Second American Arrested for Aiding ISIS

A Colorado woman was arrested in April for attempting to join up with ISIS, according to CNN.

Shannon Maureen Conley, 19, allegedly told FBI agents before her arrest that she was going to be with a member of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, that she had met through the Internet.

“It’s a difficult time for us,” her mother, Ana Conley, told CNN on Wednesday.

Conley’s attorney, Robert William Pepin, said he had no comment.

His client was arrested on a jetway while trying to board a flight to Germany on April 8, according to a criminal complaint. She told investigators she was going to Turkey to await word from her suitor.

Conley, a certified nurse aide, had told FBI agents she was going to be the man’s wife and a nurse in a ISIS camp near the Turkish border, documents showed.

Conley is the second American known to have been arrested in the course of attempting to leave the country to go aid ISIS. The other is Michael Todd Wolfe of Austin, TX. The FBI arrested him in June as he attempted to leave the country to join up with ISIS in Syria.

The Daily Mail adds a wealth of detail about Conley. She apparently told investigators that she favors guerilla warfare “because she could do it alone.” She has also told investigators that she converted to Islam.

FBI agents have become aware of Conley’s communication with the foreign national and reached out to the 19-year-old and her parents, John and Ana Conley, urging her not to go to Syria, NBC reported.

But according to a federal official, Conley could not be dissuaded. He added that the 19-year-old suffers from mental problems.

Mr Conley told agents that his daughter described jihad to him as a struggle to help the poor and the downtrodden, but she herself had been plagued by doubts about what was expected of her as a Muslim woman.

‘She conceded her knowledge of Islam was based solely on her own research that she conducted on the Internet,’ the affidavit said.

She had reportedly changed her name to “Halima” and started wearing Islamic dress.

Investigators found CDs in her luggage that were labeled “Anwar al-Awlaki.” He was the cleric who exorted Americans to attack within the United States. Nidal Hassan took Awlaki up on that, and went on a murderous rampage at Fort Hood, Texas. The Obama administration continues to label Hassan’s massacre as “workplace violence,” not terrorism.