by phone Thursday that the FBI showed up Wednesday night at the family home in Aurora armed with a search warrant and removed computers from the address.”
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