Man Suspected of Trying To Join Terrorists Pulled from Flight at JFK Airport
There’s one less potential terrorist headed to the Taliban.
A New York man suspected of terrorist sympathies was pulled out of line when he was about to board an airplane at New York’s JFK Airport, numerous news reports said Friday.
The arrest resulted from an FBI investigation that involved keeping the man “under constant surveillance,” WPIX-TV reported.
The unidentified man was described as a 34-year-old who was born in Bangladesh but has become a naturalized citizen, WPIX reported.
The Qatar-bound Qatar Airways Flight 704 was due to leave JFK at 11:05 a.m., and the man was on the jetway leading to the plane when he was apprehended, WPIX reported.
He was expected to be arraigned in federal court.
According to the New York Post, the Bronx man’s case was being investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Bronx man arrested at JFK Airport for plotting to join Taliban https://t.co/3xxq8zPSGY pic.twitter.com/Zm1g81zixB
— New York Post (@nypost) July 26, 2019
The arrest comes at a time when the Afghan militant group, which has been battling the U.S. military since it was toppled from power by the U.S. invasion that followed the 9/11 attacks, is near a deal with the Trump administration, according to Bloomberg.
American and Taliban negotiators have been meeting in Doha, Qatar — the same city where the suspect arrested Friday was headed.
The Taliban says it’s nearing a peace deal with the U.S. to bring an end to foreign military presence in Afghanistan https://t.co/bvmseIdTDf
— Bloomberg (@business) July 26, 2019
“We are getting close,” Taliban spokesman Mohammad Suhail Shaheen told Bloomberg in a telephone interview Thursday.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in Afghanistan for an unannounced visit Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported.
He projected a peace deal could be reached by the end of the summer.
“I hope we have a peace deal before Sept. 1,” Pompeo said, according to the newspaper.
The U.S. and Taliban teams are negotiating in Qatar because the Taliban refuses to recognize the American-backed government in Kabul.
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