Minneapolis:
A U.S. man was charged Friday with tweeting threats against FBI agents after the arrest of a friend on charges of conspiring to help the Islamic State group, and authorities allege the man had hopes himself of traveling to Syria.
Khaalid Adam Abdulkadir, 19, posted the threats on his Twitter account following the arrest Wednesday of his friend, Abdirizak Mohamed Warsame, 20, according to the criminal complaint. He was charged with one felony count of impeding and retaliating against a federal law enforcement officer. FBI agents arrested Abdulkadir on Friday.
Abdulkadir posted two separate tweets containing threats, according to court papers. One included the words "kill them FBI." The other included, "I'm kill them FEDS for take my brothers." While the tweets had been removed by Thursday morning, investigators obtained screen shots before they were deleted.
Magistrate Judge Becky Thorson ordered Abdulkadir held without bail until his next hearing Wednesday. She granted his request for a federal defender after he said his income is just $1,200 a month and he has only about $56 in the bank. He did not say where he works or in what kind of job.
Federal defender Shannon Elkins, who represented Abdulkadir during the brief hearing, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on his behalf.
"While there are many legitimate means in the United States to voice dissent and difference of opinion with our government, threatening violent retaliation against federal agents is both illegal and outrageous," U.S. Attorney Andy Luger said in a statement.
Abdulkadir has been on investigators' radar for some time, an attached affidavit from an FBI agent indicates. The affidavit alleges that Abdulkadir was in contact via Twitter's direct messaging function with another U.S. man, Mohamed Abdullahi Hassan, who left in 2008 to join the extremist group al-Shabab in Somalia and was known for tweeting jihadist comments.
The messages they exchanged in January indicated Abdulkadir was interested in getting to Syria, the affidavit says. The State Department said Monday that Hassan had turned himself in to authorities in Somalia on Nov. 6. Hassan has claimed he was captured.
The affidavit also says Abdulkadir exchanged messages via Facebook in May 2015 with Abdi Nur, a U.S. man who traveled to Syria a year earlier to fight for the group, and showed "an aspiration" by Abdulkadir to travel to Syria to be with him.