A Jordanian immigrant was arrested Wednesday for trying to fly overseas to join ISIS, according to a federal criminal complaint.
Laith Waleed Alebbini is a citizen of Jordan who came to the U.S. in 2014 as a legal permanent resident. He was arrested by law enforcement when he was attempting to fly from Cincinnati, Ohio, in a trip that would take him to Jordan.
Alebbini had been living in Dayton, Ohio, before the arrest and was caught in an FBI investigation that involved a confidential informant. This makes him the fifth individual to be arrested in 2017 for supporting ISIS. (RELATED: Two Illinois ISIS Devotees Arrested By FBI)
The criminal complaint said that Alebbini had previously been arrested in January 2017 for unlawful entry into the Turkish embassy in Washington. After that arrest, he was interviewed by the FBI and Secret Service, in which Alebbini admitted to watching ISIS propaganda videos and said he was “the perfect recruit for ISIS.”
He said that he had broken into the embassy to speak with the Turkish ambassador and added that if he had a bomb on him, “I swear to God, three embassies would have gone down.” Later in recorded conversations with the confidential informant in Ohio, Alebbini expressed hope that ISIS will invade Jordan and “cut off the head of King Abdullah.”
According to the complaint, Alebbini also told the confidential informant that “the right place to be, from a religious point of view, is with ISIS.” The complaint also mentioned an unnamed illegal immigrant who spoke to Alebbini about ISIS.
Alebbini is being charged with attempting to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization.
CORRECTION: Alebbini is Jordanian not Lebanese.