U.S. soldier pleads guilty to trying to help IS

HONOLULU — A soldier based in Hawaii pleaded guilty Wednesday to trying to help the Islamic State group, 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, 35, handcuffed and wearing a beige prison jumpsuit, spoke in a clear voice when he told a U.S. magistrate judge he’s 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. Attorney Ken Sorenson described other support he provided to undercover agents Kang believed were part of the Islamic State group, 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 believed were part of the Islamic State, he swore loyalty to the group in Arabic and English and kissed an Islamic State flag given to him by a purported ISIS sheikh, Sorenson said.

He then said he wanted to get his rifle and fight — “just go to downtown Honolulu and Waikiki strip and start shooting,” prosecutors said in a news release announcing the plea.

After that, FBI agents arrested him.

“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 won’t charge him with additional crimes, including violations of the espionage act, other terrorism-related laws and federal firearms statutes.