A George Mason University student who is allegedly obsessed with martyrdom and ISIS was arrested and accused of plotting an attack on the Israeli consulate in New York City, officials said Friday.
Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan violated federal codes against distributing information on weapons in furtherance of a violent crime and planning to kill a foreign official, according to a complaint filed on Monday by FBI Special Agent Tyler Ellefson.
The suspect is a GMU freshman majoring in information technology, the school said.
"Although the student did not live on campus, he has been barred from entering university property," GMU Vice President Paul Allvin said in a statement to NBC News on Friday. "As criminal proceedings progress, the university will take appropriate action on student code of conduct violations."
Hassan, who lives in Falls Church, Virginia, first came to the FBI's attention on May 4 this year, when Fairfax County police notified federal authorities about someone engaging in “radical and terrorist-leaning behavior" on social media, according to the affidavit supporting the suspect's arrest.
Investigators eventually linked that X user to Hassan, who was then contacted by an FBI informant, a "confidential human source" called "CH-1" in court papers.
Hassan sent the informant "a pro-ISIS video that called for the killing of Jews" and the agent "responded to this video by pledging allegiance to the leader of ISIS and calling Hassan his emir," the court papers said.
The informant said he couldn't travel overseas to join ISIS and wondered if god "wants me to act here," according to the FBI.
That's when Hassan allegedly recruited "CH-1 to conduct a mass casualty attack" on U.S. soil.
When that undercover agent told Hassan that he was in New York City, the suspect called the five boroughs "a goldmine of targets," the affidavit said.
The suspect gave the agent "operational support" on the "manufacture and use of an explosive device" for "the planned attack on the Consulate General of Israel" in New York City, federal authorities said.
"He said CH-1 could either murder people at the consulate with an assault rifle or detonate an explosive vest while standing in a group of targets," Ellefson wrote.
As they hatched the plot, Hassan told the informant "to 'schedule a flight out of the country' and that it should be to 'somewhere where there are no extradition laws,'” federal officials said.
A court-appointed attorney for Hassan could not be immediately reached for comment on Friday.
