Brooklyn ISIS Supporter Posted Dark Web Guides To NY Attacks: FBI

BROOKLYN, NY — A Brooklyn man who pledged his allegiance to ISIS used online chatrooms to call for attacks in New York City, posting instructions for making bombs and killing people with knives, officials announced Wednesday.

Zachary Clark, 40, was arrested Wednesday after investigators found out he had been supporting the Islamic State terrorist group for months online, encouraging and guiding fellow supporters about how to carry out attacks on Americans in New York City, prosecutors said.

Clark pledged his allegiance to ISIS' leaders twice this year and posted brutal messages on the dark web about how best to avoid getting caught when using knives or bombs to attack people, according to his criminal complaint.

"The thought of plunging a sharp object into another person’s flesh [is] never an excuse for abandoning jihad,” Clark wrote in one post titled "Knife Attacks. “[K]nives, though certainly not the only weapon for inflicting harm upon the kuffar [non-believers], are widely available in every land and thus readily accessible.”

In another message, Clark urged chatroom users to "make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom."

He then posted maps and images of the New York City subway system, encouraging ISIS supporters to attack those locations, prosecutors said.

Clark most recently pledged his allegiance to ISIS in October, when he pledged support to the terrorist group's new leader Abu Ibrahim al-Sashemi al-Qurayshi. He had previously pledged his allegiance in July to the former leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, prosecutors said.

The Brooklyn man is charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS and distributing information relating to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction, both of which carry maximum sentences of 20 years in prison.

“Today’s arrest in Brooklyn is a reminder that New York City remains a top terrorism target in the United States," NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill said. "The NYPD and all of our law-enforcement partners remain vigilant in this ongoing fight against terror and anyone who would plot to do us harm.”

The NYPD, the FBI, the Attorney General for National Security and U.S. Attorneys for the Southern District of New York all had a hand in bringing charges against Clark, who will face his first day in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday.

“As alleged, Clark championed his support for ISIS, disseminated hate-filled messages via encrypted chatrooms, and encouraged like-minded individuals to carry out vicious attacks in the name of jihad," FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. said.

"While today’s arrest reminds us that there are still people out there who embrace the idea of inflicting harm on others in this way, it also presents evidence of the dedication and resolve of the FBI’s JTTF here in New York who, along with our many partners, successfully confronts threats of this nature head-on, day in and day out.”