A Virginia man has been charged with attempting to assist the Islamic State by photographing targets in the Washington, DC, area for what he thought would be a video encouraging lone-wolf terrorist attacks in the nation's capital. Haris Qamar, 25, of Burke was arrested Friday morning, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. He is the second person this week from the northern Virginia suburbs to be charged at the federal courthouse in Alexandria with attempting to support the Islamic State.
Court records do not yet list an attorney for Qamar, who was expected to make an initial appearance in front of a federal magistrate on Friday afternoon. Qamar came to authorities' attention through Twitter posts about supporting terrorist attacks that appeared under variations of the handle "newerajihadi," the court documents show. According to an affidavit, the FBI set up a sting operation in which Qamar worked with an informant last month to film landmarks, including the Pentagon, that could be targeted for attacks. The informant recorded Qamar saying "bye-bye DC" as he filmed the Pentagon. He went on to say that he hates the United States and gets a "burning sensation in my body because this place is so disgusting." Qamar told the informant that filming and photographing targets that the Islamic State could use in a video to urge lone-wolf attacks made him a true supporter of the group and more than just a "fanboy," according to the affidavit.