May 22--One of two Orange County men arrested by federal agents on terrorism charges was planning to travel to the Middle East to join the Islamic State, according to court filings filed Friday.
In a criminal complaint filed against Nader Elhuzayel and Muhanad Badawi, both 24, prosecutors accuse the pair of setting in motion a plan to realize their hopes to fight for the Islamic State, an extremist group battling against government forces in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere in the region.
The FBI first became aware of the pair from messages they posted on social media sites about the Islamic State, according to an FBI agent's affidavit included in the court filings. Federal agents listened in on phone conversations between the men and surveilled them over the last several weeks, the affidavit said.
In their phone calls, the men did little more than discuss their displeasure with life as Muslims in the U.S. and their wishes to join the Islamic State on the battlefield, the affidavit alleged. The pair also discussed wanting to die in battle as martyrs, the document said.
The affidavit, however, described their decision earlier this month to purchase a one-way plane ticket for Elhuzayel to fly to Turkey before continuing to Tel Aviv as evidence of "conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant."
Elhuzayel discussed with Badawi vague plans to visit Palestinian relatives living in the West Bank before finding a way to cross the border in Egypt in hopes of making his way to a battlefield, according to the affidavit.
Although the men talked about their hopes of reuniting someday as fighters, Badawi had no firm travel plans. However, because he paid for Elhuzayel's ticket, he too was criminally culpable, federal authorities argued in the filings.
Federal agents from a counter-terrorism task force intercepted Elhuzayel before he boarded a plane at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday afternoon. Badawi was taken into custody Thursday at an Anaheim gas station, an FBI spokeswoman said.
They are expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Orange County on Friday afternoon.
Elhuzayel's mother dismissed the allegations against her son as "impossible." Speaking on the phone, Falak Elhuzayel described her son as "a very good kid -- not the kind of person who would fit into this kind of category."
Falak Elhuzayel said she and her husband had dropped their son off at LAX on Thursday, confirming that he was preparing to board a flight to Istanbul and continue to Israel. The family, she said, is Palestinian and Nader was traveling to visit relatives who live in the West Bank.
In the early evening, federal agents raided the room at the Crystal Inn motel in Anaheim where Nader Elhuzayel has lived with his parents since the family declared bankruptcy and lost their house two years ago.
Falak Elhuzayel said a team of agents upended the room, confiscating a computer and boxes of files related to their legal battle to win their house back. The agents provided few details about the allegations against the men, she said, but asked her why her son had purchased a one-way ticket. She told them that he did not know how long he would remain in the West Bank and so had decided to buy a return ticket later.
Elhuzayel said agents showed her messages they claimed her son had exchanged with someone else. The messages, she said, were "nonsensical stuff" and made no mention of him wanting to travel to Syria or to any other country where the Islamic State and other extremist groups are waging battles against government forces.
One of six children, Nader Elhuzayel was born in the U.S. and has always lived in Orange County, his mother said. He has worked odd jobs as a gardener and at a supermarket.
Badawi and Nader Elhuzayel were friends when they were both enrolled at Cypress College three years ago, Falak Elhuzayel said. She has not seen Badawi since then but believed her son had remained in contact with him.
She described her son as "Muslim, but not very religious, just normal." Over the last year, he had become more observant, frequently attending Friday prayer services at a mosque in Anaheim, she said. She said her son was "a simple, gullible, nice kid," but the idea that he could have slipped into the realm of extremism was not possible, she said.
UPDATE
1:08 p.m.: This post has been updated to include details from records filed by prosecutors in federal court.
12:15 p.m.: This post has been updated with comments from the mother of one of the arrested men and information about the arrests.
9:09 a.m.: This post has been updated with the identities of the two suspects.
This story was originally posted at 10:48 p.m., May 21.
