Virginia man faces terror charges

Associated Press

ALEXANDRIA, Va.

A Virginia man has been charged with attempting to assist the Islamic State by photographing targets in the Washington, D.C., area for what he thought would be a video encouraging lone-wolf terrorist attacks in the nation’s capital.

Haris Qamar, 25, of Burke is the second person this week from the northern Virginia suburbs to be charged at the federal courthouse in Alexandria with attempting to support the Islamic State.

At an initial appearance Friday, a magistrate ordered that Qamar be held pending a detention hearing scheduled for Wednesday, and that he receive a court-appointed lawyer.

Qamar came to authorities’ attention through Twitter posts about supporting terrorist attacks that appeared under variations of the handle “newerajihadi,” court documents show.

According to an affidavit, the FBI set up a sting operation in which Qamar worked with an informant last month to film landmarks, including the Pentagon, that could be targeted for attacks. The informant recorded Qamar saying “bye-bye DC” as he filmed the Pentagon. He went on to say that he hates the United States and gets a “burning sensation in my body because this place is so disgusting.”

Qamar told the informant that filming and photographing targets that the Islamic State could use in a video to urge lone-wolf attacks made him a true supporter of the group and more than just a “fanboy,” according to the affidavit.

Qamar is a U.S. citizen born in Brooklyn, according to the affidavit, which also said Qamar tried to join the Islamic State in 2014 but was thwarted because his father had possession of Qamar’s passport and threatened to turn his son in to authorities if he persisted. Travel records show that Qamar had gone as far as buying a ticket to Istanbul in that time frame, according to the affidavit.

In an interview Friday afternoon, Qamar’s father, Qamar Abbas, said his son was arrested Friday morning at the family home. Abbas said the FBI agents handcuffed him during a search of the home, and he quickly realized from the agents’ demeanor why his son had been arrested.