A New York man is facing up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State.
Zachary Clark, 41, pleaded guilty to the crime in Manhattan federal court on Monday. Investigators say Clark posted information about how to carry out lone-wolf terrorist attacks and had twice pledged allegiance to ISIS.
Clark, who went by a number of aliases online, was first arrested in 2019 after an investigation by the FBI. According to investigators, Clark began disseminating ISIS propaganda through encrypted messaging chatrooms at least since March 2019.
In August 2019, the FBI said that Clark posted a step-by-step guide on how to carry out a lone-wolf terrorist attack. He also posted a manual titled “Knife Attacks,” which said that discomfort at “the thought of plunging a sharp object into another person’s flesh” is “never an excuse for abandoning jihad.”
“Knives, though certainly not the only weapon for inflicting harm upon the kuffar are widely available in every land and thus readily accessible,” the manual read, using the Arabic phrase to refer to nonbelievers.
“Clark urged the participants in encrypted chatrooms to attack specific targets, posting maps and images of the New York City subway system and encouraging ISIS supporters to attack those locations,” the Justice Department said in a Monday news release. He additionally posted a guide called “Make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom.”
New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea hailed the work that federal and local authorities did to bring Clark to justice.
“The defendant, by trying to support a designated foreign terrorist organization, represents the way New York City remains a top terrorist target. I commend the work of the NYPD investigators, the FBI agents, and the prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District in bringing this case,” Shea said in a statement.
Clark’s sentencing is set for Feb. 9, 2021.
