Aiding IS earns man 6 years in prison

A Columbus man who tried to provide material support to the Islamic State group was sentenced Friday to more than six years in prison.

Aaron Travis Daniels, 21, of the Northeast Side, pleaded guilty last July to charges of attempting to support a foreign terrorist organization. In addition to an 80-month prison sentence, Daniels also will spend the rest of his life under court supervision, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Daniels was arrested on Nov. 7, 2016, at John Glenn Columbus International Airport as he tried to travel to Libya to join Islamic State.

Daniels, a 2014 graduate of Early College Academy, had met with an Islamic State recruiter in December 2015 and had sent money to the terrorist group to “show his worth,” the Justice Department said.

Daniels, who has been in custody since his arrest, faced up to 20 years in prison.

“One of a terrorist organization’s most valuable and dangerous assets is having control over a person willing to support and advance terrorism in the United States,” U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman said in a news release. “Our office and the agencies in the (Joint Terrorism Task Force) will continue to cooperate as we work to protect our national security.”

U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr. accepted the government’s recommendation on sentencing and ordered that Daniels, after he is released, receive continued mentalhealth treatment and be barred from traveling abroad or using alcohol or other drugs. Daniels also cannot use the internet without court permission and is subject to being searched at any time without probable cause.

Daniels’ sentencing comes less than a week after the arrest of an Ohio man the FBI said had planned a Fourth of July attack in Cleveland while thinking he was working with the terrorist group al-Qaida.