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Hawaii soldier accused of trying to help ISIS enlisted after 9/11 attacks

BY
Nicole Hensley
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, July 11, 2017, 4:31 AM

A 34-year-old U.S. Army soldier busted in Hawaii for alleged ties to the Islamic State enlisted three months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Sgt. Ikaika Erik Kang was arrested Saturday night in Honolulu, authorities said Monday.

Kang, of Waipahu, is an active-duty soldier assigned to the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade. He is stationed at Wheeler Army Airfield in Honolulu, according to court records first obtained by Hawaii News Now.

He is accused of trying to provide classified military and other sensitive documents to the Islamic State, and dropping about $1,100 on a drone he hoped would end up in the hands of the terrorist group, according to court documents filed Monday in the District of Hawaii.

U.S. soldier arrested in Hawaii for having alleged ties to ISIS

The criminal complaint paints Kang as a volatile soldier repeatedly reprimanded for threatening other service members and sympathizing with ISIS militants.

The document states that the Army referred FBI agents to Kang, believing the soldier had become radicalized in August 2016. The tip prompted a year-long investigation that included a confidential informant and multiple undercover FBI agents, including one posing as an ISIS recruiter.

A confidential informant claimed in September 2016 that Kang played audio of an Arabic speaker reciting the Quran while the two sat in the car together. The following year, in March, the same informant said Kang was researching how to torture people, particularly a civilian who led to his revoked air traffic control license.

“KANG said that if he ever saw him again, he would tie him down and pour Drano in his eyes,” according to court documents.

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The federal agency first searched his computer in October 2016 and discovered a cache of video files and documents related to the terrorist group, including 13 issues of Inspire, the English-language propaganda magazine.

The next month, Kang met an undercover agent during a training course at Alabama’s Fort Rucker and allegedly made statements that he wanted to travel to Turkey to help ISIS.

The agent suggested to Kang that he use his hand-to-hand combat experience to record training sessions for the terrorist group.
Red evidence tape covers part of the door leading to the Waipahu condo where Ikaika Kang lives.
Red evidence tape covers part of the door leading to the Waipahu condo where Ikaika Kang lives. (Jennifer Sinco Kelleher/AP)

In June of this year, Kang attempted to pass off his classified document stash to a pair of undercover agents in a Honolulu hotel room, documents state.

He ultimately pledged his loyalty to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on July 8 and said that he wanted to kill “a bunch of people.”

That day, the FBI arrested Kang. He later claimed that he believed he was passing documents to an NGO.

Authorities believe he acted alone.

The FBI also detailed Kang’s trouble with the Army. The military revoked his security clearance for about a year in 2012 after one such reprimand. He received counseling for once saying the 9/11 attacks were an inside job and that if deployed to Iraq again, he would not return fire at militants. At one point, he expressed sympathy for Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen and Hitler, according to the FBI’s source.

Hawaii News Now described Kang as a decorated soldier with multiple deployments. Court records show he served in Iraq from 2010 to 2011 and Afghanistan from 2013 to 2014.

The soldier is expected to make an appearance in federal court on Monday.

Kang's father, Clifford Kang, expressed surprise at his son's arrest.

"I'm just in shock," the father told Hawaii News Now. "I just hope there's some kind of misunderstanding or something."

He said Kang recently converted to Islam.