US says detainee studied in Louisiana, became IS fighter
WASHINGTON — He was an unruly college student in Louisiana where he mixed booze and gambling with classes on electrical engineering. A decade later, he was guarding an Islamic State oil field in Syria and storing bomb-making files and military handbooks on thumb drives.
This still-unidentified dual American-Saudi citizen, who’s been detained by the U.S. military in Iraq for nearly five months, has become a test case for how the government should treat U.S. citizens picked up on the battlefield and accused of fighting with IS militants.
U.S. authorities say that when he surrendered in mid-September to U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, he was carrying thumb drives containing thousands of files. There were 10,000 or more photos — some depicting pages of military-style manuals. There were files on how to make specific types of improvised explosive devices and bombs. There also were nearly a dozen spreadsheets in Arabic, including one, dated Nov. 11, 2016 titled: “Islamic State Spoils and Booty Bureau.”
The government made its case against the detainee in a public version of a sealed document filed late Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. It said he voluntarily signed up to be an IS fighter, worked for the group for 31 months and has an extensive social media history espousing pro-IS philosophy.