NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A 41-year-old Brooklyn man pled guilty on Monday to attempting to provide material support to ISIS, which included uploading various instructional manuals online explaining how to conduct lone-wolf attacks in New York City — including one called "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom."
Zachary Clark, who pled guilty in Manhattan Federal Court, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on February 9, 2021, at 12:00 p.m.
Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement, "As he admitted in court today, Zachary Clark pledged allegiance to ISIS and posted calls for attacks on the public and institutions in New York on encrypted pro-ISIS chatrooms. He also posted detailed instructions for carrying out those violent acts. Thanks to the Joint Terrorism Task Force, Clark's efforts to incite deadly violence on behalf of ISIS have been silenced, and he now awaits sentencing for his crimes."
Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers said, "Having pledged allegiance to ISIS, Clark provided specific instructions for how to conduct attacks in New York City, instructing others on knifing and bomb-making. We must remain vigilant to the threat of terrorism. We must remain committed to identifying and holding accountable those who threaten our communities because of their support for foreign terrorist organizations."
According to the allegations in the indictment, complaint, other court filings, and statements made during court proceedings, Clark "posted instructions about how to conduct a lone-wolf attack, including directions on how to select an attack target, how to conduct preoperational surveillance, how to conduct operational planning, and how to avoid attracting law enforcement attention when preparing for and conducting the attack," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release.
The release continued, "On another occasion, he posted a manual entitled 'Knife Attacks,' which stated, among other things, that discomfort at 'the thought of plunging a sharp object into another person's flesh' is 'never an excuse for abandoning jihad' and that '[k>nives, though certainly not the only weapon for inflicting harm upon the kuffar [non-believers>, are widely available in every land and thus readily accessible.'"
The release continued, "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. CLARK's guidance also included posting a manual entitled 'Make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom,' which was issued by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and included detailed instructions about constructing bombs using readily available materials."
