The recently arrested, allegedly pro-ISIS U.S. soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Ikaika Kang, was known to make arguments sympathetic to radical Islamic terrorists as early as in 2011, the Associated Press reports.
Kang’s troubling behavior reportedly began after a deployment to Iraq in 2010. Upon his return, Kang was reprimanded for making pro-radical Islamic terrorism comments and making threats against other service members. These repeated death threats and troubling behavior led to the revoking of his security clearance in 2012.
Despite repeated red flags, Kang was re-deployed to Afghanistan in July 2013.
Kang was arrested Saturday on charges of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. The FBI reportedly found nearly 2000 pieces of pro-ISIS propaganda on Kang’s computer and even sent an undercover officer to his military base to investigate him. A CD containing classified U.S. military information was also found amongst his belonging.
“[He] discussed the possibility of joining ISIS and fighting for ISIS. He told [the undercover agent at Fort Rucker] ‘people still say it’s illegal to join them but the way I look at it they are just fighting the people who are committing genocide there. I’m just going to go there…and fight these guys who are committing genocide,” an FBI affidavit read after Kang’s arrest.
Kang also reportedly told others he was researching “the most effective and painful ways people had been tortured,” and at one point expressed willingness to pour DRANO into a man’s eyes who had revoked his civilian air trafficker controller license.
He told other soldiers recently he would not shoot at ISIS fighters if sent back to Iraq, believed that the Sept. 11 attacks were an inside job by the U.S. government, and at one point said “America is the only terrorist organization in the world.”
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