Joliet Armory Massacre Plotter Tells Judge He's Not a 'Crazed Terrorist'

A 24-year-old Aurora man who pleaded guilty to plotting an attack on a National Guard base in Joliet has written a letter to a judge saying that he’s not a “crazed terrorist.”

“I harmed no one because I am not some crazed terrorist with a personal agenda of mayhem and destruction,” Hasan Edmonds said in a letter obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times. “But rather, I am a young man who was temporally [sic] led astray by the hateful rhetoric of a group who I [sic] reality could care less about the religion they claim to represent or the people they swear they wish to protect.”

Hasan Edmonds is scheduled to be sentenced next month. He is facing 30 years in prison and asked in the letter for the judge to only give him 15. In December 2015, he pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State.

“I have endeavored to make this letter as apolitical as possible, yet I must insert that the only way to counteract ‘radicalized Muslims’ is with Muslims, not against them,” the letter states. “Handing down stiff penalties and attempting to throw every so-called ‘jihadist’ under [sic] the jail will not eliminate the problems; in fact, it only powers [sic] fuel on the fire and serves to augment it.”

Edmonds and his cousin, Jonas Edmonds, 30, allegedly plotted to shoot up the Illinois National Guard Armory in Joliet.

The men allegedly traveled to the Joliet Armory March 24, 2015, to scout out an attack they hoped would kill as many as 150 people.

Hasan Edmonds had trained at the armory with the Illinois National Guard. Jonas Edmonds was going to attack the armory while wearing his cousin’s uniform from when he served with the 634th Brigade Support Battalion.

Hasan was arrested March 25, 2015, at Chicago Midway International Airport while attempting to board a flight to Detroit on the first leg of his journey to Cairo, Egypt. Hasan had planned to hook up with an ISIS connection — an undercover FBI informant — who would take him into Syria where he would join up with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, prosecutors said.

According to the Sun-Times, when Hasan Edmonds was arrested, he was carrying a black backpack filled with “all-weather and camouflage notepads, a camera, a Quran and two books: ’Fortress of the Muslim’ and ’The Covenant of the Flame.’”
Jonas Edmonds was arrested at his Aurora home later that evening. Prosecutors allege Hasan provided uniforms, a list of ranking officers and other inside information about the Joliet military facility.

The cousins had been under watch by federal agents since Hasan Edmonds traded Facebook messages with an undercover agent he believed was involved with ISIS.

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