FBI arrests Afghan man in Oklahoma for allegedly plotting election day attack

The FBI arrested an Afghan man who officials say was inspired by the Islamic State militant organization and was plotting an election day attack targeting large crowds in the US, the justice department said.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City told investigators after his arrest on Monday that he had planned his attack to coincide with election day next month and that he and a co-conspirator expected to die as martyrs, according to charging documents.

Tawhedi, who arrived in the US in September 2021, had taken steps in recent weeks to advance his attack plans, including by ordering AK-47 rifles, liquidating his family’s assets and buying one-way tickets for his wife and child to travel home to Afghanistan, officials said.

The arrest comes as the FBI confronts heightened concerns over the possibility of extremist violence on US soil, with director Christopher Wray telling the Associated Press in August that he was “hard pressed to think of a time in my career where so many different kinds of threats are all elevated at once.”

“Terrorism is still the FBI’s number one priority, and we will use every resource to protect the American people,” Wray said in a statement on Tuesday.

An FBI affidavit does not reveal precisely how Tawhedi came onto investigators’ radar, but cites what it says is evidence from recent months showing his determination in planning an attack. A photograph from July included in the affidavit depicts a man investigators identified as Tawhedi reading to two young children, including his daughter, “a text that describes the rewards a martyr receives in the afterlife”.

Officials say Tawhedi also consumed IS propaganda, contributed to a charity that functions as a front for the militant group and communicated with a person who the FBI determined from a prior investigation was involved in recruitment and indoctrination of people interested in extremism. He also viewed webcams for the White House and the Washington Monument in the capital in July.

Tawhedi’s alleged co-conspirator was not identified by the justice department, which described him only as a juvenile, a fellow Afghan national and the brother of Tawhedi’s wife.

After the two advertised the sale of personal property on Facebook, the FBI enlisted an informant last month to respond to the offer and strike up a relationship. The informant later invited them to a gun range, where they ordered weapons from an undercover FBI official who was posing as a business partner of the informant, according to court papers.

Tawhedi was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the IS, which is designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organization. The charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. He appeared in court on Tuesday and was ordered detained.

It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.