HONOLULU — An active duty soldier based in Hawaii pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State group, helped purchase a drone for it to use against American forces and said he wanted to use his rifle to “kill a bunch of people,” according to an FBI affidavit.
Ikaika Kang, a sergeant first class in the U.S. Army, made an initial appearance Monday in federal court in Honolulu. He was arrested Saturday on terrorism charges.
Paul Delacourt, the FBI special agent in charge of the Hawaii bureau, said no documents made it to the Islamic State.
Birney Bervar, Kang’s appointed attorney, said after Kang’s initial court appears that he still doesn’t know much about the case. He said he only talked to Kang for a few minutes.
The defense attorney for a U.S. soldier arrested on terrorism charges says it appears his client may suffer from service-related mental health issues of which the government was aware but neglected to treat.
Lawyer Birney Bervar said Monday Sgt. 1st Class Ikaika Kang was a decorated veteran of two deployments.
The FBI arrested the 34-year-old on Saturday after a yearlong investigation. Investigators say Kang pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and helped purchase a drone for the organization to use against American forces.
Kang made his first appearance in federal court on Monday on terrorism charges. He will face a detention hearing Thursday.
Kang enlisted in the Army in December 2001, just months after the Sept. 11 attacks. He served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 26-page affidavit from FBI Special Agent Jimmy Chen lays out details of the yearlong investigation into the 34-year-old soldier, who was a one-time martial arts fighter who thought he was dealing with Islamic State agents but were undercover agents or sources instead.
Among the charges was that Kang copied military secret documents in 2015 and wanted to provide them to the organization, according to the affidavit. It also Kang says admitted that he voluntarily pledged loyalty to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
This occurred on Saturday at a home in Honolulu, where he thought he was meeting an actual member of the organization, the affidavit says. They made combat training videos he believed would be taken back to the Middle East to help prepare the group’s soldiers to fight American forces, according to the affidavit.
Kang, who received extensive combat training, also helped purchase a drone that he believed would help Islamic State soldiers escape from American tanks, the affidavit says.
Kang, a trained air traffic controller based at Wheeler Army Airfield, had his military clearance revoked in 2012 for making pro-Islamic State comments while at work and on-post and threatening to hurt or kill fellow service members.
His clearance was reinstated a year later after he completed military requirements.
However, the affidavit says the Army believed Kang was becoming radicalized in 2016 and asked the FBI to investigate.
Kang has two firearms registered in his name, an AR-15-style assault rifle and a handgun. After the shooting last summer at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, he told an undercover source that the “shooter did what he had to do and later said that America is the only terrorist organization in the world,” according to the affidavit.
The document alleges he also later told the same source that “Hitler was right, saying he believed in the mass killing of Jews.”
Kang enlisted in the Army in December 2001, just months after the Sept. 11 attacks. He served in Iraq from March 2010 to February 2011 and Afghanistan from July 2013 to April 2014. Kang was assigned to the headquarters of the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade.
Baldor reported from Washington.