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25-year-old charged with attempt to help launch Islamic State terror attack

By Andrew V. Pestano
Robert Lorenzo Hester, 25, who was a U.S. Army soldier for less than a year, is facing charges of attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Hester is seen in this image after he was arrested in October following an incident at a grocery store. Photo courtesy of Boone County Sheriff's Department
Robert Lorenzo Hester, 25, who was a U.S. Army soldier for less than a year, is facing charges of attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Hester is seen in this image after he was arrested in October following an incident at a grocery store. Photo courtesy of Boone County Sheriff's Department

Feb. 23 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Justice has charged 25-year-old Robert Lorenzo Hester, who served in the U.S. Army for less than a year, with attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State.

Investigators accuse Hester of having a role in preparing to launch a terrorist attack with people whom he believed were militants with the Islamic State, also known as Daesh, ISIL and ISIS, but who were instead undercover law enforcement agents, the Justice Department said in a statement.

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Officials said undercover agents arrested Hester after setting up a meeting in which Hester was to provide roofing nails designed to be put inside pipe bombs that would "cut peoples' heads off," as an undercover agent told him.

"Oh yeah. I know," Hester said, suggesting he knew the nails would be used as shrapnel for pipe bombs, the Justice Department said.

"First on social media, then during face-to-face meetings with an undercover FBI employee, this defendant repeatedly expressed his intent to engage in acts of violent jihad against the United States," U.S. Attorney Tammy Dickson said in a statement. "He believed he was part of an ISIS-sponsored terrorist attack that would result in the deaths and injuries of many innocent victims. He readily participated in the preparations for an attack, provided materials and resources for an attack and voiced his intent to carry out an attack."

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Hester joined the U.S. Army in 2012 and received a general discharge less than a year later after facing several disciplinary issues. He was arrested in October for an incident in a Missouri grocery store where he threw a folded pocket knife through a plate-glass window after an argument with his wife.

"When store employees confronted Hester, he assumed an aggressive stance and forcefully placed his hand into the diaper bag he was carrying in a manner that appeared to be reaching for a weapon. Police officers later recovered a 9mm handgun from the diaper bag," the Justice Department said in a statement.

Authorities held Hester in custody for 10 days before he was released on bond. He was forced to wear an electronic monitor so he could be tracked. After his release, Hester continued to make plans with the undercover agents to carry out the attack, officials said. In January, Hester pleaded guilty to charges related to the grocery store incident.

In the undercover investigations, the agents told Hester that they planned something 10 times more damaging than the Boston Marathon bombings, in which three people died. When agents asked Hester if he would still carry on in planning the event in which "a lot" of people were to be killed, Hester said: "I'm down."

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