A former National Guard soldier was arrested due to an alleged ISIS-inspired plot to carry out a mass shooting at a military base.
Ammar Said, 19, was charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and distributing information related to a destructive device, U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. announced. Said faces 20 years in prison for each count if convicted.
He detailed his plans to two undercover law enforcement officers, whom he thought he had enlisted to help carry out his plan on behalf of ISIS, according to the Department of Justice.
The former National Guardsman allegedly compiled a detailed attack plan targeting the U.S. Army’s Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command facility at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren, Michigan, according to the department’s release. He is said to have provided armor-piercing ammunition and magazines, trained the undercover agents on firearms and the construction of Molotov cocktails, and detailed an attack route.
Said first planned to conduct reconnaissance with his personal drone, the DOJ said, and he was arrested while carrying out this first step on Tuesday. He made his first appearance in a U.S. district court Wednesday afternoon.
“ISIS is a brutal terrorist organization which seeks to kill Americans. Helping ISIS or any other terrorist organization prepare or carry out acts of violence is not only a reprehensible crime — it is a threat to our entire nation and way of life. Our office will not tolerate such crimes or threats, and we will use the full weight of the law against anyone who engages in terrorism,” Gorgon said.
“The arrest of this former soldier is a sobering reminder of the importance of our counterintelligence efforts to identify and disrupt those who would seek to harm our nation,” Brig. Gen. Rhett Cox, commanding general of Army Counterintelligence Command, said. “I commend the tireless work of our special agents and FBI partners who worked together to investigate and apprehend this individual. We will continue to collaborate with our partners to prevent similar incidents in the future.”
“We urge all soldiers to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to their chain of command, as the safety and security of our Army and our nation depends on our collective efforts to prevent insider threats,” he added.
According to TACOM’s website, it runs the ground equipment supply chain, which makes up roughly 60% of the Army’s total equipment.
According to court filings obtained by Detroit News, the investigation into Said began in June when he began communicating with an FBI agent posing as an ISIS supporter.
“Said described his longstanding desire to engage in violent jihad, either by traveling to ISIS-held territory abroad or by carrying out an attack in the United States,” an FBI special agent wrote in an affidavit.
The FBI was able to search his phone in July when he briefly relinquished it to board a military plane as part of his National Guard duties. They found messages expressing a desire to “go for Jihad,” sent to someone in the Palestinian territories in October 2023 and his membership in multiple Telegram group chats showing sympathy for ISIS.
In October, he sent a video in front of an ISIS flag pledging allegiance to the group to the undercover agents. He first aimed to travel to ISIS-held territory before settling on an attack against the TACOM facility.
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In another recorded call with the agents, Said acknowledged that the attack would mean certain death.
“It’s a military base, I just want you to know this, this is, there’s no coming out,” he said. “It’s a one-way entrance.”