Recently, a suspected terrorist in FBI detention has revealed his intentions after a seven-year federal investigation. The FBI expressed 28-year-old Anas Said admitted to plotting a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. The United States Attorney’s Office stated Said was captured on November 8 for trying to provide backing to the terrorist organisation, ISIS.
“We’ve taken a suspected terrorist off the streets of Houston, Texas,”
said Douglas Williams Jr. He is a special agent at the FBI.
Anas is charged with one count of trying to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq, a terrorist organization known as ISIS. Court documents allege Anas glorified ISIS’s use of violence and expressed a desire to operate violent attacks in the United States.
“By his admission, planning a terrorist raid on U.S. soil from his apartment here in southwest Houston,”
said Williams Jr.
Said has been on the radar of the FBI’s Houston’s Joint Terrorism Task Force since 2017. They said early examinations revealed Said frequently regarded ISIS literature and attempted to create ISIS propaganda.
“He held a deep affinity for high-ranking ISIS personnel and even ordered custom propaganda to outwardly show his support for ISIS,”
stated Williams Jr.
The FBI found multiple social media accounts they allege Said employed to display his support for ISIS. They also expressed that Said admitted to researching how to execute an attack on military recruiting centres, proposing his home as a sanctuary for ISIS operatives, and desiring to use explosives to commit a mass slaying in Houston.
In 2017, the FBI acquired a tip that Anas put in an order for two stickers that indicated support for ISIS, according to court documents. Documents state Anas was questioned four times for the purchases between January and May 2018. Anas claimed he started believing in ISIS’s ideology in 2015, after returning to the United States from Lebanon, where he lived with his family until 2014.
“He boasted that he would commit a 9/11-style attack if he only had the resources,”
stated Williams Jr.
FBI agents captured Anas when he was encountered by officials; they said he violently tossed his cell phone to smash it. After being Mirandized and arranging to speak with agents, Anas explained in great particular the level and extent of his backing for ISIS. Officials expressed Anas admitted he created, revised, and used various programs to make ISIS propaganda.
