Soldier is guilty of trying to help terrorists
HONOLULU — A soldier based in Hawaii pleaded guilty Wednesday to trying to help Islamic State, telling a judge he provided secret military information, a drone meant to track U.S. troops and other support to undercover agents he believed were members of the terrorist organization.
Sgt. 1st Class Ikaika Kang, handcuffed and wearing a prison jumpsuit, spoke in a clear voice when he told a U.S. magistrate judge that he was guilty of all four counts against him.
“Your honor, I provided unclassified, classified documents to the Islamic State,” Kang said, adding that he also provided the drone.
He agreed when Assistant U.S. Atty. Ken Sorenson described other support he provided to undercover agents that Kang believed were part of Islamic State, also known as ISIS.
By at least early 2016, Kang became sympathetic to the group, Sorenson said. The FBI gathered information from sources he knew, worked with or lived with when it opened an investigation in August 2016, Sorenson said.
Kang provided voluminous, digital documents that included sensitive information including the U.S. military’s weapons file, details about a sensitive mobile airspace management system, various military manuals and documents containing personal information about U.S. service members, Sorenson said.
Trained as an air traffic controller with a secret security clearance, Kang also provided documents including call signs, mission procedures and radio frequencies, “all of which would have been helpful to ISIS,” Sorenson said.
At one of the meetings with agents, Kang swore allegiance to Islamic State in Arabic and English and kissed an Islamic State flag given to him by a purported ISIS sheik, Sorenson said.
“He was clearly enticed, but the law of entrapment is quite complex and often very difficult for the defense to prove,” Kang’s defense attorney, Birney Bervar, said after the hearing.
In exchange for Kang’s guilty plea, prosecutors said, they wouldn’t charge him with additional crimes, including violations of the Espionage Act, other terrorism-related laws and federal firearms statutes.
He is set to get 25 years in prison as part of a plea deal when he is sentenced Dec. 10. He could have received a life sentence if convicted at trial.