Suicide Bomb Plot at Kansas Military Base: U.S. Army Recruit Charged

A 20-year-old man from Topeka, Kansas who was recruited by the U.S. Army in February last year was charged Friday with plotting to explode a bomb at a military base and provide help to the Islamic State extremist group occupying parts of Syria and Iraq.

John Booker Jr., also known as Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, was arrested on Friday near Manhattan, Kansas, just as he completed final preparations to detonate a car bomb targeting U.S. military personnel at Fort Riley, according to the Justice Department.

Booker was charge with one count of attempting to use explosives, one count of attempting to damage property using an explosive and one count of attempting to provide material support to ISIS.

He was scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree in a Topeka federal court Friday.

Booker's friend, Alexander Blair, 28, was also charged with a felony Friday. He allegedly lent Booker money that he used to pay for his storage, according to KCTV.

Court documents showed that Blair admitted that he knew of Booker's bomb plot but failed to alert authorities.

According to the complaint, Booker was recruited by the U.S. Army in February last year and was scheduled to undergo basic training on April 7 the same year.

Booker posted on Facebook on March 15, 2014, that "I will soon be leaving you forever so goodbye! I'm going to wage jihad and hopes that i die."

Four days later, he posted on Facebook "Getting ready to be killed in jihad is a HUGE adrenaline rush!! I am so nervous. NOT because I'm scared to die but I am eager to meet my lord."

The F.B.I. became aware of his posts and the following day, Booker was interviewed by F.B.I. agents to whom he "admitted that he enlisted in the United States Army with the intent to commit an insider attack against American soldiers like Major Nidal Hassan had done at Fort Hood, Texas."

Booker was denied entry into the U.S. military.

"I want to assure the public there was never any breach of Fort Riley Military Base, nor was the safety or the security of the base or its personnel ever at risk," said F.B.I. Special Agent in Charge Jackson.

Booker is alleged to have spent months discussing multiple plans before deciding on a plan that involved the execution of a suicide bombing mission.

He allegedly told another person "that detonating a suicide bomb is his number one aspiration because he couldn't be captured, all evidence would be destroyed, and he would be guaranteed to hit his target."

He was targeting Fort Riley "because the post is famous and there are a lot of soldiers stationed there," the complaint said.

Booker started gathering materials in making an explosive last month.

Booker allegedly told an F.B.I. confidential agent that his aim was to "scare this country" and to tell the people that "we will be coming after American soldiers in the streets . . . we will be picking them off one by one."

The components of the bomb that were purchased were kept in a rented storage unit Booker rented.

If convicted, Booker would face a maximum penalty of life in prison.