ISIS-Inspired Kansas Man Pleads Guilty To Plotting To Blow Up Military Base

Casey Harper

A Kansas man pleaded guilty Wednesday to an Islamic State-inspired plot to bomb a military base.

John T. Booker Jr., 21, planned to detonate a vehicle bomb at Fort Riley military base in Manhattan, Kan., in April of 2015 in the name of ISIS. Agents arrested him following a months-long investigation.

“If this defendant had succeeded, American soldiers would have died,” U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said in a statement.

Booker planned to die in the explosion but not before leaving behind a video message supporting Jihad. Booker made a video praising the Islamic State that was supposed to be his last words after he died in the attack.

“You sit in your homes and think this war is just over in Iraq,” Booker says in the video.  “Today we will bring the Islamic State straight to your doorstep.”

According to the DOJ, the FBI started investigating Booker in March of 2014 after he made comments on social media supportive of Jihad. FBI informants began working with Booker as he planned the attack and documented as he went through every step of preparing for the attack. An undercover FBI agent provided him with a fake bomb and drove him to the base in April of 2015 but arrested Booker as soon as he armed the fake bomb.

Booker pleaded guilty to one count of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and one count of attempted destruction of government property by fire or explosion. His lawyers agreed to 30 years in prison.

“John Booker admitted that he intended to kill U.S. military personnel on American soil in the name of ISIL,” Assistant Attorney General John P. Carlin said in a statement.  “Thankfully, law enforcement was able to safely identify and disrupt this threat to the brave men and women who risk their lives to defend our country.

An Illinois man pleaded guilty to a similar ISIS-inspired plot in December of last year.

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