The previously classified recordings of a soldier-turned domestic terrorist plotting to kill Illinois National Guardsmen have been released, providing the public with chilling video footage of the Islamic State sympathiser casually discussing how to best kill 150 of his own men.
24-year-old Hasan Edmonds was arrested eighteen months ago in connection to a plot aimed at the Joliet Armory, along with his cousin Jonas Edmonds. The two were recorded plotting the attack by an undercover FBI agent.
In the video, Hasan is seen in the back seat of a car, casually sipping from a soda as he gives details about the armory to the others in the vehicle.
“Stripes first,” he said to the occupants of the vehicle, meaning that the Non-Commissioned Officers were to be killed first to prevent an effective retaliation. “They have more time in service, a lot of them have been downrange before. They’re used to the buzz cracking by them.”
Hasan then warned the plotters that if infantry troops were expected to conduct drills on the day of the attack, they would likely be either clad in armor or have it nearby.
“A lot of the soldiers don’t come with their armor on,” he said. “The infantry- they like to walk around in it. So the thing to remember.. Usually, they can sustain about two slugs to the center mass.”
Hasan then made several (incorrect) observations concerning the ballistics of the types of ammunition to be used in the attack, as well as discussing tactics in how to deal with human waves of defenders.
“They aint have no weapon, they not soldiers like that to run into that with nothing,” he said. “They’re not like us… Them? Different caliber of so-called “soldier.”
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Jonas Edmonds planned on wearing a pair of his cousin’s fatigues during the assault and both men pleaded guilty to their role in the plot in December of last year after being busted by the FBI.
“Thank God the FBI was there to stop him,” said Assistant US Attorney Barry Jonas, waving a the pair of fatigues in front of Lee.
Hasan Edmonds was silent before his sentencing, saying nothing but, “I believe I’ve said everything I need to say.” His cousin, however, attempted to plead his way out of his sentence, saying that he would never have participated in the attack, only volunteering to provide transportation. In December of last year, he admitted to planning on wearing the uniform during the attack.
Hasan Edmonds’ father Lieukennye Edmonds, told reporters that the cousins were set up by the FBI and would never have attacked the base. Hasan followed his father into the Muslim faith, but the elder Edmonds denounced any act of violence in the name of Islam.
“No Muslim, no believer in the creator, is gonna strap on a dynamite vest, is gonna drive a plane into a building,” Lieukennye Edmonds said. “Anyone who plots, plans, schemes, devises to hurt, maim and kill people, that person is not Muslim.”
During a court session on Tuesday, it was revealed that the video evidence had been withheld from the National Guard for fear of a leak.
On Tuesday, Sergeant First Class Thomas Sherman confronted Hasan Edmonds in a federal courtroom after watching the video.
“I am so disappointed in you,” he said, calling Hasan “naive” and telling him that the Islamic State would have just strapped a bomb to the aspiring martyr’s chest. He then asked Edmonds if he fantasized over killing the soldiers who considered him a friend.
“You failed, all right?” Sherman said. “We are better than you.”
After the NCO’s chilling response was uttered in the courtroom, Hasan Edmonds was sentenced to 30 years in prison as -or at least how US District Judge John Z. Lee put it- a “clear and unequivocal message” to all service members who wish to betray their countrymen. His cousin received 21 years.
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